**Official** 2004 Natwest Series (Eng, NZL, WI)

[Kent]

Maybe, although our 9-2 record against SA and Pak was generally on excellent batting tracks.

I'd extend what Tim said to something I've noticed about English commentators as a whole.

What's a 'misfield' for a Kiwi is often 'saved at least 2 runs' when describing a Englishman's efforts. Perhaps they just naturally expect NZ to be more boringly effective.

 

[chris.hinton]

Why should i Neil HOW MANY other england batsman have scored a 100 at one day level

Neil just button it

 

[marc71178]

For Number 8 Graham Swann , Robin Martin Jenkins, That Hampshire bloke

And what's wrong with Giles? Oh I forget, he plays for Warwickshire!

Think about it England Need a Number 3 batsman and a Number 8 who bowler who can bat

What's wrong with Strauss going at 3?

 

[marc71178]

Can someone assure me Sajid Mahmood wasn't the biggest hyped-up con job a commentary team has ever pulled?

1 game - give the lad a chance!

It is very rare for one so inexperienced to make an immediate impact!!!

 

[marc71178]

What's a 'misfield' for a Kiwi is often 'saved at least 2 runs' when describing a Englishman's efforts. Perhaps they just naturally expect NZ to be more boringly effective.

No, they just don't expect the English man to field it right, so it is actually a save!!!

 

[marc71178]

Why should i Neil HOW MANY other england batsman have scored a 100 at one day level

He has indeed scored a century, correct - 106 to be precise.
He also scored a 50 in the final at Lords (but chasing 107 to win it was hardly a pressure knock)
He also got 40* (another no pressure knock after the brilliance of Trescothick in the same innings)

Let's look at the rest of his career shall we?

17 innings, 177 runs.

And his last 11 innings make even better reading - 211 runs, of which 45 came in 9 of them...

Neil just button it

Oh the classic losing arguemtn so revert to insults.

 

[anzac]

another couple of good results for NZL - missed basically all of the match v WIN, but got to watch last night's game v ENG................

must say that Butler's form in these last 2 matches has given me reason to rethink my previous comments re him not being suited to ODI format - esp if someone can keep it tight at the other end to give him license to go hard at the batsmen - I'd still like to see him pitch it up a bit more (a few yorkers would do nicely), but his 1st spell when Flintoff came to the crease was a treat.............

interesting to hear the ENG commentators singing the praises of both Butler & Franklin & asking the question as to why they weren't in the original squad & Test teams - don't worry boys you aren't the only ones to have asked those same questions...........

I must admit I did not think NZL would be doing so well after the Test series - I realise that it is a different form of the game, but I was concerned re the lack of partnerships from the batsmen in the Tests..............

IMO the test middle order needs a player like Marshall - not a big striker of the ball but keeps the scoreboard moving & the strike rotating.........however I still maintain there is a case for my 'horses for cources' theory, as Marshall strugles on low & slow pitches where the ball does not come on to the bat (which McMillan prefers).............

just as a side question for our NZ locals - what is the batting style of James Marshall as compared to Hamish??? Does he also look to nudge the ball about or is he more conventional??? Does he still need the ball coming onto the bat???

speaking of Macca he has failed to impress at all on Tour todate & on current form can not justify selection to the ICC Trophey let alone BAN, although the pitches for both are likely to suit him..............luckily for him the domestic season will get underway b4 the squad selection so he will have the chance to make runs on his preferred type of batting surface.....

I don't want to see another aggressive / attacking batsman in the middle order, so another name I'd consider would be Vincent.............but NOT as an Opener, although I have no problems with him at #4 behind Fleming at #3.........

 

[superkingdave]

To all the people who are winging about the commentators, you have to remember you are seeing the English coverage of the matches- if you don't want pro english commentary you need to get your TV companies to do their own commentary!

If i watched the Ashes with Australian commentary or the series in the West Indies with West Indian commentators i wouldn't expect them to be singing the English praises!

Stop Bitching

And Vikram Solanki is one of the worst international players i have ever seen.

 

[anzac]

Personally I have no problem with the ENG commentary - I have a lot of time for the likes of Gower, Botham, Willis & Co.............as players they probably represent the last time that ENG were competitive v AUS & so I think their opinions, insights & analysis of the current team / squad are quite valid.......

so far as their commentary being biased towards the ENG team, that is probably as a result of their being locals, and that their team is not performing as it has in the longer game........and even their 'bias' during the Test series can be seen as a result of not having had much to praise in recent times.............

furthermore the likes of Harmison & Flintoff are genuine world class players and currently worthy of praise..........

 

[Kent]

To all the people who are winging about the commentators, you have to remember you are seeing the English coverage of the matches- if you don't want pro english commentary you need to get your TV companies to do their own commentary!

But who's happy to sell the commentary to overseas buyers again? Not quite sure how that all works.

Personally I dislike broadcasters who think a token voice (like Coney) is enough. There's a definite "enough about you, let's talk about me" feel to Sky Sports, something I didn't find with Channel 4.

Not that I'm complaining - hearing Poms navel-gazing about their woes, talking in glowing terms about Sajid Mahmood while calling Hamish Marshall "a limited player" is quite amusing!

 

[superkingdave]

But who's happy to sell the commentary rights to overseas buyers again? Personally I dislike broadcasters who think a token voice (like Coney) is enough. There's a definite "enough about you, let's talk about me" feel to Sky Sports, something I didn't find with Channel 4.

I don't know anyTV company packs its commentary team with commentators from the opposite side, one commentator is brought in to give the oppositions perspective, whats the problem with that. And Mark Nicholas is the most jingoistic and biased commentator there is so i don't say how you can say Channel 4 is any better in this regard

 

[Kent]

But they are!

Mark Nicholas is verbose and over-the-top in his praise of everyone, even our guys. With that you have Richie, Ian Smith, Simon Hughes, all pretty even-handed.

 

[marc71178]

furthermore the likes of Harmison & Flintoff are genuine world class players and currently worthy of praise..........

No they're not, they're one trick ponies, Harmison can't even get wickets against the Blind School Girls U11 3rd team, and Flintoff is an irresponsible batsman and useless bowler.

 

[Tim]

But these days most pitches are batting tracks except from time to time we get exceptions like the current series.

Im not saying England or The West Indies are plain poor..but just look at their recent records & you can see why they're ranked so low in ODI's.
Garage Flower you've pretty much said NZ is a talent-less side..how the hell can that be when if we win the Natwest Series this week we'll overtake South Africa for #2.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Why should i Neil HOW MANY other england batsman have scored a 100 at one day level

Neil just button it

Ajit Agarkar has a Test century and Akash Chopra doesn't. What exactly does your point prove?

 

[Langeveldt]

Neil just button it

Is he not speaking enough bullsh** for your liking?

 

[Langeveldt]

No they're not, they're one trick ponies, Harmison can't even get wickets against the Blind School Girls U11 3rd team, and Flintoff is an irresponsible batsman and useless bowler.

Shut it Rik

 

[Neil Pickup]

Why should i Neil HOW MANY other england batsman have scored a 100 at one day level

Neil just button it

Because he's a liability? The man averages 20.72 and only has three innings of note out of 18 completed. That's an 83% failure rate at best.

He's an International failure - and as for ODI centuries, Ally Brown, Wayne Larkins, Trevor Chappell, Hemang Badani, Raman Lamba, Dinesh Mongia, Woorkeri Raman, Chetan Sharma, Abdul Razzaq, Asif Mujtaba, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Nazir, Moin-ul-Atiq, Naved Latif, Shoaib Malik, Shoaib Mohammad, Avishka Gunawardene, Carlisle Best, Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace, Bruce Edgar, Ken Wadsworth, Nicky Bojé, Dave Callaghan, Brian McMillan, Mike Rindel, Dion Ebrahim and Douglas Marillier all have them too - and I wouldn't fancy any of them in the regular number three slot for England.

 

[stevo22]

Certaintly the toss was a disadvantage..but only for about 5 overs. The sun came out quickly & batting became alot easier after 10 overs into the English innings.

I wouldn't say that. I was at the game and in bristol before hand, and it was p***ing down at 8am. It didn't look like there would be a game for a while. It was only until the last 10-15 overs of the england innings when it didnt look like it was going to rain any minute, with huge dark clouds going overhead. Thereafter, apart from the short rainbreak it was pretty much sunny most of the time and less cloud cover. NZ definitely had the better of the batting conditions but then the england bowlers bowled rubbish apart from odd overs from harmison, gough and anderson.

 

[Blakey]

[If it was "monumentally easy", how come our batsman decided to take a long time to settle in? And who's complaining?]

Dunno ask them, then again they are the one's with the crap one day record. Reading a lot of the comments from the BBC website, the majority of english posters complain about losing due to the toss - which is crap. Sour grapes mate.

"Small matter of beating Australia in pool play..lol."

Last VB series I think we were the ones who kep them out of their finals for the first time in years werent we?

"Might be interesting though if Bond returns..."

IF Bond returns. Dunno what it is like to damage your back but can imagine it wouldn't be that great bowling everytime and thinking "what if". We can beat anytime esp IF we have Bond. Do you think Butler will get any faster? As he is still rather young?

"I don't want to see another aggressive / attacking batsman in the middle order,
so another name I'd consider would be Vincent.............but NOT as an Opener,
although I have no problems with him at #4 behind Fleming at #3........."

Hell no to Vincent - he is far to erratic - and on that note take out Macca. He has never learnt how to play proper cricket strokes - sure you can invent but only if you are someone like Lara. He will go down as another with potential unfulfilled. However I would love to see Marshall in the team. And on that note - if he has never played well domestically, why not try out his brother also?!

Anyone know of any up and coming fast bowlers in NZ? I mean above 140k's. I heard there was someone down in Nelson. Also I noticed during our summer NZC placed an ad asking for kids between 12 and 18 to come bowl at Eden park with the speed gun there - and see who was the quickest - perhaps this is a cunning ploy to find and nurture a young tear-away bowler - what ya think?