*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[Flem274*]

The cricinfo comments are glorious. I think I'll dine in tonight.

 

[Athlai]

Williamson currently averaging 403 this year

 

[Hurricane]

Glad to see Rossboss getting some good time in the middle as well.

Hopefully he can continue today. The longer he spends in the middle the better for New Zealand cricket. As someone once said to me, there is only one place to learn and that is in the middle.

Which isn't quite true, since I taught myself to play spin in the nets, but definitely there is only one place to work yourself out of a funk. An SR of 40 is plenty fast enough too even if everyone else went at 60. Not losing wickets in clumps is one of our mantras so he has already done that part of his job for us.

Good luck Ross.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Williamson currently averaging 403 this year

On this, what's the highest anyone's averaged in a year at any point? I remember Tendulkar averaging around 500 in 2004 after a couple of matches.

 

[Goughy]

Managed to catch bits and bobs of today. I hope it doesn't offend anyone that this series doesn't exactly capture my imagination but it was an entertaining day of cricket. England ahead but NZ not out of it.

Managed to catch bits and bobs of today. I hope it doesn't offend anyone that this series doesn't exactly capture my imagination but it was an entertaining day of cricket. NZ ahead but England not out of it.

 

[Mike5181]

Managed to catch bits and bobs of today. I hope it doesn't offend anyone that this series doesn't exactly capture my imagination but it was an entertaining day of cricket. NZ ahead but England not out of it.

Was this really necessary?

 

[Goughy]

Was this really necessary?

Well it wasn't unnecessary.

 

[NZTailender]

I think Root's getting there. In the 2nd Test in the West Indies he looked like he was batting on a completely different pitch to anyone else. KP's 2012 specials aside I think that's the closest I've ever seen to Clarke's 151 in Cape Town.

Mm idk about that wrt that innings. It was good, but not that good. He timed it better than everyone else, but that happens at times (particularly on slow decks, where some players are just more suited to playing on them).

His innings yesterday was a more impressive innings (it really was top class)

Root from the get go on day 1 didn't look like getting out. It was quite astonishing, like he had resumed a saved game where he was batting freely and didn't need to adjust. Which made his dismissal seem really odd. Contrast that to Williamson and the nervy near-run out and some rusty play and misses early on, who then went on to look much like Root. I think we always remark on his cover drives but his best shots yesterday were pulls. So ****ing brutal.

 

[NZTailender]

Hopefully he can continue today. The longer he spends in the middle the better for New Zealand cricket. As someone once said to me, there is only one place to learn and that is in the middle.

Which isn't quite true, since I taught myself to play spin in the nets, but definitely there is only one place to work yourself out of a funk. An SR of 40 is plenty fast enough too even if everyone else went at 60. Not losing wickets in clumps is one of our mantras so he has already done that part of his job for us.

Good luck Ross.

He looked a lot like he has in the past 12 months, but just didn't get that jaffa to completely undo him. Was beaten quite a few time on the pads, none of which were technically out. But he looked much more comfortable after a while, like being back in whites and not having the restrictions of 50 overs was benefiting his return to batting normally in a pressure situation. His charge of Ali looked and felt like some frustration release.

 

[Smudge]

Can confirm, after attending Warwick Larkins' funeral this afternoon, that the black arm bands are indeed in honour of him.

 

[Spikey]

Williamson currently averaging 403 this year

very impressive considering he's got a 12 in there

 

[Days of Grace]

He looked a lot like he has in the past 12 months, but just didn't get that jaffa to completely undo him. Was beaten quite a few time on the pads, none of which were technically out. But he looked much more comfortable after a while, like being back in whites and not having the restrictions of 50 overs was benefiting his return to batting normally in a pressure situation. His charge of Ali looked and felt like some frustration release.

It was refreshing to see a straight loft to break the shackles rather than a slog sweep. Smithy's comments on that were spot on IMO.

Great banter in the comm box last night as well (when Warne was not in there).

 

[Hurricane]

It was refreshing to see a straight loft to break the shackles rather than a slog sweep. Smithy's comments on that were spot on IMO.

Great banter in the comm box last night as well (when Warne was not in there).

I didn't watch last night, but I found his comments on day 1 to be quite ludicrous.

 

[GIMH]

The first Saturday of tests this summer and I'm bloody dreading it thanks to England being incompetent. ****s sake

 

[Hooksey]

Day 1 certainly belonged to England. But It didn't take long day 2 for them to settle back into the reliable loser role we now so accustomed to.

Hate to think what McCullum will do if he gets a start.

 

[WindieWeathers]

KW's last 3 series
Against WI - new high score 161*, against Pak - new high score 192, against SL new high score 242*


A big daddy 100 is on. The new ball is key

Tbh against WI he was dropped twice and misstumped once if i recall correctly and against SL it was an absolute embarrassment how many times they dropped him in that innings. The lad is in a good spell right now but lets not get carried away..it's tough to find a hundred from him that wasn't on batting heaven but maybe I'm mistaken?

As for the game...pitches like this is what is setting test cricket back imo. It just turns the game into a total bore. NZ are in a great position but really they should hope this track starts to play up even when they are batting because at least a result will be possible. But if it stays like this then the game has draw written all over it. What's abundantly clear though is England's top order woes and lack of a decent spinner is a massive concern ahead of the ashes. Losing wickets in the last few overs of the day is also undermining their efforts as it happened in WI more than once too.

 

[hendrix]

Tbh against WI he was dropped twice and misstumped once if i recall correctly and against SL it was an absolute embarrassment how many times they dropped him in that innings. The lad is in a good spell right now but lets not get carried away..it's tough to find a hundred from him that wasn't on batting heaven but maybe I'm mistaken?

As for the game...pitches like this is what is setting test cricket back imo. It just turns the game into a total bore. NZ are in a great position but really they should hope this track starts to play up even when they are batting because at least a result will be possible. But if it stays like this then the game has draw written all over it. What's abundantly clear though is England's top order woes and lack of a decent spinner is a massive concern ahead of the ashes. Losing wickets in the last few overs of the day is also undermining their efforts as it happened in WI more than once too.

....new worst post.

 

[Flem274*]

Tbh against WI he was dropped twice and misstumped once if i recall correctly and against SL it was an absolute embarrassment how many times they dropped him in that innings. The lad is in a good spell right now but lets not get carried away..it's tough to find a hundred from him that wasn't on batting heaven but maybe I'm mistaken?

As for the game...pitches like this is what is setting test cricket back imo. It just turns the game into a total bore. NZ are in a great position but really they should hope this track starts to play up even when they are batting because at least a result will be possible. But if it stays like this then the game has draw written all over it. What's abundantly clear though is England's top order woes and lack of a decent spinner is a massive concern ahead of the ashes. Losing wickets in the last few overs of the day is also undermining their efforts as it happened in WI more than once too.

i agree

 

[OverratedSanity]

Don't get the complaints about the pitch. The rate of scoring has been pretty high and we're on day 2 with one inning completed and the other team barely 100 runs behind. There's no reason why we can't have a result and it's been fun to watch. Now if NZ score 600 and England respond with 500 then we can complain. Don't see the point of crying about the pitch when the match is barely halfway through and a positive result seems very likely.

 

[Flem274*]

The players are optimistic there will be some nice turn later on. Guptill in particular stressed the importance of batting once.