**Official** New Zealand in Australia 2015

[Dan]

Pretty much, three 50s (however scratchy) at the end of the Matador Cup and a ton here has pretty much killed Bancroft's chance given S.Darsh is always going to play and block Burns from the middle order.

If they pick Marsh + Burns, I'd rather see Marsh open and Burns at 4, tbh.

 

[straw man]

Nice, 6 out of 8 wickets were retired out, a good hit-out had by all that needed it (except Taylor).

 

[Howe_zat]

Nice, 6 out of 8 wickets were retired out, a good hit-out had by all that needed it (except Taylor).

Neesham? Would think he's more likely to play than Rutherford at least.

Taylor's form a bit of a worry

 

[Hurricane]

Neesham? Would think he's more likely to play than Rutherford at least.

Taylor's form a bit of a worry

He did have a 48 in the Plunket shield. Mind you that was blasted off 65 balls rather than being a long stint at the crease,

I am not worried about anything other than injuries. If we go into this at full strength then we have shot at a test series victory. If even one of our players goes down then we are up the boohai. With the exception of Henry and Bracwell who are fighting it out - our other ten players have no capable test standard replacements.

Rutherford is our next cab off the rank top order batsman - and I think he illustrates my point about lack of injury cover rather nicely.

 

[Skyliner]

Mark Craig been bowling on a very flat pitch which apparently took no turn. If T and T knock the top of the Aussie order on a pitch which is expected to at least have decent bounce, the circumstances in which he will be bowling under may allow in to dictate terms and attack batsmen who will be looking to bat time rather than indulge in free-wheeling attack. In other words, it's impossible to predict how things will play out for Craig on the basis on what we've seen in Aus to date, and in his last test he was outstanding.

 

[Pratters]

The turnout to this game is better than it is for England vs Pakistan...

Both at the grounds and in the match threads.

England-Pakistan tests in UAE are empty right through the day but by evening, it does have a few thousand people in the ground. Can't wait for d/n tests.

 

[hendrix]

UAE would be the ideal place for day night tests but they have to sort out the ball first, particularly in dry conditions.

From what I saw of the pink ball they haven't actually dyed the leather, it looks like a coat of varnish or something.

I think the ICC should ask some other companies to have a go at it. Kookaburra's attempts don't seem to be succeeding.

 

[hendrix]

Thinking about it, I believe the problems with pink and white balls in comparison with red is that you can't analine dye the leather to be a lighter colour. So you have to use a top coat, which is where all the problems begin.

 

[Pratters]

Yeah the ball colour is a big issue right now. Hopefully it will be sorted sooner rather than later.

 

[greg]

What do they actually do if they have to change the ball during an innings (for whatever reason, conventional or to do with deterioration in colour). With the red ball they have a huge supply of balls so that they can exchange a ball for one of similar age and wear. But they don't have this for the pink ball presumably, or do they?

 

[Midwinter]

Isnt that why they are using them in the shield games this week ?

 

[adub]

Isnt that why they are using them in the shield games this week ?

Plus they'll run dozens through the nets I'd say.

 

[SteveNZ]

What do they actually do if they have to change the ball during an innings (for whatever reason, conventional or to do with deterioration in colour). With the red ball they have a huge supply of balls so that they can exchange a ball for one of similar age and wear. But they don't have this for the pink ball presumably, or do they?

Unlike a lot of things in this whole pink ball idea, they'll have presumably covered this scenario with balls of varying ages through nets/matches.

Very interesting week ahead in Shield cricket. Pleasing to hear Voges, Hazelwood air honest concerns about it, whereas there's been not a peep out of the NZ camp (which is orchestrated). Hopefully the Shield players are able to offer the same unrestricted views - be it good, bad or otherwise.

 

[Immenso]

Is this really our build up? A one dayer and a 2 dayer? No FC match at all? No pink ball under lights?

Why didn't we take NZ A over there with us and organise a few weeks of hard cricket, NZ v NZ A

 

[BackFootPunch]

Is this really our build up? A one dayer and a 2 dayer? No FC match at all? No pink ball under lights?

Why didn't we take NZ A over there with us and organise a few weeks of hard cricket, NZ v NZ A

We've got a 4 day warm up game this week iirc.

 

[Dan]

Mark Craig been bowling on a very flat pitch which apparently took no turn. If T and T knock the top of the Aussie order on a pitch which is expected to at least have decent bounce, the circumstances in which he will be bowling under may allow in to dictate terms and attack batsmen who will be looking to bat time rather than indulge in free-wheeling attack. In other words, it's impossible to predict how things will play out for Craig on the basis on what we've seen in Aus to date, and in his last test he was outstanding.

Yeah, agree with this entirely. Craig, like Lyon, uses bounce as a weapon quite well from what I've seen. I certainly wouldn't be writing him off based on getting smacked around a bit on a ****ty (as usual) Manuka deck.

 

[Gnske]

Is this really our build up? A one dayer and a 2 dayer? No FC match at all? No pink ball under lights?

Why didn't we take NZ A over there with us and organise a few weeks of hard cricket, NZ v NZ A

No, NZ gets to play the Scrubs XI who get most of their players from the blunder of the century that was the CA XI.

Should be a breeze really.

 

[adub]

Cricket Australia XII: Ashton Turner (c), Riley Ayre, Jake Carder, Ryan Carters (wk), Hilton Cartwright, Sam Heazlett, Kurtis Patterson, Jake Reed, Liam Hatcher, Gurinder Sandhu, Matthew Short, Mitchell Swepson

Turner to lead CA XI against Black Caps | cricket.com.au

Not a complete walk over team. Playing at Blacktown isn't a massive gift to NZ either - slow deck.

 

[Gnske]

Well Sandhu being a pain on that deck is a given, not sure about the rest of the attack or batting apart from Carters, Cartwright and Patterson.

Would like to see a true Redlands product like Heazlett do well though.

 

[NUFAN]

Well the captain is good too. Jake Reed is decent. I don't know Carder. We just picked like 7 Test prospects last match, hardly a problem the team we've picked given that there will be Shield matches on.