*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[Flem274*]

so with ferguson out for at least a few months and wagner clutching his side today, the five obvious test quicks become three. who do we raise into the reserves?

henry has incumbency as 6th choice, sheat and williams have stupid amounts of recent shield wickets, sears has raw talent and bracewell and kuggs have loads of fc experience but imo duffy is our boi.

duffy combines genuine talent with results. his overall record is meh at first glance because he debuted too early then never improved but he's been taking poles in the low 20s for two years now and his home games are on the least conducive decks to his bowling in nz. if he was based in the north island he'd have even more wickets imo.

 

[Kippax]

Yes I think Jacob Duffy's bowling this season deserves a lot of praise. Although I do think he was one who always stood to benefit from the trial of the English-style Kooka redesign. Always nice presentation, even when his action was looking rough. You'd assume the 4/47 and 2/27 vs. WI A wasn't with the bowler-friendly Kooka, so now it's just keeping it up during this period where Ronnie Hira and Robbie O'Donnell made him look a bit frazzled last season.

 

[SteveNZ]

Duffy is definitely the best equipped to be an international bowler. Quick enough, great presentation as Kip says, hits good areas and does enough, and most importantly seems to hit the bat hard and bowl a hard length. Gets good guys out. I still think Matt Henry has a shot at playing Test cricket again if he wants it, but it's always been said that he's not exactly dying to be the best cricketer he can be.

 

[Moss]

so with ferguson out for at least a few months and wagner clutching his side today, the five obvious test quicks become three. who do we raise into the reserves?

Didn’t watch today’s play but looks like Wagner did bowl. Do we have an update on his situation ?

I like the idea of Duffy as 4th though I wonder if he is on the selectors’ radar for the test team. Henry should only be considered as a new-ball replacement for either Southee or Boult if they get injured, as he just doesn’t seem to have picked up any new tricks (while Southee just seems to get better). Happy for him to remain first choice one day bowler though. Bracewell is neither here nor there IMO. Kuggs would probably be worth a shot in the current XI at home. So too Sears, but it’s jyst too early.

 

[Flem274*]

wagner bowled today. phew.

but it's always been said that he's not exactly dying to be the best cricketer he can be.

literally the first time i've heard this. expand?

 

[thundaboult]

So, still no update from the camp on exact details about ferg's injury???

Matt Henry is one of my favorite bowlers today. Always been a huge fan of the guy despite my love for express pace. Feel like he's just got so much talent and quality. And I feel its his talent and quality alone that has carried him into forging a fantastic ODI career, because god knows he was never exactly given a persisted run so he could gain some confidence. Even despite that, he would come in for his one-off ODI replacing trent or tim and still do well. And when finally given a run, he was our best bowler in the knockout stages last year.

His FC record is great as well, although I guess that's because of the great times he's had with the duke facing lower quality batters in the 2nd 11 of county teams? Don't remember the exact team affiliations he had with Kent or if only played for their main side. But he can bowl ok pace, hit the deck hard and be accurate with a new ball....he SHOULD be able to do well in tests with the level of control he has over his action. Has he suffered from the lack of game time, being in and out of the team or is it an attitude thing where he doesn't care about test cricket or optimizing his talent to its fullest extent? (like @SteveNZ said) Because yeah just like Flem, never heard a bad thing about Matt.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

I just don’t think he’s a threat in test cricket unless the new ball is doing something. Problem is once that movement is gone he’s not very effective, and half the time he’s played test cricket he hasn’t even opened the bowling.

Test average in bowling spots is:
1: 37.3
2: 43.9
3: 57.0
4: 95.5

 

[straw man]

Let's hope this hypothetical 'who is the 6th best test seamer in NZ' remains just a hypothetical.

I think Duffy would be near the best bet though - would rather go there than go back to Henry or Bracewell. Tbh I didn't think Duffy would get past those action problems he had a few years ago, but looks strong right now and results are accumulating.

Only other consideration in this hypothetical injury crisis is that Southee/Jamieson/Duffy would look extremely samey.

 

[Prince EWS]

Let's hope this hypothetical 'who is the 6th best test seamer in NZ' remains just a hypothetical.

>imply Lord Colin isn't in the top six and therefore his injury doesn't count

Nah man we're down to the 7th. And it's probably Henry.

 

[Flem274*]

henry fails because his natural length is slightly too short to take poles with the kookaburra, because he'll always beat the batsman rather than get the edge aka he bowls the "unlucky" length. when he does pitch it up it's very floaty, which is fine with the duke against county hacks but he gets pulverised with the other balls because it's floaty and swings early.

this doesn't matter in odis because lengths are a little shorter with the white ball and batsmen are more likely to follow the ball with their hands than they are in test cricket (see india, world cup semi final), especially if they're specialist odi batsmen (see sharma, nohit).

to succeed in tests he either needs to get the same zip at a fuller length or bowl faster on his current length so batsmen commit to following the ball and have less time in general to correct themselves.

he's very 2010 tim southee but without the complete lack of competition.

 

[Bahnz]

he's very 2010 tim southee but without the complete lack of competition.

Or the ability to pull chix on airplanes

 

[Flem274*]

there's hope yet. years ago i saw a chix tinder profile say 'looking for matt henry, please tell him i love him' and its always stuck with me. might have been around the 2015 wc.

 

[straw man]

>imply Lord Colin isn't in the top six and therefore his injury doesn't count

Nah man we're down to the 7th. And it's probably Henry.

didn't feel the need to mention the most complete all-rounder since Botham, his ascendancy goes without saying

 

[straw man]

Or the ability to pull chix on airplanes

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune outswinger just short of a length, must be in want of a wife chix on planes.

 

[SteveNZ]

Can I just add Scotty Stevenson is not good and has dragged this whole test coverage down lol

Yeah, I'm a stuck record but he is WOEFUL. I can just about live with him for the T20s but he is all sorts of wrong in Test cricket. He doesn't know the game well enough for a start. And is running with a whole lot of **** gags that have no place in Test cricket commentary.

The rest of them aren't bad - Ian Bishop is the gold standard for commentary. Elliott is OK and will get better, McCullum is still finding his feet in terms of relaying what he wants to say and is clearly knowledgeable, and Frankie Mackay is really good. And yeah as Hutt said, Richardson is back to being a decent comments man without the stupid Sky box crap they used to indulge in.

 

[SteveNZ]

wagner bowled today. phew.

literally the first time i've heard this. expand?

Spent the first part of his career idolising and trying to be exactly like Southee, at a time when that wasn't a blessing (2014-15) and that includes with the bat and the general apathy about application (when he had the ability to be better). Just never has been seen as someone who is driven or wants it enough to be a better Test cricketer or to be the ODI player he should be capable of. Not suggesting Jesse Ryder type behaviour, just isn't particularly driven.

 

[Beamer]

Yeah, I'm a stuck record but he is WOEFUL. I can just about live with him for the T20s but he is all sorts of wrong in Test cricket. He doesn't know the game well enough for a start. And is running with a whole lot of **** gags that have no place in Test cricket commentary.

The rest of them aren't bad - Ian Bishop is the gold standard for commentary. Elliott is OK and will get better, McCullum is still finding his feet in terms of relaying what he wants to say and is clearly knowledgeable, and Frankie Mackay is really good. And yeah as Hutt said, Richardson is back to being a decent comments man without the stupid Sky box crap they used to indulge in.

Yeah I must say Stevenson was irritating me, he just seemed so much less knowledgeable than everyone else, it wasn't clear what value he was adding.

I thought the commentary was really good for the most part and I enjoyed it. Richardson annoyed me with his lack of research a couple of times (for example saying the tail starts now when Da Silva came in), but he was much better than on our last tour. I like Baz, I think his current knowledge of both players and modern cricket is excellent and I looked forward to his stints.

From a West Indian perspective, I obviously think Bish is amazing, but his diplomacy irritates me sometimes, he is too nice. I wish he called a spade a spade rather than tiptoeing around issues. The example from this tour being the Latham catch, which was clearly wrong and as the West Indies commentary rep I and many others feel he should have spoken up. But can't argue with his knowledge or his broadcasting ability which is exceptional.

I'd say overall a good start for Spark.

 

[nzfan]

Yeah what is the point in Scotty in the commie box? He should just be talking through the introduction to the start of the game and that's about it. Woefully lacking knowledge and I wish it's best if he stops speaking for a bit. It's not a radio commentary, we can see what's happening. He needs to add expert comments which unfortunately he's not qualified to.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Yeah what is the point in Scotty in the commie box? He should just be talking through the introduction to the start of the game and that's about it. Woefully lacking knowledge and I wish it's best if he stops speaking for a bit. It's not a radio commentary, we can see what's happening. He needs to add expert comments which unfortunately he's not qualified to.

Yeah to make matters worse by the end of the test he had descended into the Chris Harris “say every single thing you see” stage. Even managed a “oh good ball!” between the ball being hit and Young catching Braithwaite in the second innings.

 

[Immenso]

I thought Scotty was fine. Will get better I presume, as is a pro broadcaster and will work on it. Tone it down a bit.

I expect the expert analysis from the person beside him and the delivery commentary by him. Like old school radio. No more weird, to me, than Peter Williams, Waddle, Nesbitt etc