**Official** New Zealand in Australia 2015

[Daemon]

How does Craig get a 3.5? Absolute pants bowling right throughout the series. Haven't seen worse accuracy from a spinner since Tahir and Kerrigan. It's so dire too because he certainly has the makings of a decent one if he can land it in the right spot consistently.

 

[Gob]

How does Craig get a 3.5? Absolute pants bowling right throughout the series. Haven't seen worse accuracy from a spinner since Tahir and Kerrigan. It's so dire too because he certainly has the makings of a decent one if he can land it in the right spot consistently.

Well done Einstein

 

[OverratedSanity]

How does Craig get a 3.5? Absolute pants bowling right throughout the series. Haven't seen worse accuracy from a spinner since Tahir and Kerrigan. It's so dire too because he certainly has the makings of a decent one if he can land it in the right spot consistently.

Worse than Tahir imo. Atleast Imran has the excuse of being a leggie. For a finger spinner, the number of pies Craig sends down is beyond a joke.

 

[Niall]

Worse than Tahir imo. Atleast Imran has the excuse of being a leggie. For a finger spinner, the number of pies Craig sends down is beyond a joke.

And just to compound his mediocrity this tour, his batting was very much CBF which when you consider the minimal impact he made with his bowling was disgraceful. Less said about his "innings" Yesterday the better, a massive shame as I thought he did well in England, but if NZ were to bin him after this, he has nobody to blame but himself.

 

[Furball]

How does Craig get a 3.5? Absolute pants bowling right throughout the series. Haven't seen worse accuracy from a spinner since Tahir and Kerrigan. It's so dire too because he certainly has the makings of a decent one if he can land it in the right spot consistently.

Morgie trying too hard to be nice. A 0.5 would be generous.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

predictions:

Result- nz 2-0
leading run scorer- watling
leading wicket taker- boult
surprise package- craig
biggest failure- starc
surprise dropping- voges

fail.

 

[Moss]

I'd be interested to see what the selectors do with Craig. In every series prior to this, he had one game in which he redeemed himself (usually the final test of that series) and here he was a liability throughout (I wondered if he was turning things around with that over in which he got Smith and Siddle, but the over to Starc probably killed any confidence he might have built up). His batting is another string to his bow which will keep McHesson interested but he played as irresponsibly as the rest of the tail.

The alternatives however aren't much more appealing at this stage. Santner not yet good enough to be part of a four man attack IMO (better off challenging Neesham/Anderson for that batting allrounder slot), Patel unavailable, Sodhi seen as more of a one-day option as of now. The only other option who comes to mind is Todd Astle who possibly offers an allround skillset similar to Craig's. The NZers here might what to chip in with more names.

 

[Cabinet96]

Southee rating above Lyon for the series just seems wrong.

Morgie does series ratings: gets no likes.

Nufan points out that a couple of his ratings aren't quite right: gets seven.

 

[Athlai]

So Craig out for Santner, Dougeh stays and we bring back rhe fit Anderson or Neesham right?

Guptill to get home tests but dropped by the end of the summer of he doesnt score runs.

 

[Prince EWS]

Morgie does series ratings: gets no likes.

Nufan points out that a couple of his ratings aren't quite right: gets seven.

Seems like you've made way too many posts complaining about likes lately tbh.

 

[Skyliner]

So Craig out for Santner, Dougeh stays and we bring back rhe fit Anderson or Neesham right?

Guptill to get home tests but dropped by the end of the summer of he doesnt score runs.

I'd like to see Guptill get the Sri Lanka series (at most) and then get replaced by someone else (not Rutherford) if he doesn't perform.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, nothing on RTS and HotSpot can, occasionally, get false positives. Now its obvious to all and sundry that Lyon hit it, the on-field umpire should have given it out. No argument there. The standing umpire ****ed up big time. But not being able to see the hotspot occur, in combination with the lack of RTS, means that definitive evidence does not exist for Llong to overturn the on-field decision. It's probably enough for him to make the decision himself. But that's not his job.

Nigel Llong the umpire can infer that it was out, but Nigel Llong the process-following Decision Reviewer cannot.

That said, Jono is 100% right about him being a dick for the "could have been anything" comment, but I imagine he knew he was on-air and didn't have time to explain the intricacies related to the key piece of definitive evidence being off screen because the HotSpot FoV is **** for sweep shots.

As an umpire, everything is about processes. Your processes are what make you get decisions right more often than not. But sometimes, very rarely, they just don't work -- and you have to accept that. But if you've developed them correctly, they're still a damn sight better than any other set of processes, or not having them at all.

Llong has done everything by the book but has been forced to make the wrong decision. It sucks, but these things happen. Unfortunately, this failure of the DRS technology and process had big ramifications for the match. But don't throw the ****ing baby out with the bathwater by suggesting DRS should be scrapped. It corrects the extreme majority of poor decisions (or, at least, has the potential to if Brendon McCullum doesn't gamble them on marginal LBWs in the first hour of every innings).

Uh did you actually watch the review? Front on hot spot clearly showed the bat flashing as the ball hit the bat. Throw in the camera angle ahowing a noticeable deflection and its silly to say there wasn't definitive evidence.

 

[Athlai]

I'd like to see Guptill get the Sri Lanka series (at most) and then get replaced by someone else (not Rutherford) if he doesn't perform.

We have 4/5 realistic options and while I know optimism will be high with a few of our members on a few of these guys, none of them are better than Guptill at the moment.

Contenders

BS Smith
DR Flynn
DG Brownlie
MG Bracewell

Myths:

JA Raval

Pretenders:

HR Rutherford
BS Wilson
DS Robinson
MHW Papps
JF Carter
RJ Nicol
ML Guptill-Bunce

WTF:

RM Hira
LJ Woodcock

 

[BeeGee]

Morgie does series ratings: gets no likes.

Nufan points out that a couple of his ratings aren't quite right: gets seven.

They're just likes, not Pulitzer Prizes.

 

[Ausage]

Why did Starc not have a runner?

 

[Athlai]

Why did Starc not have a runner?

Runners aren't a thing anymore right?

 

[NUFAN]

Bring back Flynn so he can have a Khawaja like golden summer and autumn for the Black Caps.

 

[BeeGee]

Biggest disappointment of the tour for me was Watling. Without his rear guard actions with the tail our lower order has no backbone. He looked horrible.

I'd like to see Santner come into the regular XI ahead of Craig. After only one test he already has better batting and bowling averages . Craig can replace a seamer when the pictch is a raging turner.

We really missed Anderson on this tour. He left a huge hole.

 

[Moss]

Won't pretend I'm not cheesed off with the Llong decision, and in a perverse way it's good to have something more to whine about when NZ-Aus contests come up. But I think this was one game where NZ's deficiencies REALLY cost them, when you consider how much they had going for them. To not win from there or even set Australia a better target was pretty inexcusable , never mind the decision. McCullum has said as much, and I'm hoping it's very much what he and the team are reflecting on and not just part of the nice-guy speak he seems to have mastered at press conferences.

Funny series; a wasted opportunity for NZ considering it was a rare 3-test assignment and this was a more accomplished set than the side from Hobart 2011. They paid the price for approaching this tour in the same way they did the England one earlier in the year. Thank god Southee and Boult are back to somewhere near their best. The Aussies - a rare green lineup and extremely brittle batting but Warner and Smith took up the extra responsibility so well. Nevill was everything BJ Watling should have been in this series, while Starc and Hazlewood have improved like mad. Despite NZ failing to show up for the first 6 days, I think they should be pleased with themselves for the 2-0 scoreline.

The return series - will be interesting and potentially very close but Starc/Hazlewood/Siddle/Pattinson should be par for the course and at least the equal of NZ's attack (plus having the advantage in the spin department), so I don't know that NZ will enjoy *that* much of a home advantage. Need to get back to basics come the Sri Lanka tests.

 

[BeeGee]

Why did Starc not have a runner?

Runners aren't allowed in international cricket. A decision that was made by the ICC over four years ago.