*Official* Australia tour of New Zealand Feb-Mar 2024

[OverratedSanity]

That Southee shot

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Well can we all at least agree that England have been the better team.

SBI!!

 

[Flem274*]

SP and Cummins existence in their respective sides robbing us of our usual moral victory too. Shambles.

 

[Skyliner]

Australia have given us a 4 test tour in 2027 apparently, but must be regretting it. The embarrassing performances against them continue. This one is a real stinker; a farcical run-out, dire catching, generally poor execution of batting and bowling skills.

 

[Meridio]

If there's a positive to come out of today, it's that time in the middle should be very good for Mitchell. He's been a bit out of form since the World Cup, hasn't had all that many bats (especially in long form cricket) and yesterday was looking awful. Hopefully, that bodes well going into the second test.

Also, now I think of it, O'Rourke batting here is a bit of a positive as well, both to help with the above and also that hopefully it signifies that his hamstring isn't bad and he'll be available next game too.

 

[Jezroy]

Man this is dire. And thinking about the next test… even more dire. Because we know that Latham will play. We know that Blundell will play. Southee will play. So you basically have 2 walking wickets and one ineffective bowler straight away.

Cool.

I just wish they had the balls to pick the likes of Smith instead of Scotty K. I don’t even know where to start. This is a real reality check.

 

[Bahnz]

Lol, Mitchell playing for the red ink, fair enough given what he's watched from the tail.

 

[Dick Rockett]

O'Rourke batting here is a bit of a positive as well, both to help with the above and also that hopefully it signifies that his hamstring isn't bad and he'll be available next game too.

Hopefully it's that and not that they don't want to be seen waving the white flag to end such a damp fart of a test, because if he aggravates that hammy batting here I'm going to cry.

 

[Athlai]

Closer than any of the games last tour

 

[Dick Rockett]

Man this is dire. And thinking about the next test… even more dire. Because we know that Latham will play. We know that Blundell will play. Southee will play.

They are not going to drop the captain for what will be his hundredth test. And at least Blundell has done something against Australia.

Latham, on the other hand...

 

[Flametree]

So much for my Sunday afternoon....

 

[Meridio]

Hopefully it's that and not that they don't want to be seen waving the white flag to end such a damp fart of a test, because if he aggravates that hammy batting here I'm going to cry.

Yeah that's the worry for me too, especially if they're trying to push for two to get Mitchell back on strike.

Ah, well nevermind then. Guess we'll find out in the next few days.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Predict the post match interview chat from the skipper.

"Well, we lost a few of the key moments in the match but we otherwise competed hard. The boys are hurting, but we're backing that the same guys can bounce back hard at Hagley Oval and turn this series around."

 

[Dick Rockett]

Predict the post match interview chat from the skipper.

"Well, we lost a few of the key moments in the match but we otherwise competed hard. The boys are hurting, but we're backing that the same guys can bounce back hard at Hagley Oval and turn this series around."

Tim Southee is an AI confirmed.

But yeah, add a few "obviously"s and that'll be it

 

[Jezroy]

They are not going to drop the captain for what will be his hundredth test. And at least Blundell has done something against Australia.

Latham, on the other hand...

Aaron Redmond has done something against Australia, but I don’t think they should pick him either.

 

[Athlai]

Australia's 10th wicket partnership cost us 200 runs

 

[Moss]

I was going to pop in this morning and comment on the tone of a few posts from yesterday which are in a similar tone to this one, namely “if everything bad which happened to nz in the test hadn’t happened then they would have won.” We had all reasons this is totally on nz and nothing to do with aus, and it’s crap.

“oh they dropped some catches, oh we bowled badly at this point, oh we batted badly at the start of our first innings.”

Spare us this ****. They won the toss and had the best of it on a sporting pitch and the Aus batting is as fragile as I’ve seen it since the late era Clarke captaincy. The difference is the Aus bowlers typically give you nothing. Lyon has had a great game - runs and wickets. Despite Green’s ton he should be MOTM easily. The quicks have been on the money as well.

Both sides turn up to have a crack. The idea nz have somehow thrown this away is laughable, especially given the way Aus batted yesterday.

They’ve copped a job in’. End of.

Think when the dust settles it’ll be acknowledged that Green’s innings was one for the ages on a challenging pitch, and Lyon’s was a special performance, can’t recall the last time any spinner took 10-for in NZ. Add to that a few other things like the openers showing how to get through the new ball on day 1 and the usual relentless display from the pace trio and yes, it’s been top class from the Aussies.

That said NZ’s day 2 performance was as match-losing as it can get, so the reactions are mostly justified. Don’t recall if anyone actually suggested NZ would have won but for all of that, if so that’s probably taking it too far.

 

[Dick Rockett]

Australia's 10th wicket partnership cost us 200 runs

Don't forget the 35 runs the drop of Lyon cost us.

 

[Skyliner]

Of course Australia has played very well, and totally outthought and outclassed us, but some NZ batsmen have shown that they could apply themselves and score runs, which indicated that the pitch was not unplayable, and neither was the bowling. Test cricket at its best should be an arm wrestle where teams absorb pressure and then seek to apply pressure on the opposition. NZ was unable to adequately absorb pressure, and showed no killer instinct whenever they had Australia under pressure. I think many NZ fans just take it as a given that Australia is performing well when they criticise the BC’s; no disrespect to Australia is intended. This was men vs boys in many respects.

 

[Bahnz]

Predict the post match interview chat from the skipper.

"Well, we lost a few of the key moments in the match but we otherwise competed hard. The boys are hurting, but we're backing that the same guys can bounce back hard at Hagley Oval and turn this series around."

Better than the post match interview with the coach.

"I though it was an outstanding effort from the boys. Bowling Australia out for 160 and scoring nearly 200 in the 4th innings, I think it's our best performances against the Aussies in my tenure. You've gotta remember that cricket is a small sport in New Zealand so we shouldn't really be expecting to win all the time, especially in tests."