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

[morgieb]

Why did West Indies pick 5 bowlers?

 

[hendrix]

It kinda hasn't been talked about much, but congratulations to Sulieman Benn. I always liked the guy, and I rated his recall. It's probably true that his role will be in concert with Narine in the mid-term, but he's been very good this series. Started out a little innocuously, but really got into his work as the overs piled up.

Love his smile after taking those catches too.

 

[Slifer]

Why did West Indies pick 5 bowlers?

Because the WI selectors are morons. Seriously a guy makes 63 on his debut and u drop him for a offie with a suspect action, all while leaving out another offie who took 6-91 in his last outing vs NZ. I'm not going to be a nay-sayer and hope WI lose but our tail is so long it's ridiculous.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, thanks to that team selection I think that it's only 60:40 that WI will get a lead.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Even enough day, WI in a slightly favourable position imo. Beautiful bowling by Roach, was good to watch.

 

[Blocky]

On face value, perhaps. But you're completely ignoring that Pidg is in his third Test, has never really had to nurse a tail in his life, has a guy much his senior at 10 who rates himself as a batsman, and if he gets into a mentality of turning down runs and altering the way he plays, especially so early in his career, probably gets out anyway. He's not Michael Hussey, he's not even a top 7-8 batsman at FC level. Seems like you've been around cricket a long time, sometimes it's worth scratching deeper than 'guy gets out, either amazing nut or poor shot' or in this case just blindly blaming a guy who deserves a lot more for the ticker exhibited

It's more a dig on NZ Cricket and the message they're sending the tail out there with - Taylor in the last game, Craig in this one. If you're the set batsman, you don't gift strike away at the start of the over, especially if the other guy has troubles playing the bowling. Asking an international level cricketer to observe **** that I've been doing since I was 14 shouldn't be hard in my view.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Because the WI selectors are morons. Seriously a guy makes 63 on his debut and u drop him for a offie with a suspect action, all while leaving out another offie who took 6-91 in his last outing vs NZ. I'm not going to be a nay-sayer and hope WI lose but our tail is so long it's ridiculous.

It is madness but lets not be too down aye? Holder is more than capable of nicking a 30-40 run knock down the order...so we'll see. My understanding is the coach/selectors got spooked by that ninth wicket partnership nz had last game and decided to add another bowler...one thing for sure is them guys are brave .

 

[Hurricane]

I've come to accept that Southee only bats at eight to provide us with a comedic interlude either side of the regular cricket. Lighten up

There is no justification for him batting eight unless a declaration is coming.

I think it goes back to our earn the right days and he is the most aggressive of the tail enders.

 

[Hurricane]

I love having a tail that bats deep by the way - it has always been the NZ way to success. We may not be blessed with openers but we do have nuggety fighters at 9 and 10.

 

[WindieWeathers]

From our point of view looking at it...

Gayle
Brathwaite
Edwards
Darren Bravo
Chanderpaul
Ramdin
------------------------------
Holder
Taylor
Shillingford
Benn
Roach

Ramdin has actually been our second best batsman behind Shiv over the past year or so (averaging around 45) so i guess they are trusting him to perform at six this time around. While Taylor has a test ton to his name and Shilly has a 50 to his name in this series already. If two or three of the bottom five can nick a few 20s or 30s then the loss of Blackwood might not be too bad....right now imo the only target is getting to 290..after that we'll see.

Also one more thing on Holder...i remember when we went to Australia early this year for the ODI series and all of our batsmen were falling like flies to Starc and co on fast tracks...but Jason came in two or three times and really held his own out there which is another reason why the selectors may have been comfortable with that decision...i hope he comes in at six tbh so we still have Ramdin up our sleeve if things go wrong.

 

[Hurricane]

FC Averages
------------------------------
Holder - 15.4
Taylor - 12.56
Shillingford - 13.16
Benn - 17.92
Roach 10.51
I don't know WW but as a New Zealand fan I will be dissapointed if one of your guys gets a 50 and two or three others 20s and 30s based on their FC averages.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

FC Averages
------------------------------
Holder - 15.4
Taylor - 12.56
Shillingford - 13.16
Benn - 17.92
Roach 10.51
I don't know WW but as a New Zealand fan I will be dissapointed if one of your guys gets a 50 and two or three others 20s and 30s based on their FC averages.

You do realise you're courting disaster. Jerome and New Zealand have previous.

 

[WindieWeathers]

FC Averages
------------------------------
Holder - 15.4
Taylor - 12.56
Shillingford - 13.16
Benn - 17.92
Roach 10.51
I don't know WW but as a New Zealand fan I will be dissapointed if one of your guys gets a 50 and two or three others 20s and 30s based on their FC averages.

Anything is possible Hurricane...hasn't Craig done better than Mccullum in the last three innings? Obviously we'd need the top six to do the brunt of the work...but we'll most likely need the tail to build a decent lead if we manage to get one.

 

[Flametree]

Equally odd about the Windies tail is that they've been batting Roach at 8 ahead of the others with higher averages. Will he bat 7 tomorrow?

 

[Dan]

Yeah, Holder and Taylor in particular are both obviously capable with the bat, but you don't want to be relying on them for your runs. They aren't like a Plunket Shield engine room where you have guys like Kuggs and Ellis who can lay claim to being genuine bowling all-rounders (well, no-rounder in Ellis' case) sitting at 8.

Holder and Taylor are very capable of making jammy runs, but they're bonus runs -- not players you rely on to get you to totals. Holder is having a nosebleed at 7 currently, though in 7 or 8 years he may well develop into an all-rounder.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Equally odd about the Windies tail is that they've been batting Roach at 8 ahead of the others with higher averages. Will he bat 7 tomorrow?

Kemar can be a gutsy player who can hang around...that's why they send him in instead of someone who will hit two 4s and give their wicket away.

 

[Kippax]

Anyone have those highlight clips?

Well there's that -

Or come back in five hours from this post (Friday night gamers are making my upload that slow) -

Third Test: Day 1 Highlights

 

[WindieWeathers]

Kippax...can't view the highlights mate...any chance of making them like the others you posted for the previous tests?

 

[Kippax]

It's uploading WW. Four hours from now, click on it.

I found some more from another guy though -

Sulieman Benn 5-93 vs New Zealand 3rd Test 2014 - YouTube

Kemar Roach 4-61 vs New Zealand 3rd Test 2014 - YouTube

 

[WindieWeathers]

Thanks very much Kippax i knew you'd come through as always...