• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

***Official*** South Africa in New Zealand 2017

SteveNZ

International Coach
So assuming that Boult's injury isn't serious (fingers crossed) I'm thinking well likely return to three seamers and a spinner for Welly. The question is now, which spinner. On the face of it, Santner offers more with the bat, but his form of late hasn't been great and he's also a liability in the field. In terms of bowling, there hasn't been a while lot to choose between these two. Both have bowled tightly, created chances and had bad luck. But one thing in Patel's favour is that, for the moment at least, he appears to have de Kock's number, a very valuable number to have.
To me, it's got to be Patel. You say Santner offers more with the bat, which is true - although at the moment that's really negligible, given how putrid Santner is looking at the crease v good bowling. You're batting down to Watling at 7, you've got to back those top 7 guys then pick your best spinner to win you a Test. We know that's Jeets. Especially with Duminy, Elgar, de Kock all being LHers in the top 7. Santner is a wonderful ODI bowler but to me his time in Test matches is coming to an end. He can't offer anything near what we need from an all-rounder. I said in another thread he looks like a long term 24 with the bat, 42 with the ball operator and it's looking more right every Test.
 

SeamUp

International Coach
Going off twitter it looks like no chance. So probably not even going to stay up for the beginning of the live feed.

 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Probably a good thing we didn't bowl them out last night requiring just 180 for victory on the last day then, otherwise this weather would have been thoroughly depressing....
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
So on to the 2nd test in Wellington....

Has Neesham done enough to keep CDG out from getting another crack following his 7 with the bat & 1-54 with the ball?
 

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
How badly are NZ missing Southee
Definitely missed a third seamer given how overbowled Boult and Wagner were. **** I hope Boult is ok.

Part of this was due to a reluctance from Williamson to bowl Neesham, and also Santner for some reason. Some balance questions there for the makeup of the attack and how Williamson uses them.

Still maintain Southee wouldn't have been great on this pitch, though I don't think Henry would have either (Ferguson would have been interesting to see). Boult and Wagner by far our best seamers for this surface.
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah Eden Park would have been lucky to get 5 sessions completed if the Test was here, and bucketing down as we speak.
 

Grasshopper

State Vice-Captain
Some may say this test's limping to a soggy draw, but I prefer to see it as an overwhelming 4-day moral victory to the home side.
 

veganbob

U19 Captain
Very even and enjoyable test on a good pitch. I hope the rest of the pitches are similar and not easy to score at will.

Also, the real test for black caps now is the next two tests, we always have a hard time to back up a good performance. This was a good performance. really way too much pressure on kane though. Rest of the batting is gonna look very fragile no matter who we pick.
 

Top