• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

***Official*** India in New Zealand 2013/14

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Find 2 decent openers and it wouldn't look too bad at all.
True.

This isn't meant to be patronising at all - they've got good players in Williamson and McCullum (Taylor I reckon is a level above those two), and a very good new ball attack, so at the very least I would expect them to be competitive against most sides, certainly at home anyway. Lack of a spinner means they'll struggle on the subcontinent I reckon, and they're still ripe to be blitzed by one of South Africa/Australia/England because of their batting weaknesses. However, a good spinner and at least one good opener, and they move into "should win more often than they lose" territory.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
But they were up against MJ, Harris and Siddle (who have made SA's batting look dreadful), while NZ bats were up against Shami, Ishant and Zaheer. Still 3 collapses in 4 innings.
Yeah but England's batting lineup is a shambles beyond their recent results in that Pietersen got sacked, Trott withdrew and Root and Prior got dropped. New Zealand's batting lineup is in better shape for the mere fact that they have four proven Test quality players in it; England just have the two now even if you want to overlook their away Ashes performances as a bit of a blip. I actually think the extent of that disaster has been a little overplayed in other threads where people have put forward completely desperate selection ideas but you're underplaying it here. It's not just that they failed, it's that their batsmen are literally gone from the side and they'll have to start anew.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Good point. What happened to Root? And what is the news on Trott? Isn't he coming back.
News is he'll play for Warwickshire in April. But honestly I think it'll be a miracle if he manages to comes back to the England side. It's so difficult to come back from such setbacks
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Front page of the Dominion Post directly mentioned Ish Sodhi as having run on the field as 12th man to provide gloves, drinks and tape to Brendon McCullum during his innings.

Quite the round trip for Ish, considering he also bowled 38 overs up in Whangarei over the course of McCullum's innings.

Is it too much to ask for a newspaper to do at least some fact checking?

The article is also on stuff.co.nz: Brendon McCullum, NZ cricket history maker | Stuff.co.nz

Dominion Post said:
While McCullum put in the hard yards on the field, twelfth man Ish Sodhi and emergency fielder Peter Younghusband - from the Petone-Eastbourne club - were working hard behind the scenes to make sure he was regularly supplied with gels, water, protein shakes and Gatorade.
Great work, Hamish Bidwell AND Mark Geenty.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Find 2 decent openers and it wouldn't look too bad at all.
easier said than done.

Fair enough. I think you guys could certainly beat us if you prepare a green track. Our batting has consistently been going downhill for some time. Although if the track is anything other than a seamer's paradise I would back us to win.
I don't think NZ would need a green track. They'd just need a track that doesn't take spin. NZ's batting card is stronger and deeper than Pakistan's and the pace bowling attack is better. I like Junaid and rate him very highly, but the Southee-Boult-Wagner combo is stronger than Junaid-Irfan-Rahat.

In 3 innings out of 4, the top order collapsed, and this is the conclusion you draw?
Actually, in 4/4 innings the top order collapsed. Still posted some big totals though.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
To make matters worse, Stuff/Fairfax Media follow that Ish Sodhi error up with this absolutely dreadful article:

McCullum deserved better than India's effort | Stuff.co.nz

Basically insinuating that McCullum only scored a 300 because of match fixing. I mean, he's not come out and said that exactly because no doubt he'd be sued for defamation. But ****ing hell. Mark Reason. It's always Mark sodding Reason writing trash like this.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
I was about to post that and then thought better of it. It's a waste of space-time and doesn't bear comment.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
you beat this mess of a team 1-0
1st Test: New Zealand v Pakistan at Hamilton, Jan 7-9, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

I think you would certainly be a good chance to beat us at home, but I'd be equally confident we could beat you. In the UAE we'd be stuffed though because we don't have a spinner.
You know, that's really not an awful team.

McCullum, Taylor, Williamson, Ryder, Vettori should be a pretty decent batting lineup by NZ standards, and even though Southee was in his awful phase back then, Chris Martin, Southee, Arnel, Vettori, Williamson should isn't a bad attack.
 

Meridio

International Regular
Yeah, I had the same reaction. Just standard fare by someone who's proven himself as nothing more than an attention-seeking berk over a number of years.

Edit: in response to linked Mark Reason article
 

Flem274*

123/5
You know, that's really not an awful team.

McCullum, Taylor, Williamson, Ryder, Vettori should be a pretty decent batting lineup by NZ standards, and even though Southee was in his awful phase back then, Chris Martin, Southee, Arnel, Vettori, Williamson should isn't a bad attack.
no, back then it was crap. mccullum and KW weren't the players they are now. that was the series crowe declared we had three test standard batsmen - taylor, ryder and vettori. marto was nearing the end of his dire phase, arnel was 125kph fodder and we all know how much of a match winner vettori is with the ball. then you had passengers like franklin floating around.

our current side would wipe the floor with them, and for once this isn't hyperbole. that team wasn't capable of doing what this team just did this summer in it's wildest dreams.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
no, back then it was crap. mccullum and KW weren't the players they are now. that was the series crowe declared we had three test standard batsmen - taylor, ryder and vettori. marto was nearing the end of his dire phase, arnel was 125kph fodder and we all know how much of a match winner vettori is with the ball. then you had passengers like franklin floating around.

our current side would wipe the floor with them, and for once this isn't hyperbole. that team wasn't capable of doing what this team just did this summer in it's wildest dreams.

McCullum then was a better opener than we have now. Ryder was and is still the second best batsman in the country. Vettori was a pretty bloody useful all rounder. Conditions suited Arnel and it looks like he did ok.

You could say the same for the Pakistani team too. Look at their bowling attack then:
Umar Gul
Tanvir Ahmed
Abdur Rehman
Wahab Riaz

That isn't a patch on their attack now.
 

Flem274*

123/5
Pakistan's batting still relies on Dad's Army though.

McCullum's record opening is almost as poor as the rest. He has the double ton and nothing. Miles better at 5.

Discounting the opener ferris wheel, only Vettori and probably Marto would make our current team. Even where the players are the same the 2014ers are miles ahead of where they were in 2011.

In a test between the two Southee and Boult would have Taylor and Ryder in the middle within 10 overs. Fulton and Rutherford, as poor as they are, could score reasonable runs against Marto as he was then, Southee as he was then, Arnel and Vettori. Then when the 2014 middle order came in it would be hello 400.
 
Last edited:

Flem274*

123/5
moar statz porn

Since November 24th 2012 (the eve of our win in SL which immediately followed one of the more depressing defeats we've had) this is how the NZ side has performed..

Code:
Name			Matches	Runs	Ave	Wickets	Ave
1. Peter Fulton	        12	 652	31.04	
2. Hamish Rutherford    12       611    30.55
3. Kane Williamson	14	1070	44.58	 14     34.71
4. Ross Taylor		12	1126	70.37	  
5. Brendon McCullum     15      1160    48.33
6. Corey Anderson	 7       327    32.70	 11     30.54	
7. BJ Watling	        13       732    38.52
8. Ish Sodhi             6       175    25.00    11     59.72
9. Tim Southee		11	 297	19.80	 55	23.27
10. Neil Wagner	        12	 148	13.45	 46	33.50
11. Trent Boult		15	 161	17.88	 63	23.79
Reasonable
 
Last edited:

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Haha, so I bumped into Shikar Dhawan at the Wellington airport at around 4am :laugh: Its a long story why I am flying out of Wellington already (and at such an ungodly hour) - heading to Dunedin. Dhawan was heading to Melbourne.

I managed to have a good chat to him for around 10-15 minutes while we waited in the check-in queue. Needless to say during the conversation I omitted the fact that I've called him a **** countless times on the CW message boards :ph34r:

Firstly, he was a very nice guy. He was in front of me in the check-in queue, I asked him for a photo and after that just let him be and didn't disturb him, but he chose to start a conversation which was cool. Cliff notes of the convo:

- he was absolutely buggered after fielding for 2 days and said that getting up for a 6:30 am flight to Melbourne was rough :laugh:
- admitted that he thought the test was going to be over in 3 days (found this interesting, even if he said it kind of lightheartedly, still shows that players do get complacent)
- he finds the amount of cricket he plays extremely exhausting, noting that he only has a few days off before Asia Cup, then T20 WC, then IPL, then a few more days off, then England series
- said nevertheless its a dream come true for him to play for India
- when asked if he finds it difficult to adjust to SA and NZ pitches, he said yes its very tough and takes time as the Indian pitches he is used to are completely different. Noted that its particularly tough to adjust when you haven't toured these countries before (other than A tours).
- mentioned that with the IPL, foreign players are getting used to Indian conditions (culture, pitches, environment etc.) whereas often young Indian players are not exposed to Aust, NZ, SA, Eng conditions, with the exception of A tours.
- said that the media and Indian fans have to give the team time, they are still learning how to play overseas and are inexperienced and have come close to winning in SA and NZ
- he absolutely loves New Zealand
- he also loves Australia, and prefers Melbourne to Sydney :cool:

Quite a funny way to end my NZ "test cricket" trip.

Oh and deadset, when I saw Dhawan in the queue the first thing I noticed him doing was twirling his friggin' moustache. WAFG - I'm gonna have to get around him now. May even need to start a fan club.
 

Top