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***Official*** Australia in New Zealand 2016
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OverratedSanity
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Wish there was more footage on YouTube of Richardson and Dravid in that series. They each played a couple of absolute gems.
TheJediBrah
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FaaipDeOiad
Hall of Fame Member
I feel like the pitch preparation discussion should be a really simple one that gets complicated a lot by extreme outliers. I think the home side absolutely should be able to prepare pitches that suit the home team, as long as they are of a reasonable standard, not dangerous, the game doesn't end in two days and people aren't making 900 and so on. Preparing a complete lifeless road to force a draw in a series you're winning or preparing a pitch where the new ball doesn't carry to the keeper on day 1 because they have good fast bowlers is definitely unsportsmanlike. Preparing a pitch that takes turn because you have good spinners or a bouncy wicket because you have a good fast bowler is totally fine and should be encouraged for pitch diversity.
Unfortunately those boundaries can be kinda hard to police and pitch condition is subject to a lot of outside influence.
Unfortunately those boundaries can be kinda hard to police and pitch condition is subject to a lot of outside influence.
That's fine, everyone's allowed to profess their preference. Just not to the groundsmen directly. If he wants to read papers and prepare something based on jingoistic fervour, his call.
Bahnz is right, the 2002 decks were juicy as all hell not through manipulation, it was just a soppy 'summer'. And that's fine - that's our conditions, that's why our pitches have been 'green' in the past. So if that happens, happy days. But the process of manipulating them to suit our seamers, does that actually work? Based on a 50/50 (less if you factor in Brendon) coin toss against a country well equipped to exploit it. Maybe against India, I get it. But not a side like Australia. Especially when our guys' techniques are arguably also more shot than theirs.
Against a side like Australia, like in the ODIs, we're best when the pitches are reasonably flat and have a bit of bounce, and rely on atmospheric conditions with swing and a bit of swing - not a dirty wet green one.
Hurricane
Hall of Fame Member
Test-match intensity a 'step up' - Henry Nicholls | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
5 initial thoughts on Nicholls
1) He's probably the blackcap most likely to ton up in CHCH based on knowing the pitch and secondly the Aussies not knowing him very well.
2) He is the probably the most "Australian" batsman I can remember us producing in terms of his style of play. IE he is busy from the second he walks out there, and on a good day transfers pressure on to the opposition bowlers.
3) Reasonable against spin. Possibly better than Latham is (against spin) at this stage.
4) Seems to have his head screwed on right. He does interviews, like the one in the above link, and he doesn't get ahead of himself. All he is focusing on is the next game.
5) Seems to "know his game". As for how good he is. Well yeah. Not as good as Ross. I think a lot of it will come down to the mental side of the game. Can he dial in. Can he produce under pressure. I don't know enough about his temperament at this stage. It will become apparent soon enough.
5 initial thoughts on Nicholls
1) He's probably the blackcap most likely to ton up in CHCH based on knowing the pitch and secondly the Aussies not knowing him very well.
2) He is the probably the most "Australian" batsman I can remember us producing in terms of his style of play. IE he is busy from the second he walks out there, and on a good day transfers pressure on to the opposition bowlers.
3) Reasonable against spin. Possibly better than Latham is (against spin) at this stage.
4) Seems to have his head screwed on right. He does interviews, like the one in the above link, and he doesn't get ahead of himself. All he is focusing on is the next game.
5) Seems to "know his game". As for how good he is. Well yeah. Not as good as Ross. I think a lot of it will come down to the mental side of the game. Can he dial in. Can he produce under pressure. I don't know enough about his temperament at this stage. It will become apparent soon enough.
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Gob
International Coach
Moss
International Captain
Didn't rate Nicholls as a test match prospect, and didn't get to watch his 59 in the 2nd dig. But anyone who bats in the top 5 and is willing to show a cake as opposed to icing mentality (not in the Guptill way) deserves to be persevered with. For the same reason, been a bit perplexed that they haven't recalled Brownlie in over 2 years now, but let's leave that aside.
Watling actually ticks most of the boxes above, his slump has been frustrating. The medium term hope has to be that a capable young keeper-bat comes in and BJ is able to move into the top 5.
Gob
International Coach
yeah Nicholls looked good. Should be the man to replace BMac and bat @ 5 once BMac is gone and Taylor is fit. Also think NZ has to pick Henry here. No point in picking Craig just for the **** of picking a spinner. Santner @ #6 would have been ideal to play four seamers but still i would play four quicks and throw the ball to small/medium daddy Kane to chuck in few overs. Can't be that much worse than Craig
Moss
International Captain
That's my issue - how do you police it? If you're able to green it up, you're also able to take all life out of it. And I can't see how you meter out punishments to deter it. Any coach worth his salt would say hey, it's his pitch - I only talked to him. It's a slippery slope. Let the guy do his job, let Mother Nature do hers.
I know Hobart happened but I don't believe raging green ones are our best hope of beating Australia. It's too dependent on the toss. Our guys are completely incapable of handling seam AND bounce. Scoreboard pressure, ie the runs in Perth last year and in 2001, and pure swing are our best weapons with bounce in the deck not hurting either.
Moss
International Captain
Scoreboard pressure - only happening if KW goes big, and I fear his season has tailed off.
Pure Swing - about time, but there's been precious little evidence of it this summer from NZ (whether it's the kookaburra or Soult being below their best I dunno). Green pitch and lush outfield will actually keep the ball from getting old soon, so in that sense helpful for NZ right?
Might help NZ, but only if they call the flight of a coin right. Spose that's worth gambling on in this Test. First, not so.
Craig is playing. He actually bowled bloody well in his first 10 or so overs, kept very good players in check on a pitch completely not conducive to spin bowling. Then the Voges thing happened, and he wasn't the only one to go to water after that. And hell, he was actually our best batsman. For those saying Nicholls looked good...maybe if you watched his highlights he did, but gee, there was a lot of indecisiveness, edges past stumps and cordons etc. And as for the telegraphed two men back plan that he hooked into straight away...don't be fooled into thinking that isn't coming again from Saturday.