***Official**** Sri Lanka in New Zealand 2014/2015

[Flem274*]

Or perhaps you don't bowl short and wide rubbish?

These guys all average 40+ with the ball.

They need sweepers.

Plus with Rudds you don't need much of a legside field so you can have catchers and sweepers.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Alright blokes this is NZs to win. Sorry Maximas and other SL fangirls you guys are staring at a 300 run defeat here.

 

[viriya]

Agreed that they should have a more attacking field for Herath. I have a feeling he's not 100% and they're playing it safe.for now.

 

[Flem274*]

Lol at Doull and Smith trying to politely rip the **** out of Hamish Rutherford while his dad is in the commentary booth.

 

[viriya]

I think Angelo's natural defensive mindset is showing now.. there's no Mahela to tell him to put in a silly point for Herath anymore.

 

[Blocky]

Pitch looking dead, Herath not looking that threatening - NZ batsman will get themselves out rather than be got out.

 

[viriya]

I think Herath prefers the older ball, I'm sure he'll start ripping it sometime tomorrow.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Interesting to see that we are still favorites on the tab.

 

[Zinzan]

Interesting to see that we are still favorites on the tab.

Can't have been updated, surely.

 

[viriya]

There's still 3 full days of cricket left.. there's definitely going to be a result either way - should be interesting stuff.

 

[viriya]

Can't have been updated, surely.

Betfair has:
NZ 43%
SL 36%
Draw 23%

Numbers say:
SL 65%
NZ 19%
Draw 16%

I think the truth lies somewhere in between.

 

[Grasshopper]

I think Angelo's natural defensive mindset is showing now.. there's no Mahela to tell him to put in a silly point for Herath anymore.

Yes, he was far too defensive with his field placement considering SL's handy lead, and also their position in the series. Strange captaincy.

 

[Athlai]

Can't have been updated, surely.

SL paying $2.75 to win on bet365
NZ $2.20
draw $4

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Can't have been updated, surely.

This morning SL were favourites to take the first innings lead, yet we were still favourites to win.

 

[Chubb]

I was lucky enough to be at the Basin for the first 100 or so of McCullum's 300 but Sangakkara's innings today was in some ways even better than that knock, it was a privilege to be there for it.

 

[Hurricane]

Has any fast bowler ever pulled off as many highlight reel catches as Trent Boult. Machine.

Certainly as an outfielder he may be up there although I remember sneddon taking a screamer once.

Hmm I tried to multi quote chubb but awta Chubb. Seeing him smash nz to all parts was special. It was quite the moment when we clapped him off. To my right was the Sri lankan band and fans. They were very subdued in the morning but as the day progressed they became delirious. Singing chanting various songs and when those ran out they just started chanting his name.

Surely this knock will be remembered for ever. Certainly I will never forget it.

Yesterday we clapped him when he brought up 12 000 runs but he didn't acknowledge us or raise his bat. He had bigger and more pressing goals on his mind.

We clapped his 200 like one of our own and a thought crossed my mind, that if cricket can create moments like this then it must be one of the better sports in the world

 

[Bahnz]

Went to the cricket with a Sri Lankan work mate of mine today. When Chandimal got out, she declared that things would still be OK because Sangakkara was going to get a 200 (he was on about 90 at the time). We all laughed at her and waved her off. Needless to say she was letting us all hear it at the end of the day.

New Zealand let themselves down with poor fielding in the afternoon (that McCullum drop was a shocker), but you can't take anything away from Sanga, he was utterly magnificent. However, the pitch looks like it's playing pretty well now, so a de facto first innings deficit of 113 isn't the end of the world. No reason why we can't score 450 and make a real game of this on days 4 and 5.

 

[Maximas]

Can't believe I had to spend the day at work, had a feeling I'd miss a Sanga special, was having a bit of a laugh last night in the thread but never expected a double, Chandimal's runs bode well for the future too, he's building a really nice record outside Asia, NZ still in this though, just hope we don't cop our own Leed's flavoured medicine here and make some early inroads tomorrow, Herath will come into the game a little I imagine, a lot could depend on the fitness of Pradeep too - he's been known to run out of steam around day 3-4 of test matches, what a day though

 

[Flem274*]

Craig was getting turn according to the radio when i was out and about so there is something there. the greatest short fatty of all time quite different to Craig though so we'll see but he only needs a little bit for his control of flight to make his dangerous. he could do without his seamers bowling ten kilometres too short though.

chandimal looked good from the little I've seen of todays play with my own eyes. he was very rash and has the usual young asian batsman away from home habit of defending too wide and attacking through cover with wild abandon but based on this and from his stroke play (albeit short lived) in England he is a prospect.

 

[Maximas]

Herath's limitation is his inability to make use of bounce, which is why it still amazes me that he did well in Australia, ultimately the pitch needs to be giving him a bit of turn for him to be dangerous, his flight and guile can only do so much given he's not a huge ripper of the ball, but he'll prey on mistakes and build pressure so I think he'll be very useful, 3/80 off 30 overs would be the kind of contribution I'm after