37th Match - New Zealand v Australia

[halba]

Wow...so if Aus thrash SAF, which they should, they can possibly go in at top spot and face Eng or NZ or even Banga/Pak. Unbelievable, considering all that has happened..

aus in good position, just have to hope IND off day in the semis, or the other team ON day that faces ind

cant see aus beating ind, matchup is terrible for AUS, india are too good. ENG could beat india in SF if the pitch is ordered to be a flat deck, and we know English are FTB. ENG just need 1 victory over NZ or IND and thats quite possible.

sport about matchups.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I was going to post the same thing. How do you make striking the ball look so easy on a deck everyone else hugely struggled on? Remarkable innings.

He's reminded me a bit of Mike Hussey this tournament, specifically with his technique and shot selection. I was very much against Carey playing for Australia this tournament, or in the year leading up to it, but I'm happy that he's pulled this form out of his *** and proved me wrong. Wade still probably should have been playing ahead of him though.

 

[Bahnz]

Well that's a disappointing score to wake up to. Seems like the selectors over-compensated for the Birmingham game, by playing a 2nd spinner when really the conditions favoured pace. Gives the distinct impression that they don't have the slightest clue what they're doing. Nah, can't be that.

Latham really does seem to have lost it. He's had a couple of games now where he's come in to bat in the ideal situation for him, and done sfa, in addition to dropping vital chances. He's a confidence player, and I think his confidence is pretty much gone, so I'm no longer opposed to a late Blundell call-up, but I doubt that will really help much.

As stated before, we can't win this World Cup with only 2 batsmen (neither of whom are particularly great at pushing the run rate). Guptill can either pull some top form out of his arse at the 11th hour or we're saying farewell at the semi-finals. It's frustrating because this is a genuinely top class bowling unit, and if it could be allied to a batting lineup like we had in 2015 it'd be very hard to stop. Ah well.

Also, I'm getting ****** by CMPunk coming in to whinge about how we don't deserve to be in the semi's and how it'd be better if we get creamed by England and miss out. Seriously, he and the other foul-weather ****wits can piss off.

 

[BeeGee]

NZ actually seems to be getting a little worse each game. Their best performance was against SL in their first game.

Just because you feel bad about not playing Sodhi on a spin friendly deck against Pakistan, doesn't mean you have to play him in the next game. This pitch would have been perfect for Henry.

Our fielding is **** and it's hurting us. More dropped catches today. Guptill's easy drop against Khawaja when he was on 0 was particularly costly.

 

[Athlai]

Lol at dropping Santner. What games are you watching?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Feking starc. The guy is unfair.

 

[Mike5181]

Lol at dropping Santner. What games are you watching?

3 wickets in 6-7 games, even factoring in the ER stuff, is pretty ordinary. Most teams are comfortable scoring 5s through the middle overs if they aren't losing wickets. That's not to say he's high on the list of problems at the moment, but he's on there somewhere.

 

[Athlai]

3 wickets in 6-7 games, even factoring in the ER stuff, is pretty ordinary. Most teams are comfortable scoring 5s through the middle overs if they aren't losing wickets. That's not to say he's high on the list of problems at the moment, but he's on there somewhere.

Doing fine or averagely isn't doing poorly. He's there to give us cheap overs in the middle and near the death and to bat at 8. He does that job well. Would probably be my 5th or 6th name I put on our lineup for any given game

 

[ankitj]

Incredible from Australia. It's almost like they have the cheat code to world cups.

 

[ankitj]

And Starc is GOAT in world cups. Just keeps performing every game

 

[Daemon]

Lyon seems to be a massive upgrade over Zampa

 

[James]

Doing fine or averagely isn't doing poorly. He's there to give us cheap overs in the middle and near the death and to bat at 8. He does that job well. Would probably be my 5th or 6th name I put on our lineup for any given game

Which to me, doesn't solve a problem. We have a lack of wicket-taking ability once the front-line seamers have finished their spells and with the way the pitches are going, I think we'd be better served with Southee.

I feel like the selectors go, "ok, we have to pick a token spinner in the team regardless of conditions so let's slot Santner in", rather than taking the approach of picking our "best bowlers".

The only way we'll beat an Australia/India/England is by playing attacking cricket and keeping the foot on the gas rather than trying to play containing cricket.

 

[Daemon]

Which to me, doesn't solve a problem. We have a lack of wicket-taking ability once the front-line seamers have finished their spells and with the way the pitches are going, I think we'd be better served with Southee.

I feel like the selectors go, "ok, we have to pick a token spinner in the team regardless of conditions so let's slot Santner in", rather than taking the approach of picking our "best bowlers".

The only way we'll beat an Australia/India/England is by playing attacking cricket and keeping the foot on the gas rather than trying to play containing cricket.

You may have to play without your captain for the semis if you go down that route though.

 

[Bahnz]

Btw, what on earth has happened to our catching at this World Cup? Could easily have cost us our game against WI, and may well have been the difference between a win a loss here (though I understand that we also took a couple of catches that were really only half-chances). We're not good enough to field like Pakistan and still win games.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Which to me, doesn't solve a problem. We have a lack of wicket-taking ability once the front-line seamers have finished their spells and with the way the pitches are going, I think we'd be better served with Southee.

I feel like the selectors go, "ok, we have to pick a token spinner in the team regardless of conditions so let's slot Santner in", rather than taking the approach of picking our "best bowlers".

The only way we'll beat an Australia/India/England is by playing attacking cricket and keeping the foot on the gas rather than trying to play containing cricket.

If Williamson is going to bowl himself like he did today then there’s not much difference between the pair of then, tbh.

 

[Flem274*]

i think there's too much focus on intent here.

i love to bag khawaja but today he ground out a tough knock to drag australia to a very good score. you've gotta give credit to that. it's not always going to be steve smith doing the work and most international cricketers can do a great job if they're bloody minded enough.

sure, having mccullum play a manly intent innings like he did to aus at eden park or in the sa semi would have been great, but guppy, kane and ross all got starts and bottled it. kane in particular should be shot, he was accelerating to a good sr then played whatever that was. i hope ross gets slaughtered in the media because we desperately need angry ross to win this tournament off of the hatred for all life that he feels when he's hurt.

overall tho i said before the game this was pretty predictable and pre-tourney our consensus was we're the 4th best team here. until this side learns how to kill from the all blacks this will continue. it's a shame we're getting a confidence knock before taking on the inferior english sooks.

 

[Burgey]

The most disappointing thing was the manner of the chase.

We will never, ever beat Australia grinding out the way we tried to do it. When we let them bowl, they're superstars. Then when we grind, and we panic when we get behind, today happens.

Brendon would never have stood for that sort of chase. What he'd say was imagine we are chasing 330 and bat accordingly. Not try and tip over 240 with the last ball of the 50th. No problem with Kane being that guy, but Gup just simply has to bar up and risk getting out to get us in the right mindset to beat Australia.

They’d have been rolled for 90 if they tried a 2015 style chase on that deck. 240 was par or very slightly under. Was a tough deck to bat on. Carey was awesome. He’s batted far better this WC than I thought him capable of

 

[Burgey]

NZ actually seems to be getting a little worse each game. Their best performance was against SL in their first game.

Just because you feel bad about not playing Sodhi on a spin friendly deck against Pakistan, doesn't mean you have to play him in the next game. This pitch would have been perfect for Henry.

Our fielding is **** and it's hurting us. More dropped catches today. Guptill's easy drop against Khawaja when he was on 0 was particularly costly.

Don’t think anyone saw this deck being as up and down as it was mate. It looked dry and like it would turn. Made sense to play him imo and he didn’t cost you. I think it’s just a hat tip to Khawaja (need a bit of luck on that deck) and Carey (was next level yesterday).

 

[Burgey]

If Williamson is going to “bowl” himself like he did today then there’s not much difference between the pair of then, tbh.

Ftfy

 

[Burgey]

aus in good position, just have to hope IND off day in the semis, or the other team ON day that faces ind

cant see aus beating ind, matchup is terrible for AUS, india are too good. ENG could beat india in SF if the pitch is ordered to be a flat deck, and we know English are FTB. ENG just need 1 victory over NZ or IND and thats quite possible.

sport about matchups.

Australia will beat India in a hand canter and with a leg in the air come finals time. Fmd even the draw has worked out for them. Their bowlers now get a full week to put their feet up before SA and the semis, while the Indian attack has to play three in a week and then a semi final either three or five days after their last game, all in what passes for the height of summer over there. It’s done mate.

The only side which could run Australia close in this WC now is Pakistan, purely on emotion and their being so mercurial. England are choking, India will be gassed and NZ look like they’re going backwards, despite imo still having an attack good enough to win it.