***Official*** Australia v New Zealand - Final

[Uppercut]

He's only ever got Ponting out caught though. Ponting always looks like if he's going to get out, it'll be to an lbw. But it doesn't happen very often. Less often than Sachin Tendulkar gets out lbw.

 

[JBH001]

Didn't expect it tbh. Only Raghav did really.

Haha, yeah. Fair play to him too.

Think we play at our best when no-one is expecting **** from us. A few things need to go right for us to win. But hope springs eternal and stranger things have happened...

Just hate the time difference. Have a busy day on Tue, so may have to just get up early and catch the second part of play.

 

[Smudge]

W00t!

Just thought I'd pop in to post this and this.


Oh, and does anybody know of a sports bar/pub in Wellington thats open all night and will be showing the final?

Maybe Four Kings? Corner of Dixon and Taranaki. They pride themselves as a sports bar, and they're often open extremely early for English football etc.

 

[Dissector]

It will probably take a truly special individual performance for NZ to win just like Cairns the last time around. Perhaps a devastating spell by Bond or a hundred by Ross Taylor or a great all-round display by Vettori. Realistically if Australia are near the top of their game they will likely win quite easily.

 

[Uppercut]

It will probably take a truly special individual performance for NZ to win just like Cairns the last time around.

Nah. All they need to do is score more runs than Australia. They've done it twice already this year, and looked odds-on to do it a third time before rain intervened too, and on none of those occasions was it a one-man show.

 

[Dissector]

I think the difference is that this is a big final which Australia has a lot of experience winning while NZ has very little. I suspect a lot of the less experienced players will be overawed by the occasion which is why I think they will need a special performance from one of their stalwarts.

 

[Uppercut]

The Australia side is pretty inexperienced too. Only four Aussies who took part in the World Cup final are in the squad for tomorrow's game (five of the New Zealand team who played in the semi will also play tomorrow, six if Styris comes in).

New Zealand have a clear shot at beating Australia here. Someone will inevitably point at their injury list as a reason why they'll struggle, but how many of the New Zealand team who were involved in the last victory over Australia (in February of this year) are out of tomorrow's match due to injury?

None.

 

[JBH001]

Now comes the hard-part. What to do with work on Tuesday with the game running from 11:30pm to 7:30am EST....

Not willing to take a sickie, James? Would have thought it the perfect solution, tbh.

 

[Burgey]

Should be a great game actually. Teams seems oretty evenly matched and both playing reasonable cricket. Expecting a big effort from Bond especially. If he gets a couple early, will be troubke for us.

 

[Flem274*]

We actualy have a few guys that have a habit of playing their best vs Aussie (Bond, Taylor, Elliott, Vettori, arguably Guptill and Redmond).

McCullum's either going to get out early in some silly way or score a 90 odd.

Butler, Franklin and (don't shoot me) Mills are the uh ohs in the bowling. You never know which Butler or Franklin will turn up and Mills seems to not enjoy Australia much (remember a series (tests tbf) where LBW appeals on Hayden from Mills wre rejected time and again).

McCullum
Guptill
Redmond
Taylor
Elliott
Broom
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Butler
Bond

Broom the obvious weak link. With the amount of crap he gets I bet he'll score an unbeaten century just to spite you all . The openers will either be brilliant or cringeworthy with Redmond capable of scoring a handy 30 at least at three, so he's an iffy player there.

The balls of the batting is Taylor, Elliott, Vettori. They're bankable runs (as many as you can have for an NZ team ). Taylor likes Aussie, Elliott scores when it matters (so far) and Vettori is just plain annoying with the bat.

That Aussie batting has me worried though. Thank God our strength is bowling and not the other way around, otherwise we'd be chasing a few.

Hope its a good game.

 

[_Ed_]

My dad tells me the radio news this morning reported Patel will be playing. They didn't say who he'll replace though. I'd normally say Butler would be the first in line, but not so sure after his four wickets in the semi.

 

[Days of Grace]

I am not sure if we can risk Patel playing, due to our batting.

I would love Patel to replace Broom. I mean, if even Vettori's going to bat in front of him, we might as well pick another bowler.


McCullum
Redmond
Guptill
Taylor
Elliott
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Butler
Patel
Bond


Excellent variety in the bowling, but we need that top 5 to score the vast majority of the runs. Basically, I wouldn't want us to be no more than 5 down going into the 40th over.

The thing is though, we can't be too conservative at the same time. I fear if we bat first, we may go into that same conservative 170/5 after 40 overs that we tried against South Africa. We took the powerplay too late, and players tried to hit sixes facing their second ball. Doesn't work. You need two set batsmen.

But, if we play two spinners, we should bat first. I hope we bat first, and McCullum and Taylor play their natural game. That's always the best way to play Australia. If those two go into their shells to try and bat out the overs, then Australia will be all over us.


In conclusion: Bond, Vettori, McCullum, Taylor: you guys are the senior pros. If you want to have a legacy, you won't have a better opportunity than tonight.

 

[Hurricane]

My dad tells me the radio news this morning reported Patel will be playing. They didn't say who he'll replace though. I'd normally say Butler would be the first in line, but not so sure after his four wickets in the semi.

Thanks for sharing

This info makes me nervous - I can't recall Patel ever having a great performance or being MOM. On the other hand I can't really recall him going for 70 or 80 either.

I would like to keep Broom in the team - he has to come good eventually just due to the law of averages. Even a bad batsman will have their day - and I back Broom to score more runs than Patel.

 

[Athlai]

Called it.

 

[Athlai]

McCullum
Redmond
Guptill
Taylor
Elliott [Styris]
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Butler
Patel
Bond


Very interested to see if Vettori sticks with number 6.

 

[Howsie]

God I hope Akram and Bhogle aren't commentating tonight. If we lose and I have to listen to them all night...

 

[cric_manic]

not as bad as that sri lankan guy.......

 

[Son Of Coco]

Hopefully I can catch some of this tonight, don't mind if NZ wins but would like to see Australia get up obviously.

 

[Johnners]

God I hope Akram and Bhogle aren't commentating tonight. If we lose and I have to listen to them all night...

Love Bhogle, not sure how anyone could not like his commentary tbh. Wish he was on the ABC team permanently, instead of just when Australia is playing India

 

[Howsie]

Love Bhogle, not sure how anyone could not like his commentary tbh. Wish he was on the ABC team permanently, instead of just when Australia is playing India

Pretty easily really, the guy just comes of across as not knowing anything about teams such as NZ, WI, and co.

Compare him to Ian Bishop who comes across as someone who actually does research before a game and Bhogle sounds like a 12 year old Indian fan.