***Official*** South Africa in New Zealand 2012

[Briony]

Vettori's been awfully defensive.

When you consider his high average and SR against SA there was certainly a case for playing a seamer instead of him.

 

[Prince EWS]

Vettori's been awfully defensive.

When you consider his high average and SR against SA there was certainly a case for playing a seamer instead of him.

No there wasn't, because he's one of New Zealand's best batsmen.

There was a case for playing a seamer instead of Guptill, Flynn or Brownlie and just picking Vettori as a batsman, but that case has been put forward ad nauseum in this thread.

 

[Briony]

No there wasn't, because he's one of New Zealand's best batsmen.

There was a case for playing a seamer instead of Guptill, Flynn or Brownlie and just picking Vettori as a batsman, but that case has been put forward ad nauseum in this thread.

But he averages 72 with the ball against SA and 27 with the bat. Surely in the interests of NZ cricket they've got to blood some bonafide batsmen. Also Vettori being so defensive with the ball has taken time out of their available time to bowl SA out twice and it's not as if he's taking wickets.

Guptill or Flynn fair enough but Brownlie deserves another go after his performances in Australia.

 

[Athlai]

Blood some bonafide batsman. Lol

Also you didn't perchance take Vettori's career figures with the bat against SA did you? Because for a long portion of his career he wasn't much of a batsman at all. I'm sure you'd see that in the last 7 years or so his average with the bat against even SA would probably be better than 30.

 

[NUFAN]

But he averages 72 with the ball against SA and 27 with the bat. Surely in the interests of NZ cricket they've got to blood some bonafide batsmen. Also Vettori being so defensive with the ball has taken time out of their available time to bowl SA out twice and it's not as if he's taking wickets.

Guptill or Flynn fair enough but Brownlie deserves another go after his performances in Australia.

Could be a blessing in disguise in this particular instance as the best result for NZ would be a draw.

 

[Briony]

Could be a blessing in disguise in this particular instance as the best result for NZ would be a draw.

It's an indictment on them if they're playing for a draw though. They had to play for a win. SA have lost Kallis before the match, Amla during it and lost the toss. Surely it was incumbent on the kiwis to put them under pressure and try to at least draw a series after losing the two limited overs series.

 

[Prince EWS]

Blood some bonafide batsman. Lol

Also you didn't perchance take Vettori's career figures with the bat against SA did you? Because for a long portion of his career he wasn't much of a batsman at all. I'm sure you'd see that in the last 7 years or so his average with the bat against even SA would probably be better than 30.

Don't bother; Briony refuses to acknowledge that Vettori's batting career should be divided into two parts. That he averaged 13 with the bat as a kid when he batted 9-10 is entirely relevant to how good he is now apparently.

 

[NUFAN]

It's an indictment on them if they're playing for a draw though. They had to play for a win. SA have lost Kallis before the match, Amla during it and lost the toss. Surely it was incumbent on the kiwis to put them under pressure and try to at least draw a series after losing the two limited overs series.

If a draw is so dire, why are they trying to win when the best result they can achieve is a drawn series.

Obviously they wanted to win before the first ball was bowled and they figured they will get SA out quickly in favourable conditions on day 1, but it hasn't happened this way, so I just meant now a draw is the best result they can achieve.

 

[Briony]

Don't bother; Briony refuses to acknowledge that Vettori's batting career should be divided into two parts. That he averaged 13 with the bat as a kid when he batted 9-10 is entirely relevant to how good he is now apparently.

You have to factor in horses for courses and this series hasn't improved Vettori's bowling against this opposition so it wouldn't necessarily his batting.

Even though he might have had a couple of better years at the crease, there's no guarantee at his age that he will improve as a batsman. If he'd at least scored a half ton this series at #6 you might say he justifies the faith placed in him but overall he just doesn't seem to be a specialist batsman and remember here they're playing against arguably the best attack in world cricket. Had it have been Bangladesh, it would be a valid option to put him in the top six batsmen.

Flynn or Vettori is a moot point but playing Vettori seems to be a defensive option and not one aimed at the future.

 

[Days of Grace]

Flem still all class.

I'd definitely have lick of his chocolate cake, tbh.

 

[straw man]

Well done Gillespie. Even though we're getting smashed in some ways this is more impressive than the last 5-for, as he's bowled a lot of overs and is backing up strongly after a previous good performance.

 

[Briony]

Guptill has put down his second catch.

 

[straw man]

Harsh - both really hard catches that most other players wouldn't have gotten a hand on

 

[Briony]

Philander gifts his wicket.

SA has declared.

 

[straw man]

Da nah nah nah, it's Flynny time.

 

[straw man]

Flynn hits a boundary and is the saviour of New Zealand cricket

 

[Flem274*]

I agree with a lot of that opinion piece. Partly this reflects my growing lack of care about ODIs though.

In an ideal world I think Williamson and Southee would be test-only too, however as they're already fixtures in our ODI/T20 sides I guess we just stick with that.

However I would be more than happy for the current crop of promising test players like Brownlie, Bracewell, Boult and Flynn to be test-only. They probably wouldn't like that idea though, especially with the T20 World Cup coming up.

Let them play 20/20 and tests only. Nothing wrong with letting them earn some cash.

**** ODIs though, honestly. Hobart really brought home to me how much more a test win means compared to some ODI series.

Besides, if we suck at ODIs but are good at tests, people will still want to play us because being **** at ODIs is tolerated a la England.

In other news, Flynn already > Nicol, even if he gets out next ball.

 

[Athlai]

Rain has ruined what could have been a pretty interesting match. Amla nutted, Kallis out.

If this were only day 2 we could really still have any result. If we got close to 400 with SA only having 5 bats + Boucher it'd have been a gun finish to the game.

 

[Flem274*]

Flynn hits a boundary and is the saviour of New Zealand cricket

Haha, got me perfectly.

Flynn opening isn't ideal, but he isn't getting in the middle order unless McCullum moves back up so he kinda needs to open and if there's one guy with the balls to guts out opening, he'd be the second man on my list after Vettori.

 

[Athlai]

Guptill to be infinitely gunner now that Nicol isn't at the other end making him feel like ****.