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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Lord colin to hit a 100 and take 10-fer in the final. I can just imagine it, sweat pouring down his beautiful, exhuberent locks of mullet, his abs flexing as he removes his shirt, revealing his beautiful 6-pack to the adoring crowd at Lord's.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
Also, wtc is cool and all but why is noene talking about the England NZ series being a chance for NZ to claim the Bannerman shield trophy?
 

Apex Predator

State Vice-Captain
Kohli doesn't wins a lot of tosses but if he does manages to wins the toss at final India will probably win it convincingly & it won't even be close. But the thing is Indian fans don't expect him to win anything crucial & team is very unpredictable.
So overall there is no favourite for the final.. At least not now. Unless NZ steamrolls England earlier which will surely put India under the pump.
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
That said we can't go to the finals without the spin option. Yes India is good players of spin but traditionally spin bowlers play a massive part at Rose bowl South Hampton. We may even have to play two spinners you never know. I think Ajaz will play a part.
Not so much in tests. Over the past decade, spinners have averaged 35 runs per wicket at the rose bowl. The two matches where spin has played a significant role (India v England in 2018 and 2014) were also played much later in the English summer - in the July-August period rather than mid-June. Admittedly I've heard it's been an unusually dry spring this year, but I don't think NZ should be too concerned about the ball turning square in the WTC final.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Not so much in tests. Over the past decade, spinners have averaged 35 runs per wicket at the rose bowl. The two matches where spin has played a significant role (India v England in 2018 and 2014) were also played much later in the English summer - in the July-August period rather than mid-June. Admittedly I've heard it's been an unusually dry spring this year, but I don't think NZ should be too concerned about the ball turning square in the WTC final.
Hmmmm. You don't think the fact that the match has been switched to the rose bowl of all places now that it turns out to be India vs a non-big-three team has any significance?

It was moved to Southhampton to supposedly minimise the impact of coronavirus. "The world's first biosecure venue", apparently. Whatever that means. Something to do with having a hotel close by? I can't really figure out what "biosecure" means in this context and I'm not sure we ever will find out.

Let's be honest here there are some pretty strong interests on this game and I would not at all be surprised if it turned out to be turner.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Well the really good thing for those who do worry about some ICC incentivising is that this groundsman Simon Lee has already been enticed into creating a dustbowl for his paymasters once (2021 championship points were then docked). That was 2019 Somerset, who were in second place on the table with one game left, so they tried to clean up Essex in about a day and a half before bad weather arrived.

Lee arrived at the Rose Bowl only 18 months ago. I've since seen an interview where he was all about using the lockdown period to get better root depth and a lot more pace and bounce into the block. Shannon Gabriel won MotM in one of the three Tests Lee's had so far.
 
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Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
Sorry for the silent video here, but you can use it to check out a bit of the Shannon Gabriel MotM Test (early July).

 

Magrat Garlick

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the last CC match there had zero spin wickets in a match where Jack Leach played, although day three was rained off and it has so far been a colder and wetter May after a very dry April.
 

Kippax

Cricketer Of The Year
I put some of that down to how superbly well Overton and Davey were bowling though.

This was Leach, about 260 total overs into the match.

 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
It was moved to Southhampton to supposedly minimise the impact of coronavirus. "The world's first biosecure venue", apparently. Whatever that means. Something to do with having a hotel close by? I can't really figure out what "biosecure" means in this context and I'm not sure we ever will find out.
To be fair, the Rose Bowl was one of two venues (Old Trafford being the other) that England determined were 'biosecure' and played all of their fixtures in last year, so it's not something which has been invented just for the WTC final. I don't think the decision to move the final to there seemed so odd at the time, though I agree it looks odder after Lords was deemed fine to host a NZ - Eng Test.

I also don't think the Rose Bowl is as spin friendly a venue as its sometimes made out to be. I think it's reputation as such comes from two things:
1) It's traditionally a flattish, batting friendly track by English standards so your stereotypical county medium pacers can struggle there. So it gets labelled 'spin friendly' actually meaning 'not overtly helpful to the quicks' (in an 'SCG so spinny' kind of way).
2. India have collapsed to Moeen Ali there in Tests. Twice.

As Mags says above, it's been very wet and cold over here in May so far with more rain on its way, so not very conducive to preparing a bunsen for the BCCI anyway.
 

Noumenon

U19 Vice-Captain
Sorry for the silent video here, but you can use it to check out a bit of the Shannon Gabriel MotM Test (early July).
Remarkable how the umpires would keep denying plumb shouts from Windian bowlers and keep getting overruled on review. And when it's Anderson to bowl, they become utterly trigger happy with that raised finger.
 

Moss

International Captain

As quite a few of you had predicted..

I wish he’d stick around for the India tour, he was immense in NZ’s last two subcontinental series (Pak and SL) and would have been invaluable enough as a specialist bat. That apart, can’t argue with the timing - a WTC final is a pretty fitting way to end a solid career, and it’s about time Blundell (and possibly Cleaver?) gets a proper shot at what should be his primary role in the side.
 

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