***Official*** New Zealand in the West Indies 2014

[ohnoitsyou]

Hard to imagine Sodhi dropping as many filthy full tosses as Benn tbf

 

[Beamer]

Hard to imagine Sodhi dropping as many filthy full tosses as Benn tbf

From previous viewing there will be quite a few long hops outside off sump though. I do agree Benn was disappointing. Shilly, who is a huge spinner of the ball admittedly, got way more out of the pitch than him.

 

[Blocky]

Well played New Zealand, particularly Kane. That was a day of excellent concentration and defensive batsmanship that has put them in a decent position.

I thought Roach and Benn were both pretty disappointing tbh. Kemar has the excuse of not having played anywhere near enough cricket but I expected better from Benn. Admittedly it was a horrible wicket to bowl on because the spin was dead slow and there was absolutely no carry at all for the pacers, but I thought they could have done better.

JT showed the way and my fear is he bowled exactly how Southee and Boult are likely to. The saving grace is that we get to bat against Ish Sodhi who will almost certainly be the loosest bowler on display and give us scoring opportunities. Not sure what Craig is like but I severely doubt he's as good as Shilly. When we do bat we have to get through the new ball and then capitalise. Hopefully we can restrict New Zealand to a manageable total tomorrow but it's not looking likely.

Finally, I would like to vent my frustration at the wicket that has been produced for this Test. I know they can do better than this and it is not conducive to entertaining cricket.

It's Day 1. Settle down.

I think ultimately you've got an old fashioned pitch here, it favoured the early morning bowling so long as you got it in the right spots and channels - Taylor showed that early with the ball. The spin and turn is there and will continue to build through the match as the pitch deteriorates and I think accuracy based spin bowling will become a real huge factor by Day 4 when the pitch starts to misbehave. I'd hope tomorrow that NZ seek to accelerate their innings and looking at the batsmen still up their sleeve, they are well placed to do just that with Taylor, McCullum and Neesham. I'd tell Kane to drop the sheet anchor/rotate strike role and progressively look to attack tomorrow - try and put in 300-350 runs in the next 2 and a half sessions and declare around 550.

I think Day 3 will be relatively flat but Day 4 onwards, this will turn into a "You're lucky to get 200" pitch.

 

[viriya]

2.6 run rate.. eww?

 

[Blocky]

2.6 run rate.. eww?

Welcome to test Cricket - you seem to be new to this form of the game.

 

[Flem274*]

I don't think the West Indies bowled too poorly - Taylor was mostly excellent and Benn and Shillingford asked enough questions and were unlucky not to pick up a wicket or two, especially Benn when he was bowling to Williamson earlier in the day.

Where it all fell apart was:

a) they picked Roach and hoped someone who hasn't played test cricket in a couple of years or had any first class match practice post-injury would get it together from the word go.
b) Benn lost the plot towards the end of the day

I get the Roach pick - on paper he walks into the team and the other options are either proven to be awful or completely unproven. They decided to back experience and success over known crap and unknown quantities. Fair enough. But the lack of an allrounder means their only insurance is Marlon Samuels. Because of the Roach meltdown the West Indies need to get rid of New Zealand early tomorrow unless Roach can pull himself together or else we'll either see the other three get smashed because they're tired or a lot of Samuels bowling. Either way batting becomes significantly easier.

 

[viriya]

Welcome to test Cricket - you seem to be new to this form of the game.

4.0 or bust.. this is the age of t20 yo. my senses need constant excitement.

 

[Bahnz]

Just seen the no-ball, and I have to say Latham was very lucky.

 

[Prince EWS]

Lots of people have been critical of their decision to pick Roach here, but imagine the outcry if they'd left him out. Absolutely no-one on the forum was leaving him out before the match, and we all knew it was somewhat of a risk given he hadn't played First Class cricket in a while. It was absolutely a risk that needed to be taken though, and I say that as quite possibly the biggest Roach sceptic on the forum.

Imagine the posts we'd be making about what a terrible decision it was to leave Roach out had they picked Holder and he went wicketless on Day 1.

 

[Flem274*]

How late was Roach passed as fit? It's poor management not to squeeze him into one of the warm up fixtures at least.

 

[Bahnz]

Seriously, how awesome is KW though? It's hard to believe that he's only a couple of months older than Taylor was when he made his test debut.

 

[hendrix]

It's Day 1. Settle down.

I think ultimately you've got an old fashioned pitch here, it favoured the early morning bowling so long as you got it in the right spots and channels - Taylor showed that early with the ball. The spin and turn is there and will continue to build through the match as the pitch deteriorates and I think accuracy based spin bowling will become a real huge factor by Day 4 when the pitch starts to misbehave. I'd hope tomorrow that NZ seek to accelerate their innings and looking at the batsmen still up their sleeve, they are well placed to do just that with Taylor, McCullum and Neesham. I'd tell Kane to drop the sheet anchor/rotate strike role and progressively look to attack tomorrow - try and put in 300-350 runs in the next 2 and a half sessions and declare around 550.

I think Day 3 will be relatively flat but Day 4 onwards, this will turn into a "You're lucky to get 200" pitch.

Did you watch it?

I got up at 3am to do so, and while I agree that there were segments of good old fashioned cricket, this is not a good test wicket. There was very little bounce and carry for any of the pacers, and that was with Taylor cranking it up to 145. Any ball back of a length would die before reaching the keeper.

It did become a battle between bat and ball because of the turn, which I suppose is a saving grace, but this was too much about attrition. Batsmen weren't rewarded for good stroke play as the outfield was incredibly slow. Bowlers were unable to force the batsmen back into their crease because anything remotely short pitched just sat up. And not sat up as in there to hit, sat up in a slow, tennis ball way that's neither going to take a wicket nor be punished to the boundary.

While WI failed to produce edges, I'm tempted to say that most wouldn't carry anyway.

I mean it wasn't a completely rubbish wicket, but it's not what I'd call a good old fashioned test strip.

 

[Gnske]

Why did the WI board think selecting Roach after no match form was such an ingenious idea? Must have just wanted an experienced pace attack leader with good stats as compared to Best or Rampaul, the latter would have been a better choice.

Good to see Kane and Latham taking advantage in the conditions though and their patience, could have easily gone haywire for NZ even on that pitch if WI hadn't bowled so poorly.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

Seriously, how awesome is KW though? It's hard to believe that he's only a couple of months older than Taylor was when he made his test debut.

He's only 3 centuries behind Stephen Fleming, who played 79 more Tests...

 

[Mike5181]

I don't think the West Indies bowled too poorly - Taylor was mostly excellent and Benn and Shillingford asked enough questions and were unlucky not to pick up a wicket or two, especially Benn when he was bowling to Williamson earlier in the day.

Where it all fell apart was:

a) they picked Roach and hoped someone who hasn't played test cricket in a couple of years or had any first class match practice post-injury would get it together from the word go.
b) Benn lost the plot towards the end of the day

I get the Roach pick - on paper he walks into the team and the other options are either proven to be awful or completely unproven. They decided to back experience and success over known crap and unknown quantities. Fair enough. But the lack of an allrounder means their only insurance is Marlon Samuels. Because of the Roach meltdown the West Indies need to get rid of New Zealand early tomorrow unless Roach can pull himself together or else we'll either see the other three get smashed because they're tired or a lot of Samuels bowling. Either way batting becomes significantly easier.

In contrast to this, we have Williamson and Neesham as insurance. Hardly world-class bowlers, but they'll certainly be useful if someone doesn't turn up.

Coney made some interesting comments regarding Shillingford during the tea break. He said without the doosra, he probably can't bowl as straight as he'd normally like, so he's struggling a bit.

Seriously, how awesome is KW though? It's hard to believe that he's only a couple of months older than Taylor was when he made his test debut.

Hells yeah. In his last seven tests, he's averaging close to 70.

 

[RxGM]

Seriously, how awesome is KW though? It's hard to believe that he's only a couple of months older than Taylor was when he made his test debut.

Though to put it in the context of child protégées at the same age Crowe had virtually identical numbers though he had just completed the 85 tour of Aus. [Cause im a geek I have been plotting Kane v Crowe for a while]

 

[hendrix]

Looks like a pretty decent first day. What do people think about the team that New Zealand selected? Not too happy personally - I can't believe the apparent decision to bat Neesham at 6, the guy is barely a First Class number 7.

Well in the current squad, who would you select instead? Ronchi is not a better batsman than Neesham. In fact, given that Neesham has a test century, he's probably worse.

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah Bahnz is massively underrating Neesham. Saying he's not a test standard number six is one thing (and has a good case when you look at how raw Neesham is in some ways), but the bloke is easily good enough to bat at six in the Plunket Shield and Otago's strange obsession with batting Derek de Boorder and even Nathan McCullum ahead of him doesn't change that.

Is anyone going to seriously suggest NcCullum batted ahead of Neesham on merit? NcCullum is a very useful number eight but he's not a genuine allrounder, though I like that he seems to be trying to become one.

 

[Bahnz]

Well in the current squad, who would you select instead? Ronchi is not a better batsman than Neesham. In fact, given that Neesham has a test century, he's probably worse.

Dwta. Neesham might improve a bit, but at the moment Ronchi is a significantly better batsman. Having said that, my comment on Neesham was more to do with Neesham batting above Watling in the order, rather than his selection in the first place.

 

[Flem274*]

Ronchi has achieved more with the bat domestically but Neesham adds more to the team, and you're not losing much if any batting prowess anymore. The Neesham who played in round one of last season is not the Neesham who will walk out to bat in this game.