**Official** New Zealand Domestic Season 2013/2014

[Prince EWS]

Sky will always prevent the PS being streamed imo. Consumer X allocates seven minutes a week to watching domestic cricket, and Sky wants all seven.

That probably is how they see it but it really makes little sense to me. If the games were at the same time then sure, but I don't think I've ever had some free time, decided to watch some sport I don't watch a lot of and then avoided it because I'd already watched that sport that week; if anything the opposite would be true and I'd go on a bit of a binge.

I suppose it makes a bit more sense when you consider that Sky uses a subscription-based rather than rating-based model. It could well be true that a diehard cricket fan might be slightly less likely to subscribe to Sky if they could watch PS matches for free.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

well ****, possibly the only game of PS i will be able to go to this season

 

[Immenso]

Two really strong teams, just add Nethula and that's about as good as PS can get.

Shame about the forecast.

 

[Kippax]

Nah could've easily been Williamson for Devcich tbf.

 

[hendrix]

Taylor is such a terrible lower middle order player in limited overs. Needs to come in early.

 

[Bahnz]

First baller for Devcich. You can pretty much guarantee that he'll be playing in the first test now.

 

[Flem274*]

Wheeler wag. Young bowler with potential wrecking a pretender posing a threat to the national side. Everyone wins.

Good choice to open with the left/right inswing/outswing combo too with the pace inswing at first change. Surely Smith will open the batting though, not Trego?

Going to need to keep up the good work too, because ND bat deep and the PS lower order rule could really hurt us here.

 

[Mike5181]

That ND team would be so awesome if they had Williamson in there at number three.

 

[Flem274*]

They might have missed a trick by not electing to bat stupidly deep by including a specialist batsman like Hickey or Carter ahead of Sodhi or Kuggs at number five and bumping everyone down one. You would still have the core Southee, Boult, Vettori attack with Anderson and the other pacer/spinner in there who can hold a bat.

This is the best team CD can field by and large, depending on who you would take from KNB, Trego and Hay. Nethula would come in for Ajaz Patel too if fit. Unless we do something cute with the batting order this is a good side, and this will probably be the highest quality Shield match we will see all season.

 

[hendrix]

Yeah Sodhi is a bit unnecessary but they will have received orders to play him given that Vettori has ruled himself out of the tests.

Gutted about that. Really close to a full strength team.

This match is salivating though. Bracewell, Wheeler, Milne….

 

[Flem274*]

Imagine if KW was playing and Raval was still at CD.

 

[hendrix]

**** off Trego though. Taking wickets Milne should be taking. WAC.

 

[straw man]

Yess, just remembered this was on and there's just something right about having the Plunket Shield scores ticking over in the background while at work in summer.

What a start for Wheeler. Him dismissing two lefties first up makes me think - is he more successful vs left handers than right? As the left handed version of Henry that would make sense, seeing as there's been a bit of chat on here about Henry being more effective against right handers.

 

[hendrix]

Imagine if KW was playing and Raval was still at CD.

both sides would be legitimately stronger than teams NZ has recently put out. Actually, they already are in Los (not that that takes much I suppose).

Come on Watling and Anderson.

 

[Flem274*]

Nah CD is **** at limited overs. Might change this season but we're still a poor 20/20 side and our bowlers are expensive wicket takers (as much as I hate that phrase) rather than the economical sort.

 

[hendrix]

Actually, Kuggs is probably just as unnecessary in this lineup but I suppose he's probably up there on batting strength alone.

**** these teams are awesome. So wish I could watch this live.

Domestic cricket pretty strong right now IMO. We're no longer at the point where there's a massive gap between shield or county cricket and NZ domestic cricket. Actually would guess either of these teams would probably beat most shield sides ATM.

 

[Flem274*]

Australian Shield sides you mean? Long bow to draw, though I don't know much about them except that they're like us in having lots of bowlers but batsmen are thin on the ground. In any case these two sides have test players, which would mean in the same situation the Shield teams would get their players back.

And our Shield isn't strong strong because there's such a gap between the bowling and the top four batting, which completely flips whenever Munro or the number eight comes in. It's much better than it was when it was medium pacers getting smashed on roads, but there is still a long way to go.

Merge a couple of teams up and I guess they look good. Half the test side comes from the two provinces now playing.

How
Flynn
Williamson
Taylor
Cachopa
Anderson
Watling
Vettori
Southee
Bracewell/Wheeler/Mine
Boult

Swap Anderson for Ryder in state of origin. Rest of NZ to lift their game.

 

[straw man]

I think the number of good or potentially good young quick bowlers is doing a lot to raise the PS standard at the moment. Even if those young quick bowlers aren't adept at knocking over lower orders, they're surely providing a tough examination of top-order batsmen. Also there seems to be a variety of pitches around the country, with different characters and different par scores, which is really good (though it would be even better if at least one could somehow be made to be genuinely fast and bouncy).

Standard would be even better if Wellington, Auckland and Canterbury could get their act together to reach the standard set by ND, CD and Otago in the last few seasons. A few positive signs on this front so far this season, with some Canterbury bowlers fit again, Auckland injecting some new blood and Wellington somehow winning a match (the upside of them stocking up on 30+ year old journeymen is that they're at least more competitive even if they're unlikely to provide any future NZ players).

 

[Flem274*]

It's so like the Shield for a team to have their full strength and almost test standard attack on the park for the only time in the season and the medium pace 5th bowler to snaffle 2/11 and counting haha.

 

[hendrix]

**** off Trego.