***Official*** Pakistan in New Zealand 2016/17

[Blocky]

Anyone feel like Nicholls is batting for his spot tomorrow? If you're not scoring runs, dropping catches and missing run outs isn't the way to go about it either.

He shouldn't have played this test series to be honest, I felt Ronchi deserved a chance to continue on considering he was one of the few with form in India.

Latham is starting to get to the point where another bad test series might see questions raise, Henry surely has to go from the side now, De Grandhomme will get another series but jury is still out, as I don't think he offers enough with bat nor ball to really lay claim to the test side (despite his outstanding debut test), Santner needs to stand up and offer something in home conditions with either bat or ball otherwise his place becomes questionable too.

 

[SteveNZ]

Anderson was taking wickets at better than 60 in his first few tests, we've tried Henry enough times in some pretty helpful conditions to realise he's just not a guy that's got it for test cricket. He's another Doug Bracewell in my view, and potentially Bracewell was even better.

Maybe. I'm prepared to give him more than his seven Tests in places like Perth, Kolkata and Indore, then see how he goes. Has he bowled well? Not at all. Let's see if he goes away and values getting better as a Test cricketer.

 

[Blocky]

He had two tests in England in prime conditions for his style of bowling and a test here in Hamilton that was nipping around all over the show and he lacked penetration. He has bowled well, that's the thing, he's on the length he bowls, he's bowling OK lines but he's just too plain to take wickets at this level.

To go wicketless in that first innings when he had more overs than anyone other than Southee was just a great sign of what you're going to get from Henry. He's great in ODI cricket because his length is hard to hit for runs, so he'll be cheap and those that go after him will give their wicket away, but in test cricket, he's not getting any nibble, he's straight up and down and his length is easy to defend, especially at his so-so 135kmh pace.

We have better options sitting in first class. It's time for him to bounce.

 

[SteveNZ]

He shouldn't have played this test series to be honest, I felt Ronchi deserved a chance to continue on considering he was one of the few with form in India.

Latham is starting to get to the point where another bad test series might see questions raise, Henry surely has to go from the side now, De Grandhomme will get another series but jury is still out, as I don't think he offers enough with bat nor ball to really lay claim to the test side (despite his outstanding debut test), Santner needs to stand up and offer something in home conditions with either bat or ball otherwise his place becomes questionable too.

I wouldn't personally have picked Nicholls but I can see why people in that environment wanted to give him another go. Munro injured, Young not scoring runs, Nicholls did score runs at Centurion not long ago. But he's not the future at this stage, far too suspect.

Latham is undroppable, there's no one at domestic level who can hold a candle to him. He's averaging 36 which is 10 better than anyone else could do. As much as he frustrates the **** out of me. Hopefully he'll get there. Henry will go when Boult comes back, worst thing they could do is fast track Ferguson just because he's quick. As for the middle order, the best guys are there now. Anderson needs to beat the door back down at domestic level.

 

[Flem274*]

lol henry is easily in the top 4 seamers in the country. i saw ben wheeler suggested earlier and even as a CD fan i can't back that. talented for sure but can't stay fit and can't maintain a radar for six balls, hence he averages just 28 domestically. henry's average when you remove his tests would be considerably lower considering how long he was going around at sub 20.

 

[listento_me]

The Pakistani tailenders looked to be playing ODI cricket out there lol

Pakistan's only hope now is to not drop catches and pick up important wickets, getting NZ out for a 100-130.

Btw, what's the forecast like later?

 

[Moss]

Pakistan's only hope now is to not drop catches and pick up important wickets, getting NZ out for a 100-130.

Hard to recall a Pakistan tour of NZ when that didn't happen at least once, so I'll be holding my breath.

 

[Athlai]

Looking like we should get two full days play.

 

[Mike5181]

Hells yeah.

 

[Zinzan]

I was thinking before yesterday's play that it all seems a bit too easy to expect us to quickly & easily beat Pakistan 2-0 in a series since we have only ever won 1 home series against them in 1985 & series wins against them just don't come that simply for us. And sure enough, yesterday saw Pakistan sneak themselves right back into the Test.

Given the strides they made yesterday, and considering the history between these 2 sides, I hope I'm not considered to be ghambiring too much to be extremely wary of a NZ collapse and a 5-6 wicket win to Pakistan.

Just has that feel about it. KW will find some weird way to get out, maybe a strangle down the leg-side.

Now see if Smali can out-ghambir this fact based gambhir.

 

[Blocky]

Good conditions overhead for batting by the looks of things, Amir is really the only threat from Pakistan - the rest of the wickets we gave were gifts.

 

[Blocky]

I was thinking before yesterday's play that it all seems a bit too easy to expect us to quickly & easily beat Pakistan 2-0 in a series since we have only ever won 1 home series against them in 1985 & series wins against them just don't come that simply for us. And sure enough, yesterday saw Pakistan sneak themselves right back into the Test.

Given the strides they made yesterday, and considering the history between these 2 sides, I hope I'm not considered to be ghambiring too much to be extremely wary of a NZ collapse and a 5-6 wicket win to Pakistan.

Just has that feel about it. KW will find some weird way to get out, maybe a strangle down the leg-side.

Now see if Smali can out-ghambir this fact based gambhir.

Pakistan with Misbah, sure.
Pakistan without Misbah and an out of form Younis, not so much.

Their bowling attack has one real threat, it's not the right type of pitch for Wahab Riaz and our dismissals to Sohail were mostly gifts, it'll be the first 10 or so overs and if we can get through that one or two down, this will be the best conditions for batting today.

 

[Zinzan]

Impressive start Pakistan.

 

[Zinzan]

NZ opening bowlers could learn a bit from this 3-4 overs tbh. How often do NZ give cheap easy runs away with the new ball by bowling both sides of the wicket.

 

[Blocky]

NZ opening bowlers could learn a bit from this 3-4 overs tbh. How often do NZ give cheap easy runs away with the new ball by bowling both sides of the wicket.

Ridiculous amounts, but the thing is you want your swing bowler to be attacking in the first spell to generate chances, the problem for us is that we have two of them doing it and that accelerates the scoring for the other team, also means they get used to the swing as batsmen because it's coming at both ends. They also get impatient when they're not getting wickets earlier than they expect.

Boult for instance is just brainless, every ball is attempting to swing it back in and take off stump, very rarely does he push the ball wider and across, or use the cutter, or look to cross seam and bowl it straight down the channel. That's a bowling plan/coach/thought thing.

 

[Blocky]

Superb bowling Amir.

 

[hendrix]

Boult for instance is just brainless, every ball is attempting to swing it back in and take off stump, very rarely does he push the ball wider and across, or use the cutter, or look to cross seam and bowl it straight down the channel. That's a bowling plan/coach/thought thing.

Dunno about that. Natural variation happens quite often anyway, and if he's keeping the ball in the perfect area (which he is very capable of doing when he's had LOTS of overs under his belt) it's probably his best method IMO.

When he's not in great rhythm and not as accurate he should be, yeah, he should mix it up a bit more.

 

[Howsie]

Ridiculous amounts, but the thing is you want your swing bowler to be attacking in the first spell to generate chances, the problem for us is that we have two of them doing it and that accelerates the scoring for the other team, also means they get used to the swing as batsmen because it's coming at both ends. They also get impatient when they're not getting wickets earlier than they expect.

Boult for instance is just brainless, every ball is attempting to swing it back in and take off stump, very rarely does he push the ball wider and across, or use the cutter, or look to cross seam and bowl it straight down the channel. That's a bowling plan/coach/thought thing.

"They get used to the swing because it's coming from both ends" Don't believe I've ever heard that before, especially from two bowlers who swing the ball opposite ways. Whatever suits your agenda though.

 

[Zinzan]

Ridiculous amounts, but the thing is you want your swing bowler to be attacking in the first spell to generate chances, the problem for us is that we have two of them doing it and that accelerates the scoring for the other team, also means they get used to the swing as batsmen because it's coming at both ends. They also get impatient when they're not getting wickets earlier than they expect.

Boult for instance is just brainless, every ball is attempting to swing it back in and take off stump, very rarely does he push the ball wider and across, or use the cutter, or look to cross seam and bowl it straight down the channel. That's a bowling plan/coach/thought thing.

Yeah, I understand the need to make the new ball count and make them play. But this needs to be balanced with not giving away free runs. I've always liked the idea of starting out at a 5th -6th stump, and then gradually bringing it in to a 4th stump line.

Oooo...almost the KW leg-side strangle I predicted ...

 

[Blocky]

Dunno about that. Natural variation happens quite often anyway, and if he's keeping the ball in the perfect area (which he is very capable of doing when he's had LOTS of overs under his belt) it's probably his best method IMO.

When he's not in great rhythm and not as accurate he should be, yeah, he should mix it up a bit more.

The massive issue for Boult comes when the ball isn't swinging, because he hasn't worked on a gameplan in any shape or form to be a penetrating bowler during that period. Natural variation would work reasonably well for him if he had more control but ever since that back injury he's been a scatter gun and doesn't ramp up the pace as much as he used to. He's had a couple of spells recently that show signs of getting back to his best.

But going back to what I've said before, I think you play one or the other, they operate better without one another for many reasons, but mostly due to the fact that the opposition don't get away on us due to loose bowling with both of them chasing the miracle swing ball. If you do play them both, have one come on as first change to back up the efforts of the other, while you have a better line/length/seam bowler plug away at the other end - you might even get some value out of Henry doing this role.