20th Match - New Zealand v Australia

[GGG]

Got 3 hours sleep and woke up at 139/5 my heart can't handle this sh@t.

 

[Frost]

Sadly I think this match tells me that NZ would lose if they face Aus in a knockout game. Boult bowled well but Aus gave the wickets away for the most part. Starc really earned most of his. And NZ choked. All bad signs.

How do u choke if u win ?

 

[viriya]

Er no. NZ played some disgraceful shots too. And saying this match is proof NZ will lose to Aus in the knockout is a very weird conclusion.

Yea but those shots were under-pressure choke shots. Aus just batted carelessly.

 

[silentstriker]

I am a neutral fan and I don't even have a strong rooting interest - just a general interest in the underdog, so slightly favoring NZ and I'm dead. Wow. One of the best games of cricket I've ever seen, all formats included.

 

[Zinzan]

If not for KW's balls of steel, NZ were targeting one of the all time chokes... Taylor, Elliott, Anderson and Vettori should be ashamed of their shots.

Nice finish from Kane, but stupid of him to take that single to give Milne the strike against the in-form Starc with 4 deliveries remaining. It was so close to being out of his control then.

 

[jonbrooks]

Well that was NZ's world cup final. I was kinda hoping we'd lose this game so we got our bad game out of the way. In a way this was our bad game since we only got there with 1 wicket to spare.

Both NZ and Oz need to realise that they have been feeding off some lower calibre bowling to date (with all respect to their respective opponents). They will both need to up the ante come the knockout stage.

 

[morgieb]

Seriously, what balls though. ****ing incredible.

The World Cup is well and truly alive. What a game.

This World Cup has already been pretty great. Keep it up in the finals and it could be the greatest WC of them all.

 

[SkyBlue]

I know it's ODIs and he's always been jet at those, but perhaps he's finally starting to look as good as people said he should be with his natural attributes.

Tbh Johnson was awful in tests in the early days of his career too,and look where is he now.Its a matter of time before he starts firing in tests too .Totally agree with the Wasim Akram comparison that some pundits have made.

 

[Flem274*]

some seriously sour puss posting from some of the neutrals in this thread. come on that was a great game of ODI bowling with a couple of batsmen showing their stuff.

what joke should i make first though? maybe to ask where the eden park short boundary haters are at? where they at???

 

[anil1405]

This was tense for neutrals. Would've been gut wrenching for the team fans.

 

[jonbrooks]

Nice finish from Kane, but stupid of him to take that single to give Milne the strike against the in-form Starc with 4 deliveries remaining. It was so close to being out of his control then.

I agree. Williamson has a cool head while batting but that was not the right decision. Exposing the tail to an on fire Starc almost cost us the game.

 

[Spark]

This was tense for neutrals. Would've been gut wrenching for the team fans.

less gut wrenching and more exhausting. absolutely knackered.

 

[Dan]

Ever since Warne got into Starc's head,he hasnt looked back..Single handedly almost won the game for the Aussies with what was a T20-esque total..At this rate,Steyn and Johnson will have to a take a back seat soon...A superb exhibition of fast bowling on display today.

Warne had sweet **** all to do with it. Starc was, and still is, nowhere near as good in Tests as he is in ODIs. The fake aggression we saw after Warnie's commentary rubbish had nothing to do with what we saw today.

I know it's ODIs and he's always been jet at those, but perhaps he's finally starting to look as good as people said he should be with his natural attributes.

Yeah, it's exactly this. He's arguably the best ODI bowler in the world, and I think the signs were there in the Sydney Test that we're starting to see him deliver. The step up in pace doesn't hurt, either.

That being said, there's been multiple false dawns before in terms of translating his ODI gun-ness to Tests, but this does seem very different, yeah.

 

[Prince EWS]

maybe to ask where the eden park short boundary haters are at? where they at???

yesss

I think a lot of that came from dem lemons rather than dat genuine hatred though.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Don't know whether to feel happy or sad, absolutely love both teams and this was a cracker of a match.

That said Australia probably kind of deserved (not the best word really) to lose, their batting was really stupid. Perhaps it would be fair to say both sides' batting efforts were poor but with such quality world class bowling to watch, one can't really complain.

What a match. We definitely need more of the Aus-NZ rivalry in cricket.

 

[jonbrooks]

This was tense for neutrals. Would've been gut wrenching for the team fans.

If we lost I would not have been too disappointed. At the end of the day it is just a pool game and both teams will go through to the quarters. The quarters is what I am worried about.

 

[Dan]

I'm exhausted just from watching.

 

[Prince EWS]

That being said, there's been multiple false dawns before in terms of translating his ODI gun-ness to Tests, but this does seem very different, yeah.

I dunno. He was looking this good in those UAE ODIs against Pakistan and Afghanistan too.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Anyone saying this match is proof of anything other than these two sides can seriously bowl is coming to a very weird conclusion

Oh yeah agree. But surely you can agree some of that batting was utterly woeful. I can forgive the lower order but taylor and Elliott... those were village standard shots

 

[Flem274*]

Nice finish from Kane, but stupid of him to take that single to give Milne the strike against the in-form Starc with 4 deliveries remaining. It was so close to being out of his control then.

big daddy cake just wanted to give aussie the illusion of hope before cruelly hitting it for six.