*Official* Australia tour of New Zealand Feb-Mar 2024

[Jezroy]

Nz got what they deserved for repeatedly playing SP when there's probably a dozen better options for a 4th bowler around the country. At least it seems safe to say that given he only got 10 overs in the match he'll never play for NZ again.

How in the actual **** did he get a second game after Wellington?

That was possibly dumber than picking him for the first game.

 

[jcas0167]

Must be bowling well in the nets? Hard to understand otherwise. Was erratic in Wellington and again here.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Must be bowling well in the nets? Hard to understand otherwise. Was erratic in Wellington and again here.

erratic in his morals too

 

[Bahnz]

Nah, they made a selection based on the numbers they read from the NZA tour and the early season plunket games and didn't put any more thought into it. Once he was in the squad it would've taken a hell of a climb down to drop him, and we all know Stead and co don't have the guts to admit when they get things wrong. And Phillips bowling at Wellington then convinced them that Santner wasn't needed, so in for a penny in for a pound.

 

[Nintendo]

Must be bowling well in the nets? Hard to understand otherwise. Was erratic in Wellington and again here.

He did really well vs Aus-A mid last year and was one of the top wicket takers in the first half of the PS. Don't think his selection here was as WTF bad as it was vs England last summer.

 

[anonymouskefe]

did we have set plans for any of the batsmen today we look so tactically lost. As soon as a partnership forms we resort to banging it in rather than being patient

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah his selection last summer was based on nothing except taking 250 fc wickets at an ave of like 32

 

[Spark]

I think there's plenty of guys rearing to go, just waiting for the chance who could outperform Starc. Starc has let more games run away from us than he's won for us

He's been pretty good in the last year tbf. But he was awful yesterday, close to match-losing because of how much of an open pressure valve he was

 

[Gob]

How in the actual **** did he get a second game after Wellington?

That was possibly dumber than picking him for the first game.

You have to decisively to say no to him tons of times though

Otherwise he just forces his way in

 

[Nintendo]

D

did we have set plans for any of the batsmen today we look so tactically lost. As soon as a partnership forms we resort to banging it in rather than being patient

Deck flattened the **** out didn't it? Kinda like in NZ's second innings. It's one of those decks where you have to take every chance because there not gonna come often. We dropped Latham and NZ dtopped marsh.

 

[anonymouskefe]

D
Deck flattened the **** out didn't it? Kinda like in NZ's second innings. It's one of those decks where you have to take every chance because there not gonna come often. We dropped Latham and NZ dtopped marsh.

Yeah pitch was pretty flat but surely asking bowlers that arent wagner to bowl like wagner should be an absolute last resort we did the same in wellington to green. saw with Cummins yesterday when the pitch flattened out he stuck to bowling in the channel and bought his length back slightly and it worked

 

[Flem274*]

Tactics were ruined today partially because the guy selected to bowl quick with an old ball was useless and is also an alleged bad guy, so Southee and Henry tried to step outside their bread and butter to pick up the slack.

 

[thundaboult]

lmao hilarious choke

so stoked for sears and o'rourke though!

 

[thierry henry]

As has been said, Kuggeleijn's selection unfortunately made a lot of sense leading into the first test. His NZA and domestic form was excellent, KJ was out and Wags was on his last legs at best. An "impact" bowler who could bat 8 was exactly what we needed. There was also no realistic prospect (rightly or wrongly) of him missing out on SP grounds given he was picked last season.

What I don't understand is him getting picked again after he played like **** in Wellington and after there was clear reluctance from Southee to bowl him. Almost from the start of this test it was apparent Southee didn't rate his bowling and was only using him as a last resort. Why pick a guy like that?

 

[Nintendo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cricket/comments/1bbt4uf
Pat Cummins, what a hero.

 

[Flem274*]

As has been said, Kuggeleijn's selection unfortunately made a lot of sense leading into the first test. His NZA and domestic form was excellent, KJ was out and Wags was on his last legs at best. An "impact" bowler who could bat 8 was exactly what we needed. There was also no realistic prospect (rightly or wrongly) of him missing out on SP grounds given he was picked last season.

What I don't understand is him getting picked again after he played like **** in Wellington and after there was clear reluctance from Southee to bowl him. Almost from the start of this test it was apparent Southee didn't rate his bowling and was only using him as a last resort. Why pick a guy like that?

Yeah though with the addendum that there are better pace bowling allrounders and better rapid guys in domestix, but only SP combines them unless Smith and Clarke are quicker than they look (both look in Matt Henry territory).

 

[TheJediBrah]

He's been pretty good in the last year tbf. But he was awful yesterday, close to match-losing because of how much of an open pressure valve he was

It's definitely some confirmation bias but it seems to me that Starc does this a lot. Whenever our bowling is struggling he's usually the main culprit leaking runs and bowling trash

 

[Moss]

Yeah pitch was pretty flat but surely asking bowlers that arent wagner to bowl like wagner should be an absolute last resort we did the same in wellington to green. saw with Cummins yesterday when the pitch flattened out he stuck to bowling in the channel and bought his length back slightly and it worked

Folks who don’t rate Wagner because “running in all day and banging it in short does not involve any real skill” should definitely look at others’ attempts to emulate him. Trouble is NZ seem to think of it as a go-to tactic. Needs to be un-learned IMO.

And yes Cummins proved himself the most intelligent bowler on either side, though Henry didn’t do too badly himself.

 

[thierry henry]

Yeah though with the addendum that there are better pace bowling allrounders and better rapid guys in domestix

Probably so based on overall and/or future merit (particularly given how how SP looked in this series), but didn't he have literally the best figures in PS in the first half of the season? I could be wrong, but it was something like that. Hard to make an overwhelming case for someone else when you have incumbency from last year and the best statzzz in the comp this year. It's the sort of selection I would usually approve of tbh.

Don't get me wrong I would've preferred to see Smith get a go, or maybe even Dougeh, and probably even Wags, just because I don't see a future in SP and he's proven to be nowhere near reliable enough with the ball at this level. The pitches also turned out to be more conducive to traditional seam and swing type bowling anyway, the Kuggs role was pretty redundant.

 

[NZTailender]

Didn't watch anything, kind of played out as I expected. Glad we didn't roll over and capitulate on this test. Credit to Australia whose mindset tends to be the difference even when their performances aren't stellar. If there was any team except Australia here we'd probably have bowled the oppo out today. Would've been nice to have 4 bowlers instead of 2.5. an NZ win would've been good for the likes of henry, sears and Ravindra but would let Southee, sp, Blundell and Latham off the hook (even if Latham did finally come right).

Stoked that Sears turned up and didn't just be a wayward gun or Hamish Bennett himself