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

[Kippax]

 

[Kippax]

Taylor seems $1 overpriced imo. I'd presume on an average day NZ makes about 120 more runs from here, or less.

 

[Frost]

On the openers, its time to pick a actual opener and not try make one out of middle order players.
Fulton at best was a 5, same with Guptill. Most of the second innings collapses happen when one of the openers goes cheap.
He was never really equipped with dealing to the new ball, not really sure what the answer is but trying to manufacture one doesn't work.
Tryed it with Sinclair, Guptill, McCallum, Flynn, The list goes on. What about Redmond?

 

[Flem274*]

Guptill has always been an opener mate. Redmond is a good example of a guy who worked his way up tbh. He started out as a leg spinner who could bat a bit and worked hard on his batting, volunteering to go higher as needed for his province.

 

[Flem274*]

@ Steve: was it you?

 

[Frost]

I mentioned Redmond because he was the incumbent before injury iirc.
Mabye a odi opener but they still moved him around the order a bit, he was opening then 3 then 5 and back to the top.
I like Guptill, its the selectors really rather than a dig at those players.
Cant blame them they will do enything to play test cricket.

 

[Kippax]

Guptill is the most likely to benefit from Fulton's implosion in the short term.

Nah Redmond imo. Hesson sounded as put out as Blocky when he was asked about Guptill in the squad announcement interview. "No, Martin hasn't played tests for us for a long time now".

I can remember Edgar also used some Statsguru research he knew off by heart to put a Guptill talkback advocate in his place. "You know in Martin's last 27 innings, he's actually averaged __".

 

[Dan]

Jeet Raval call-up?

 

[Athlai]

Jeet Raval call-up?

You can't call up mythical creatures.

 

[Flem274*]

"You know in Martin's last 27 innings, he's actually averaged __".

more than fulton?

who hasn't been given a go...hmm Papps 2.0, Raval, Carter....running out of names with any sort of runs here...

I don't see Raval getting in after he faded away during the season. They don't rate him anyway. Carter doesn't have a single first class hundred and Papps hasn't changed at all in the areas that matter.

Guptill, Rutherford, Flynn, Redmond...deck chairs on the titanic. Broom tried becoming an opener...didn't work. Brownlie could try the same I guess.

 

[Flem274*]

You can't call up mythical creatures.

Yes we can. We've got Peter Fulton on the team sheet but no ones seen him bat.

 

[otagoman]

I would imagine Michael Bracewell is pretty close. He batted at 3 for Otago last season, but opened a fair bit prior to that

 

[Kippax]

Jeet Raval call-up?

Nah, should've been a real man and headed somewhere hard, rather than retreated back to his Auckland venues where he averages mid-50s.

If you're going to come in and suck, I get the impression you need to at least be familiar with a newspaper's racing section and make some big calls. Devcich maybe. Not sure if Michael Bracewell played some rugby in his youth.

 

[Mike5181]

more than fulton?

who hasn't been given a go...hmm Papps 2.0, Raval, Carter....running out of names with any sort of runs here...

I don't see Raval getting in after he faded away during the season. They don't rate him anyway. Carter doesn't have a single first class hundred and Papps hasn't changed at all in the areas that matter.

Guptill, Rutherford, Flynn, Redmond...deck chairs on the titanic. Broom tried becoming an opener...didn't work. Brownlie could try the same I guess.

I quite like the look of Michael Bracewell. Not sure whether he'd be up for opening as he's been more of a number three recently. From memory someone said he opened at age group level though.

I would imagine Michael Bracewell is pretty close. He batted at 3 for Otago last season, but opened a fair bit prior to that

Hah, beaten.

 

[Flem274*]

I quite like the look of Michael Bracewell. Not sure whether he'd be up for opening as he's been more of a number three recently. From memory someone said he opened at age group level though.

you mean this guy?

I would imagine Michael Bracewell is pretty close. He batted at 3 for Otago last season, but opened a fair bit prior to that

@ Both: Yeah it's an idea. Desperate, but that's what we are. Send him to England with NZ A and see how he handles himself. Give him a run in the Shield. Exhaust Rutherford's or whoevers' chances in the mean time.

 

[Flem274*]

I have it.

Rakitha Weerasundara.

Failing that, age group opener Sir Gregory Hay. Greatbatch called for him to open in tests all the way back in 2008 live on Sky Sport.

 

[Kippax]

Nah it hasn't gone well in Bolton so far for Raki, despite him spending his weekdays trying to get the pitches so flat he can prop forward and let the hands go though -

Yep, still lurching forward and lacking shots off both feet, by the look of that one -

 

[GGG]

I have it.

Rakitha Weerasundara.

Failing that, age group opener Sir Gregory Hay. Greatbatch called for him to open in tests all the way back in 2008 live on Sky Sport.

I forgot all about Greg Hay and have been out of the country for a number of years so I haven't been following domestic cricket. Why on earth hasn't he played a test yet or even been in the quad?

 

[GGG]

Ok just looked up his stats, not many FC games, injury?

 

[Kippax]

.

http://www.beigebrigade.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/BYC-Episode163.mp3

Bit of a mention of Hay and his hiatus there at 22:30 in. "What you could euphemistically call a loss of confidence".