***Official*** New Zealand in Zimbabwe and South Africa 2015

[Kippax]

Worker bowling....madness from KW.

 

[hendrix]

yuck.

 

[Kippax]

Most ND batting prodigies have been knocked over by Elliott when there's a bit of swing in the air, but not KW apparently. Worker and McLeakinruns it is.

 

[TheJammyTurtle]

Another outstanding performance from the "leader of the New Zealand pack"

 

[Flem274*]

Cribbage has made this possible for me btw.

The only downside is that the 2015/16 NZ domestic thread may see a lot less Flem274* comments, because Cribb will have been given his SkyGo access. It's up to Heef to provide for Phlegm now.

Nah I'll just deal with it rather than mooch.

This looks like a comfortable win for SA

 

[Kippax]

Noooo, don't give Sky money. Certainly not after their latest effort.

 

[Flem274*]

Haha don't worry unless I get a raise that would be a very irresponsible waste of money

 

[Kippax]

Cricingif - Live Scorepage

Enjoy the series on Cricingif, ****s.

Yours sincerely,
Sky

 

[thundaboult]

A meh match really. What impressed me was Adam Milne's bowling. To have one of the batsmen in world cricket history in Hashim Amla look like a schoolboy against your bowling is mighty impressive. Promising stuff from Milne, really happy that he's back! Imagine what he could do right now with Boult and Southee alongside him.

 

[BeeGee]

Milne is a handy bowler.

 

[Prince EWS]

I still can't get over how much Worker missed that Phangiso full toss by. He looked so unco that it genuinely seemed as if he'd decided to play the sweep for the very first time in his life to that ball.

 

[hendrix]

Nathan McCullum is really, really lucky to still be in the team.

 

[Flem274*]

i probably rate nccullum higher than most of the forum over his career but unlike batting positions where we need the experience of baz, luggage etc to ease the transition between world cup squads, nccullum should probably be taking a back seat to give santner and sodhi more games.

ironically for someone often described as "filler", "anti-cricket" and "hack" (come on down howsie and pews) his stats probably don't do his career justice. his one or two wickets (or at least tidy 0fer), world class fielding and very good #8 hitting carried the slow bowling and lower order during the non-vettori years where if nccullum wasn't around we'd probably have been in serious trouble during both of those phases. not very memorable spells >>>>>>>>> "how are we going to sneak through some devcich/hira/nethula overs?"

 

[Immenso]

I still can't get over how much Worker missed that Phangiso full toss by. He looked so unco that it genuinely seemed as if he'd decided to play the sweep for the very first time in his life to that ball.

I haven't watched the match. But ....

Worker in my mind is pretty much a left handed Rob Nicol from what I've seen at domestics. Can strike a nice clean 6 but but in between are swishes and misses - big misses, that make u wonder about eye sight, or limited range of pre-meditated shots?(which is fair enough approach for a guy of his talents when in t20 format tbd)

 

[Bahnz]

Nah, NcCullum is gunge to the extent that I sometimes semi-seriously wonder whether nepotism has played a role in his continued selection. Genuine lol at Flem's "one or two wickets" description - I take it you mean per series? And his stats absolutely do his career justice - piss poor average and an econ of 5 even though he spent his entire career bowling in the go-slow middle overs (and that of course has gone to **** in the last 12 months as batsmen have finally realised how easy it is to score at 6+ pro against trundlers with only 4 fielders outside the circle). His batting was handy but not to the extent that it justified his place as a genuine all rounder (he would need to be more on the order of Chris Harris-good to do that). It all neatly reflects what a nothing player he was. Whether or not there was anyone better isn't really that relevant to an assessment of his qualities - though I do note that Jeets got perma-canned from the ODI squad with considerably superior stats (unlucky to be playing at a time when the benchmark was Vettori). Really should've been dumped aaaaages ago.

Admittedly a decent T20 player though.

 

[Bahnz]

Haha, total shocker that Pews and Howsie liked that post.

 

[hendrix]

The best he could ever have been described as is "useful".

And fair enough if you want to make the case that "useful" has been the best we've had available at times (although obviously us Jeets fanboys will disagree), but I think in Sodhi or the extra pacer we potentially have ore than that.

 

[jcas0167]

Nah, NcCullum is gunge to the extent that I sometimes semi-seriously wonder whether nepotism has played a role in his continued selection. Genuine lol at Flem's "one or two wickets" description - I take it you mean per series? And his stats absolutely do his career justice - piss poor average and an econ of 5 even though he spent his entire career bowling in the go-slow middle overs (and that of course has gone to **** in the last 12 months as batsmen have finally realised how easy it is to score at 6+ pro against trundlers with only 4 fielders outside the circle). His batting was handy but not to the extent that it justified his place as a genuine all rounder (he would need to be more on the order of Chris Harris-good to do that). It all neatly reflects what a nothing player he was. Whether or not there was anyone better isn't really that relevant to an assessment of his qualities - though I do note that Jeets got perma-canned from the ODI squad with considerably superior stats (unlucky to be playing at a time when the benchmark was Vettori). Really should've been dumped aaaaages ago.

Admittedly a decent T20 player though.

Patel has a slightly worse economy rate 5.03 to McCullum's 5 per over. His last 3 ODI's he went at about 7 per over. I agree he's a better spinner and probably should have played more, but McCullum offered more all-round value. Patel batted at 10 or 11 average of 14.66 with 58.66 strike rate. McCullum batted 7-9 and averaged 21.20 with a strike rate of 87.89. They're both pretty good fielders.

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Patel has a slightly worse economy rate 5.03 to McCullum's 5 per over. His last 3 ODI's he went at about 7 per over. I agree he's a better spinner and probably should have played more, but McCullum offered more all-round value. Patel batted at 10 or 11 average of 14.66 with 58.66 strike rate. McCullum batted 7-9 and averaged 21.20 with a strike rate of 87.89. They're both pretty good fielders.

With more recent increased team totals, NMac's economy rate is better than .03 if it were to be standardized against Patels.

NMac performs a role to the best of his ability. The sad thing for NMac is that he is not as good as Daniel Vettori. So most of the time he plays, Dan isn't, and he is criticized in my opinion in part for not being Dan Vettori. The overly harsh criticism is unjustified on NMac in my view. But I do think his batting is often overrated. He can play a good, even match defining knock from time to time, but some people think he is a complete all rounder. His batting is not that good.

But he is selected to bowl cheap overs first and foremost and fight for some runs at the back end of the engine room. Invariably he performs his role pretty well. He's not Dan Vettori but he's not rubbish either. I suspect he has under performed with the bat in his career including his domestic record.

Mitchell Santner may well be the future and a better ODI cricketer than Dan Vettori. That would be fantastic for both him and NZ Cricket fans. But NMac playing on these tours at present (especially with Santner injured) does not irk me in the least.

I would like to see Sodhi given more opportunity with the bat when he plays however. This should be happening at a ND level. His FC and test record demonstrates that he can hold a bat.

 

[Hurricane]

I didn't watch but inspected the scorecard. Bracewell did "ok". He is my new hope for white ball cricket. He is fast enough, and his batting will win some epic matches. I don't know if he has a slower ball, if not it would be one of several workons.

He has a young head on his shoulders, with time and wisdom he could be a match winner for new zealand. I am hoping he plays in all the odis on this tour and presses his case.