***Official*** Sri Lanka in New Zealand 2015

[Bahnz]

Seriously, what is wrong with the Black Caps? When you're under the pump like this how can you just throw your wicket away like Watling, Southee and Wagner did?! Southee in particular is a walking wicket. Might as well just name him Chris Martin and be done with it.

Nah, Wagner was doing totally the right thing. It'll be a lot harder picking hp runs tomorrow morning with the bowlers fresh, a new ball in their hands, and the tailenders needing time to get back in. Pity he holed out, but he definitely had the right idea.

 

[Flem274*]

you can't be happy with Wagner hooking sixes and fours and then get upset when he gets caught smashing a ball to cover or mid off or whatever. He's a lower order bat / tailender, can't really blame him,

Watling just tried to hit a **** ball for 4 and didn't connect properly. That happens.

Missing the point a bit. People get pissed when nz need the tail to stick around for a chase/draw and southee has a massive heave at every ball

 

[Jono]

Missing the point a bit. People get pissed when nz need the tail to stick around for a chase/draw and southee has a massive heave at every ball

which is why in response to jonbrooks I didn't mention Southee in my post Flem. His Wagner and Watlng criticisms were wrong. I didn't say anything about Southee.

 

[Flem274*]

Oh right I have him on ignore so thought you were making a general comment

 

[viriya]

Gotta say didn't expect that from Chameera.. still unlikely but if SL pull a win here it would be historic.. to do that with only a single world-class player - maybe it will say more about NZ than SL though.

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah we are still in this thanks to The engine room.

Someone needs to go into photoshop and make us an engine room jpeg we can keep posting for such occassions.

 

[Jono]

We have a batting line up quite capable of their own wonderous collapse.

so does every team though (other than SA until recently perhaps). The phrase "typical *insert team* collapse" is one of the the most overused terms in cricket.

You're a lot lot more solid than SL with the bat in these conditions.

 

[Hurricane]

Well played Sri Lanka you have done your country and yourselves proud. When I saw the way the SL team walked on the field after lunch - proudly striding forward on to the Seddon Park test I was impressed by them and their team spirit.

Some fiendish plans were hatched against us. Even the plan to get Wagner out at the end was well thought through. We have been outwitted to be fair by the Sri Lankans. Well done to them. They deserve to win from here to be honest.
We will make it easy for them hell no. Do I think we can win, absolutely. So much is on this final 10 wicket partnership. I have never thought of a tenth wicket partnership as being important. This one is.
Right now SL have all the momentum and becuase some of their players are N00bs the momentum word will count for a lot in terms of how they go in the 3rd inning. If we can someway scrap our way to 250 then that would be very helpful.

Fabulous day of test cricket. Sri Lanka are playing with tremendous pride and courage. This is a test match and they are fighting tooth and nail. Fabulous cricket. One of the better day 2s of cricket I think I have ever seen.

Well batted to Doug Bracewell and well batted to Santner (my qualifications to his inning notwithstanding).

 

[Bahnz]

Well played Sri Lanka you have done your country and yourselves proud. When I saw the way the SL team walked on the field after lunch - proudly striding forward on to the Seddon Park test I was impressed by them and their team spirit.

Some fiendish plans were hatched against us. Even the plan to get Wagner out at the end was well thought through. We have been outwitted to be fair by the Sri Lankans. Well done to them. They deserve to win from here to be honest.
We will make it easy for them hell no. Do I think we can win, absolutely. So much is on this final 10 wicket partnership. I have never thought of a tenth wicket partnership as being important. This one is.
Right now SL have all the momentum and becuase some of their players are N00bs the momentum word will count for a lot in terms of how they go in the 3rd inning. If we can someway scrap our way to 250 then that would be very helpful.

Fabulous day of test cricket. Sri Lanka are playing with tremendous pride and courage. This is a test match and they are fighting tooth and nail. Fabulous cricket. One of the better day 2s of cricket I think I have ever seen.

Well batted to Doug Bracewell and well batted to Santner (my qualifications to his inning notwithstanding).

They will if the play well. If they get skittled for 100 tomorrow though then I don't think that would still be true.

 

[Moss]

The key difference between the two teams so far has been in Lanka's pro-activeness. Knowing they're second-best in these conditions (or should be), they've been willing to take their chances against the kiwis and the opponents haven't responded well. Shows it's possible to bridge the home-advantage gap through imagination and well-thought out surprise.

NZ of course are by no means out of this, but frankly, they've dropped the ball (puns unintended) too often in tests this year for my liking. At the start of the year Lanka had them by the scruff of the neck before the Williamson-Watling partnership, then the Lord's test, various hiccups in Australia where the margin shouldn't have been 2-0, and now this. Feels like they got complacent too quickly, as though the Australia series never happened.

(Guptill's dismissal feels symptomatic of NZ's play in this test. As soon as he gains back some confidence after the Australia tour, he tries to slog a bowler of Herath''s caliber immediately after 2 wickets had fallen and the need was to dig in. McCullum-esque and not what I expected of him)

 

[Hurricane]

The key difference between the two teams so far has been in Lanka's pro-activeness. Knowing they're second-best in these conditions (or should be), they've been willing to take their chances against the kiwis and the opponents haven't responded well. Shows it's possible to bridge the home-advantage gap through imagination and well-thought out surprise.

NZ of course are by no means out of this, but frankly, they've dropped the ball (puns unintended) too often in tests this year for my liking. At the start of the year Lanka had them by the scruff of the neck before the Williamson-Watling partnership, then the Lord's test, various hiccups in Australia where the margin shouldn't have been 2-0, and now this. Feels like they got complacent too quickly, as though the Australia series never happened.

(Guptill's dismissal feels symptomatic of NZ's play in this test. As soon as he gains back some confidence after the Australia tour, he tries to slog a bowler of Herath''s caliber immediately after 2 wickets had fallen and the need was to dig in. McCullum-esque and not what I expected of him)

Gotpills went for a beer with someone and got some bad advice about bringing his ODI game into the test match arena. That was his third ODI-like big shot of the day.
Hopefully he won't do it again.

I actually thought his defence looked impressive.

 

[Hurricane]

I think the turning point was our mindset after lunch. We batted at 3 runs per over before lunch, after lunch we decided to score quickly in an effort to win the game and Kane, Tom, and Martin all played loose shots. T Then we battened down the hatches. But it was that mindset we came out with for the first 5 overs after lunch.

Ross is a worse starter than pea soup. That was a semi-jaffa he got. But I was watching Brendon and he got the same delivery and he dropped his hands and just bailed out. The Boss was too new to the crease for that particular delivery.

I am starting to think we have a Ross counter. Can he make it to 20 deliveries? And I think if he can get that far then he is away.

 

[Athlai]

so does every team though (other than SA until recently perhaps). The phrase "typical *insert team* collapse" is one of the the most overused terms in cricket.

You're a lot lot more solid than SL with the bat in these conditions.

All conditions at the moment TBF. Our batting lineup is pretty solid on paper. But even teams far greater than what we can offer now get skittles every now and then.

 

[YorksLanka]

Well played Sri Lanka you have done your country and yourselves proud. When I saw the way the SL team walked on the field after lunch - proudly striding forward on to the Seddon Park test I was impressed by them and their team spirit.

Some fiendish plans were hatched against us. Even the plan to get Wagner out at the end was well thought through. We have been outwitted to be fair by the Sri Lankans. Well done to them. They deserve to win from here to be honest.
We will make it easy for them hell no. Do I think we can win, absolutely. So much is on this final 10 wicket partnership. I have never thought of a tenth wicket partnership as being important. This one is.
Right now SL have all the momentum and becuase some of their players are N00bs the momentum word will count for a lot in terms of how they go in the 3rd inning. If we can someway scrap our way to 250 then that would be very helpful.

Fabulous day of test cricket. Sri Lanka are playing with tremendous pride and courage. This is a test match and they are fighting tooth and nail. Fabulous cricket. One of the better day 2s of cricket I think I have ever seen.

Well batted to Doug Bracewell and well batted to Santner (my qualifications to his inning notwithstanding).

Great comments mate. I was amazed to see this when I got up today as went to bed at lunch seeing NZ looking very comfortable and I thought we would be looking to save the game again after NZ scoring big. I know there is still a couple to get but at least we are being competitive and as a fan I can't ask for more than that.

I was disappointed with how our tail batted though.Again this was inexperience as this game is always gonna be about runs rather than time so imo they should have gone for it and if they lost their wickets but added a quick 30 between them so be it rather than waiting for the inevitable from the highly skilled bowling of NZ. I am also disappointed that Mathew's didn't hang around to get tons ton-I know this sounds like a contradiction to my last sentence but he is a batsman and as such I expect him to get the big runs.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

If the Aussie cricket team or the All Blacks were behind like this they'd still back themselves to win heavily from here. I'd say SL are slightly ahead but there's still two innings yet. Doubt they will get Williamson, Taylor and McCullum for a combined less than 20 again.

 

[Moss]

If the Aussie cricket team or the All Blacks were behind like this they'd still back themselves to win heavily from here. I'd say SL are slightly ahead but there's still two innings yet. Doubt they will get Williamson, Taylor and McCullum for a combined less than 20 again.

Agreed, but the feeling I get is SL are more up for the challenge this time around. They're a weaker side on paper than the one which toured a year ago but are playing better cricket.

 

[viriya]

I wouldn't overrate SL's chances here.. one good spell from Boult and this side could be bowled out for ~150 easy. The surprise factor is Chandimal - never expected him to be consistent in NZ, his career Test numbers are good but I always thought they were buffered by home performances. Maybe he should be looked at more in the "Sehwag" perspective where you don't worry too much about technique and realize that he's just a gifted hand-eye co-ordination-type batsman.

 

[hendrix]

Gee that's poor from Boult.

 

[Bahnz]

Aw ffs that's terrible.

 

[Howsie]

Seriously. What in the hell was that.

That, btw is why playing Santner at eight would be a complete waste of time.