***Official*** New Zealand in India 2012

[BackFootPunch]

His wife is either due to have a baby or has just had a baby so he's not in India yet. Pretty sure he's gonna link up with them in Sri Lanka for the WC.

 

[Bahnz]

Erkh, our T20 team is horrible. Though I don't care much for T20, might watch just to see Milne bowl (assuming he plays). Can't see us winning or for that matter, beating any decent team in the T20 world cup. Only place significant T20-speed runs are going to come from are Taylor and maybe Guptill. On paper the middle-lower order looks ok though in reality fails to deliver. And the bowling is taken apart by the quality aggressive strikers that most other teams have (Gayle etc).

Had a hard time remembering who else was in the squad - it's:
New Zealand (from): Ross Taylor (c), Brendon McCullum, Rob Nicol, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, James Franklin, BJ Watling, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Doug Bracewell, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills, Ronnie Hira, Tim Southee, Adam Milne.

Assuming they're all available (BFP what's this about no NcCullum?):

Guptill
McCullum
Nicol (wanna see some ugly mows)
Taylor
Franklin
Watling
NcCullum
Southee
Vettori
Oram
Milne (for entirely selfish reasons - wanna see him bowl faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast). More sensibly, Mills.

Tempted to drop a bowler for a batsman and make do with four overs of part-time pies. Probably wouldn't be much worse than how NcCullum and probably Southee's bowling is going to be smashed by the Indians. But then again, the extra batsman probably wouldn't do any better with the bat than NcCullum and Southee either . It's so long since we had lower order players who could reliably throw the bat and score some runs in limited overs - creates a real balance problem.

Don't see much point in including Milne in the squad if he's not going to get a go. He's a hunch selection, with an eye for the T20 world cup. Give him a go in all the t20 games.

 

[straw man]

His wife is either due to have a baby or has just had a baby so he's not in India yet. Pretty sure he's gonna link up with them in Sri Lanka for the WC.

Hrmm - so we have Mills, Bracewell, Williamson or Hira to replace him. Need lower-order hitters so maybe Bracewell as much for his batting as bowling? If Williamson plays then need to push him up the order and then who are our hitters?

In T20 I have suggested before that Taylor would be quite suited to batting 6 or at least 5 - still think that's not a bad idea if the top order is mostly accumulators.

 

[BackFootPunch]

Hrmm - so we have Mills, Bracewell, Williamson or Hira to replace him. Need lower-order hitters so maybe Bracewell as much for his batting as bowling? If Williamson plays then need to push him up the order and then who are our hitters?

In T20 I have suggested before that Taylor would be quite suited to batting 6 or at least 5 - still think that's not a bad idea if the top order is mostly accumulators.

Personally I think we should go with something like this:

Guptill
McCullum
Williamson
Taylor
Franklin
Nicol/Watling
Oram
Vettori
Southee
Mills
Milne

Franklin should not go anywhere near the bowling crease. Mills should open then gagf. Southee to bowl at the death with Oram. Vettori and Milne in the middle overs with Nicol there if we need him.

Would be happy enough with Watling in there to replace Nicol though.

 

[straw man]

Oram
Vettori
Southee
Mills
Milne

This is the problem part - I don't expect any of these bowlers to score any runs, apart from a quick 15-20 from Southee. I'm not buying a resurgence in Oram's batting at this stage of his career and Vettori's not a good batsman in T20 either. They'll be a real brake on any momentum we might have and frankly pretty tempting to bat Southee above both. Oram, Southee and Vettori all need to play but the batting means Mills and Milne need to scrap for one place, with the other to go to a better batsman/hitter.

Batting I don't have strong feelings on which two of Nicol, Watling, Williamson play.

 

[BackFootPunch]

This is the problem part - I don't expect any of these bowlers to score any runs, apart from a quick 15-20 from Southee. I'm not buying a resurgence in Oram's batting at this stage of his career and Vettori's not a good batsman in T20 either. They'll be a real brake on any momentum we might have and frankly pretty tempting to bat Southee above both. Oram, Southee and Vettori all need to play but the batting means Mills and Milne need to scrap for one place, with the other to go to a better batsman/hitter.

Batting I don't have strong feelings on which two of Nicol, Watling, Williamson play.

Lack of NcCullum really isn't ideal is it?

I still think the extra hitting ability Bracewell has doesn't offset his bowling weaknesses in this format. Better to just play the 5 genuine bowlers and try roll them imo. Yuvraj is bound to fail and Sharma is a walking wicket so it'll probably just be that **** Kohli who wrecks things for us again.

 

[straw man]

Lack of NcCullum really isn't ideal is it?

I still think the extra hitting ability Bracewell has doesn't offset his bowling weaknesses in this format. Better to just play the 5 genuine bowlers and try roll them imo. Yuvraj is bound to fail and Sharma is a walking wicket so it'll probably just be that **** Kohli who wrecks things for us again.

No, lack of NcCullum is not ideal. His batting adds balance, though at the same time his bowling is still fodder for a lot of batsmen.... as much of our other bowling is too (I'm sceptical of the idea we even have '5 genuine bowlers' in this format).

Hope Watling can continue his good limited-overs batting from the West Indies. Though it's still not the same as having someone like a Styris, Cairns, Pollock, Razzaq coming in near the end of an innings who the opposition are actually scared of.

Basically, right now we just lack both batsmen and bowlers who are quality and are well suited to the T20 format

 

[BackFootPunch]

No, lack of NcCullum is not ideal. His batting adds balance, though at the same time his bowling is still fodder for a lot of batsmen.... as much of our other bowling is too (I'm sceptical of the idea we even have '5 genuine bowlers' in this format).

Hope Watling can continue his good limited-overs batting from the West Indies. Though it's still not the same as having someone like a Styris, Cairns, Pollock, Razzaq coming in near the end of an innings who the opposition are actually scared of.

Basically, right now we just lack both batsmen and bowlers who are quality and are well suited to the T20 format

And the most disappointing thing? We have two of the most feared batsmen in T20 cricket and one of the most miserly bowlers, plus a few decent seamers. It should be enough to build a team around. We've genuinely got better resources than teams like England or Aussie but just can't put it all together. Maybe this time it'll click.

 

[Hurricane]

Why wasn't tom latham picked he has good potential and what is the point of T20 if we aren't going to use it to try out youngsters.

 

[BackFootPunch]

Why wasn't tom latham picked he has good potential and what is the point of T20 if we aren't going to use it to try out youngsters.

His best format is probably ODIs at this stage. Lacks the power (for now) required to bat in the middle order in a T20, especially when Williamson is playing too. Let's not forget Williamson is still a young dude too basically.

 

[Hurricane]

He's got awesome power - at least on the leg side - he has hit many a six. Just lacks the ability to tick it over for singles because he is one dimensional - he would be less suited to ODIs in my opinion. If I were the NZ coaches I would consider him a real prospect and I would be working on his cover drive and square drive day and night until he is competent.

 

[BackFootPunch]

We may not have seen it at international level yet but he's got a great cover drive when he's in form. And is generally a good rotator of the strike. He just isn't quite ready yet imo but I fully expect him to do some very very good, potentially great, things when he gets it all sorted.

 

[Hurricane]

We may not have seen it at international level yet but he's got a great cover drive when he's in form. And is generally a good rotator of the strike. He just isn't quite ready yet imo but I fully expect him to do some very very good, potentially great, things when he gets it all sorted.

Cool post that is promising. Have you seen him in action for Canterbury live?

 

[BackFootPunch]

Played quite a bit of age group cricket against him. Can confirm he's a **** to bowl to, especially with that damn sweep shot

 

[Kippax]

Yeah, not buying this 'Latham's a young cub growing into his power' argument too much, scary thought tbh.
http://nzcpooch.blob.core.windows.net/065ecfe2-4256-4ffb-9954-1a82e7146485/2_012_05.mp4
http://nzcpooch.blob.core.windows.net/f6dad8c2-b341-4ff6-a06d-3cd1b53e1dc8/1_050_04.mp4

 

[Kippax]

Goodnight Kiwi courtesy post.

6.15 pm The rain just got harder, there is a supersopper out in the middle, it is looking rather forlorn as it stands idle, helpless against all the water
If, and when, the rain stops, the groundstaff will require around 45 minutes to get the outfield ready for play

 

[straw man]

rain wac

 

[vic_orthdox]

Missed that Yuvi's been named for this. Hoping he goes well.

 

[Manee]

Missed that Yuvi's been named for this. Hoping he goes well.

Its just so wicked to have someone who had such a similar type of cancer make his return to international cricket. But yeh, he's not gonna 'go' at all today, it would seem.

 

[ganeshran]

Yuvi's back way too early. Should have played decent amount of domestic cricket first