Well, that's gotta bring tears to your eyes (that joke has probably never been done before).Heh, Onions taken for 22 off his last over and now has 0/100.
It is a side strain, rather than back.Good to see Anderson having a bit of fun with the bat. If his back injury is serious, it might be time to shelve his bowling completely, and just focus on making runs.
If it is a proper FC match what would the benefit be to declare, wouldn't you want to keep the English in the field as long as possible, especially if you have a weakened bowling attack?Oh wait, blackcaps scorecard showed McCone opening the bowling but it's now changed to Wagner. I assumed McCone had been allowed to be subbed in since Patel is sick and Anderson cannot bowl, but perhaps not - proper FC match then.
Just hearing the radio comms say players said Neesham and Broad were the quickest bowlers on the park so far. Surprising tstl. Must be that special ball that's a couple of ounces heavier that Neesham pulls out of his pocket whenever he comes on to bowl. Also surely an indictment on Gillespie, Wagner and Onions' bowling in this match.
Fair enough I guess, supposed to be a bit of rain around tomorrow anyway.I suppose Latham probably thought it would be an aggressive move to declare behind and give our bowlers a few overs before lunch. There've been a few declarations like that in Plunket Shield this year.
Don't think NZ would be foolish enough to do that if we were in this position in a test match v England though.
Bruce Martin will play ahead of Wagner I reckon.Gillespie has been woeful.
So I guess it's Wagner and Rutherford for the Test team.
It might against KP.Agree and it's probably the right decision from the very limited resources available, with the aim that B Martin will achieve his non-wicket-taking at a reasonably low econ rate.
Edit: Though I see Martin was talking in the media and describing himself as an attacking spinner that will look to 'take poles'. Not sure that's going to work against quality international batsmen when he's struggled to take wickets against domestic NZ batsmen.
True, that would be very helpful.It might against KP.