6th June - Group A - England v New Zealand

[Furball]

If this isn't rain affected NZ will crush them. England's bowling won't cut it.

Whoops.

 

[tobe_ornot2]

NZ lack of depth beyond the top 4 is really starting to show. Theres only so much the bowling can do.

 

[Adders]

Talk nah howsie

 

[Athlai]

That's awkward moment when we only brought three batsman.

 

[marc71178]

Whoops.

To be fair, the NZ reply was delayed by rain...

 

[Athlai]

I also see that Williamson-Taylor robbed me of another 100 partnership. 2nd game in a row its fallen in the 90s.

Partnership records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

If Amla/AB wasn't such a thing, I'd say they were the best batting partnership in the world right now.

 

[91Jmay]

I also see that Williamson-Taylor robbed me of another 100 partnership. 2nd game in a row its fallen in the 90s.

Partnership records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

If Amla/AB wasn't such a thing, I'd say they were the best batting partnership in the world right now.

Partnership records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Since start of 2016, fair arguments for Williamson/Taylor, Hales/Root, Faf/Quinny, Amla/Faf and Smith/Warner

 

[The Hutt Rec]

This is all true but Santner flat out can't bat. It wouldn't work. As you say he can't score quick enough.

Neesham needs to bat 5 and they can pad around him. Unfortunately our middle order just hasn't got better at all, spectacular job Craig McMillan is doing as batting coach.

Can hardly blame McMillan for our batting line up being a complete bunch of numpties. Select better players!

 

[Furball]

To be fair, the NZ reply was delayed by rain...

Imagine how great the winning margin would have been with a good bowling attack.

 

[Burgey]

The lack of depth in NZ's batting is epic. Such disparity between KW, Guptill, Taylor and the rest.

 

[Bahnz]

Losing McCullum and Elliot has really done for this team. We basically need one of Gup, Ross or KW to score a hundred and the other two to score 50's if we're to win a game, especially in bat friendly conditions like these.

 

[Athlai]

The lack of depth in NZ's batting is epic. Such disparity between KW, Guptill, Taylor and the rest.

Yeah it's completely crazy. 1 of Neesham or Anderson wouldn't really disgrace us with them sporadically coming off with a good aggressive innings, but when 4 of the top 7 are Ronchi, Broom, Anderson and Neesham, it's just spud city.

We have 3 of the best and most experienced limited over bats in the tournament and 4 of the worst.

 

[centurymaker]

NZ doesn't have a full batting line-up
It's only a "half a batting line-up".

They may be 200 for 2 or 3 down and then be bowled out for like 255. No chance of going far in this tournament.

 

[social]

Chris Lynn? Bloke has never made a list A hundred. Miles behind either of these two, comparing him to Hales is laughable.

Lynn has barely played any List A stuff of late due to injury

Compare their FC records and get back to me

 

[Flem274*]

Bugger, well played England

ronchi has made a career off of one odi ton and being australian. not bad.

i hope we use the next couple of years to develop the young domestic finishers like chapman and bruce instead of semi-rounders.

 

[Howsie]

Always go back and forth on who I prefer between Root and Williamson.... both such class acts. Do think Williamson carries his team more though.

Well obviously, Guptill is a class act but besides him this team is full of scrubs (Ronchi, Broom and Anderson) or a plodder in Ross Taylor who still plays ODI cricket like it's the year 2000.

New Zealand were a little unlucky to get the worst of the pitch, although in all probability England just bowled better. We were (like 99 percent of the cricket we play now) intent on just bowling short, where that back of a length and letting the pitch do its thing was obviously a much better option. Good ol Hesson and co plan working to a tee.....

Too good England, to much fire power with the bat and good enough with the ball. I still don't believe their bowling attack is good enough to win this tournament but it's only two games from here and if you can make score of 330-350 pretty easily you're in with a decent chance in finals cricket.

 

[Howsie]

as a Kent fan, who rates Latham quite highly, can anyone from NZ give a reasonable answer to why Broom and Ronchi are both picked ahead of him, despite being so mediocre with the bat? Is it Ronchi's keeping is supposedly so much better which justifies picking someone who averages 24 to open?

Broom and Hesson are really good mates, they've been close for a long time so that explains his continued inclusion. Ronchi well, this is a guy who has literally averaged 12 for two and a half years, if he isn't going to be dropped for being that inept and instead promoted up the order I don't think we'll ever get rid of him.

Like I've always said with coaches, as an organisation or team three maybe four years is the maximum time I guy should be in charge. Hard to start dropping good friends.....

 

[Furball]

India 2011 showed us that you don't need a great bowling attack to win tournaments if you've got an excellent batting lineup.

 

[Howsie]

It bloody well helps though.

Personally I'm always taking the team with the stronger bowling attack (as long as the batting isn't that bad). England has the best, longest lineup I reckon but the other teams aren't that far behind and they have much better bowling groups. I guess we'll see in just over a week but I just don't see it.

 

[straw man]

That was... incredibly unsurprising after the Williamson wicket. Needed rain at 150/2, obviously.

Our selectors deserve a kick up the bum - it's been blindingly obvious for more than a year that they needed to solve both the wicketkeeper-batsman role and the lower middle order problems by trialling promising players from outside the core squad. These types of collapse have been a feature of all recent series, the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final loss to England, and with elements there going back to the 2015 World Cup.

Instead they seem to think they're being sensible or conservative by sticking with perennial strugglers like Anderson and Ronchi, or bringing in domestic stalwarts like Broom. That's not conservative 6-9 months out from a major tournament, it's just dumb.