*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka

[straw man]

May as well just send Vettori in now ahead of Oram TBH

 

[Howsie]

Move your ****ing feet. Our batsmen look to have gotten worse for gods sake.

 

[Craig]

Taylor is out. Sangakkara should enforce the follow-on if he has the chance.

 

[Craig]

Move your ****ing feet. Our batsmen look to have gotten worse for gods sake.

We hired Saqlain Mushtaq as our spin bowling coach to not only help Vettori and Patel, but to help the batsmen face the doosra etc. Not working yet.

 

[straw man]

Always lose wickets in pairs... gah. Will be struggling to avoid the follow-on now - Bahnz's prediction of 225 looking optimistic. Am sure Vettori is fuming too.

 

[Craig]

Always lose wickets in pairs... gah. Will be struggling to avoid the follow-on now - Bahnz's prediction of 225 looking optimistic. Am sure Vettori is fuming too.

Getting 200 will be a start. It must hurt that we are always virtually an extra batsman down with Martin in the team. Even I could probably get him out.

 

[Howsie]

Oram is

Do you think someone needs to tell McCullum that he can't actually bat and his best option would be to go on the attack. He hasn't shown any improvement over the last year.

 

[straw man]

Getting 200 will be a start. It must hurt that we are always virtually an extra batsman down with Martin in the team. Even I could probably get him out.

True, but even if he could bat as well as O'Brien he's not likely to last long against Murali.

All of this is making me more pissed off at Guptill for throwing his wicket away so stupidly. At least all the others have been dismissed by the bowlers.

 

[Kippax]

I agree with Boulter - to get something out of McCullum at test level they should probably just order him to 'do a Dilshan' at this point, particularly on flat wickets where a stonewaller like McIntosh and someone twitchy and technical like Flynn just forfeits any chance of asserting a mental advantage (although admittedly the team's start yesterday was brisk enough). Watching McCullum try to bat 'properly' at test level in recent times has been like watching a little munter get dragged kicking and screaming away from his Xbox and put in front of a piano I'm afraid.

Nightwatchmen almost never work out psychologically for NZ either by putting an extra wicket in the column before say 250, but we keep persisting with that for some reason. Newsflash: your best batsman over the last 5 yrs is now at No 9 with a 'walking wicket' at No 11, idiots!

 

[straw man]

"And that's Oram's ten! He raises the bat and salutes the crowd... a fine innings indeed. He came in when the chips were down and was under pressure to perform from the beginning. He's survived a few tough moments but has really pushed on and made Sri Lanka pay. The helmet comes off and the crowd applauds an excellent knock. He'll know the jobs not yet done though - New Zealand will need a big one to stay in this match, maybe even a double."

 

[NUFAN]

Yeah Vettori must bat number 6 in this lineup and do a Shakib Al Hasan.

McCullum 7 and then your 4 best bowlers.

 

[straw man]

Watching McCullum try to bat 'properly' at test level in recent times has been like watching a little munter get dragged kicking and screaming away from his Xbox and put in front of a piano I'm afraid.

Nice description!

The problem is that McCullum is the vice captain and needs to bat 'properly' and responsibly. Puts himself under pressure and no doubt Vettori does too. But as we all know has not managed to graduate to proper test batsman yet. You and Boulter are probably right that he would score more runs slogging it, but that's hardly the example Vettori would want set.

 

[Craig]

Now Dilshan gets a wicket.

 

[Craig]

Time for Oram to hit out. No point hanging around now. O'Brien will give it his all whilst you can't except much from Martin.

 

[jondavluc]

Dilshan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DingDong]

I will be happy to see us compete in this game and take the game to day 5. It's hard to expect a country of 3 million to beat a country of 21 million(?).

 

[Craig]

I have to say I'm quite tired about this 'punching about our weight' line coming out everytime we play like crap. Use what we have and get the most out of it, which is something we are not doing.

Go O'Brien.

 

[Hurricane]

Vettoris dismissal upset me - getting out to a part timer.

I is Friday night and I was hoping to be entertained by a big partnership between oram and vettori.

I also think that McCullum should play his shots no matter where he goes in the line up. He can open or bat 7 I don't mind. I think we can afford to carry one batsman in the team who just goes for it.

Oh no - Oram is out while I type this - since when does he play reverse sweeps - what was he thinking.

 

[DingDong]

I have to say I'm quite tired about this 'punching about our weight' line coming out everytime we play like crap. Use what we have and get the most out of it, which is something we are not doing.

Go O'Brien.

Do u think the guys don't want to win? They're trying their best out there and the least you can do is show your support.
U need to pull your head in mate.

 

[Craig]

Do u think the guys don't want to win? They're trying their best out there and the least you can do is show your support.
U need to pull your head in mate.

I do show my support. Plenty of others have said the same thing what I have said.