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

[hendrix]

Kane Williamson on Craig McMillan:

"His throw-downs are getting there"

 

[Blocky]

Imagine if the windies had picked a proper team...

Imagine if NZ had picked a proper team too.

 

[Maximas]

I was under the impression they did, hell, even your boi got a go and they dropped Sodhi

 

[BeeGee]

Imagine if the windies had picked a proper team...

Shillingford actually did ok with the bat, but terrible with the ball. I guess he thought "since I'm replacing a batsman, I'd better play like a batsman." 40 runs without being dismissed.
But..... 31 overs, 134 runs, ZERO wickets at an RPO of 4.3.

And I have NFI why Holder only bowled 20 overs in the whole game. 20 overs, 50 runs, 2 wickets at an RPO of 2.5.
Plus 90 runs with the bat. Gun.

 

[Maximas]

You feel like the difference was felt much more in the first dig when their lead should have been extended much more with a proper batsman at 6 and Ramdin at 7, Narine would have been handy as well

 

[Blocky]

I'm not going to back down on the fact that anyone who felt the Windies were an equal team to the New Zealanders was just being overtly kind. They had two players returning from the sideline, a bunch of debutants and a bunch of inexperienced batsmen. They performed admirably and I'd say people like Braithwaite, Edwards and Blackwood definitely look good for the future but in my view, they over achieved in the series.

Meanwhile our bowlers (Southee and Boult) went missing for a lot of sessions, we selected two spinners and an all rounder who wasn't really capable of taking wickets - once we selected Wagner in the side he performed well, took crucial first innings wickets (Edwards, Braithwaite, Chanderpaul). Still a very worrying trend of so many of our players gifting wickets (i.e McCullum, Taylor, Williamson) when they're in positions to really drive home an advantage.

NZ selectors need to realise if we don't have one test class spinner, there is no point selecting two.

 

[viriya]

Imagine if NZ had picked a proper team too.

NZ deserved to win this series, but let's not pretend like they were not playing the best XI. With WI, it's clear that they didn't. As a neutral, it's annoying.

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah the windies kinda got away with the long tail in this match. The top six let the team down.

 

[Blocky]

I was under the impression they did, hell, even your boi got a go and they dropped Sodhi

Yup - and what a difference he made. Had he played the first two tests, this series wouldn't have even been close.

 

[Blocky]

NZ deserved to win this series, but let's not pretend like they were not playing the best XI. With WI, it's clear that they didn't. As a neutral, it's annoying.

Narine vs Shillingford - being that Narine wasn't even an incumbent spinner until the last NZ series and Shillingford was claiming wickets all over the show, this is like me arguing that we should have selected Ryder or even Vettori (fit enough to play charity matches)

As per my post above, we didn't select our best 11 - we were expecting two bowlers to take 15 wickets per test to give us a shot, with Craig performing as an over achiever in the first game and finally bringing Wagner in meant we had some spine outside of Southee and Boult.

 

[hendrix]

I was under the impression they did, hell, even your boi got a go and they dropped Sodhi

our best team would involve McCullum opening and Anderson (or even Ryder) in the middle order, but really, anyone other than Rutherford or Fulton would be a better selection.

Could also justify picking Anderson or a pace bowler ahead of Craig if we'd had one in the squad. Or had Jeets been available...

 

[hendrix]

NZ deserved to win this series, but let's not pretend like they were not playing the best XI. With WI, it's clear that they didn't. As a neutral, it's annoying.

agree.

I'm not sure Blackwood would have made a significant difference given that the turning of the match was Williamson's innings, but it was frustrating to see the Shillingford selection.

 

[Maximas]

Yup - and what a difference he made. Had he played the first two tests, this series wouldn't have even been close.

Proved once again that in these conditions he's as a good a third seamer as you can hope for, definitely way better than a ****ty spinner

 

[Flem274*]

While Narine was a huge loss, I think people are managing to overstate it which is pretty impressive. Narine took 6/91 on a helpful pitch in Hamilton and Taylor and KW played him very well.

Benn bowled well in this series for the most part. Narine would have been hard to play obviously but it's not a sure thing he would have been devastating. Four of Narine's wickets in that 6fer were Fulton, Southee, Sodhi and Wagner. I think some of you are underrating Benn performance this series when you compare it to Narine's one game.

 

[Maximas]

agree.

I'm not sure Blackwood would have made a significant difference given that the turning of the match was Williamson's innings, but it was frustrating to see the Shillingford selection.

The turning of the match was before then, the WI collapse at the back end of the innings opened the door, would have been a very different game had the lead been 100 or more rather than 20

 

[Blocky]

The turning of the match was before then, the WI collapse at the back end of the innings opened the door, would have been a very different game had the lead been 100 or more rather than 20

Not entirely different to the second match in the series where NZ went from 120/3 to 220 all out.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Honestly feel that with a good second opener NZ would take us apart right now.

 

[hendrix]

The turning of the match was before then, the WI collapse at the back end of the innings opened the door, would have been a very different game had the lead been 100 or more rather than 20

Shillingford was not out in that first innings (not to mention his second innings effort). Given that Blackwood was the one he replaced I doubt he would've done any better with wickets falling around him.

But aside from that, he has one test half century. He looked good but he's not Bradman.

 

[Maximas]

Shillingford was not out in that first innings (not to mention his second innings effort). Given that Blackwood was the one he replaced I doubt he would've done any better with wickets falling around him.

But aside from that, he has one test half century. He looked good but he's not Bradman.

Well it's all speculation, but given that Blackwood would have come in at 6 rather than at 9 wickets wouldn't necessarily have been tumbling around him given Ramdin and Holder both provided some resistance

 

[Bahnz]

Happy with the declaration and happy with the win! Looks like another great Southee-Boult double-act to get us over the line. It's great to see we've finally got that team with 2 40+ batsmen and 2 sub-30 bowlers that Hurricane was craving.