*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[nzfan]

Tickner is left field, but maybe they've seen him click into place. If/when he does, he will be good.

I'd have preferred Ferguson but if you bowl 150kph and get an injury NZ seems to get gun shy. Still annoyed he is being blamed for their poor handling against England/Aus.

Sears should not play lol not yet.

Happy enough with Rutherford if it means Young and Conway return to their natural positions. Will spew if Young opens and Rutherford/Rachin bats 4 or something.

Sears' first class record. That's an impressive record. More than the record how he gets those wickets and his qualities as a fast bowler. Very tall, bowls rapid, gets good bounce, has good bumper, swings the ball both ways and has an awkward action which makes it harder for the batters to see the ball early. The only question is if he can last full 5 days, he has had his share of niggles and injuries.

Matches	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Best	Ave	5 fer	10 fer	SR	Eco
13	1777	39	1106	42	6-43	26.33	2	0	42.30	3.73

 

[NZTailender]

I think Mitchell is sneaky good with the bat tbh. Would make most test teams on batting alone IMO.

True. I think it's because he came in as a replacement for CdG that he still sits in my brain as a medium paced all-rounder which is a real disservice as he's a genuine batsman who can do a few overs.

 

[SteveNZ]

Few surprises there, for sure. I'd like them to play the extra batter in CDG rather than Henry, given the amount of output in runs we've lost with Williamson and Taylor. Still Young up to open, Nipples at 4, Mitchell 5, Rachin 6, CDG 7, Blundell 8.

 

[Prince EWS]

Few surprises there, for sure. I'd like them to play the extra batter in CDG rather than Henry, given the amount of output in runs we've lost with Williamson and Taylor. Still Young up to open, Nipples at 4, Mitchell 5, Rachin 6, CDG 7, Blundell 8.

Depends how they reckon CdG is actually bowling IMO. He's had quite a few niggling injuries over the past couple of years - if he's bowling properly then it makes lots of sense to play him ahead of Henry but if he's sending down Mitchell-level part-time meds at 117km/hr as he was last time I saw him bowl then you probably do need a real bowler in that spot.

 

[SteveNZ]

Depends how they reckon CdG is actually bowling IMO. He's had quite a few niggling injuries over the past couple of years - if he's bowling properly then it makes lots of sense to play him ahead of Henry but if he's sending down Mitchell-level part-time meds at 117km/hr as he was last time I saw him bowl then you probably do need a real bowler in that spot.

Absolutely. Looked to me like he was running in pretty hard v ND.

 

[Flem274*]

I don't think they should play all the allrounders - feels uncomfortably 90s. I would go;

Latham
Ravindra/Rutherford
Conway
Young
Nicholls
Mitchell/CdG
Blundell/Cleaver
Jamieson
Henry
Southee
Wagner

 

[SteveNZ]

Don't think they should pick a guy to bat 7 who's not even in the squad they named yesterday, Flemo

 

[thierry henry]

If anything’s uncomfortably 90s it’s Latham and Rutherford batting together

 

[Bahnz]

If anything’s uncomfortably 90s it’s Latham and Rutherford batting together

Not if you were 6 at the time. Oh the member berries.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

If anything’s uncomfortably 90s it’s Latham and Rutherford batting together

Can't decide if this is good because Latham Sr. lasted until the middle order or bad because the top order got blown away.

 

[Shri]

haven't read thread

who are nz's reserve fast bowlers if boult, southee, wagner need to be phased out soon

 

[Bahnz]

Henry, then who knows? Nobody really stands head and shoulders above the others. Ben Sears and Nathan Smith have a bit of hype around them, and there are guys like Fraser Sheat and Will Williams who can’t stop taking domestic wickets, but really it’ll probably involve a fairly extended period of trial and error to find out the right mix.

 

[SteveNZ]

Little bit surprised that Kane won the Halberg Sportsman of the Year. Wasn't like he played a hell of a lot of cricket, although was very good in the WTC final + the double hundred v Pakistan. Felt like Paul Coll was a better pick.

 

[NZTailender]

Little bit surprised that Kane won the Halberg Sportsman of the Year. Wasn't like he played a hell of a lot of cricket, although was very good in the WTC final + the double hundred v Pakistan. Felt like Paul Coll was a better pick.

I guess captaining a team that won the wtc then made another wc final played a part

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Shame the Black Caps didn't beat Carrington for the supreme award. It was a real 50/50 imo.

 

[Immenso]

I just had to google who Paul Coll was, I had never heard of him.

I know names from the same sport - e.g. Susan Devoy, Ross Norman, Stu Davenport etc from back in the day. (and the Jansher and Jahinger Khans that the 2 men couldn't quite topple)

It's a bit of a sad reflection that there is no 'generalist' sport (or just general) shared culture in NZ anymore. Not any strong FTA sports broadcasts or news broadcasts. No sort of "Sunday Grandstand' sort of shared experience. Anyway ...... Old Middle Aged Man Shouts Laments At Cloud.

 

[Chubb]

I just had to google who Paul Coll was, I had never heard of him.

I know names from the same sport - e.g. Susan Devoy, Ross Norman, Stu Davenport etc from back in the day.

It's a bit of a sad reflection that there is no 'generalist' sport (or just general) shared culture in NZ anymore. Not any strong FTA sports broadcasts or news broadcasts. No sort of "Sunday Grandstand' sort of shared experience. Anyway ...... Old Middle Aged Man Shouts Laments At Cloud.

I knew the name because I played a lot of social squash in NZ, but I doubt many people would.

Incidentally, Joseph Romanos the sports writer (and sometime advisor to the Mayor of Wellington) is a brilliant squash player even now. He wrote a history of squash in NZ, we used to have it on the coffee table at the Timaru Squash Club.

 

[Immenso]

Interesting thinking of the changes in sports exposure over the years..

In the late 80s early 90s peak for squash in NZ. The NZ open was played in one of those glass courts at the Aotea Centre in Auckland - and televised live on 1 of the only 3 channels.

Squash - One of the definite losers when TVNZ totally gave up on sport after Sky took the rights for the major sports. Along with Softball and Horse Racing (horse racing for different reasons, ghetto-ising themselves on their own owned channel, but losing that "interupt the test cricket for 5 mins every 40 mins on a Saturday" sort of exposure).

By contrast. Domestic soccer only got 1 match per year with any televised coverage (the Chatham Cup final), sometimes not even that. The All Whites could go 1 or 2 years without being on TV (the pacific sections of WC qualifying not deemed worthy of televising, away games in pacific just out of the question)

Other huge participation sport , hockey, only got on TV every 4 years at the Olympics.

 

[thierry henry]

It's also weird how in a sense it feels like rugby league has become more mainstream acceptable (with the Warriors, so many Kiwis in the NRL etc) and SKY was a big part of that, yet back in the good old days you could watch Auckland club games live on FTA TV.

 

[Chubb]

Squash is also a terrible spectator sport. I love playing it but it's mind numbing to watch at the professional level. In person is better than TV, but not by much.