**Official** New Zealand in South Africa

[Athlai]

Still annoyed at when we dropped like 20 points after losing to Bangers.

God that series sucked.

 

[Daemon]

Wasn't SA ranked #1 in ODIs prior to this series?

They've dropped 10 points since losing to us twice.

Nope, was England.

 

[Athlai]

Nope, was England.

I thought England may have dropped a game against India before NZ beat SA when they were both on 121.

 

[Daemon]

I thought England may have dropped a game against India before NZ beat SA when they were both on 121.

Not very sure whether India got ahead of England in the 2nd or 3rd ODI tbh. But SA wasn't #1 regardless.

 

[Athlai]

SA losing on the same day as England would have seen them drop below both India and England immediately.

We were ranked 9th, they'd have lost a half dozen points straight away.

 

[Briony]

Nah it's unfortunate you interpreted it that way. All he said was 'the top team', he didn't specify one form, two forms, three forms.

Then that makes the win less surprising anyway. Still don't think it was a massive upset given that SA is inconsistent in this form, NZ relatively much better than in tests, SA's team bore little resemblance to when they had most of their success in ODIs anyway. That's not to say it wasn't a great effort for the kiwis to win on the day, especially their fielding efforts compared with the opposition but surely it's not a massive deal as cricket goes.

 

[Zinzan]

****ing superb shot placement. Threaded the field really well.

His placement was superb once he got his eye in, although ironically both he and Watling repeatedly played million dollar shots straight to the fielders in the first 10 overs as we raced to 19/1.

 

[Mike5181]

Not very sure whether India got ahead of England in the 2nd or 3rd ODI tbh. But SA wasn't #1 regardless.

Yes, they were.

 

[Zinzan]

SA losing on the same day as England would have seen them drop below both India and England immediately.

We were ranked 9th, they'd have lost a half dozen points straight away.

There's a ODI rankings predictor here It's kind of depressing that even in the unlikely instance NZ win it's next 7 games in a row against SA,Eng,SL & Aus, they will still only get to 100 points and ranked a distance 7th.

 

[Briony]

Rankings are meaningless in the shorter forms of the games, especially T20 as any team can win on a day. The longer the game, the more the team with greater talent and ranking is expected to win.

Just when you think it can't get any worse for SA, they've replaced Amla in the squad with Elgar. It's like they're trying to get the biggest assembly of rubbish they can in the middle-order with Elgar, Behardien and Ingram.

Can't think of a worse one in world cricket.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Crap, my focused Mchesson hate ray is weakening. Can't but enjoy a win, especially with Kane on fire.

 

[Daemon]

Yes, they were.

Oh, lol. Carry on then.

 

[Bahnz]

gah listening to Iain O'Brien and Jarrod Kimber at The Cricket Sadist Over raving about McCullums captaincy.

Um, I know we all love nothing more than to come up with new and amusing ways to bring unspeakable horror on our McHesson voodoo dolls, but seriously is it that hard to admit that maybe McCullum is doing an ok job as ODI captain?

 

[Briony]

South Africa Cricket News: Marchant de Lange set for comeback | ESPN Cricinfo

de Lange finally making a comeback and they have reformed his action. Too late for this summer it seems of making it back to the Proteas lineup.

 

[Spiced]

We don't have our best team on the field, but on the positive note we are testing our depth. For the new guys this will hurt like hell which might not be to bad for us in the future. All of our players in this squad could play in the next world cup with maybe exemption to Kallis and Pieterson. Give us another 7 matches and we will have a team who can challenge for no1 in the world again.

Colin and Elgar could be regulars in the odi. Colin have not played bad in this series so far. Let us judge him at the end of the series and as for Miller, it is a shame about the run out, would have liked to give him a chance at the end.

Williamson scored a fantastic hundred. Good shot selection and aggression when needed not like boom boom out B.McCullem. Really did well even if it was a flat pitch. Hopefully he can deliver more consistently in the future.

As for calling for the coach and captain to resign I AGREE. They suck. Coming to SA and winning the ODI series. Drop them now so I don't have to see any of this crap in the future ever again.

 

[theegyptian]

fwiw (and i didn't see any of yesterdays match) when i saw NZ get 280, I thought it was always going to be a tough chase even if it was only a par or below par score. You can't just get rid of Amla, De Villiers and Kallis and hope to easily chase down 280 however talented the replacements are. Without experience it's very tough.

Look at the ODI rankings. Amla 1st, De Villiers 2nd, Kallis 17th, Duminy 20th, Smith 22nd. Their top 4 ODI batsmen all missing. No way I'd be too harsh on yesterdays SA performance. Any team in the history of cricket would struggle with losing that kind of class.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Um, I know we all love nothing more than to come up with new and amusing ways to bring unspeakable horror on our McHesson voodoo dolls, but seriously is it that hard to admit that maybe McCullum is doing an ok job as ODI captain?

Yeah he did an ok job, not very good, but not very bad either. But because we won he did a 'good' job, whereas if we had lost his small mistakes would probably have been pointed out

 

[Furball]

Rankings are meaningless in the shorter forms of the games, especially T20 as any team can win on a day. The longer the game, the more the team with greater talent and ranking is expected to win.

Just when you think it can't get any worse for SA, they've replaced Amla in the squad with Elgar. It's like they're trying to get the biggest assembly of rubbish they can in the middle-order with Elgar, Behardien and Ingram.

Can't think of a worse one in world cricket.

Rubbish.

 

[NZTailender]

fwiw (and i didn't see any of yesterdays match) when i saw NZ get 280, I thought it was always going to be a tough chase even if it was only a par or below par score. You can't just get rid of Amla, De Villiers and Kallis and hope to easily chase down 280 however talented the replacements are. Without experience it's very tough.

Look at the ODI rankings. Amla 1st, De Villiers 2nd, Kallis 17th, Duminy 20th, Smith 22nd. Their top 4 ODI batsmen all missing. No way I'd be too harsh on yesterdays SA performance. Any team in the history of cricket would struggle with losing that kind of class.

And we were without Taylor, Southee and Vettori (also Ryder if you want to cast the net wider). Losing to a team with 2 specialist bowlers, Grant Elliott at 4 and a Colin Munro in the side? Some cause for concern, in that for a team that's 1 or 2 in the world you can't tape together a bunch of rag tag cats like we could and pull of a series victory.

 

[NZTailender]

As for calling for the coach and captain to resign I AGREE. They suck. Coming to SA and winning the ODI series. Drop them now so I don't have to see any of this crap in the future ever again.

Way to validate despicable conduct. If the ends justify the means then who cares, right?