**Official** England in New Zealand

[Richard]

And no immediate plans for either!

 

[Bahnz]

Urghhh... here I was hoping to spend a beautiful sunny sunday at the basin, and when I open my curtains this morning, what does it reveal? Murky grey cloud as far as the eye can see.

 

[Woodster]

Sounds like good news for the English attack if the cloud stays around till the start of play.

 

[wpdavid]

Urghhh... here I was hoping to spend a beautiful sunny sunday at the basin, and when I open my curtains this morning, what does it reveal? Murky grey cloud as far as the eye can see.

Hopefully that'll make Sidebottom feel right at home.

What's the forecast for the day?

 

[Richard]

Sounds like good news for the English attack if the cloud stays around till the start of play.

Provided it doesn't rain.

Dave - I recall another Dave (of the Dav variety) telling us there was some amount of showers in the forecast. Hope Ben might be able to give an actual on-the-spot prediction mind.

 

[Bahnz]

Hopefully that'll make Sidebottom feel right at home.

What's the forecast for the day?

Occasional showers and a strong southerly breeze, with a hefty band of rain lurking in Cook's strait. Basically conditions that should make batting a nightmare.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Weather forecast from halfway across the globe apparently inaccurate. Noted.

(The Norwegian Met Office says it's going to clear up in a couple hours.)

 

[Woodster]

Provided it doesn't rain.

Yes, obviously providing it doesn't rain Rich. Still, there's plenty of time left in this Test match, but as you say, we can do without losing a couple of hours.

Am looking forward to this day's play, we can take a rather large step towards levelling the series. Early wickets will be a dream!

 

[PhoenixFire]

What time is the first ball bowled GMT?

 

[Shoggz]

What time is the first ball bowled GMT?

9:30 PM

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Blue CBGB t-shirt (though more likely to see the blue and white icebreaker jumper today given how it looks outside)

Hoping for a good innings from Bell and Fleming. I'd like another Sinclair failure, just so a final decision is made on him rather than the selectors stringing him along for a tour of failure in the UK. Other than that, not wanting for much.

Disappointed not to have seen any other CWers yet. Though Athers couldn't have been far away as the "Collingwood's a Wanker" chanter was close by.

 

[Woodster]

Let's hope you have the pleasure of witnessing a clutter of wickets today!

From what I have seen of Jamie How, I have been suitably impressed and am looking forward to his battle with the new ball. Bell must be very low on confidence at the minute, so it would take a brave man to back him to score some today. Although he did get a beauty from Jimmy in the first innings. Fleming has looked assured in the middle order with the new responsible Ross Taylor. For Sinclair, read Bell. Oram is another man that is due some runs, and he is generally entertaining to watch, but not today hopefully. While I love the approach of McCullum. Could be an excellent day of cricket.

 

[Richard]

Disappointed not to have seen any other CWers yet. Though Athers couldn't have been far away as the "Collingwood's a Wanker" chanter was close by.

Jeys, you Kiwis are poor at this meetup lark. You need MSNs, you need phone-numbers, you need arranged meet-up points (and times), you need to know (at very least roughly) what others look like.

Here's John

I believe I'm bottom right actually.

From what I can understand of his posts, Ben is heading down BR too, though he's never posted a pic of himself so I can't help there.

But you can't just go along and expect "ah, you'd be HeathDavisSpeed?" "yes indeed Athlai, good psychic and auto-direction-finding powers you have there".

 

[Tim]

I would have backed them to get 300, but 400 is probably a bit too many.

This test won't be drawn so it will be interesting to see whether NZ try to blaze the total down or inch their way. I really think they've got to go out and attack the English bowlers and get on top early.

The onus is on Bell, How, Fleming and Sinclair to set the platform so that Taylor, Oram, McCullum and Vettori can finish things off. Bell and Sinclair are giving me the shakes right now so it's a big 'if' as to whether the top four can do that.

 

[completeNZer]

Anderson is injured is this a sign that the English team are going to fall to pieces?

Benn disapointed about going to the BR test everyone said it was free after tea so I went and they charged me 5 bucks didn't go Friday because of cricket practice but could hear the Barmy Army from school. Had Cricket yesterday and first day of work today (what a stink day to start )

 

[Tim]

Cricinfo says conditions are well suited to bowling. HOWEVER, there is a strong northerly wind coming through and if there's one less bowler it puts a lot of pressure on the backup bowlers to run up in to the wind.

 

[Tim]

I think England will declare before play. If Anderson can bowl, I doubt they'd want to risk him going out to bat for the sake of 2 or 3 overs and then get hit on the foot or something.

A 420 odd lead is more than likely enough.

 

[Laurrz]

HOWEVER, there is a strong northerly wind coming through and if there's one less bowler it puts a lot of pressure on the backup bowlers to run up in to the wind.

perhaps Vaughan should bowl a bit

 

[Woodster]

I think England will declare before play. If Anderson can bowl, I doubt they'd want to risk him going out to bat for the sake of 2 or 3 overs and then get hit on the foot or something.

A 420 odd lead is more than likely enough.

Wish they had have done. See this as totally pointless exercise in going out to bat for a very brief time.

 

[Blakey]

Nope England are still batting this morning.