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

[Dan]

Nah Williamson's valuable at the top IMO. Sure he may only strike at 120-130, but he's reliable and lets guys like Neesh/Anderson/Guptill throw the bat at everything without having to worry about a collapse.

KW's less likely to smack a 36-ball ton than another Anderson-type player, but to steal what I believe was Phlegm's analogy, you can't have icing without at least some cake to put it on.

Guptill
Williamson
McCullum
Taylor
Anderson
Neesham
Ronchi +
NcCullum
Southee
Mills
Mclenanananananagan

 

[Hurricane]

No room for anchor men in T20. The only arguments I was interested in were ones were people were claiming he had turned the corner and was now capable of a 35 ball 50.

 

[Athlai]

I disagree entirely, you'll often see with the massive T20 scores that someone in the top 3 will have a strike rate between 100-150 and it's the rest of the team who launch at the other end.

I'd also argue that there is no such thing as an "anchor" in T20, merely someone who is looking turn the strike and shepherd the innings, they aren't there to face balls they're there to form partnerships.

 

[Hurricane]

I disagree entirely, you'll often see with the massive T20 scores that someone in the top 3 will have a strike rate between 100-150 and it's the rest of the team who launch at the other end.

I'd also argue that there is no such thing as an "anchor" in T20, merely someone who is looking turn the strike and shepherd the innings, they aren't there to face balls they're there to form partnerships.

If you had a choice between an alcohol free Jesse to open or Kane to open who would you pick

Kane avg 28.53 SR 120
Jesse avg 22.85 SR 128

 

[Athlai]

I'd probably have both on the go and play them based on form.

 

[Prince EWS]

Excluding the last game - where New Zealand were only chasing 119 off 20 overs, Kane scored 42 (43) and the next highest score was 5 - Kane struck at 141 in the World T20. That's perfectly acceptable; in fact I'd go as far as to say it's awesome when combined with his average of almost 50.

He was inarguably New Zealand's best batsman in that tournament for mine. He may not have unorthodox shots or the ability to go over the top against the quicks, but if you're a class bat then orthodox cricket can definitely still hold a good strike rate. This is particularly true as opener -- Jayawardene is the T20 model for Williamson IMO.

 

[Hurricane]

All factors being equal who would you pick for the world cup T20 final and there was only one spot available in the team?

 

[Hurricane]

Excluding the last game - where New Zealand were only chasing 119 off 20 overs, Kane scored 42 (43) and the next highest score was 5 - Kane struck at 141 in the World T20. That's perfectly acceptable; in fact I'd go as far as to say it's awesome when combined with his average of almost 50.

He was inarguably New Zealand's best batsman in that tournament for mine. He may not have unorthodox shots or the ability to go over the top against the quicks, but if you're a class bat then orthodox cricket can definitely still hold a good strike. This is particularly true as opener -- Jayawardene is the T20 model for Williamson IMO.

I don't mind this argument for justifying his selection (that he can score at 140) I am just saying if he can't score at that rate then he shouldn't be playing.

Athlai's argument that most big scores have an anchor man I need to investigate and will do some scoreboard digging. However I note that he listed a range of 100-150 and there is a big difference between 100 and 150.
Clarke lost his team games by batting at 100.

 

[Athlai]

All factors being equal who would you pick for the world cup T20 final and there was only one spot available in the team?

Kane.

Big match player IMO.

 

[hendrix]

No room for anchor men in T20. The only arguments I was interested in were ones were people were claiming he had turned the corner and was now capable of a 35 ball 50.

I agree.

He has turned the corner though and is clearly capable of 35 ball 50s.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah I don't really think there's a place for someone who scores at below 120, generally. The balance of each team is different but as a general rule I don't think having someone strike at < 120 would be good for many teams.

 

[Flem274*]

The focus on Clarke being an example of orthodox batsmen being crap at T20 is forgetting Mahela, Sanga, Amla, Kallis etc are pretty reasonable at it.

And I don't trust Ryder to walk down the stairs without getting kicked out of the team or injured for some moronic reason of his own making. I've given up on him as a New Zealand player.

 

[auditor]

Guys, you exchange work?

 

[Prince EWS]

Betfair's been down for me for hours. Wouldn't even load that page for a while; just timed out.

 

[Hurricane]

ESPN Cricinfo Statsguru - New Zealand - Twenty20 Internationals - Team analysis

These are NZ's scores in excess of 180 all 12 of them.

In approx half of the cases someone did an anchor man while someone else went off.
e.g. Ross Taylor played Anchor while Colin Munro went off in one game and scored 73 off only 39 balls (Get him in the team). While Ross scored 25 off 23.

In no game did we have a dedicated anchor man though - it was just something that happened on the day. Someone just read the game and decided to deliberately feed the other guy the strike because he was seeing it as big as a beach ball.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Hurricane just stole my thunder, McCullum/Taylor/Guptill are the anchor men. They read the match situation and make sure they stay there till the end, while being able to hit 6s if they fall behind the asking rate.

Its not that i don't mind KW in the T20 side, its just that the likes of Munners are more deserving of being in there. If we lollapse then the result won't be much different with or without kane.

 

[Kippax]

 

[Hurricane]

I hope Hamish gets a go at opening the batting in the last t20.

 

[hendrix]

144kph from Boult. He was consistently quick during the test series too.

 

[BeeGee]

Good start from Sodhi.

Haha, Williamson bowling himself while he still can.