*Official* New Zealand in India 2010

[Flem274*]

Looking forward, we've made bigger strides forward in one match than we have in about a year. The traditional engine room of New Zealand batting, 4-7, is sorted and set in stone I reckon.

McCullum made a decent first crack at opening and needs to go on with it. The good thing is we do have players coming through who can cover the holes. McIntosh will make way for Raval at some point and Twatling will lose his place to either a better stop gap (How, Sinclair), Williamson will move up, or Merchant will put another good season on the board. It is a bugger we lost Myburgh though.

Patel will make way for Astle or Beard and we have some good young prospects in the quick bowling department, but they're further off than the batsmen and injury is still a real chance of robbing them (I'm looking at you Trent Boult).

 

[thierry henry]

I'm sensing in the rebuttals to my posts a general acceptance that our bowling attack for this test is so bad that we should just expect opposition players to achieve once-in-a-hundred-years feats. Not sure whether or not I should disagree tbh.

 

[Teja.]

Declare you defensive idiot.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Looking forward, we've made bigger strides forward in one match than we have in about a year. The traditional engine room of New Zealand batting, 4-7, is sorted and set in stone I reckon.

McCullum made a decent first crack at opening and needs to go on with it. The good thing is we do have players coming through who can cover the holes. McIntosh will make way for Raval at some point and Twatling will lose his place to either a better stop gap (How, Sinclair), Williamson will move up, or Merchant will put another good season on the board. It is a bugger we lost Myburgh though.

Patel will make way for Astle or Beard and we have some good young prospects in the quick bowling department, but they're further off than the batsmen and injury is still a real chance of robbing them (I'm looking at you Trent Boult).

I slightly dislike everything about this post.

 

[thierry henry]

You know very well that Vettori being our number one spinner these days is like being the least worst STD. Vettori is a stock bowler who is good for 2-3 wickets in an innings most days. Daniel Vettori is an allrounder.

I agree 100% but I don't think this detracts from my points at all.

The cricketing world at large (probably not so much the enlightened folk of CW) have this idea that Vettori is a good bowler. Vettori himself feeds off it. It's obvious he thinks he's a good bowler. And on top of that, he gets picked (picks himself?) to be our #1 spinner in a test on the subcontinent. And on top of that, most annoyingly of all, he is trumpeted as this hero of NZ cricket when really he is just a plodder who often appears to have nfi and routinely comes up short when it matters.

He definitely needs someone relentlessly bagging him just to bring a little balance to the public discourse

 

[DingDong]

Declare you defensive idiot.

too late for that, captains will just shake on a draw if they declare now.

 

[Flem274*]

I slightly dislike everything about this post.

I dislike Wellington. That makes us even.

 

[Meridio]

What a pathetic wicket. Honestly, just call this game off now.

 

[Meridio]

Although, based on the fact that he's got a wicket, I can conclusively declare Taylor to be a better bowler than Patel.

 

[vcs]

Come on NZ, put them out of their misery. Dhoni, if you had any dignity, you should have declared at tea.

 

[Flem274*]

I agree 100% but I don't think this detracts from my points at all.

The cricketing world at large (probably not so much the enlightened folk of CW) have this idea that Vettori is a good bowler. Vettori himself feeds off it. It's obvious he thinks he's a good bowler. And on top of that, he gets picked (picks himself?) to be our #1 spinner in a test on the subcontinent. And on top of that, most annoyingly of all, he is trumpeted as this hero of NZ cricket when really he is just a plodder who often appears to have nfi and routinely comes up short when it matters.

He definitely needs someone relentlessly bagging him just to bring a little balance to the public discourse

I think he's starting to realise his test bowling is not what it was tbh. I've noticed some comments lately.

 

[vcs]

Letting these two bat on really sends out a bad message to the bowlers. If I was Zaheer, I'd be thinking "Hang on, Martin blasted out the Indian top-order in one spell yesterday, why doesn't he give me a crack with nothing to lose?"

 

[thierry henry]

Wow, McCullum ramping it up from low 100s to low 110s.

Watching McCullum makes me pretty confident I bowl over 110 though tbh

 

[Howsie]

Heh, Hopkins only just held onto that one.

Reverse batting line up imo.

 

[Athlai]

Taylor giving The Avengers some points here.

 

[Meridio]

Such a **** end to what could have been a fantastic test.

 

[Flem274*]

I nominate the pitch for MoM.

 

[vcs]

Williamson should be MoTM, clearly. But I think they'll give it to SehWAG. No real complaints with that, either.

 

[Nate]

Can someone give me the lowdown on Test Match Sofa? Is there a thread anywhere?

 

[Spark]

Two massive inside edges given in a row within a 5-ball over?

wat