Black to the Future (NZ story)

[_Ed_]

Apologies for the title. Really poor stuff.

New Zealand squad for England tour announced

The squad for the tour of England was today announced by New Zealand Cricket, three days after the arrival of the team in England, in what was hailed as a substantial step forward in terms of efficiency by the association.

There were very few surprises in the squad, largely because the players have been filmed and photographed in training sessions in the last two days wearing shirts with their names on them. Some of the inclusions may have come as a surprise if this hadn't been the case however, with six uncapped players among the 18 - Martin Guptill, Greg Hay, Andrew McKay, Iain Robertson, Bradley Scott and 17 year-old Kane Williamson, who has only one FC appearance under his belt.

Commenting on this last selection, new captain Brendon McCullum said "it's really a learning experience for Kane, who will probably play in some of the tour games but is really just here for the experience." It was interesting to see the captain handling all questions from the media instead of the coach - a man who is taking his "background role" to such an extent that no one is entirely sure what his name is.

The New Zealanders' first game of the tour, against Kent in Canterbury, starts on April 28.

Squad: Brendon McCullum (captain) (keeper), James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Martin Guptill, Greg Hay, Chris Martin, Andrew McKay, Kyle Mills, Iain O'Brien, Jacob Oram, Michael Papps, Jeetan Patel, Iain Robertson, Bradley Scott, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent, Kane Williamson.

 

[_Ed_]

Tour Games Summary

Used the same XI for all three games, giving game time to a few players I'm not planning to use in the Tests:

Guptill
Robertson
Taylor
Hay
Williamson
McCullum * +
Oram
Vettori
Franklin
McKay
Gillespie


New Zealand v Kent

Kent 237 (McLaren 47, Key 43, Franklin 3-37)
NZ 207 (Williamson 72*, Kemp 3-36)
Kent 231 (Van Jaarsveld 111*, Franklin 5-31)
NZ 263-9 (Oram 123*, McLaren 3-58)

NZ won by 1 wicket.

Pretty average start to the tour. Williamson batted beautifully in the first innings, but the rest of the team were rather rubbish and we gave Kent a 30-run first innings lead. Van Jaarsveld played an amazing innings to set a challenging target, and when we collapsed to 83-6 it looked like we were heading for a rather embarrassing loss to a county, hardly the best start to a tour. Jacob Oram had other ideas though, scoring an unbeaten 123 from 155 balls to see us home. Best innings I've ever seen in all the time I've been playing ICC. Love the bloke.


New Zealand v Essex

NZ 491 (Taylor 135, Hay 93, Ten Doeschate 5-146)
Essex 157 (Pettini 57, McKay 6-29)
NZ 154-7 dec (Hay 29, Ten Doeschate 6-71)
Essex 229 (Foster 47, Vettori 3-33)

NZ won by 259 runs.

That's more like it! Batted really well in the first innings, with great knocks from Taylor and Hay. Franklin chipped in as well with a massive 88 from 57 balls as we scored our runs at close to 5 an over. Then McKay was magnificent as we knocked Essex over well short of the follow-on, but I decided not to enforce it. Can't remember why. We won in the end though.


New Zealand v MCC

MCC 135 (Sharpe 49, Vettori 3-22)
NZ 256 (Hay 70, Williamson 67, Henshaw 3-26)
MCC 110 (Sharpe 41, Franklin 4-18)

NZ won by an innings and 11 runs.

Comfortable win, but we should have batted better although Hay's 70 guaranteed him a place in the XI for the first Test at Lord's.


Stats for the tour games:

G.Hay 205 runs @ 41.00
R.Taylor 203 @ 50.75
K.Williamson 163 @ 40.75
J.Oram 155 @ 51.67

Awesome from Williamson, wasn't expecting that at all. Worrying lack of form with the bat from McCullum (66 runs @ 13.20) and Guptill (81 @ 16.20).

J.Franklin 15 wickets @ 12.93
A.McKay 15 wickets @ 19.87
D.Vettori 12 wickets @ 12.92
J.Oram 12 wickets @ 19.09

Nice.

 

[_Ed_]

Teams announced for First Test

New Zealand and England have both announced their teams for the series opener, which starts tomorrow at Lord's.

England:
Cook
Strauss *
Pietersen
Bell
Shah
Vaughan
Flintoff
Prior +
Sidebottom
Harmison
Hoggard

Vaughan was no certainty to play for England this summer but sealed his place with an excellent 224 for Yorkshire last week, taking his average for the season to 84.25.

New Zealand:
Papps
Guptill
Taylor
Fulton
Hay
McCullum * +
Oram
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Martin

The selection of 33 year-old Chris Martin ahead of Andrew McKay raised some eyebrows after the latter's impressive form in the tour games, but was justified by Brendon McCullum on the grounds that his 40 Test caps worth of experience will be hugely beneficial to a team with two debutants and four other players with fewer than 15 appearances in this form of the game.

While perhaps slightly short on bowling, England definitely head into this match as favourites against a shaky-looking New Zealand lineup. With their imposing batting all the way down to number 8 they will be looking to only bat once against a team who are perhaps flattered by their Test ranking of seventh.

 

[_Ed_]

NZ v England
1st Test
1st Day

Flintoff and Pietersen save England from embarrassment

Excellent innings from Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were all that stood between England and disaster on the first day of the First Test against New Zealand at Lord's.

Having won the toss and chosen to bat in what looked like excellent batting conditions, England's target of 400 and above was quickly shattered and they would have failed to get even half-way to that mark if it hadn't been for the excellent counter-attacking efforts of Pietersen (70) and Flintoff (84).

New Zealand's decision to play the experienced Chris Martin ahead of the impressive uncapped paceman Andrew McKay was immediately proven to be the right one as the 33 year-old removed both England openers inside the first 30 minutes of play.

Pietersen then quickly got into his work, hitting several boundaries particularly against the uncharacteristically wayward Jacob Oram, but the wickets kept falling at the other end. At Lunch a shell-shocked England were 96-4, with no batsman apart from Pietersen (then 54*) reaching the teens.

When Pietersen's knock came to an end things were still looking terrible for England at 125-5, but fortunately they had another wonderful player capable of picking up where Pietersen left off. Another flurry of boundaries followed as Flintoff smashed his way to 60 not out at Tea.

A period of fascinating cricket came immediately after the break, as New Zealand cut off Flintoff's preferred scoring areas and piled on the pressure. Something had to break, and eventually it was Flintoff who swung wildly at Daniel Vettori's arm ball and was caught in front. The score when he departed was 225-8, with Flintoff having scored 84 of the 100 runs added to England's total while he was in the middle.

The tail was quickly wrapped up, with 227 being all England had managed on a flat pitch under sunny skies.

With an hour's play remaining, New Zealand had the chance to well and truly assert their dominance and with the aggressive play by their batsmen it appeared that was their intention. But both Michael Papps (15) and Ross Taylor (23) fell after making promising starts, leaving the visitors two down for 70 at stumps, 157 runs in arrears. Debutant Guptill is still there, having looked solid in his unbeaten 24.

 

[Somerset]

Excellent start to the tour, hopefully you can keep that up.

 

[_Ed_]

NZ v England
1st Test
2nd Day

Fulton ton gives NZ the lead

A superb maiden Test century by Peter Fulton guided New Zealand to a first-innings total of 309 on the second day of the First Test at Lord's, in response to England's disappointing 227.

However, England supporters were given something to smile about in the last hour of play. A number of quick wickets, including two in one extraordinary over by part-timer Ian Bell, saw the New Zealand innings come to a close more quickly than had been expected, and in the 10 remaining overs before stumps England's openers raced to 33-0.

New Zealand 309 lead England 227 & 33-0 by 49 runs.

Pretty good day for us, although I'm a bit worried about a possible England comeback tomorrow.

 

[Somerset]

Great knock from Fulton there. The bowlers will need to be firing on day three for you to maintain your advantage though IMO.

 

[_Ed_]

Yeah, and so far they haven't been...102-run partnership for the 1st wicket.

But I did just bring Vettori into the attack he took two wickets in his first over! So maybe there's some hope yet...

 

[_Ed_]

...or not.

NZ v England
1st Test
3rd Day

England on top after brilliant comeback

Led by a chanceless 111 from Owais Shah and half-centuries from Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan, England surged to an imposing 248-run lead at stumps on the third day of the Lord's Test.

Cook and Strauss began brilliantly with a 102-run opening stand and seemed likely to bat right through the opening session. Things changed dramatically in the last 15 minutes before Lunch though, with Daniel Vettori claiming three wickets and Kyle Mills one as England slumped to 110-4.

From then on it was all Shah and Vaughan though, putting on 173 in a session and a half. When Shah was eventually dismissed Andrew Flintoff came in and accompanied Vaughan through to the end of the day with the score at 330-5, Flintoff finishing 19 not out and Vaughan 81 not out.

England 227 & 330-5 lead New Zealand 309 by 248 runs.


This is depressingly realistic for NZ against England, isn't it? Looks like we've thrown away a wonderful chance to take a 1-0 series lead.

 

[Somerset]

No shortage of realism in this story.

 

[_Ed_]

NZ v England
1st Test
4th Day

England lead series 1-0 after thrilling victory

In a desperately close finish it was England who took out the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's by the slender margin of 18 runs.

Resuming at 330-5, England made it to 388 all out thanks to a second half-century for the match from Andrew Flintoff. His runs were scored while wickets tumbled at the other end, most of them to Daniel Vettori who finished with 6-93.

Set 307 to win, New Zealand started disastrously. Flintoff was at it again, taking three wickets as the visitors collapsed to 34-4. That became 98-5, and the result looked a foregone conclusion.

Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram had other ideas. In a partnership of 132, the two New Zealanders slammed the bowlers to all corners of the ground and the concern was clearly visible on the faces of the England players.

Then Matthew Hoggard got the breakthrough when McCullum was caught on the boundary for 85, and when Oram followed for 87 not long afterwards there were still 55 runs required. James Franklin did his best with an unbeaten 26, but Flintoff returned and took the last two wickets to secure a brilliant win.

England 227 & 388 beat New Zealand 309 & 288 by 18 runs.

Absolutely awesome match, but it really hurts. Not sure what I can do in the next game, Flintoff seems pretty unstoppable at the moment.

Don't think I'll make any changes to my XI, most of them played pretty well. Papps was an exception, but there are no other openers in the squad. Oops.

 

[Somerset]

Ouch, looks like you almost pulled off what would've been a sensational win. As for having no other openers, again, how appropriate for NZ cricket.

 

[_Ed_]

England v New Zealand - Second Test, Old Trafford

One change to the England team - the out-of-form Ian Bell makes way for Paul Collingwood, who will bat at eight! NZ are unchanged.

England:
Cook
Strauss *
Pietersen
Shah
Vaughan
Flintoff
Prior +
Collingwood
Sidebottom
Harmison
Hoggard

NZ:
Papps
Guptill
Taylor
Fulton
Hay
McCullum * +
Oram
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Martin

England have won the toss, and will bat first.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Not fair. England have named 12 players in their starting XI.

I can see a Darryl Hair-esque forfeiting controversy arising from this.

 

[_Ed_]

I'll try to have that investigated, but as I'm the successor to John Bracewell I think it's unlikely that my claims will be taken seriously.

2nd Test
1st Day

England 251 (Cook 108, Pietersen 92, Mills 3-54)
New Zealand 17-0 (Papps 12*, Guptill 5*)

England suffer extraordinary collapse in 3rd session

There was a stunned silence around Old Trafford late on the first day as the crowd struggled to come to terms with what they had just witnessed. As difficult as it is to believe, England had lost their last nine wickets for 45 runs. Although they are renowned for their collapses, surely this was one of the worst.

It was going so well. England had lost the early wicket of Andrew Strauss, but Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen combined in a magnificent 191-run partnership for the second wicket. At 206-1 it looked like they were heading for a massive score.

Then things started to change. Daniel Vettori removed Cook and Owais Shah in successive deliveries, and from then on the remainder of England's impressive-looking batting lineup offered little resistance.

In reply New Zealand started shakily, with Michael Papps being dropped at slip first ball, but he and Martin Guptill made it through to the end of the tricky 20-minute period before stumps.

 

[_Ed_]

Another thing worth noting, there's another game in progress at the moment in my game - West Indies scored 290, and Australia got bowled out for 181! Bravo is a star, 75 with the bat and then 6-53.

Going to start the second day now, hope the NZ blokes can get a decent lead here.

 

[_Ed_]

2nd Test
2nd Day

England 251
New Zealand 256 (Oram 90, Flintoff 3-42)
England 16-2 (Mills 2-4)

New Zealand have the edge after day of tumbling wickets

On a day in which spectators couldn't even leave their seats to go to the toilet without missing a wicket, New Zealand have a slight advantage after taking a 5-run first innings lead and removing Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen before stumps.

The day started disastrously for the visitors. On an overcast morning with the ball swinging dramatically they lost four quick wickets, including Michael Papps to the first ball of the day. Brendon McCullum and Peter Fulton tried to turn things around in contrasting style, with McCullum looking for the boundaries and Fulton trying to occupy the crease.

Neither were very successful however, and New Zealand found themselves 164-8 and staring down the barrel of a major first-innings deficit. But a spectacular 90 from Jacob Oram changed everything, guiding the Kiwis to 256.

After a brief rain delay the England openers came out to face 6 overs before stumps, and Kyle Mills was in remarkable form with the ball. He removed Cook first ball, and had Pietersen caught at slip to give New Zealand the advantage going in to the third day of a fascinating match.

Thoughts:

Wow. Pretty pleased with our position here, but where would I be without Jake Oram? Unbelievable. And Mills was absolutely outstanding in his 3-over spell. Hoping for more of that from him on the third day.

Oh, and Brett Lee knocked WI over for 115 so Australia have a pretty comfortable target to chase.

 

[Somerset]

A New Zealand-esque collapse there on day one from England. Really good effort from your bowlers against a strong English batting line up. Pretty close game at the moment, hopefully you can get over the line this time.

 

[_Ed_]

2nd Test
3rd Day

England 251
New Zealand 256
England 189 (Flintoff 100*, Mills 4-23, Oram 4-28)
New Zealand 40-1

NZ heading for victory despite Flintoff ton

An amazing unbeaten 100 from Andrew Flintoff was not enough to save England from probable defeat. The first session proved decisive with the loss of five wickets, causing such damage that not even Flintoff's heroics could help England set a defendable total. New Zealand's final target of 185 does not look big enough.

Thoughts:
Pretty confident about this chase. Surely not even NZ can collapse enough to fall short of 185, right?

 

[_Ed_]

2nd Test
4th Day

New Zealand level series despite more Flintoff brilliance

The three-match series between England and New Zealand is all tied up 1-1 after New Zealand successfully chased the target of 185 to win at Old Trafford. They only just got there though, having been torn apart by an amazing spell of 6-29 by Andrew Flintoff.

Thoughts:
This series is amazing! Really enjoyed coming out with a win this time. Flintoff = unbelievable.

Think I'll be making two changes for the decider - Chris Martin didn't bowl very well here so I think I'll give McKay a go, and I'll probably bring Lou Vincent in for Greg Hay.