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

[Prince EWS]

I was almost starting to feel as if he was getting too patient there, and losing his Coliny way of actually making any runs at all. Top innings anyway; great to see he's thought about his game enough to play something like that.

 

[Flem274*]

hmm this will fall apart very quickly now i feel

quality knock but needed to make it a daddy

 

[Larwood's_boots]

GET in broady!!!!!

 

[Flem274*]

sky are an evil company but their music choices for montages and slow motion replays are world class

 

[straw man]

Yeah England have bowled really well here. A 70-80 run lead would be huge.

Good innings Colin, he'll have to go think about how to play against that exclusively offside line.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'm sorry, you're not getting this one

I can get away with hoping for it if there are people unironically making "Santner's batting is worth 50 more than Sodhi's per innings" and "Southee's batting is better than Santner's under pressure" posts though. That's what makes this whole thing awesome.

 

[Borges]

God stuff, this; I start watching again and Broad get another.

 

[Bahnz]

This is very very good bowling from England. Watling totally, becalmed, not giving him any freebies

 

[_Ed_]

Southee.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Not enough sixes. Crap batting.

 

[straw man]

Hrmm. Well, five overs tomorrow for the batsmen to get themselves in before second new ball and then Southee gets a hundred.

 

[Frost]

It's definitely a new ball wicket hopefully southee can hang around tomorrow if they can get to with in 15 20 of Englands score there rite back in the test.

Does anyone else agree that bj is the best test wicket keeper/batsmen nz have had, so many recovery jobs now.

 

[Moss]

Excellent partnership, which keeps NZ in with a sniff, but too much damage done at the top. The same set won't be going into the 4th innings all that high on confidence either. Need to get within 30 runs of England but not too hopeful with the second new ball due. Would be cool if Watling can get his hundred here to go with the one at Leeds,but towards the end he seemed to revert to his more recent self, getting tied down very easily.

 

[Zinzan]

I'll be content if we can get to at least 257, within 50 of England given our tail is pretty long. You'd hope Sodhi, Wagner & Boult could chip 40 runs between the 3 of them.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

New Zealand's highest ever successful chase is 324/5 vs Pakistan back in the 90s (a far bit of suspicion around that one). We might have to beat that score to win this

 

[vcs]

Get within 30 or so and it's anybody's game. The match will probably be decided by one inspired spell from someone or one team having a bad session and losing 3-4 wickets in a bunch.

 

[Moss]

New Zealand's highest ever successful chase is 324/5 vs Pakistan back in the 90s (a far bit of suspicion around that one). We might have to beat that score to win this

True, though I guess the pitch is likely to play well in the 4th innings. Even if NZ get close to England's first innings total, there's a lot of pressure on Southee and Boult to make the new ball count once again. Get past that and batting seems just fine.

 

[NZTailender]

I'll be content if we can get to at least 257, within 50 of England given our tail is pretty long. You'd hope Sodhi, Wagner & Boult could chip 40 runs between the 3 of them.

If each of the last four contribute 10 runs, matched by Watling, then we'll be sitting OK I think.

 

[veganbob]

Doubt santner would have survived like southee did under pressure.

Still, england on top. Great fightback from cdg and watling to keep us in the match.

As someone mentioned earlier watling must be right up there to be our best ever keeper/bat. Sure, he doesnt stand out with his keeping like mccullum or parore at their prime but he also rarely drops easy chances. He is very safe.

Ive always had mccullun as my keeper/bat in my alltime nz xi but thats a funny selection in a way as mccullum's batting was only test superstar for his last 2 seasons.. he wasn't as good a batsman as bj when he was keeping.

 

[Flem274*]

need to get as close as possible and nip at their ankles. i knew that bairstow/wood partnership would hurt. without that it's even stevens.

kiwi engine room needs to move into plunket shield third gear