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

[wellAlbidarned]

SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET z

 

[_Ed_]

bright sunshine just down the road in hamilton. very frustrating how it often works this way.

And bright sunshine about the same distance north of Auckland too.

 

[Chewie]

Bright sunshine in central Auckland

 

[RxGM]

And bright sunshine about the same distance north of Auckland too.

Also very nice in Kingsland, been pretty settled, for last couple of hours, don't think it will last all afternoon, same as yesterday, NZC has been a bit unluckly with weather. Part of it is there own making by as its just not warm (as autumn and night time) enough to dry the ground quickly post showers.

Today and yesterday we would have had at least 2 hours extra of play, if it was a day test.

 

[Flem274*]

lol. There's no Nicholls haters here - only those observing that against international standard bowling he's always looked rubbish aside from 1 freak innings against SA. If he can show that wasn't a fluke I'm happy to say he's proved me wrong

this is blatantly untrue on all counts

he's committed the most heinous crime of any international cricketer - he isn't a pretty glory boy to watch play. hence why nicholls gets more heat on him every game than latham has had for his entire career of being the specialist 40 merchant.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

What I was wondering:
The autumn has started. Season is basically over, not? I know I am a bit further north (Holland) than you are south, but having cricket matches by the start of October seems very odd.

What is particularly stupid is that daylight savings ends on Easter (Sun)day -part way through the 2nd test which is a red ball day game. I will be really annoyed if bad light affects that match. Surely the day-nighter would make more sense after DS

 

[Flem274*]

we could have played this series during the main event t20 thing or the extremely important and competitve pakistan odi series

 

[Fuller Pilch]

In hindsight the 2nd test crowd should at least be decent as people won't be at work

 

[Chewie]

Starting to get rather grey...

 

[Mike5181]

this is blatantly untrue on all counts

he's committed the most heinous crime of any international cricketer - he isn't a pretty glory boy to watch play. hence why nicholls gets more heat on him every game than latham has had for his entire career of being the specialist 40 merchant.

Latham isn't a 'pretty' player to watch either. But he has brought a level of competency to a role we've really struggled with.

Nicholls on the other hand gets less leeway because he's a middle-order bat and his record for Canterbury is mediocre.

After Latham, who do we have? No one of note. After Nicholls? There was Munro for a long time, a literal first-class god, there's Will Young, and maybe an outside chance of someone like a Tom Bruce. So it makes sense that there's more pressure on a player like Nicholls. It has almost nothing to do with whether or not he's a pretty player to watch.

 

[Mike5181]

They probably would have got a session in if this was a normal test. Looks like it's about to piss down now though.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Stupid to start at 130. Why not 12?

 

[straw man]

Latham isn't a 'pretty' player to watch either. But he has brought a level of competency to a role we've really struggled with.

Nicholls on the other hand gets less leeway because he's a middle-order bat and his record for Canterbury is mediocre.

After Latham, who do we have? No one of note. After Nicholls? There was Munro for a long time, a literal first-class god, there's Will Young, and maybe an outside chance of someone like a Tom Bruce. So it makes sense that there's more pressure on a player like Nicholls. It has almost nothing to do with whether or not he's a pretty player to watch.

Agree with Flem defending Nicholls - there's definitely been a lot of criticism all around the place on him, and I've flip-flopped a bit myself, but the above is right that there's no comparison to Latham. So much more genuine competition for a NZ test middle order spot than there is to be an opener.

 

[Adders]

Pissing down in Geelong ftr.

 

[straw man]

27 and smog in Chennai too ftr

 

[veganbob]

lol. There's no Nicholls haters here - only those observing that against international standard bowling he's always looked rubbish aside from 1 freak innings against SA. If he can show that wasn't a fluke I'm happy to say he's proved me wrong

He hasn't looked rubbish. He has played well vs quality bowling quite a few times now.
He certainly deserves his place in the team ahead of style /looks over substance players like mitchhell mythanter etc. Yet he keeps getting critisized here. His place should also be more secure than tom latham in tests who looks very shaky outside of india vs good attacks.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

A bit of Jerusalem. The BA have decent voices

 

[straw man]

Mark Richardson with some extremely enthusiastic weather chat.

Barmy Army are great.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Two days of storms by all accounts, meaning likely England may only need to bat for three sessions to hold out for the draw. Not sure how I'd feel about that result as an England fan, releived obviously but it might paper over the cracks and prevent the severe kick up the backsides that are needed for the chaps in charge of the test team...

I would be happy, be funny if they actually turned up next week and won.

 

[straw man]

Heh, Ian Smith discussing people on-camera in the corporate boxes.

"Haven't met that waitress either, wouldn't mind she got some lovely..."

(oh god what is he going to say)

"pies."

That's Ian Smith!