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*Official* 2024 South Africa tour of New Zealand: 2 tests

Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Immenso said:
Mt Maunganui usually the best spinning pitch in NZ. And the forecast for the next week in the lead-up is unusually hot and windy for the upper North Island. The pitch will potentially be quite dry.
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Yeah, this is the venue were NZ lost to Bangladesh. Having 1 or 2 spinners in the side is worth it just to facilitate the scuffing up of the ball for reverse.
 
SeamUp

SeamUp

International Coach
Kenneth Viljoen said:
I think the only chance is to go ultra conservative, make ourselves hard to beat and hope NZ make mistakes like they did in one of the tests vs Bangladesh..

Brand and De Swardt are useful bowling options so that should allow us to play an extra batter ..

I'd go with this line up :

1.Brand
2.Moore
3.Van Tonder
4.Bedingham
5.Hamza
6.Petersen
7.De Swardt
8.Fortuin (WK)
9.Piedt
10.Paterson
11.Olivier
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That should be the team but Zondo and Moreki will play.

Either Moore or Van Tonder sits out.

De Swardt made it tough to leave him out after the warm-up but not sure where else they will fit Moreki in.

Not sure why Fortuin was chosen ahead of Qeshile either.

Important series in particular for Hamza, Petersen & Bedingham.
 
SeamUp

SeamUp

International Coach
StephenZA said:
All good.

And yeah the crickets been awesome. Hoping this NZ series brings promise for SA...
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That's good pal. Lets hope so.

Brand seemed a left field call for me. But talk is Conrad was lining up to replace Elgar.

I'm more open de Zorzi to get in some more of our talented players shining in the SA20 capable of playing test cricket. It's why it's a big series for Petersen, lots of chances now and poor FC season for Boland too. Talk is that he will be playing Northerns next season! Some travelling after Cobras, Knights, Dolphins, Boland!
 
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S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Bahnz said:
Yeah, this is the venue were NZ lost to Bangladesh. Having 1 or 2 spinners in the side is worth it just to facilitate the scuffing up of the ball for reverse.
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Interesting though, that match we fell to seam - Ebadot obviously destroyed us in the 2nd dig but Taskin got 3 as well, and the England Test last summer was dominated by seam (although that was a D/N pink ball)

Is it a spinning pitch? Because to me, it's always felt slow and low. It might turn for the spinners, but not quickly and not with bounce.
 
Zinzan

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Immenso said:
NZ as ripe for the picking as ever they have been for a decade. No red ball cricket. Batsmen are all in terrible form, or no games, or hobbling on 1 leg.
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Agree. Plus it's a lose lose situation for NZ. If we do win the series for the first time vs. SA it will always been said not to really count since it's an understrength SA side & if we lose it will obviously just be humiliating.
 
Skyliner

Skyliner

State Captain
Please God, help Tom Latham to stand up in this series. And help Devon Conway rediscover his mental clarity and innate batting gifts.
 
S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Zinzan said:
Agree. Plus it's a lose lose situation for NZ. If we do win the series for the first time vs. SA it will always been said not to really count since it's an understrength SA side & if we lose it will obviously just be humiliating.
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Not sure teams carry that mentality of 'oh even if we win they'll expect it'. They'll be fiercely determined to win, because winning Test matches is ultimately the most fulfilling thing in cricket. No matter who you play. And even if they won't admit it, producing performances that make your career averages look good, is also fulfilling.

But yeah, the preparation is dire. Rachin hasn't played a FC game in almost a year. That is insane - a guy with three Tests under his belt, as a No.7, is going to be asked to bat in the top 4-5 without a lick of preparation. Of the likely XI for Sunday, only one (Jamieson) played any Plunket games this season and is the only one who played for the NZ XI (albeit only one of the innings').

So we are ripe for the taking. It looks like the SA guys have played a fair bit more 4-day cricket this summer than us. And they'll be up for it.
 
Immenso

Immenso

International Vice-Captain
The direness of the domestic season structure is not apparent on the surface when the test 11 is full of generational talents, experienced and settled.

Only when the team is in a flux or in transition will the stupidity of the scheduling structure rare its ugly head again with any consequences. Hoping that time is not yet, but am fearful.
 
Zinzan

Zinzan

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So I guess the options for NZ are either;

Team 1 (2 spin, 4 seam)

Latham
Conway
KW
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell+
Santner
Jamieson
Henry
Southee
Wagner

Team 2 (3 spin, 3 seam)

Latham
Conway
KW
Mitchell
Phillips
Ravindra
Blundell+
Santner
Jamieson
Henry
Southee

or

Team 3 (stacking the batting)

Young /Ravindra
Latham
Conway
KW
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell +
Ravindra/ Santner
Jamieson
Henry
Southee

I'm leaning towards team 2, and if Conway can find his feet again, that's actually a pretty damn solid batting line up.

That said, in the future I'd still like to see Conway dropping to 3, and KW to 4 with either Ravindra or Young opening with Latham
 
ataraxia

ataraxia

International Coach
Isn't Ravindra as much as confirmed to be batting 4 (or at least 5)?

Other than that, I'm fairly confident they'll go with Team 2 (with Phillips most likely at 7). Or Wagner in for Santner, but I have a feeling spin will be the order of the day.
 
James

James

Cricket Web Owner
SteveNZ said:
So we are ripe for the taking. It looks like the SA guys have played a fair bit more 4-day cricket this summer than us. And they'll be up for it.
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I totally agree, and think this SA line-up is massively under-rated as I suggested in a previous post.

I'd almost be tempted to say SA go in as slight favourites. I'm predicting 1-1 with SA taking the 1st Test.
 
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