***Official*** England in New Zealand series 2013

[Cabinet96]

I lost my avatar for a month betting with Morgie that Sri Lanka would win a test in Australia. Believe people!

 

[Howe_zat]

You should lose if England win 2-0 as well IMO unless the drawn Test is affected by rain.

FMD there's just nothing to win is there?

If I'd had my avatar earlier I'd have bet on England to win all 3 series, that'd probably have got a bite.

 

[Meridio]

For a bloke hired for his communication skills, Hesson's communication skills are not that great.

Vice Captain

Pretty much every time I read something from Hesson in the paper I start dry-retching. Most recently it was the "young Hamish" quote, in reference to Rutherford being selected. Such a patronising way to refer to someone - can someone please just punch him in the ****ing nose already?

 

[NZTailender]

Hesson: "We didn't designate a deputy in any form of the game in South Africa. We had a leadership group, we had a number of guys that could have taken over and we'll continue to do that."

wtf. This whole setup is nuts. Not deciding on a VC until 3rd of March is bizarre. Is he just going to pull a name from the hat of those not yet injured?

Hesson: "OK. We've got a leadership group of three and we haven't formed that leadership group for this series and one of those three will be the one that will take over."

'One of the three will be the one that takes over' - so that means outside of the captain there will be three other 'leaders'? Wtf is this guy on?

 

[hendrix]

for some reason I don't really have a problem with that. I don't see the need for a hierarchy below the level of captaincy.

 

[theegyptian]

By my calculation England to win the next 8 test series (NZ,NZ, AUS,AUS, SL(h), IND(h), WI(a), NZ(h)) before losing the next three( Aus(h), Pak(a), SA(a))

 

[flibbertyjibber]

By my calculation England to win the next 8 test series (NZ,NZ, AUS,AUS, SL(h), IND(h), WI(a), NZ(h)) before losing the next three( Aus(h), Pak(a), SA(a))

Win next 9 more like.

 

[theegyptian]

Win next 9 more like.

hopefully


But by 2015 I feel English players will be past their peak and Aus bowlers presumably super strong.

I think the next two ashes will probably be too soon for australia especially with most of the english players near their peak and aus coming off a tough year.

But it's quite a nice run England have over the next couple of years with no tours in Asia and playing Australia now whilst they're still rebuilding. WI may or may not be a tough away series.

 

[theegyptian]

Obviously looking forward to New Zealand beating us 2-1 now.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

To be honest i hadn't bothered to look further ahead than the ashes double header. Difficult to know who will come in for us, after all 6 months ago not many thought much of Root and he looks a class player now already after just a few games. Obviously got a long way to go but the key will be finding a replacement for Anderson in time as Monty will still be good enough to take over from Swann.

Anyway that way ahead, for now we have to beat NZ. We should do and I expect us to but taking nothing for granted after UAE.

 

[hendrix]

I'm an eternally optimistic NZ fan but even I think we have next to no chance in this series. England have more accomplished bowlers, by far better batsmen, and they're even fielding better now too.

If the scoreline is 2-1 England I will consider that a massive accomplishment.

 

[straw man]

One of them is going to score a debut hundred followed by ten innings of single digits. Calling it now.

A debut hundred is massively optimistic. After two tests I predict both our openers will average 12-15 and the highest score between them will be 35 (scored in a second innings when the match is already all but lost).

Obviously I hope they'll do better than that, but I think we got a pretty good taste of what the English new ball bowlers will do to our top order in the ODI series. We'll be reliant on Williamson playing and missing rather than edging for 10 overs to get a start, and then Taylor and McCullum scoring 80+ each to get us any sort of competitive score.

 

[Binkley]

A debut hundred is massively optimistic. After two tests I predict both our openers will average 12-15 and the highest score between them will be 35 (scored in a second innings when the match is already all but lost).

Obviously I hope they'll do better than that, but I think we got a pretty good taste of what the English new ball bowlers will do to our top order in the ODI series. We'll be reliant on Williamson playing and missing rather than edging for 10 overs to get a start, and then Taylor and McCullum scoring 80+ each to get us any sort of competitive score.

I agree with this prediction. It is hard to see the test series ending in anything other than a comprehensive thrashing really. I truly hope I am wrong, but the best I anticipate is a good innings or two from Taylor, and maybe one good session from Southee, Boult and Bracewell.

 

[Bahnz]

New Zealand should get flattened. Still, I'm hoping (though not expecting) that Southee and co. will help us pinch one of the upcoming 5 tests. It was good to see him getting back into some form on saturday night.

 

[_Ed_]

Hesson's not the best with media, is he?

http://tvnz.co.nz/cricket-news/confusion-over-black-caps-vice-captain-5351790

Hesson: "We didn't designate a deputy in any form of the game in South Africa. We had a leadership group, we had a number of guys that could have taken over and we'll continue to do that."

Reporter: I thought Brendon McCullum said that Williamson would take over if he left the field in Cape Town?

Hesson: "No, not that I'm aware of."

Reporter: He [McCullum] did say that.

Hesson: "OK. We've got a leadership group of three and we haven't formed that leadership group for this series and one of those three will be the one that will take over."

Reporter: Who are they?

Hesson: "As I said we haven't formed it yet because we haven't met in Dunedin."

 

[hendrix]

he's just so defensive it's awful to listen to

 

[Jezroy]

I agree with this prediction. It is hard to see the test series ending in anything other than a comprehensive thrashing really. I truly hope I am wrong, but the best I anticipate is a good innings or two from Taylor, and maybe one good session from Southee, Boult and Bracewell.

Yep - definitely agree that it'll be a "take what we can get" type scenario.

Not much hope for the openers sadly. Love to be proven wrong, but England have appeared to have worked out Rutherford already, and Fulton is already older than Mark Richardson (far and away our best recent test opener) was when he retired, so surely you'd have to wonder if his was on the downhill slope. He'll probably be excellent and then need to retire due to a knee injury... And is Latham an opener? Good luck pal (mind you, Hunter wasn't either, and he did okay).

Kane - So hard to know what to expect. Sometimes looks like a little champ, sometimes looks as bad as Dougeh with the bat. Sums up our team kind of.

Ross/Brendon - You have to think a lot of our runs are going to have to come from these guys. McCullum looks in very very good form now he's not facing the new ball, and there are some encouraging signs for Ross (not to mention he's class)

Brownlie - Still feel that he's a bit hit and miss. Will be interesting to see how he goes against Swann with his perceived spin weaknesses.

BJ - Please don't make him open. He appears to be a much better bet in the middle order, both in tests and ODI's. Even though Ronchi is hammering down the door (albeit with a bung leg at the minute), Watling hasn't done much wrong in the position they wanted him to give a good go.

Dougeh/Timeh/KD Lang - Hopeful that they can keep up the good work of SL (in the main). Can Bracewell find his mojo (which you'd hope would also have a positive effect on his batting?). If they need a 4th seamer, would rather Gillespie than Wagner. Wagner just looks so meh when he bowls, and then has this attitude like he is Muhammed Ali. Gillespie has had his good moments, and if Siddons summation of him is anything to go by, he's not far off where he was last year. Hopefully they can all rub off on eachother. Literally.

Bartin - Never thought I would want Vettori to bowl in the test team again, but gosh I miss his boring left arm non spinners. Let's see if Bruce really has wasted his last 12 years playing NZ first class cricket, but I'd find it hard to believe he'll do much more than Jeets/Tastle/Brooke Walker/Wisemen etc etc. Vettori is our spinning equivalent to Mark Richardson. The other spinners are our How/Redmond/Cumming etc etc etc. Neither are really a strong suit for NZ unfortunately.

Much strength in our middle order/seam bowling. The other areas seem a little sad. Like my brown grass.

 

[_Ed_]

KD Lang

 

[Wright]

Yep - definitely agree that it'll be a "take what we can get" type scenario.

Not much hope for the openers sadly. Love to be proven wrong, but England have appeared to have worked out Rutherford already, and Fulton is already older than Mark Richardson (far and away our best recent test opener) was when he retired, so surely you'd have to wonder if his was on the downhill slope. He'll probably be excellent and then need to retire due to a knee injury... And is Latham an opener? Good luck pal (mind you, Hunter wasn't either, and he did okay).

Kane - So hard to know what to expect. Sometimes looks like a little champ, sometimes looks as bad as Dougeh with the bat. Sums up our team kind of.

Ross/Brendon - You have to think a lot of our runs are going to have to come from these guys. McCullum looks in very very good form now he's not facing the new ball, and there are some encouraging signs for Ross (not to mention he's class)

Brownlie - Still feel that he's a bit hit and miss. Will be interesting to see how he goes against Swann with his perceived spin weaknesses.

BJ - Please don't make him open. He appears to be a much better bet in the middle order, both in tests and ODI's. Even though Ronchi is hammering down the door (albeit with a bung leg at the minute), Watling hasn't done much wrong in the position they wanted him to give a good go.

Dougeh/Timeh/KD Lang - Hopeful that they can keep up the good work of SL (in the main). Can Bracewell find his mojo (which you'd hope would also have a positive effect on his batting?). If they need a 4th seamer, would rather Gillespie than Wagner. Wagner just looks so meh when he bowls, and then has this attitude like he is Muhammed Ali. Gillespie has had his good moments, and if Siddons summation of him is anything to go by, he's not far off where he was last year. Hopefully they can all rub off on eachother. Literally.

Bartin - Never thought I would want Vettori to bowl in the test team again, but gosh I miss his boring left arm non spinners. Let's see if Bruce really has wasted his last 12 years playing NZ first class cricket, but I'd find it hard to believe he'll do much more than Jeets/Tastle/Brooke Walker/Wisemen etc etc. Vettori is our spinning equivalent to Mark Richardson. The other spinners are our How/Redmond/Cumming etc etc etc. Neither are really a strong suit for NZ unfortunately.

Much strength in our middle order/seam bowling. The other areas seem a little sad. Like my brown grass.

Nice summary, why has New Zealand been so poor at producing opening batters?

 

[Jezroy]

Nice summary, why has New Zealand been so poor at producing opening batters?

I would have thought we would have been good at producing openers due to the fact that until the last few years, our domestic pitches have been quite hard to bat on (in the main), but I suspect it's (in part at least) due to the fact our domestic bowlers aren't up to much.