**Official** South Africa in New Zealand

[harsh.ag]

Damn! Missed this completely. Hate the Aus-NZ time zone for cricket AB, you legend....

Well, that blew up quickly for Neesham.

 

[hendrix]

Well I'm overall pleased with how that went, we showed the fight we can provide despite all that horrible rust. If we improve from here and get a few of those key players back in, this may be a golden summer.

we don't need to do the #scrapfightheartkiwioverachiever thing if we just pick our quality batsmen at the top of the order and wicket-taking bowlers. Williamson and Taylor being out is a decent excuse but still I don't understand why Brownlie batted at 3 when we have Latham in the team and Watling is fit.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

we don't need to do the #scrapfightheartkiwioverachiever thing if we just pick our quality batsmen at the top of the order and wicket-taking bowlers. Williamson and Taylor being out is a decent excuse but still I don't understand why Brownlie batted at 3 when we have Latham in the team and Watling is fit.

Brownlie is at three because he is the best equipped to handle the new ball (apparently)

 

[hendrix]

Yeah I'm overstating how much I have a problem with it.

I guess I just expect Brownlie and Guptill to a lesser extent to fail but there's nothing wrong with giving them their shot. I just hope that Latham isn't being pigeon-holed into the middle order.

 

[GGG]

Not sure how I feel, went to sleep 5 down for bugger all and surprised to wake up and find it was as close as it was. Glad to see Boult having a good game and Dan getting though 10 overs, nothing really surprising about the batting performance, without Taylor and Williamson it is toothless. Guptil continuing where he left off and it looks like his remedial work payed off, some solid defensive shots by the looks of it. Got to give Jimmy at least to the end of this series to see if he has what it takes, if not then they have no choice but to give the big man a call or McCulum is going to have to bite the bullet and open, something has to give that is for sure.

 

[Prince EWS]

Latham should be opening the batting when the team is at full strength for mine, and given his general inexperience it really does seem quite silly to have him batting five in this situation. This is a perfect opportunity to have him face some good new ball bowlers. I could understand batting him at three to have all the potential first choice openers in the top order.. but #5 is a waste.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Classy from Steyn to not celebrate the Ronchi wicket and acknowledging a top knock. Shows the difference between him and that wanker Philander

 

[Mike5181]

Classy from Steyn to not celebrate the Ronchi wicket and acknowledging a top knock. Shows the difference between him and that wanker Philander

^ Imran Tahir

 

[jcas0167]

Looks like a lovely ground. It's the first time I've seen it.

It is, they've done a great job developing it. Great to have international cricket come to the Bay of Plenty.

 

[Gnske]

I'd like to see them give Pukukera park international status, can't begin to imagine the ridiculous scores. Nice ground though.

 

[Bahnz]

I'd like to see them give Pukukera park international status, can't begin to imagine the ridiculous scores. Nice ground though.

If you got a mismatch like say Sri Lanka v Bangladesh or something hosted at Pukuera park, then I could easily see 500+ being scored. Would almost be worth it just for that.

 

[popepouri]

^ Imran Tahir

Amazing.

 

[straw man]

Latham should be opening the batting when the team is at full strength for mine, and given his general inexperience it really does seem quite silly to have him batting five in this situation. This is a perfect opportunity to have him face some good new ball bowlers. I could understand batting him at three to have all the potential first choice openers in the top order.. but #5 is a waste.

True but Guptill is still seen* as our best ODI opener and I don't want to see Latham opening with Guptill while he's playing this 10*(30) role at the start.

It could work if Guptill instead takes a more aggressive approach, or swap one out for Neesham if that experiment works (or Ryder).

* rightly at present, though in the absence of much competition

 

[hendrix]

Guptill gets the series. He fails and we have a genuine search for an opener that hopefully includes Latham.

Neesh also gets the series. He fails and we a) see the return of Ryder b) see Williamson pass his test c) see McCullum return to opening with Neesh in the middle order.

 

[Bahnz]

Guptill gets the series. He fails and we have a genuine search for an opener that hopefully includes Latham.

Neesh also gets the series. He fails and we a) see the return of Ryder b) see Williamson pass his test c) see McCullum return to opening with Neesh in the middle order.

Guptill deserves longer than a 3 ODI series in conditions that will be pretty different from those that we play in next February. Yes he's scoring uncomfortably slowly, but it's also worth remembering that he produced plenty of runs in his last full ODI series (a series were we consistently posted 280+ and won 4-0).

Obviously, now that Ryder, Williamson and Taylor are out of the side, Guptill's slow scoring has become more of an issue. But hopefully both Taylor and Williamson will be back shortly, and while I would consider it to be a mistake it seems like there's a reasonable possibility that Ryder will be brought back into the fold as well. Once they're back, it'll be a lot easier to make an assessment of whether Guptill should be in the side or not. In the interim, I acknowledge the importance of searching for realistic alternatives, and in that sense am disappointed that Latham is not opening.

 

[Athlai]

Guptill gets the Summer.

 

[hendrix]

I think we're probably in agreement apart from the fact that I don't agree Guptill should be given longer than the series. He's been poor for a year and if we can get someone better in there we should, as soon as is reasonably possible. We also need to give that person the time necessary to both prove themselves and in the case of Latham give them experience against ODI attacks. There's little time remaining.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Its pretty simple, if Guptill's ever out for 5(29) again he's gone. Its just not acceptable, no other ODI player in the world has his problem. Struggling to get runs through a packed off-side is understandable, but a complete inability to play the poor balls of the pads, or to manufacture the line by playing of his hips isn't. Furthermore he needs to simply stop off-driving balls that should be worked into the covers.

 

[Daemon]

^ Imran Tahir

so good

 

[Mike5181]

They won't drop Guptill any time soon. We have an experiment involving a late-middle order allrounder with no experience at the other end. There's no way you're dropping someone with nearly 3,000 ODI runs @ 39 with that going on, even if you factor in the slow starts. I personally think we should be running with a Guptill/Latham combo at the moment.

Kane won't play in the remaining two ODIs btw.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/new-zealand-v-south-africa-2014-15/content/current/story/791329.html