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

[Moss]

England at the Basin? Pffft. Chance would be a fine old thing. I'd be heading along to the game if that were the case.

Correction, it's at the Westpac, but I suppose the point stands.

 

[Hurricane]

*Pessimistic post alert* This may have been brought up before, but it's been a long while since NZ were up against a truly formidable pace attack. Apart from the usual suspects (AUS, SAF), the way Anderson and Finn tore apart India today suggests England could be a handful at the Basin too. Pretty sure I'm speaking for most people here when I say that the batting lineup facing up to Steyn/Morkel/Philander and johnson/Starc/Cummins is a bit of an unnerving prospect.

To win the cup we (taking the liberty to use "we' and "our') will almost certainly need to beat AUS and/or SAF in the knockouts. Think we missed a trick by not selecting Brownlie as batting cover and horses-for-courses opener? Like everyone else, never rated his chances as a limited overs player but his efforts at the top against Pakistan were a major factor in setting up those biggish totals.

Based on your fine and learned knowledge of all things blackcaps I hereby bequeath you the right to call the team ours and we. Now go forth into every village and convert the followers to the teachings of McHesson such as "earn the right". Where you do not receive a warm welcome and a bed for the night then verily I say unto you take off your sandal and shake the dust from it and label a curse upon them as Devcich lovers and never shall they recover from this pronouncement.

 

[Flem274*]

We beat South Africa in South Africa in a series immediately following 45 all out with second string players like Franklin and no Southee. We're capable, but it is a big mountain to climb.

KW hit a godly 145* iirc.

 

[Bahnz]

We beat South Africa in South Africa in a series immediately following 45 all out with second string players like Franklin and no Southee. We're capable, but it is a big mountain to climb.

KW hit a godly 145* iirc.

Yeah, though SA never played Steyn and Morkel in the same game.

Anyway, I don't think Brownlie's presence would change much. Our WC chances will live and die with McCullum, KW and Taylor. The rest is just shuffling deck chairs.

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah, though SA never played Steyn and Morkel in the same game.

Anyway, I don't think Brownlie's presence would change much. Our WC chances will live and die with McCullum, KW and Taylor. The rest is just shuffling deck chairs.

Given Brendon hasn't shown up at any ICC tournament I can remember then the deck chairs had better come to the party every so often.

You have hit on one important aspect by the way. The bowling in the tournament will be better than all of these warm ups because people will actually try their best. Only some of our players will be good enough to stand up to the extra intensity of the tournament.

 

[Bahnz]

Eh the only icc tournament worth a damn where McCullum was playing as a proper batsman was the 2011 World Cup, and while he was poor I wouldn't hold it against him.

Kane's ODI innings list since the India series:

71, 77, 65, 60, 88, 10, 70*, 46, 123, 97, 15, 103 - 945 runs at a tick under 86.

 

[Maximas]

geez, really thought we had this

 

[viriya]

Thiri is a terrible choice for a #5 imo.

Jeevan Mendis seems pretty useful with the ball and can bat a little bit. I'd be tempted to commit sacrilege and go in with all three spinners. When you have Malinga, Kula and Mathews you still have plenty of pace bowling overs. No point in playing Thisara Perera if he's going to bowl puss.

I'd open with Thirmanne so he can do his anchor thing and keep Sanga and Mahela in the middle order. Bring Chandimal in and hope Mendis can sort himself out at #7.

Thiri is a tough one, but he finished well in Eng and as **** as he is, he's more reliable than Jeevan as #5.

Jeevan is just not reliable enough with the ball.. SL have enough spinners, and even though I'm no Thisara lover, even though he goes at ~6/over at least he gets wickets regularly, Jeevan really does neither (40+ avg with 5+ econ). Thisara also has match-winning potential with a similar average as Jeevan with +30 in SR. He just made SL's fastest 50 in the Eng series - something Jeevan can't do.

Yeah I agree - Virya - as good as Mahela is this tournament is in Aotearoa and Australia - a shedload of wickets are going to fall in the first 3 overs of every game. Why risk Mahela to a new ball from both ends.

I do agree you need someone better to open though.

Mahela is just so much better opening - he has the whole innings to make an impact, and even though he does have issues with the seaming ball, the solution to this is not to have some scrub getting a scratchy 10 off 30 balls to "see of the new ball". SL really have no other option and this shift will really strengthen the batting line-up. The idea is that one of the top 4 will come good - if SL drop to 50/4 then it's game over anyway.

 

[YorksLanka]

Have to say I agree with Flem274, have suggested Thirri opening for us for a while now as I think he gets out way too easily trying to force the pace of the game and should stick to trying to bat through and accumulate. Dilshan can force the pace if necessary. Dimuth isn't a ODI player and shouldn't ruin his test batting by trying to change..thisara looks like he is struggling to me- have to say only saw highlights as was busy at work all day. Would like to see Pradeep/ Eranga given a go whilst retaining jeevan to bat at 8..

 

[BWSport]

Feeling really positive as a New Zealand supporter despite the close nature of this series. To get the results we have had without Taylor scoring any runs is awesome, it was not so long ago that we completely relied on him. If he can start to fire then it will be formidable along with McCullum and Williamson to set the base for good scores

 

[Bahnz]

According to Brenton Vannisselroy, while it is suspected that Milne does have a side strain, "he's still expected to join the Black Caps in Dunedin for the next two ODIs". However his article doesn't say who he's getting this from, so he might just be pulling it out of his arse for all we know.

https://nz.sports.yahoo.com/news/article/-/26050164/williamson-praises-batting-partners/

 

[kiwiviktor81]

Usual or unusual - which one.

Sorry, I meant unusual self-confidence. It appears the days when we pull defeat out of the jaws of victory are gone. This team knows it's still good enough to win from losing positions.

 

[Jimbo the giant]

Rosco needs to man up soon, his form is showing no real sign of improvement at the moment. If he continues like this at the WC we have next to no chance IMO.

SL match up nicely with the Kiwi's with their plethora of slow bowlers. I don't see them being very successful against Aus, Sa or India at the world cup though.


The team that played in Nelson is my preferred line up atm, trade Milne for Henry if the injury rules him out. We will miss Milne a bit if he's ruled out, but Henry is still a good replacement.

 

[hendrix]

I honestly can't remember any NZ batsman being in such consistent form than Williamson is at the moment.
I mean it's slim pickings when you talk about consistency with NZ batsmen anyway, but the closest I can think of was when Vettori was playing one-man-team half a decade ago.
I'm sure Martin Crowe would've had such a period.

It feels as if he goes 2 matches without a score, someone is going to pay. Pretty awesome output.

 

[Bahnz]

I'm sure Martin Crowe would've had such a period.

He certainly did, and it just happened to be during the 1992 world cup.

Innings list: 100*, 5, 3*, 74*, 81*, 26, 73*, 3, 91 ( had another hundred at his mercy before Greatbatch ****ed up his role as runner and left him stranded).

 

[Dan]

In reverse order (most recent first):

103, 15, 242*, 69, 31*, 54, 97, 123, 46, 70*, 10, 32, 0, 192, 11, 32, 23, 3, 28, [1, 20, 3, 101*, 53, 14, 52], {46, 0, 33, 15*, 189, 2, 20, 43, 4, 12, 70, 6, 62, 14, 24, 41, 5}, 37, 19, 161*, 43, 52, 42, 2, 113, 11, 47, {4, 17, 75, 97, 37, 30, 3, 57*, 0, 90, 11}, 42, 29, 51, 24*, 17, 7, [75, 28], 7, 47, 3, 113, 88, 60, 65, 77, 71.

This goes back to the first ODI vs. India on Jan 19 2014, so essentially his last 12 months. Square Brackets = games for ND. Braces = games for Yorkshire.

Overall: 9 centuries, 20 fifties, 3766 runs @ 51.55

For NZ: 7 centuries, 11 fifties, 2409 runs @ 60.23
For ND: 1 century, 3 fifties, 350 runs @ 43.75
For Yorkshire: 1 century, 6 fifties, 1007 runs @ 37.30

 

[jcas0167]

I honestly can't remember any NZ batsman being in such consistent form than Williamson is at the moment.
I mean it's slim pickings when you talk about consistency with NZ batsmen anyway, but the closest I can think of was when Vettori was playing one-man-team half a decade ago.
I'm sure Martin Crowe would've had such a period.

It feels as if he goes 2 matches without a score, someone is going to pay. Pretty awesome output.

Andrew Jones had a stretch of 6 straight ODI 50's in 88/89. Also, had a hugely successful home summer in 1991 with 3 test centuries in 3 innings, and 3 ODI 50's. Looking at his innings list over the first 4 or so years of his ODI career he seems score a 50 at least every three innings. Incredibly, he never actually got an ODI ton despite being so consistent.

 

[Hurricane]

Eh the only icc tournament worth a damn where McCullum was playing as a proper batsman was the 2011 World Cup, and while he was poor I wouldn't hold it against him.

Kane's ODI innings list since the India series:

71, 77, 65, 60, 88, 10, 70*, 46, 123, 97, 15, 103 - 945 runs at a tick under 86.

He was wicket keeping but he still opened in the champions trophy. In addition there have been t20 world cups but you may have covered those off in your caveat where you said " tournaments that matter"

 

[kiwiviktor81]

I am convinced that Williamson will break McCullum's record within 4 or 5 years. He's like a high tempo version of Rahul Dravid.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Kane reminds me of so many of the greats. Dravid for obvious reasons, Ponting for his ability to dominate an attack without any risk. But if its anyone it has to be Tendulkar.