*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of New Zealand 2018/19

[Flem274*]

and the one good ball gets a wicket

 

[_Ed_]

Oh dear.

 

[Grasshopper]

We might be in with a shout here.

 

[BeeGee]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say SL have ZERO chance of winning or drawing this match. Big call after only three days, but that's the way I roll. Balls of iron, chest hair of steel wool, prostate of titanium.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

craig cumming is an underrated gem in our mostly terrible box. he actually watches cricket (international and domestic) outside of nz internationals and the ipl

When he's not commentating with Mark Richardson (during which time he will solely talk about Mark Richardson) he's one of the few I can happily listen to.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Looks like Lou is the only one to do it since 2000:
Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo

Just playing with this search and we actually have only ever had one test match hundred against South Africa from an opener ... Geoff Rabone in Durban in 1953.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo

 

[Moss]

If SL manage to dig in, hopefully Wagner CdG and Ajaz put in a good shift. They all played their part in the UAE, but would be nice if they can come to the party in a series that's been all about Southee and Boult.

 

[Gnske]

i told you so

Usually I'm mad when something like this happens, but I'm happy Nicholls has proved me and others wrong.

Pity Gunathilaka will never prove anything, good god who thought he'd make a test match opener?

 

[Moss]

So how close is Latham to being regarded as an ATG NZ opener?

He needs a ton against Australia and one against SA, then we'll talk.

The bar is rather low, but he would be really close even if he were to simply sell his wicket dearly and rack up regular half centuries against the stronger attacks. From memory Richardson hit just 4 test centuries in 30 odd tests (none against Aus and SA) but he usually fronted up against the better attacks of that period, whether it was Donald/Pollock in SA or Murali in Sri Lanka. That 89 in the Wellington test against India in 2002/03 was a masterpiece of bad-wicket batting.

 

[mr_mister]

Latham well on track for the NZ ATG opener. Let's not kid ourselves

 

[Flem274*]

he's not even rigor level, let alone up with turner, dempster etc

he's smashed the lower level attacks before. until he proves he can do more than soft dismissals on 40-60 against oz, sa, england etc i still see him as the same player he was in the uae.

 

[Days of Grace]

Lololololol at Stewie ****ing Dempster.

A few tests against second-level England attacks but he played in a bygone era so nah yeah he’s a legend, aye?

Tommeh does the same thing in the current era and he has to prove himself.

 

[Daemon]

Most bizarre scorecard of 2018

 

[Prince EWS]

Most bizarre scorecard of 2018

Reminds me a game simmed on ITC. Third innings h4x for days.

 

[Maximas]

So how close is Latham to being regarded as an ATG NZ opener?

Thought I could recall talk of him being not thaaaat far away from being dropped if he had a tough series here

 

[OverratedSanity]

The bar is rather low, but he would be really close even if he were to simply sell his wicket dearly and rack up regular half centuries against the stronger attacks. From memory Richardson hit just 4 test centuries in 30 odd tests (none against Aus and SA) but he usually fronted up against the better attacks of that period, whether it was Donald/Pollock in SA or Murali in Sri Lanka. That 89 in the Wellington test against India in 2002/03 was a masterpiece of bad-wicket batting.

I loved that 02 series haha. Him and Dravid the only ones who looked like they had a clue how to bat on those decks. NZ need to go back to those pitches, these greentops which flatten out to mcroads are boring.

 

[BeeGee]

Thought I could recall talk of him being not thaaaat far away from being dropped if he had a tough series here

He was nowhere near being dropped, that's just forum knee-jerk BS. He's the best opener we've had since Richardson.

 

[BeeGee]

Latham well on track for the NZ ATG opener. Let's not kid ourselves

It's extremely difficult to compare players from different eras, but as someone who was lucky enough to watch Glenn Turner bat, I'd say Latham has a lot to do if he's going to steal the ATG opener tag from Glenn Turner. Turner did things no other batsman had done before and he had the complete game, being able to dig in and bat forever or take a bowling attack apart.

 

[Athlai]

Reminds me a game simmed on ITC. Third innings h4x for days.

Now we know those matches were on super green NZ pitches that are roads by day 2.

 

[Binkley]

It's extremely difficult to compare players from different eras, but as someone who was lucky enough to watch Glenn Turner bat, I'd say Latham has a lot to do if he's going to steal the ATG opener tag from Glenn Turner. Turner did things no other batsman had done before and he had the complete game, being able to dig in and bat forever or take a bowling attack apart.

My first memory of cricket is of my exasperated Dad trying to explain to me why I was wrong, and that Lance Cairns wasn’t the best batsman in the New Zealand side - Glenn Turner was. Which seemed nonsense to me, Turner just hung around and never did anything interesting like hitting sixes or getting out.