***Official*** Australia in New Zealand 2016

[TheJediBrah]

I don't want to be accused of 'pack bullying' but Jord has made six posts in a row in this thread that all individually made me angry or annoyed in some way.

well that's some genuinely good trolling then I'd say

 

[The Hutt Rec]

is wagner the greatest human being to walk the earth?

i think he might be in the discussion. he's pulled an o'brien/watling/elliott on "players most used to hate bar a few staunch supporters, and now everyone sees their pure beauty and holiness"

I always loved all those players (well, ok, I thought O'Brien was the biggest numpty to be selected for NZ of all time).

I'd settle for a Wagner 10 wicket bag in this game now.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

wagner giving up on bowling properly is the greatest development in the history on nz cricket

 

[straw man]

I've asked this before, but why are Kiwis so naturally sour? I don't just mean cricket, I mean in general. You hail from a beautiful, peaceful country; you gave the world Dave Dobbin plus Herbs and Split Enz as well as Footrot Flats, plus you have the All Blacks. But the natural national demeanour seems to be about as happy as a Sydney cab driver/ Australian farmer.

makes the sweetness taste better

 

[hendrix]

I've asked this before, but why are Kiwis so naturally sour? I don't just mean cricket, I mean in general. You hail from a beautiful, peaceful country; you gave the world Dave Dobbin plus Herbs and Split Enz as well as Footrot Flats, plus you have the All Blacks. But the natural national demeanour seems to be about as happy as a Sydney cab driver/ Australian farmer.

Things that make me sour about NZ:
About a third of the country are neo-libs. I could stand it if they were libertarians, but no, they're the conservative kind thinly masked behind first year economics preach.
About a third of the country are racists (and not the mild kind, full blown racists)
Most others have a weird inferiority complex ("OMG people in America like Lorde! Maybe I am actually pretty and that boy will ask me to the ball!")

 

[Flem274*]

the gravity of wagners heart pulled the earth towards him there

 

[Flem274*]

Most others have a weird inferiority complex ("OMG people in America like Lorde! Maybe I am actually pretty and that boy will ask me to the ball!")

huh?

 

[hendrix]

Most others have a weird inferiority complex ("OMG people in America like Lorde! Maybe I am actually pretty and that boy will ask me to the ball!")

exhibit 2:
all of Kiwivictor's posts

 

[Prince EWS]

Do you think you add to the forum by posting about me rather than the posts/game/match? I don't think I've seen you post anything in this thread that wasn't an injoke or some statement towards someone else and their post.

I've been accused of almost everything on this forum at one stage or another, but not posting enough about cricket in tour threads has never been one of them until now. Have I really morphed into marc?!

The thing with Southee is that he could be much better than this; that's why people get so annoyed. For Henry and (particularly) Boult trying to hit intermittent boundaries makes sense but Southee has the talent to be a proper #8 and he's never bothered with it.

Yes this is quite rightfully what will happen. There will probably be plenty of occasions one of those guys is injured between now and the end of Siddle's career anyway though. Being the fourth best Test seamer for a team will still get you a fair amount of game-time in most teams these days.

Craig and Jeets both had/have the raw ability to be Test offies. I don't disagree with Mallett at all here as Jeets's issues were mainly non-skill-related. Admittedly Phlegm hates Jeets and would probably be conflicted, though.

Yeah Swann at his peak was definitely better than Lyon is now for mine. Lyon was Test standard at a younger age than Swann though and there's something to be said for that advantage that brings even if he doesn't reach the same heights. It'll be a very interesting comparison when Lyon's career ends IMO, especially if he gets better from this point (which I suspect he will).

Yeah Henry's a bit different to other 'naturally short' bowlers like Morkel and Sharma in that he doesn't seem to lose his movement and momentum when he pitches it up; he just doesn't do it as often as he should.

Guptill's not a very good Test opener. He's going to suck away from home, and he's going to suck at home too against quality opposition in favourable bowling conditions. When he comes up against Pattinson and Hazlewood on the first morning of a Test with the wicket doing a bit, I'm absolutely expecting him to fail. Honestly, 18 was a better return than I think you could regularly hope for.

However, that's not actually a compelling reason to drop him because the same is true of all the other candidates for his spot as well, and at least this incarnation of Guptill has shown signs to suggest he might score runs against weaker attacks in more favourable conditions. I think that's the best that can be expected out of the current crop of non-Latham openers. I like Papps and Brownlie but honestly, cycling through all the blokes in domestic cricket would achieve nothing other than giving up the sort of runs Guptill scored against Sri Lanka in a futile pursuit. If someone starts scoring absolutely massive runs in domestic and/or A-level cricket, or if a promising young opener comes along then sure, drop Guptill. Not a lot of point in doing so at the moment though IMO.

Yeah I agree. Not that he'd actually bat six, but he'd bat seven and I'd still agree there. I'd want to see some PS tons before I started considering him any sort of serious allrounder prospect, but I just think that with four seamers in the side Corey's bowling becomes a bit of a non-event, and if Corey's not bowling I'd back Craig to add more to the side right now.

If NZ are going with four specialist quicks I think I'd rather Craig than Anderson given Corey's current form. I disagree with Bahnz that Craig might just be a better Test batsman than Anderson but I do think he's more likely to make a meaningful contribution in this match than Anderson if there are already going to be four seamers in the side.

Clarke was awesome in terms of field placings and bowling changes. There are many other aspects of captaincy and I happen to think he was ordinary at best at most of them, but if you're talking tactics then those two things will make up a large fraction of it, surely.

Haha I always try to find fault in everyone's broad-sweeping theories, because if I can't then I have to adopt them myself. <200 with four wickets down makes more sense, but I still think it's a general rule rather than something you can really ink in given the weird circumstances that could arise both inside and outside that. Neesham's debut is actually a good example of this IMO.

It feels like a bit of a dick move to take Hurricane's assertion so literally but I feel that robust theories stand up to absurd criticism so I'm going to point it out anyway -- but I don't think coming out at 199/1 is really a pressure situation. It's not usually a situation where one is just downhill skiing but it's still one with your team on top (assuming first innings).

On the flip side, coming in at 400/6 or whatever the score was when Neesham came in on debut is still a pressure situation if it's the third innings and you're not ahead by much and there's still more than a day left in the game.

There are definitely worse bowlers in the Shield than Bracewell ftr. Whether that's more to do with Bracewell receiving world class coaching and infrastructure than it is him being more talented or driven is hard to say I suppose, but I reckon you're wrong.

I don't think the margin of victory accurately represented the difference in the standard of cricket on display from each team, so in the most encompassing sense NZ were more unlucky than they were lucky. In no world did they play anywhere near as well as Australia did though and that has be well and truly recognised before pointing to luck factors.

In a way, this New Zealand side is almost the complete opposite to the usual stereotype of a team gelling together with contributions from everyone to make up for a lack of star power. New Zealand have some world class players but they really need to be all contributing to beat the top teams because they've got some passengers as well.

Well one thing's for sure: he's a better Test batsman than Bracewell and should be reinstated above him if they ever play another Test together.

I was actually pretty surprised that Craig didn't score a whole heap of runs when he went back to the PS, but he didn't. The primary reason I remain totally unconvinced in Craig's ability to average higher than low to mid 20s in Test cricket moving forward is his inability to do much at PS level where we have a bigger sample to work with and in higher batting positions than in Test cricket. I just really think we'd have seen more runs from him if this was the case.

Siddle often ends up batting ahead of players he shouldn't, but Haze was batting below Lyon seven or eight months ago before he scored that 39. He's not a mug but he's not anywhere near the Pattinson/Starc/Milne class of annoyingly talented tailenders.

Yeah NZ haven't been inspiring today but they haven't been rubbish. The rubbish came yesterday.

Haha that's probably what I'd want to roll with as well. The batting is just so weak though. As much as I think Tastle could average high 20s batting seven in Test cricket, that's probably not good enough in the same match Ross is out. Maybe Anderson in for Wagner but play Astle anyway?

Yeah, but four and a half seamers to me still seems like a waste.

I really don't like the idea of four seamers when Anderson's at six. It just seems like a waste.

Australian media getting trolled hard

It's going to do a bit on Day 1 IMO -- probably more than a normal Basin pitch, and definitely a bowl first wicket. But nowhere near the amount they'll be expecting.

.. nope, all good.

(and I cbf going back before the Tests started; that's just from the first 2 of 6 pages of my posts in this thread)

 

[Gnske]

The madman, he actually went back and found all his proper contributions to the thread.

 

[Athlai]

Knew Pews would respond like that

 

[Flem274*]

I've been accused of almost everything on this forum at one stage or another, but not posting enough about cricket in tour threads has never been one of them until now. Have I really morphed into marc?!









































.. nope, all good.

(and I cbf going back before the Tests started; that's just from the first 2 of 6 pages of my posts in this thread)

get a load of this humble bragger

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

"Look at all these nerds with their in-jokes"

* posts Lyon GOAT a million times *

 

[Jord]

Wall of self justification

Now do the same and show all of the posts where you've talked nonsense instead

I've taken crap from all comers since joining the forum and it's water off a ducks back. I talk about cricket and my opinions which you don't like and get called stupid/naive/haven't watched cricket before and it's water off a ducks back. Failing all that, the personal crap starts and it's water off a ducks back.

You won't get to me, you won't get under my skin and I genuinely laugh at the attempts at doing so. I might have some opinions about cricket that are wrong, but at least I'm posting opinions about cricket rather than opinions about you. That's because I have no opinions about you, because you're, wait for it, water off a ducks back.

I'm here for the cricket. You should be too.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

huh?

He's right.

 

[Flem274*]

He's right.

i might agree, i just don't really get it. im missing something here, and it's not just lorde inviting me to the ball

 

[Flem274*]

Now do the same and show all of the posts where you've talked nonsense instead

I've taken crap from all comers since joining the forum and it's water off a ducks back. I talk about cricket and my opinions which you don't like and get called stupid/naive/haven't watched cricket before and it's water off a ducks back. Failing all that, the personal crap starts and it's water off a ducks back.

You won't get to me, you won't get under my skin and I genuinely laugh at the attempts at doing so. I might have some opinions about cricket that are wrong, but at least I'm posting opinions about cricket rather than opinions about you. That's because I have no opinions about you, because you're, wait for it, water off a ducks back.

I'm here for the cricket. You should be too.

ok fiery

 

[_Ed_]

Needed to be 70-3 at stumps for me to have any real hope for tomorrow.

 

[Prince EWS]

Knew Pews would respond like that

Does that mean it qualifies as some kind of in-joke?

Aw man.

 

[cnerd123]

ok fiery

Omg its actually him isn't it?

I thought we broke him with our psycho analysis,