*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

[RossTaylorsBox]

Graeme Swann's been on comms for all of 3 minutes and I wish someone would punch him in the face to shut him up. Does that make me a bad person

Never

 

[wpdavid]

And England fielded brilliantly in the 1st test (and had a great win).

The exception rather than the rule of course. As you suggest, it massively impacts how competitive a side is, especially when the bowling isn't good enough to create multiple chances.

 

[Spark]

Graeme Swann's been on comms for all of 3 minutes and I wish someone would punch him in the face to shut him up. Does that make me a bad person

Sky's commentary is markedly worse this year than I remember it being in the past. Darren Gough wasn't great yesterday either.

 

[wpdavid]

All I would say about Leach is that's not easy bowling finger-spin in the 4th session on a track that appears to have absolutely nothing in it for him.

 

[straw man]

If England had fielded like this last match NZ would have won easily. Dunno what's happened to them in the last week (or conversely what happened to them prior to the Lord's test to make them field flawlessly).

 

[StephenZA]

Sky's commentary is markedly worse this year than I remember it being in the past. Darren Gough wasn't great yesterday either.

First time I`ve really had a chance to watch the cricket... and the commentary has been terrible.

 

[Chubb]

Leave Leach out of it it’s not his fault they can’t catch.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

I think I read somewhere that someone is in conversation with Rashid about returning to test cricket. I suppose he might want to play some county cricket first.

McCullum himself said in interview he was planning to speak to him.

Chronic injury concern (his elbow or shoulder, I've forgotten which) means he hasn't been up to FC cricket for years.

At the moment he's he's having a rough season in the Blast.

 

[straw man]

I enjoyed Darren Gough for a bit yesterday, though probably more an occasional novelty than an every-day commentator.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

All I would say about Leach is that's not easy bowling finger-spin in the 4th session on a track that appears to have absolutely nothing in it for him.

a big part of an England spinner's job not to be too incompetent in those situations tho

 

[Chubb]

A leg spinner would be getting smashed.
All for picking a leg spinner who isn’t Warne/kumble/shah level if you have a batting lineup that will make runs for them to play with. England don’t.

 

[jcas0167]

Love Swann and Gough. Real characters in the game. Butcher's compression device suggestion was great too. Who would people like to see in the comm box? I do miss Gower a bit.

 

[Gremlin]

All I would say about Leach is that's not easy bowling finger-spin in the 4th session on a track that appears to have absolutely nothing in it for him.

Completely agree with this. Whilst I prefer Parkinson to Leach I think that he has performed well for England without any luck and to be honest not utilised well in his career. I hope a good run will help him.

Spin is not England's biggest issue, dropped catches and batting collapses need sorting first

 

[Starfighter]

Picking Rashid would be the kind of regressive stupidity that has been very problematic for England recently. The combination of a white ball-focussed nong (Key) and a coach who knows nothing about country cricket has big negative potential.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

They decided to go after Leach from his first over yesterday and have been successful thus far.

 

[Mike5181]

5th wicket partnership list, not far away.

Top of the list now

 

[Mike5181]

Good **** Blundell

 

[trundler]

Great knock. Great partnership. Amazing display of attacking batsmanship.

 

[straw man]

This was an interesting read about why NZ are better at producing good test batsmen than we are.

New Zealand batters thrive without Williamson and teach England lesson | Andy Bull

For more than a decade New Zealand have been laying the ground for better batters and that was clear on the first day at Trent Bridge

www.theguardian.com

Yes what's laid out from the article is I think pretty standard understanding on CW of how NZ went from joke batting side to quite decent over the course of a decade. Some concern is that this progress is now going backwards, with the return of very-green seamers and the dominance of dibbly-dobbly medium pacers in the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons (though 21/22 was a bit better).

NZC had just brought in what they called a “warrant of fitness” for first-class pitches, and ordered groundstaff across the country to start preparing pitches that were better for batting, but still had enough bounce in them to reward bowlers who were willing to put the effort in in the first innings.

The upshot was that the number of 500+ totals in their first-class cricket rose from one in every five innings to one in three, while the overall domestic batting average rose from 28 in the 2000s, to 32 in the 2010s. Which means New Zealand’s is the only first-class competition in the world with an average in the 30s, and the only one that comes to the equivalent figure in Test cricket, too.

A decade later, the knock-on effect is that the typical New Zealand batter is better at playing off the back foot, and has learned to build longer innings. It also means they’ve stopped turning out so many dibbly-dobbly bowlers and have, instead, such a battery of fast, highly skilled quicks that has allowed them to pick four fine fast men here and leave a fifth, Neil Wagner, out of the side.

Certainly agree that an overabundance of green seamer wickets at domestic level is terrible for both batting and bowling development.

 

[wpdavid]

If England had fielded like this last match NZ would have won easily. Dunno what's happened to them in the last week (or conversely what happened to them prior to the Lord's test to make them field flawlessly).

1. Hypnosis before the 1st test - they all came out to field thinking they were from NZ
2. Forgot to do the same before the second test.