*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka

[DIRK-NANNES]

Even

He isn't a slouch with the bat these days

And with regards to Franklin, the game on the moment has had innings of 368, 138 and 133, so even if it is Division 2 bowling, it isn't a road

 

[_Ed_]

Best thing for NZ to do at the moment would be too play six top-line batsmen with McCullum at seven and Vettori at eight. Then play your three best bowlers.

I think we'd be a bowler short doing that though.

 

[Howsie]

You reckon?

Vettori, Bond, Tuffey, Martin/O'Brien

Plus Ryder's good enough to bowl 5-10 overs if needed. Where not good enough with the bat not to play six specailist batsmen.

 

[Athlai]

Franklin in County Cricket at the moment

Scores of:
11, DNB
21, 13
38, 11
May ^
June >
67, DNB
7, 41
14, 109 (attack inc. Simon Jones)
24, 26
16 DNB
100, DNB (attack inc. Napier, Kaneria, RTD)
12, 97* (today)


607 runs @ 40.46
22 W @ 29.09

 

[Prince EWS]

Fulton in for Oram? Yeah I'd go for that.
Who needs a 5th bowler? Ryder looks more likely to get a wicket anyway.

Agree. With our batting line-up being rather weak Ryder is good enough to fill in 5-10 overs a day.

Yeah, AWTA. There's actually a case to suggest Oram > Fulton on batting alone, but not in Sri Lanka.

 

[Nishan]

Sri Lanka deserved the win in the end, praise for Vettori though. Two Sri Lankan Players shone to whom enough credit or press was given before the game. Thushara and Prassana.

Did NZ only practise for spin? did they underestimate your plain old left arm seamer? we will never know. Prassana is simply fantastic old style keeper. Unrewarded for his hard work and high skill level.

 

[Hurricane]

I think we should play 4 bowlers too and play an extra batsman. But I am not sure Oram should be the one to go.

In terms of who should be added:

I am not a fan of Sinclair. I was watching him live against Bangladesh at the Basin Reserve and I didn't like his technique that day. He got dropped at slip on like 20 and he did make like 30 or 40 but never really looked in. I agreed with the selectors when he got dropped. BTW if Bangladesh could ever figure out how to catch that would help them a lot.

I am not convinced that Franklin is the answer. Franklin in the India series was like "I am used to batting at 9 what I am doing here at 6 in a test". Maybe he needs more time to adjust though.

I think Kane Williamson needs at least another year with Northern he got out for 1 in the most recent New Zealand A game and didn't seem to be in the news for any other performances in Australia recently.

Is Broom capable of handling M+M and scoring 50. I havn't seen him play enough.

Can Watling make the jump and play at 6. I realise he is a top order player but I am sure he would take the promotion. My money is on giving him a try at 6. I think hussey started out at 6 for Australia so there is no shame in batting number 6 for a test team.

But who do you drop. I would drop Patel. And add Watling. Bowl Oram at first change.
My team from number 6 down

6 Watling
7 Oram
8 McCullum
9 Vettori
10 Obrien
11 Martin

We would bat down well to number 9. McCullum will be unhappy at batting number 8 but tell him if he bats well enough he can be promoted to 7.

My two cents anyway.

 

[Nishan]

Mark Richardson: Forget testing, Murali is a chucker

Mark Richardson : Forget testing, he's a chucker - Cricket - NZ Herald News

Winging and Moaning has begun! Murali has 770 wickets whats this going to achieve now! horrible form. Expected better. Maybe its time to look at fault at ur own team rather than taking the easy option.

Let me start it for him

Mcintosh- Dire player, Any ball can get him out. Cant play short ball.
Guptil- Shocking Backfoot Defence
Flynn- Can nick anything on a good length
Taylor- Slogs too many times, loses concentration
Oram-Well what can you say, medium pace with nothing on it. Any spinners bunny.
Patel- Rather he improves his dire bowling than trying to become a batsman

 

[JBH001]

Nothing new in Riggers comments though, and some truth in there as well. Murali's action has always had a tendency to deteriorate when he less than fully fit (as he was for this game) and/or bowls long spells (as he did in this game). I watched the second half of his 29 over spell in NZ's first innings, and he bowled very well, always teasing and probing, but I did think his action (especially for the doosra) was becoming ragged by the end of it. But this may be the case for most bowlers who bowl long spells.

Still, it would have been nice if Rigger had named some of the other players he is concerned about - as opposed to just pointing out Murali. Also, to my mind Murali was bowling a bit slower than he has in recent years - a lot more flight and loop, and bowling it around the high 70s and low 80s, with the occassional faster ball in the 90s.

Frankly though, "meh" about sums up my feelings on the matter.

Edit: Anyone know why my sig is not appearing?

 

[Nishan]

i just dont get why after so many years people cant let it go! Only certain countries have this issue of holding on to excuses. Brian Waddle is another guy who is a cheerleader and he is a total waste of space because he scores a trip to Sri Lanka he keeps quiet doesnt want his feelings hurt. But when he is well away from the heat he starts going on about Murali.

Sounds like a lame excuse to cover up defeat, he hasnt written anything about the actuall test match. As far as i was concerned they didnt plan for Anything other than Murali to make it worse Murali still did well and so did Thushara, Dilshan,Samaraweera. How much planning went into these guys?

Ask questions about the team that lost not the team that won. Because then it wouldnt sound like a winge.

 

[Hurricane]

Let me start it for him

Mcintosh- Dire player, Any ball can get him out. Cant play short ball.
Guptil- Shocking Backfoot Defence
Flynn- Can nick anything on a good length
Taylor- Slogs too many times, loses concentration
Oram-Well what can you say, medium pace with nothing on it. Any spinners bunny.
Patel- Rather he improves his dire bowling than trying to become a batsman

I enjoyed this analysis.

Here are my additions.
McCullum can't figure out what gear to play in for test cricket and ends up getting out.
Martin - International quality bowler. But not good enough to be a spearhead for an attack.

 

[SJS]

Since they played Australia at home in November 2004, these are the figures of Kiwi batsmen (still active) till date.

[B]Player        	 Inns	 NO	 50s	 100s	 HS	 Runs	 Avg	 Ca	 St[/B]

J D Ryder	18	2	4	2	201	837	52.31	8	0
[COLOR="DarkRed"]D L Vettori	52	9	12	2	127	1839	42.77	18	0[/COLOR]
L R Taylor	33	1	4	4	  *154	1235	38.59	30	0
D R Flynn	22	5	3	0	95	564	33.18	6	0
T G McIntosh	11	1	1	1	136	326	32.6	3	0
B B McCullum	57	2	9	2	115	1681	30.56	112	7
J D P Oram	28	4	1	3	133	698	29.08	2	0
S B Styris	15	2	1	1	  *103	353	27.15	7	0
M J Guptill	7	0	0	0	49	178	25.43	0	0

Can any one explain why Vettori continues to bat at number eight and nine for New Zealand.

 

[slugger]

well batting that low gives you a better opportunity to end up with alot more "not outs" I don't know how much we should take that into consideration when looking at such stats.. mind you Im aware batsmen across all nations who bat at 8 .. Vettori's stats tower of them ..

 

[Athlai]

Since they played Australia at home in November 2004, these are the figures of Kiwi batsmen (still active) till date.

[B]Player        	 Inns	 NO	 50s	 100s	 HS	 Runs	 Avg	 Ca	 St[/B]

J D Ryder	18	2	4	2	201	837	52.31	8	0
[COLOR="DarkRed"]D L Vettori	52	9	12	2	127	1839	42.77	18	0[/COLOR]
L R Taylor	33	1	4	4	  *154	1235	38.59	30	0
D R Flynn	22	5	3	0	95	564	33.18	6	0
T G McIntosh	11	1	1	1	136	326	32.6	3	0
B B McCullum	57	2	9	2	115	1681	30.56	112	7
J D P Oram	28	4	1	3	133	698	29.08	2	0
S B Styris	15	2	1	1	  *103	353	27.15	7	0
M J Guptill	7	0	0	0	49	178	25.43	0	0

Can any one explain why Vettori continues to bat at number eight and nine for New Zealand.

Actually quite impressed with Ryder and Taylor there.

 

[straw man]

Was dismayed to see Richardson's mutterings in the NZ herald this morning. I am so tired of this debate about Murali and it makes no difference whatsoever to the match. It certainly comes across as sour grapes that this is the only thing Richardson writes about at the conclusion of the test. Big *yawn* and hope it doesn't lead to more and more tiresome discussion over this non-issue.

On to the next test then, looking forward to it. Hope all the team are healthy and as has been mentioned, if we win the toss then we must bat first. Reckon we'll go in with an unchanged barring injuries or sickness.

 

[straw man]

Actually quite impressed with Ryder and Taylor there.

Impressed with Ryder, but Taylor really should be averaging more than 40.

 

[straw man]

Since they played Australia at home in November 2004, these are the figures of Kiwi batsmen (still active) till date.

[B]Player        	 Inns	 NO	 50s	 100s	 HS	 Runs	 Avg	 Ca	 St[/B]

J D Ryder	18	2	4	2	201	837	52.31	8	0
[COLOR="DarkRed"]D L Vettori	52	9	12	2	127	1839	42.77	18	0[/COLOR]
L R Taylor	33	1	4	4	  *154	1235	38.59	30	0
D R Flynn	22	5	3	0	95	564	33.18	6	0
T G McIntosh	11	1	1	1	136	326	32.6	3	0
B B McCullum	57	2	9	2	115	1681	30.56	112	7
J D P Oram	28	4	1	3	133	698	29.08	2	0
S B Styris	15	2	1	1	  *103	353	27.15	7	0
M J Guptill	7	0	0	0	49	178	25.43	0	0

Can any one explain why Vettori continues to bat at number eight and nine for New Zealand.

It's a difficult one. In the past I've always been against moving him from number 8, as success there doesn't necessarily mean success higher up the order. Think he's fairly vulnerable against the newish ball and is much more successful on certain types of pitches compared to others. I'd be happy for him to try batting higher, say 6, as long as we still had a number 7 and 8 that can bat (eg. McCullum and Oram/ Franklin) and also someone decent-ish at 9 (say Patel). ie. as long as we don't weaken the batting lineup by choosing another pure bowler.

Doesn't address the most fundamental batting issue in the team though, which is a weak top 3. Vettori's obviously not going to bat top 3 and I'm strongly opposed to moving Ryder or Taylor to 3 as well.

 

[Flem274*]

Surprised Mark Richardson didn't have a bitch about our team tbh and its lack of a pace option. Its generally his modus operandi.

 

[Athlai]

Ricardo: NZ needs pace, Murali chucks, Stryis needs to play

 

[DIRK-NANNES]

Vettori and Moles in New Zealand's selection panel | Cricket News | Global | Cricinfo.com

Hope this means ceasing to select Diamanti and fast tracking Franklin back into the sqaud