***Official*** West Indies in New Zealand 2017

[harsh.ag]

Tom Latham is so terrible after his first hour at the crease

That's........ terrible

 

[Zinzan]

Trying to think of bowlers of recent years more effective purely with the short-ball than Wag-god...and struggling.

 

[Athlai]

That's........ terrible

Na it’s more that he plays well to begin and then starts to suck randomly. Gets out a lot between 20-40

 

[Howsie]

Rubbish from Kane.

He's quickly falling away from the other 3.

Well he’d probably have needed a score excess of 500 here to keep up with the other 3, seeing as he’s playing two tests a year.

 

[Howsie]

Utterly impossible now, even for Howsie.

Career average now into the 27s & in last 4 years, 106 wickets @ 25 from just 24 tests.

All this and he doesn't even get the new ball.

Let’s be honest here, aside from Brathwaite (who himself is only a slightly above average test bat) the rest of the line up are a bunch of no names. The chump who batted three should just retire after this because that was embarrassing, Trent Boult himself would’ve been embarrassed getting out like that. If NZ had any brains they would’ve played Ferguson over Henry and he too probably would’ve done just as well banging it in 5-10k quicker.

Wagner has a place in this team when conditions suite, but this is a below average batting line up so I’d probably temper the kudos just a little bit.

 

[Days of Grace]

There you have it. It doesn’t count. Move right along.

 

[Athlai]

Fills my heart with joy. If only Henry could get out a spud

 

[Moss]

Very best of Wagner? Don't know, but he sure deserves this haul after propping up the attack on so many occasions (such as the Centurion test last year). Makes you wonder how Bracewell and Henry were both preferred to him for much of 2015-16.

Windies definitely better than this, dismissing them "no-names" is far too harsh. Also if the lack of ruthlessness from NZ (Latham/Kane today) continues, could help bring them back into the game. Hopefully Taylor and Raval are up for it.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Wagner is comparison to other left-armers (minimum of 20 test matches):

Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo


Overall figures
Player Span Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 5 10
AK Davidson (AUS) 1953-1963 44 82 11587 3819 186 7/93 12/124 20.53 1.97 62.2 14 2
Wasim Akram (PAK) 1985-2002 104 181 22627 9779 414 7/119 11/110 23.62 2.59 54.6 25 5
BA Reid (AUS) 1985-1992 27 42 6244 2784 113 7/51 13/148 24.63 2.67 55.2 5 2
TL Goddard (SA) 1955-1970 41 75 11736 3226 123 6/53 8/92 26.22 1.64 95.4 5 0
JK Lever (ENG) 1976-1986 21 38 4433 1951 73 7/46 10/70 26.72 2.64 60.7 3 1
G Dymock (AUS) 1974-1980 21 35 5545 2116 78 7/67 12/166 27.12 2.28 71.0 5 1
N Wagner (NZ) 2012-2017 33 62 7133 3797 137 7/39 8/103 27.71 3.19 52.0 5 0


4th best average of all-time of those to have played at least 30 tests. World-class strike rate too (only Starc and Johnson better among those with 20 tests).

 

[SeamUp]

Was getting all ready to watch the first session but dozzed off.

Windies will face a few hiccups with their younger batting line-up - trying to push forward with their new generation.

Pity about Matt Henry just not being able to grab his opportunities. Everything should be working for him but unfortunately may be one of those that can't grab the opportunities at higher level.

Credit where credit is due for Wagner. You know, none of us would have thought he could do what he is doing and he has shown true character to be having the test career he is. Kudos to him for that.

 

[Moss]

Windies will face a few hiccups with their younger batting line-up - trying to push forward with their new generation.

Yeah it often happens with rebuilding sides right in the beginning of a series, though they squandered a promising start. Were caught on the hop by Wagner, it was one of those Stuart Broad-esque spells. Looking forward to seeing more of Hope and the new guy Ambris.

 

[Flem274*]

we're long past the stage where it's time to accept Wagner is genuinely good. If you have the fitness to bowl 150000 over spells of bouncers that encourage high risk shots to score, and if you have the accuracy to bowl to the short mid off catcher for the drive field, and if you have a really nice yorker, then yeah you're an excellent test match third seamer built for using the old ball.

combine it with silly facial expressions and manly sharapova roars? GOAT

 

[Beamer]

Was getting all ready to watch the first session but dozzed off.

Windies will face a few hiccups with their younger batting line-up - trying to push forward with their new generation.

100% agree with this. On the tour of England we batted like a bunch of teenagers in the first test and then came back at Headingley with a GOAT performance. Same thing happened against Pakistan where we came back to win the second test. Also, they played on the slowest pitches you will ever see in Zimbabwe and then had a bit of a road in the warm up match here. So this tennis ball bounce must have been an unpleasant surprise and I think most of them will adjust. Though they do need to do it quickly, that was horrible.

Also, this was a case of everything that could possibly go wrong did. Our best batsman got strangled down the legside (Hope). Our bright new batsman who is in the form of his life trod on his stumps first ball (Ambris), our keeper batsmen who hit a century in his last test innings looked in great form before being sold down the river by a tailender. As sometimes happens in test cricket, it all went wrong very quickly.

Having said that, Wagner was relentless with is energy so credit to him. KB, Hetmeyer and Chase need to think about how they want to play the short ball because their dismissals were not good at all. I personally think they should be more aggressive, they looked timid against it. It's a shame because I thought they showed great technique and discipline against the pitched up deliveries.

Incidentally, I was impressed with how we bowled. They showed great discipline and Holder could have had Latham and Reval a number of times before he eventually got him.

 

[Gnske]

Just had to check yet again for the sake of it through cricinfo scorecards, one or two descriptions of the wickets were vague so give or take two or three. But since 2014 Wagner has something like 49 short ball wickets, as many as 67 in his whole career out of 137 wickets.

My favourite gimmick in world cricket by far.

 

[BeeGee]

Let’s be honest here, aside from Brathwaite (who himself is only a slightly above average test bat) the rest of the line up are a bunch of no names. The chump who batted three should just retire after this because that was embarrassing, Trent Boult himself would’ve been embarrassed getting out like that. If NZ had any brains they would’ve played Ferguson over Henry and he too probably would’ve done just as well banging it in 5-10k quicker.

Wagner has a place in this team when conditions suite, but this is a below average batting line up so I’d probably temper the kudos just a little bit.

I love how you start with "Let's be honest here" when what you really mean is "Let's be biased here".

Trent Boult had a real shocker then. Bowled more overs than Wagner but only took two wickets against these "no names". Pathetic.

 

[mr_mister]

Trying to think of bowlers of recent years more effective purely with the short-ball than Wag-god...and struggling.

Cummins is pretty decent

 

[WindieWeathers]

When you look at the last three or four years, our first batting performance in the first test have generally been crap against the better test nations. So needless to say, I was not surprised with what I saw yesterday. Kraigg and Shai are top class but still young enough where consistency may still be an issue for a while. Powell done well and Dowrich looked good. Apart from that it was all NZ. Glad we got Williamson and Lathem though as that NZ middle order still has a few question marks around it without Brenden and Watling. The bowlers just have to stay calm and keep hitting their lines. If we can end this innings only 60-70 behind then we may still have a chance in this test. if it's over a hundred then forget it, there's no Darren Bravo here to save us this time.

 

[Flem274*]

nz very reliant on this partnership today. taylor is the last proven batsman left. nicholls, cdg, santner, blundell have like 2 tests between them.

 

[Athlai]

Just had to check yet again for the sake of it through cricinfo scorecards, one or two descriptions of the wickets were vague so give or take two or three. But since 2014 Wagner has something like 49 short ball wickets, as many as 67 in his whole career out of 137 wickets.

My favourite gimmick in world cricket by far.

Particularly for a guy who barely cracks 140km/h.
#intent #heart

 

[veganbob]

Wagner is the best NZ test bowler since hadlee. No doubt about that imo. Bond just didn't play enough tests.