***Official*** England in New Zealand 2018

[Moss]

Bah. Top knock from Kane and the Santner run out came at a time when England must have been really worried, but ultimately deserved result for both sides.

 

[Adders]

112 off 143 kane would admit he batted to many dot balls

SR of 78.32 was the second highest of any batter that scored more than 30 in the game, don;t think Kanes SR was NZ issue here at all on a wicket like this.

 

[Daemon]

The pitch was mud, it was really hard to bat and extremely hard to slog.

The only criticism of Kane acceptable is that he didn't capitalise on the 3 full tosses he received in the last few overs.

 

[srbhkshk]

One of those matches where you kinda want to blame the set batsman for not getting you over the line but then realize the other batsman are also supposed to , well, bat.

 

[CM Punk]

One of those matches where you kinda want to blame the set batsman for not getting you over the line but then realize the other batsman are also supposed to , well, bat.

Moeen Ali said the pitch was tougher to bat on in the first innings, can't say whether that was the case or not as I missed good chunks of the game.

 

[Moss]

Moeen Ali said the pitch was tougher to bat on in the first innings, can't say whether that was the case or not as I missed good chunks of the game.

This seems like a fair assessment, NZ didn't have to contend with as difficult a pitch as everyone predicted, though the Guptill and Munro dismissals showed you had to be a bit careful. They certainly had no business slumping to 103 for 6,well as England bowled.

 

[srbhkshk]

Moeen Ali said the pitch was tougher to bat on in the first innings, can't say whether that was the case or not as I missed good chunks of the game.

Even if it eased out, it was still rather tough to bat/accelerate on, the only gripe would be the no run full toss in the last over.

 

[Athlai]

Santner getting run out in a fluke actually cost us the game. How much has his batting turned around in the last few weeks?

 

[MW1304]

Why does the caption in the cricinfo report say 'Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes truck rapid fifties' when they were neither rapid nor fifties?

 

[srbhkshk]

Why does the caption in the cricinfo report say 'Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes truck rapid fifties' when they were neither rapid nor fifties?

Maybe they believe that two wrongs make a right.

 

[Stapel]

Why does the caption in the cricinfo report say 'Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes struck rapid fifties' when they were neither rapid nor fifties?

It indeed says so...... Weird mistake.

The only thing I can think of is that they had a 50+ partnership for the 4th wicket. But that was not a exactly a rapid partnership by any standard.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Caption is from 2nd game where they both struck quick 50's. Not been changed or been put in in error.

 

[JRC67]

Even if it eased out, it was still rather tough to bat/accelerate on, the only gripe would be the no run full toss in the last over.

I don't think it got much easier against the spinners but I think it stopped being quite so three paced for the seamers. Early in the England innings some gripped and went through slowly and others seemed to kick on quickly off the surface. 240 was probably the par score for the wicket. Good to see a ODI played on something offering the bowlers a bit. Thought both sets of batsmen adapted well to different conditions to the norm.

 

[Flem274*]

Didn't make a combined XI before the series but currently a team of the series XI would have a lot of spin bowling in it. unusual for these two teams.

 

[Moss]

Needed Taylor badly today. Our middle order has a tendency to collapse these days.

Honestly, it's not a great sign when the team is this dependent on someone who could well be retired after the world cup next year. Need some middle order players to develop fast. Latham in particular needs to raise his game a bit.

 

[SteveNZ]

Honestly, it's not a great sign when the team is this dependent on someone who could well be retired after the world cup next year. Need some middle order players to develop fast. Latham in particular needs to raise his game a bit.

On Latham, I thought he was a massive chance of scoring runs on that deck. He just missed one first ball, that happens. But in general, yeah you're right. Needs to be able to score when there's pace and bounce in the deck.

But the thing that concerned me was the brainlessness of some of the strokeplay and the unwillingness to adapt on a different pitch. Batting first, I might've forgiven it. But they got to watch no one from England make 50, and no one be able to force pace. Yet everyone, Kane and Santner excepted, tried to do exactly that. Munro was lucky enough that things went his way early then played OK. Gup can't adapt away from his hard hands. Chapman went down at a guy spinning it away from him on a conducive deck. Latham, just a bit unlucky and Nicholls is just bang out of form..then we have the atrocity of Colin's shot.

At the moment, we're world beaters when chasing on a good deck. Otherwise there's so much work to be done.

If nothing else comes of this series, however, we can triumph the incredible progress Santner has made with the bat. I'll smash down my slice of humble pie, I rubbished his claims as a batting option and he's shown he has it in spades - especially in application. Still think they need to be wary he can't hit from ball one, but what a series against some really good ODI death/general bowling.

 

[Athlai]

Honestly, it's not a great sign when the team is this dependent on someone who could well be retired after the world cup next year. Need some middle order players to develop fast. Latham in particular needs to raise his game a bit.

Thats a problem to really worry about after the next World Cup imo.

 

[Bahnz]

Hugely disappointing game for our middle-order. Neither Latham nor Nicholls are really hitters, so you would've thought that the situation on Saturday was tailor-made for them, and yet they completely flubbed their lines. Great game to be at though, even with the sparse attendance. NZC really needs to go back to 2-3 LO games in Welly next year. This was I think the 5th game they've played in a 2-month window.

 

[SteveNZ]

Thats a problem to really worry about after the next World Cup imo.

Hope so...although Ross' body does worry me sometimes. He's missed a lot of cricket with tightness etc, and for a guy who used to be quick across the ground he moves a lot slower these days and turns like the Titanic. I know someone said they'd love to see him push past the World Cup but like Baz and his back, I can see Ross and the World Cup being as far as he wants to push.

 

[straw man]

Didn't get to see the rest of the chase after the middle order collapse, sounds like a top century from Williamson even if there's been a little criticism floating around that he could've scored slightly faster. Seems harsh though I can't judge. Once it got to 21 from 12 he was always going to struggle to finish it, but there are two dozen other places you could look for where NZ should have scored/saved an extra 5-10 runs earlier in the match. The middle order collapse the most obvious.

Really want runs from Chapman next match to show his talent. Those innings from Nicholls and De Grandhomme though, are the types that lose you your spot in the side. De Grandhomme seems to have the wrong idea ever since that T20 in Australia where he played all his shots and it came off - now he just wants to biff from ball one every innings, completely independent of the context of the match. Yes we do want him to do that perhaps half the time, the other half he needs to adapt to the match situation.

NZ are going to have a hard time winning the next two, especially if the wickets are flatter. Have to feel they missed their best chance in Wellington.