*Official* New Zealand in England 2021

[straw man]

Is anyone else starting to wonder about whether our 4x 34-37 year olds are actually in their prime coming into this WTC final

Keep the faith to an extent, but Taylor has declined to the point where it's hard to see him scoring against quality bowling. He's gone from a nervous starter to a terrible starter, and from someone who might ride his luck to simply requiring luck full stop. He'll play the next two tests but he really should not be in the XI later in the year when we tour India - his worst place to tour based on his last visit. Will he get that 20th test century? Love him to prove me wrong.

CDG - concern was more fitness than age, his bowling has shown he's fit, not too worried about one batting failure.
Watling - stumping miss wasn't good but don't see a pattern, still keeps very well. Right time to retire though.
Wagner - he's not done, but tell him he's too old anyway to rev him up

 

[straw man]

Congrats Burns on the hundred. Might just be because he's always scored runs against NZ but I think he's a decent batsman and comfortably better than Sibley, even though they both average just over 30. A glance at his record says tours of the subcontinent and WI pull that average down a fair bit.

Gotta love that weird story about why he looks towards mid wicket as the bowler runs in, to keep his better left eye on the ball. Quite unorthodox which is not a bad thing.

 

[Immenso]

Anyone worried about Watling? Since his double ton he's averaged about 20 with the bat, and that was a pretty awful miss last night. Can't be doing that if someone like Kohli shows up with a weakness against bog-standard left arm spin as has happened in the past...

Yip, I am.

We'd be stronger for this tour with Blundell, but we'll miss BJ later in year in India (assuming India tour happens).

But, not nearly as a big a worry as Taylor.

But the 2 together make that luxury position of CdG or Santner at 7 look shaky IMO.

 

[slippy888]

If New Zealand go for the win they might get the rewards, satner is capable of pulling off a axar patel on the English

 

[wpdavid]

Having been away for a couple of days, I missed most of the fall-out from the Robinson tweets. But I have read a couple of things about him being dropped for the next test because of them. Is that actually likely to happen? Brave call to drop our best bowler in this test and our only viable number 8 in the squad for what he wrote best part of ten years ago. Maybe admirable, but arguably better to look for another option.

 

[slippy888]

English cant play left arm spin New Zealand need to set around 300 target in 75 overs, that would give Satner 20 overs at least to defeat the English batsman with his flight and guile.

 

[nzfan]

I'm a bit on the fence with this. I like the experience factor, test matches are won through experience. More very experienced players better it is for test side but we do need a bit of youth. England is a very young team with the bat and you see they're generally short of runs. The younger players though have no baggage from the past and tend to express themselves with fearless attitude. Even if it's false they still come with a lot of confidence like Ollie Robinson.

Of all the three teams on this tour I feel India have the best balance of youth and experience. They've backed few young guys and retained the experienced ones. We'll know in 2-3 weeks time what works the best.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

English cant play left arm spin New Zealand need to set around 300 target in 75 overs, that would give Satner 20 overs at least to defeat the English batsman with his flight and guile.

Great plan. They only need to score about 140 in 20 overs at the start of the day. Don't you have threads to start on random nondescript cricketers instead of this rubbish.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Santner actually bowled better than decently, I thought.

He beat the bat on more than one occasion and Watling's iron gloves routine for the stumping has been remarked upon more than once.

He's not Bishan Bedi, but given how utterly arse at playing spin everyone in our top six not called Joe Root is he could cause a few jitters if NZ get 40 or so overs at us.

 

[slippy888]

Great plan. They only need to score about 140 in 20 overs at the start of the day. Don't you have threads to start on random nondescript cricketers instead of this rubbish.

I am sorry to say mate but Zaheer Khan was better bowler than Jeff Thompson

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I am sorry to say mate but Zaheer Khan was better bowler than Jeff Thompson

Very true. There's your next thread right there.

 

[nzfan]

Been thinking about Santner today and general opinion is he doesn't turn the ball. Anil kumble the Indian legend didn't turn the ball but found ways to pick wickets. He used his height, change of pace, flippers, googlies, angles, immaculate line and length and proper fieldset brilliantly. He didn't sit back and went well I can't turn so I have no future.

Same with wagner, doesn't have the height, pace, swing etc but came up with plans to become successful. No reason why Santner can't go the same route. Rather than bowl one pace and from the same angle he could work on change ups, pace, angles. Same old stock standard orthodox fields as well. In his defense though he's always busy playing white ball cricket and may not have time to figure it out. His action and alignment is quite restrictive. Just uses his shoulders to push the ball through. The action has no build up to increase revs on the ball but he can still work on few things that's possible with his action. We don't have spin bowling coach like England does. We should have one if we are serious about developing spinners.

 

[Moss]

I think that Mt. Manganui test vs England has just brought unfair expectations on Santner, his performances in that in that test were very much his ceiling IMO. What the management (or KW) seems to demand from him is exactly what they’ve been getting from CdG - useful runs + tight overs to build pressure. But his inconsistent lengths, and tendency to freeze when NZ are under pressure with the bat work against him I guess. Kane not being prepared to give him long spells obviously doesn’t help.

 

[nzfan]

Fizzing for the last day of the test match. Hoping for a result or a close one at least. Don't want a draw. Pretty much been like a zombie during the last few days. Hoping it was well worth the sleepless nights.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Great plan. They only need to score about 140 in 20 overs at the start of the day. Don't you have threads to start on random nondescript cricketers instead of this rubbish.

Well he has basically done that saying Santner has flight and guile.

 

[nzfan]

We'll know in the next 15 minutes if kane has turned on Baz mode to set up the game today.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It's actually quite a feat to be bowling at 60-2 and have no reviews left.

 

[Burgey]

I’m not sure about Burns in Australia on the harder and faster wickets against their quality of attack based on the way he played the short ball in this match.

I think that unusual set up and back lift might cause him problems here on anything over hip height on leg stump. Seems to square himself off to the point he finds it difficult with stuff on leg stump. Admire his moxy though, have since the last Ashes. Really didn't rate him at first viewing, but tbf he knuckles down a lot. He's like the anti-Ollie Pope, who looks 1000x the player Burns is but is basically a walking wicket and loose AF.

 

[nzfan]

Go wagner

 

[BoyBrumby]

Kitchen sink time from Wagner.

Best way to go, I think. His job is done, may as well have some fun and mow a few.