**Official** Pakistan in New Zealand (3 tests)

[Prince EWS]

How does Mohammad Aamer bat 8?

I have not seen much of him before today so I cant say for sure how well he bats but I have not seen anyone 'look' so bad that didnt bat 10 or 11.

He's living off this. He actually looked really good that day though, and given who comes after him, you wouldn't say he was in line for a demotion.

 

[TT Boy]

He reminds me a bit like Vettori, very strong on the off-side through gully/point and has a habit of backing away and not getting inline with the ball. Looked like a tail ender yesterday especially against Martin but on wickets with not so much pace and bounce he is pretty difficult to bowl to.

 

[Bahnz]

Apparently O'Brien is having some difficulties getting ahold of a Visa which could delay his departure by a couple of months. Somebody needs to bribe the relevant UK customs officials so that that "couple of months" lasts until early April.

 

[slugger]

fulton and marshall opened once ... man our selectors are crazy sometimes.

 

[TT Boy]

They opened in the same test match where Kyle Mills was promoted to number 3 to see off the new ball....

1st Test: South Africa v New Zealand at Centurion, Apr 15-19, 2006 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

Vettori was still the batting even then.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Haha, I can't believe our openers have lasted more than 20 overs.

 

[Athlai]

If they last 2 more overs this is the longest opening stand in 5 years.

 

[TT Boy]

Probably down to being on debut but Watling seems really limited.

 

[TT Boy]

Dour & Dourer.

 

[Zinzan]

Probably down to being on debut but Watling seems really limited.

Maybe, I'm just happy he looks reasonably compact on defense & presumably he's still holding his shots back to some extent, so will reserve judgment on that

 

[Bahnz]

Predictable.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

I'm just happy he seems to be able to bat time.

I'd rather have our number 3 coming in at 60/1 than 0/1.

 

[TT Boy]

Plays no shots for twenty overs and then does that.

 

[Bahnz]

Plays no shots for twenty overs and then does that.

That's not true, he played a couple of shots last night. One was nicked between gully and slips, and the other he nicked to the keeper but the bowler didn't appeal.

 

[Zinzan]

Predictable.

What? The rain or the fact we lost a wicket?

 

[Bahnz]

What? The rain or the fact we lost a wicket?

The fact that Watling would get nicked out in the slips, he'd looked a bit loose outside the off stump right from the start.

Someone needs to score some runs. I'm not talking crashing boundaries or anything, but they need to start rotating the strike.

 

[Zinzan]

The fact that Watling would get nicked out in the slips, he'd looked a bit loose outside the off stump right from the start.

Despite that fact he only scored 16 (or what ever it was), I don't think he looked entirely out of his depth. The fact he batted over 100 minutes on a track which is likely to get easier once the ball gets older should set his team up well.

That said, you're right that he did look loose outside off-stump on 3-4 occasions, but to me they looked more like mental aberrations as opposed to technical deficiencies & can hopefully be ironed out quickly.

 

[Howsie]

I've seen much better from Watling tbh. It was most probably the nerves taking over but usually when he get's balls in that area he'll put them away with power (He didn't even look like he wanted to hit that).

He'll want to fix that poke outside off-stump he has though, he'll struggle with the likes of Peter Siddle when he get's that extra bounce.

Can't believe McIntosh isn't looking like well, rubbish. Sure he's still pretty painful to watch but this has been a decent innings really.

 

[kingdamo]

It didn't particularly look like Watling had many scoring shots, he has a great sound defensive technique though.

Man we are batting slow.

 

[Nate]

Haha, some ludicrous posts so far today, bring back Cribb/Flem/etc. Who cares how slowly you bat? It's the second day of a Test, let them take their time and build a platform.