I agree with this. Bangladesh are playing better cricket than in 2010, and I do think they are a team of promise - but to some degree we are letting them play better cricket. The NZers are not playing with any confidence, and the Bangladeshis are clearly feeding off that. You could see it last night in the nervousness around our batting. And you could see it in the indecisiveness in our field settings and bowling choices (I recall one particular moment where McCullum and Mills were clearly discussing whether Mills should bowl another over or not, and it was clear that neither of them wanted to make the decision). Bangladesh remains anchored to the bottom of the rankings, and this should be the easiest tour in top level cricket. The fact that we are making such a hash of it reflects really badly on the team and the organisation and systems behind it.
But how can a team that is coming from two back to back series wins away from home against top ranked teams be lacking confidence?
Williamson, Guptill and Franklin(!) inspired those.
Our last ODI series was in June - four months ago - and the batting order for that series had Guptill, Ronchi, Williamson, Munro and Franklin in its line-up. Taylor and McCullum are the only batsmen from that team to remain in the side, and one of those is terribly out of form while the other is terribly out of favour with the coach. The lack of confidence really isn't a surprise.
Ronchi, Munro, Franklin hardly look world beaters to me. The only significant losses are Guptill and Williamson but then again BD lacks Shakibs bowling and batting so the lack of confidence doesnt look a big factor to me. Even in the tests NZ didnt dominate 5 days with Williamson in the side. They seem to struggle in these conditions against a much better Bangladesh team
Sad, but true. I could hardly muster the enthusiasm to whinge.
I didn't mean any disrespect to Bangladesh. They are definitely an improving team, and I am a real fan of Shakib and Tamim - while Mominul has impressed the heck out of me. It is a matter of perspective though. I am a NZ cricket fan, so when NZ are playing my focus is automatically on the strengths and flaws of the NZ team.
I think for a lot of people, the frustrations with this New Zealand team have less to do with who's missing and more to do with who's playing. Devchich, Rutherford and Elliot has to be one of the strangest and least justified top 3's that New Zealand has ever put out on the field. I understand as a Bangladesh fan that you probably won't know this, but both Devcich and Rutherford have never done anything close to warranting selection in the national side. Devcich is there because he's a favourite of one of the senior NZ coaches. Rutherford is coasting on the back of his 160 v England back in March, and barely averages 20 in domestic one day cricket. And Elliot is a good tryer, but he's at best a number 5, not a number 3. Meanwhile BJ Watling is back home in New Zealand, ignored despite a superb last 12 months in the sub continent with the bat, other more deserving (if unpolished) youngsters like Anaru Kitchen are stuck with him, and Taylor and McCullum continue to lurk lower down the order seemingly afraid to take responsibility for making the majority of the runs in the absence of Guptill, Williamson and Ryder.
The frustration from Taylor stems from the constipated way he went about his innings, and the predictable nature of its end. I'm not sure if it was a tactical decision to bat that way (in which case, it's disappointing to see that we haven't learnt a thing from our last tour of Bangladesh) or whether he's still dealing with personal crap, but it wasn't great to watch. He wasn't awful or anything, and I agree he wasn't helped by the incompetence of the top 3, but if his hope was to avoid being labelled a slogger then he didn't do himself many favours by getting out to another onside heave into the deep.
ODI's are generally won if someone in your top three goes big ie Kane in RSA, Guptill in england.
Agree. And before him Roger Twose. Made more runs than their team mates without appearing to have the same level of batting skill ("class"?). I recall an excellent radio interview where Styris set out his ODI batting strategy, was about getting a sighter, then taking a few calculated risks by hitting in the air, which made some fielders move from the ring to the boundary, then picking up easy singles from good balls by playing through the gaps in the ring, with the occasional biffing of bad balls.
