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

[Athlai]

If they were going to do this (as I advocated for), they would've done it in the first Test, as he was fit to bat. Nothing has changed to make them change their minds on that one.

Has there been any confirmation of this? I know he played in the Ford trophy match, but a niggle being tested over 1 one day match is different to getting him to play a Test.

 

[Daemon]

Great start from WI. They'll no doubt be 350 all out though.

Close enough

 

[Nate]

Well done NZ!

Maybe I'm broken, but this has been my favourite bowling line-up to watch in some time.

 

[Bahnz]

Has there been any confirmation of this? I know he played in the Ford trophy match, but a niggle being tested over 1 one day match is different to getting him to play a Test.

Well he's been playing Plunket Shield all season so I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

 

[Athlai]

Well he's been playing Plunket Shield all season so I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

Why would anyone read about Plunket Shield if it doesn't involve a victorious Wellington?

 

[Prince EWS]

Why would anyone read about Plunket Shield if it doesn't involve a victorious Wellington?

But yeah he's been playing all season as an opening batsman. If he'd scored a bunch of runs doing that he might've played ahead of Nicholls in this game, but he didn't, and Nicholls certainly didn't do badly enough to make them change their minds.

 

[Flem274*]

Southee's been ok in tests anyway hasn't he? It's ODIs where he's completely stopped taking wickets.

Southee hasn't been great but hes been better than Henry.

Yeah he's extremely lucky to still be in the frame for ODIs at all, but he's been perfectly fine in Tests. Not gun, but fine.

i think the numbers last season hide just how horrific he was. the bloke can't land 6 out of 6 in the corridor and got some pretty arsey wickets iirc. we've reached that point where he needs to be dropped to light a fire underneath him and get him back to that 100 wickets @ 23 or whatever it was standard. i want howsie to be given a reason to rub it in our faces that he's world class.

henry needs to be sent back too with the message that back of a length 135-140kph is not his thing because he's neither express nor insane (wagsane) and to swing the ball again at good pace because he's so attractive to watch and this test was just sad

ferguson in for next test because its fun

watling is the third best batsman in the country so he should be playing every game possible, but dropping nicholls now that he's beginning to perform would be ridiculous. sorry but the debutant gets to wait a bit more for a second go. blundell has FC batting chops anyway so he could push for a spot on batting alone. watlings career might be prolonged by ditching the gloves so if a better gloveman comes by then i'd be happy for him to move into a middle order role if nicholls or whoever isn't performing.

Retain both lord colin and santa but swap them around. santa's bowling is perfectly fine for nz conditions. finger spinners come to NZ to die (maybe less dramatically than in australia, but they still get milked for a million runs here by batsmen who often suck on spinning decks), and he keeps it tidy and under control so that's as much as you can ask for.

that's heartbreaking for the windies. i was genuinely surprised to find they were all out. that middle order needs to pull finger because it's stacked with guys who have performed well before.

 

[Zinzan]

Well there's a quarter of NZ's Test summer over already, forgetting about the fact we had no off-season away tests either.

Well played the muppets who run NZ cricket! Perhaps next year, you can try dwindle it down to just 2 tests for the year.

 

[Zinzan]

Really hope Henry gets 5fer. I really think he'd get better with a prolonged run in the team with the new ball.

Interesting, I was kind of hoping he bombed so we can see Ferguson get a chance in the whites considering his numbers have been outstanding in recent times, including against the Windies in the warm-up,

There's nothing I can see in Henry's bowling to think he'd be a sub-35 Test average bowler.

That said, presumably Tim 'entitled' Southee will waltz back in for the 2nd test.

 

[Zinzan]

Didn’t realise how bad the West Indies’ Test record in New Zealand is; they’ve actually won a Test in Australia more recently than they have in NZ and only won two Tests there since 1969.

As an aside, quite bizarre that the West Indies didn’t play a solitary Test in New Zealand throughout the 1970s.

I know we got that flukey 1-0 series win against them in 1980, following some of the most horrendously biased home umpiring to match anything the Paksitani officials used to get away with back in the day, but we would have got absolutely hammered had the Windies toured in the 70s.

 

[vcs]

Who are NZ playing at home after this WI series? Pakistan?

 

[Zinzan]

Who are NZ playing at home after this WI series? Pakistan?

We only play Pakistan in white ball cricket, no tests.

But never fear, we then get our marquee tour of the home summer, where we get to play a whole 2 tests against England.

 

[Bahnz]

Don't worry Zinny! We've got two totally unfamiliar test opponents next summer! Come on down Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!

 

[vcs]

Ah, OK. NZ vs England will be good. Should have been 3 matches.

 

[vcs]

Don't worry Zinny! We've got two totally unfamiliar test opponents next summer! Come on down Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!

That's dire.

 

[Flem274*]

Don't worry Zinny! We've got two totally unfamiliar test opponents next summer! Come on down Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!

jesus christ. nothing against those sides at all but some variety would be nice.

4 tests again im guessing?

my vote for the 2019 election goes to whoever puts david whites head on a spike

 

[Bahnz]

Yup. India are turning up but only for a few ODI's and T20's. Evidently the BCCI decided that it's not worth playing in test matches down here when no one at home is even going to be awake to watch.

 

[Bahnz]

jesus christ. nothing against those sides at all but some variety would be nice.

4 tests again im guessing?

my vote for the 2019 election goes to whoever puts david whites head on a spike

The FTP says 2 for Sri Lanka and 3 for Bangladesh - but yeah that's probably now 2 tests and a few ODI's.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Don't worry Zinny! We've got two totally unfamiliar test opponents next summer! Come on down Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!

Yup. India are turning up but only for a few ODI's and T20's. Evidently the BCCI decided that it's not worth playing in test matches down here when no one at home is even going to be awake to watch.

That sucks. NZ tours are one of my favourites to watch despite (or maybe even because of) the weird times

 

[Zinzan]

Stephen Fleming in an interview about 18 months ago did say he could see a time when NZ do away with Tests as a result of commercial realities. I refused to even contemplate the thought at the time, but suddenly it's not seeming so outrageous.