*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[Zinzan]

Who won the MOTS awards?

Cook for England & Boult for NZ.

 

[Zinzan]

Cook and Boult. The two clear frontrunners from both teams imo.

Thought Watling had a decent claim to NZ's tbh. Match-winning ton following 2 fifties at Lords and highest average in the series of 84.

 

[Niall]

Supposed to tour Australia later in the year (ie. for the first half of their summer, the word is that the Windies will get the boxing day and new year fixtures). Australia then tour New Zealand around Feb/Mar. Recall reading that NZ will host SL in between those two series.

Thanks.

Do you know what NZ plans are for December then if not in Australia? Limited overs stuff I assume?

 

[Moss]

Thanks.

Do you know what NZ plans are for December then if not in Australia? Limited overs stuff I assume?

Probably. Guessing SL will visit in December itself, but they already toured NZ last Dec/Jan so not sure how accurate that is.

 

[Furball]

So Ian Bell's a bit ****, isn't he:

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

People said KP had been poor before his binning - he wasn't as bad as this.

 

[Furball]

Athers, what did we decide in the event of a drawn series?

 

[Pothas]

It is a lot worse than I thought. KP aside though who do you replace him with?

I would like to say Vince but is having almost the worst season imaginable. Who else is there? Taylor has been pretty poor this season. Hales on current form I guess but would take a lot of convincing that he is worthy of playing a test. Borthwick been pretty good for a couple of season, I don't know.

 

[GIMH]

KP averaged 38 in the same time period and I imagine Bell averaged better than KP in the same period prior to his dropping

i mean, averaging 35 over three years is nowhere near good enough. He can't complain if he gets dropped. But KP has nothing to do with it.

 

[GIMH]

It is a lot worse than I thought. KP aside though who do you replace him with?

I would like to say Vince but is having almost the worst season imaginable. Who else is there? Taylor has been pretty poor this season. Hales on current form I guess but would take a lot of convincing that he is worthy of playing a test. Borthwick been pretty good for a couple of season, I don't know.

Given here are question marks over Ballance, Lyth is unproven and Root has previous in terms of struggling v he Aussies, I really can't see that they would want to drop Bell at the this stage with no drop-in replacements. I mean KP is injured anyway is he not?

 

[Cabinet96]

KP is playing at the moment. Got a failure on Sunday against Lancs. Bell's form is concerning, but I definitely wouldn't be in favour of dropping him yet. It's either him or bring in a new bloke for the start of the Ashes.

 

[Zinzan]

Yup, 79 runs in 8 innings combined for England's 3 & 4. Big questions leading into the Ashes. Who else other than KP is making a case for 3 or 4?

Root should be England's 3 in the Ashes and then they can worry about spots 4 & 5 instead.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah, you just can't be dropping him. If Vince, Taylor or someone was averaging 80 in first class cricket for the season then you just might think about it. As it is you just got to stick with him and hope he gets runs. I don't expect him to be anything like as bad as he has been the last few tests.

 

[Bahnz]

Wow, nothing better than waking up to see your team has won a match! Brilliant comeback from boys, great to see Craig among the wickets. He's been doing a yo-yo with CW's emotions, but he keeps contributing to wins every series he plays, so he must be doing something right. Agree with PEWS that KW's action is starting to look a bit...iffy. Will be interesting to see how long before the ICC asks him to come back in for another round of testing.

I think in retrospect, this is only going to make the tail's batting on day 5 at Lord's all the more infuriating, but hard to feel that right now. Great going NZ. Now bring on Ostraya!

 

[Pothas]

Yup, 79 runs in 8 innings combined for England's 3 & 4. Big questions leading into the Ashes. Who else other than KP is making a case for 3 or 4.

Root should be England's 3 in the Ashes and then they can worry about spots 4 & 5 instead.

I think Root at 4 might be sensible, Bell has always been better at 5 or 6 anyway, but very reluctant to move him to 3.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I presume the deciding third test is back-to-back as well. Starting on Friday, yes?

 

[Zinzan]

My series combined XI

Cook
Guptill -his two 70s & fielding > Lyth's 100 & Latham
Williamson
McCullum (c)- marginally over Taylor to be skipper, both averaging mid 30s
Root
Stokes
Watling (wk) - Tough on Buttler who had a fine series
Craig
Broad
Wood
Boult

 

[Zinzan]

^ Actually Root at 4 & McCullum @ 5

 

[Bahnz]

My series combined XI

Cook
Guptill -his two 70s & fielding > Lyth's 100 & Latham
Williamson
McCullum (c)- marginally over Taylor to be skipper, both averaging mid 30s
Root
Stokes
Watling (wk) - Tough on Buttler who had a fine series
Craig
Broad
Wood
Boult

A bit cheeky having Watling as the keeper given that he only had the gloves for the first session of the series.

 

[Zinzan]

A bit cheeky having Watling as the keeper given that he only had the gloves for the first session of the series.

Well yeah, could have had Buttler keeping, but what would mean having Watling ahead of McCullum @ 5 leaving Cook to skipper the side.

The ripple effect would be too much.

 

[Furball]

KP averaged 38 in the same time period and I imagine Bell averaged better than KP in the same period prior to his dropping

i mean, averaging 35 over three years is nowhere near good enough. He can't complain if he gets dropped. But KP has nothing to do with it.

Nope.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo