*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[jonbrooks]

Overall not the best of tours for NZ given the high hopes we had. However compared to the NZ teams of not too long ago a drawn test series and a close loss in the ODIs would be money in the bank. T20s are garbage so nothing further needs to be said about them.

The good for NZ:
1) Taylor seems to be coming good again
2) Williamson is going from strength to strength
3) Watling in the Tests looks tough as ever
4) Boult's bowling
5) Some further depth in our bowling in the form of Santner and Wheeler

The bad:
1) McCullum played poorly in both forms. He had one good 50 in the tests but aside from that was ordinary
2) McCullum's captaincy gambles failed more often than not
3) Southee's bowling in both forms
4) McClenaghan's bowling in ODIs
5) Ronchi's batting and keeping in ODIs (can't see why Watling is not playing)

Looking forward to the tour of SA and ZIm but most of all the tour of Oz later this year. Can't wait!

 

[Prince EWS]

Bat him at 5 as the Elliott replacement, IMO. Strike rotation role whereby he gets settled in during the middle overs, than can have a crack at the end. Did it well on the A-team tour last year.

You could even then go for a Neesham-Anderson-Santner 6-8, which gives you some serious bowling flexibility:


1. Guptill
2. McCullum *
3. Williamson (7)
4. Taylor
5. Watling +
6. Neesham (6)
7. Anderson (5)
8. Santner (4)
9. Southee (2)
10. Milne/Henry (3)
11. Boult (1)

Yeah replacing Elliott and Ronchi with Watling and Neesham maintains the ice:cake ratio while still giving NZ an extra seamer and a wicket keeper. The team balance is essentially exactly the same despite two very different players coming in.

To keep Grumpy happy, you could play Munro instead of Neesham and achieve the exact same thing.

 

[Zinzan]

Another bit on Boult from a TV3 article:



Trent Boult taking much needed R&R | Sport | 3 News

Sounding a lot more positive. Surprised these scans are taking so long though, I thought he said he was waiting on the results over a week ago.

Anyway, forget the ODIs in SA, the Test vs. Aust should be the aim if it's just wear & tear. Let's Ryan Harris him, at least for the next 5-6 months.

 

[Zinzan]

Bat him at 5 as the Elliott replacement, IMO. Strike rotation role whereby he gets settled in during the middle overs, than can have a crack at the end. Did it well on the A-team tour last year.

You could even then go for a Neesham-Anderson-Santner 6-8, which gives you some serious bowling flexibility:


1. Guptill
2. McCullum *
3. Williamson (7)
4. Taylor
5. Watling +
6. Neesham (6)
7. Anderson (5)
8. Santner (4)
9. Southee (2)
10. Milne/Henry (3)
11. Boult (1)

Hmm...I actually quite like this.

 

[Prince EWS]

It was actually the top 7 I wanted for the WC before Ronchi started scoring runs.

 

[Zinzan]

Overall not the best of tours for NZ given the high hopes we had. However compared to the NZ teams of not too long ago a drawn test series and a close loss in the ODIs would be money in the bank. T20s are garbage so nothing further needs to be said about them.

The good for NZ:
1) Taylor seems to be coming good again
2) Williamson is going from strength to strength
3) Watling in the Tests looks tough as ever
4) Boult's bowling
5) Some further depth in our bowling in the form of Santner and Wheeler

The bad:
1) McCullum played poorly in both forms. He had one good 50 in the tests but aside from that was ordinary
2) McCullum's captaincy gambles failed more often than not
3) Southee's bowling in both forms
4) McClenaghan's bowling in ODIs
5) Ronchi's batting and keeping in ODIs (can't see why Watling is not playing)

Looking forward to the tour of SA and ZIm but most of all the tour of Oz later this year. Can't wait!

Fairy accurate assessment apart from McCullum's gambling failing more often than not. Aside from his hunch to bowl Guptill in one of the ODIs, I didn't think he was too bad in that respect, just his players let him down.

Certainly his gambling in the must win 2nd test, particularly on the last day was quite brilliant. Williamson vs. Cook etc.

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Yeah replacing Elliott and Ronchi with Watling and Neesham maintains the ice:cake ratio while still giving NZ an extra seamer and a wicket keeper. The team balance is essentially exactly the same despite two very different players coming in.

To keep Grumpy happy, you could play Munro instead of Neesham and achieve the exact same thing.

Only problem is Grunter has been scoring runs.

Very harsh to drop him to replace so as to replace a keeper and Neesham but then again he has Jesse's place in the team.

You do realise he took Neesh's place in the team and has made it his own? 5 specialist batsmen should have space in an odi team. Corey injured is the big problem without Neesh on the bench.

I am not sure that Neesh and Corey are both needed. I like Munro given a chance and if Watling develops then great.

I am not a critic of McCullum's style but he is due for some runs now. Without keeping or bowling he's not quite G Maxwell with the free license or do we have a modern day Brearley in the odi team?

 

[Athlai]

I miss Bennett, had a similar h4x start to ODIs as McClenenen but wasn't actually terrible.

 

[Bahnz]

This is just straight up denial.
He was demonstrably our best spinner even when Vettori was playing.

Craig has been excellent, particularly with the bat, but there's no way he's a better bowler than Jeets.

Heh, I'm a jeets believer, and even I think this is going too far. I reckon Vettori would've picked up another 50-100 test wickets if he'd spent his career bowling with Soult. Jeets has definitely been our best test spinner ever since Vettori's ankle gave out in 2012 though.

 

[NZTailender]

Hmm IDK. Mills would probably make my 1st ATG NZ side bracketed with (Chatfield & Pringle), but the likes or Harris & Larsen would keep NcCullum out of my 2nd XI as the slow bowling options.

I wouldn't have NcCullum in a 3rd XI. I'd run Jeets ahead of him.

 

[JediNudist]

Fairy accurate assessment apart from McCullum's gambling failing more often than not. Aside from his hunch to bowl Guptill in one of the ODIs, I didn't think he was too bad in that respect, just his players let him down.

Certainly his gambling in the must win 2nd test, particularly on the last day was quite brilliant. Williamson vs. Cook etc.

I dont agree on Maccas assessment. He takes risks but NZs previous defensive cricket approach just meant they got demolished. Not good enough to play that way. I thought he should have recalled Bracewell or Wagner for the final ODI not Maitheson from club cricket.
Should have won when England was at 45-5 but thems the breaks.

I ignored the T20. Its just back yard cricket.

 

[NZTailender]

I dont agree on Maccas assessment. He takes risks but NZs previous defensive cricket approach just meant they got demolished. Not good enough to play that way. I thought he should have recalled Bracewell or Wagner for the final ODI not Maitheson from club cricket.
Should have won when England was at 45-5 but thems the breaks.

I ignored the T20. Its just back yard cricket.

Playing Bracewell wouldn't really have provided much, though. He averages 40 in ODI cricket already and hasn't played since 2013 (on the last England tour). Wagner hasn't played at all, and at 29 will hardly feature in plans for the next WC. Mathieson's selection wasn't terrible for mine.

Everytime I read your post I wonder why the batting coach has suddenly become chief spokesman for the BCs and then I remember you're the only person calling McCullum 'Macca'.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

McCullum aggression h8ers can GTFO. He's just led us to an away series draw in pretty ****ing emphatic fashion, and a close-fought freak odi series. His style has brought us the most successful overall NZ side in history, and you reckon a few meaningless hit 'n' giggle games against an equally aggressive England side should bring about a change in that? I can tell you've never been a captain. You win some you lose some, look at what brings you the long term results.

he's earned the right.

 

[Howsie]

His style has brought us the most successful overall NZ side in history.

Bull****.

His captaincy stint has just happened to have accured at the same time where we've had Williamson, Taylor, Watling, Southee, Boult and McCullum himself put in world class performances over a 18-24 month period. We don't have them, we don't have McCullum, the "greatest" captain of all time crap. Let's not forget this team was able to win test matches in Australia and Sri Lanka before McCullum took over. Was that down to Ross Taylor and his captaincy style? I think not.

Personally I'm over the McCullum talk. He's an excellent speaker I'll give him that, but excellent captain, heck no. His style cost us that first test AFAIC and he should've copped a lot more flack than he did. Awesome, you love to attack, problem is you can't be like that 80 percent of the time in test cricket. You need to scale it back from time to time and McCullum really hasn't learnt how to do that. He has been given far too much credit for New Zealand's resurgence IMO, most of us here (with the exception of Bahnz haha) could see something like this happening years back with the likes of Southee, Boult, Williamson etc coming through. It's almost like McCullum has taught these guys everything they know going by the media. Iain O'Brien made the same point the other day too.

Right place, right time.

 

[Antihippy]

So you're saying that he hasn't earned the right to be aggressive?

 

[CM Punk]

Not looking forward to the Aus and SA series.

With the attitude the boys are playing with, I fear we'll be bullied around =\

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Bull****.

His captaincy stint has just happened to have accured at the same time where we've had Williamson, Taylor, Watling, Southee, Boult and McCullum himself put in world class performances over a 18-24 month period. We don't have them, we don't have McCullum, the "greatest" captain of all time crap. Let's not forget this team was able to win test matches in Australia and Sri Lanka before McCullum took over. Was that down to Ross Taylor and his captaincy style? I think not.

Personally I'm over the McCullum talk. He's an excellent speaker I'll give him that, but excellent captain, heck no. His style cost us that first test AFAIC and he should've copped a lot more flack than he did. Awesome, you love to attack, problem is you can't be like that 80 percent of the time in test cricket. You need to scale it back from time to time and McCullum really hasn't learnt how to do that. He has been given far too much credit for New Zealand's resurgence IMO, most of us here (with the exception of Bahnz haha) could see something like this happening years back with the likes of Southee, Boult, Williamson etc coming through. It's almost like McCullum has taught these guys everything they know going by the media. Iain O'Brien made the same point the other day too.

Right place, right time.

Bunch of good players with a mediocre captain will get you good results. Bunch of good players with an excellent captain gets the results we've been seeing.

 

[Howsie]

An excellent captain would've seen us win the recent test series, not draw it IMO.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Not looking forward to the Aus and SA series.

With the attitude the boys are playing with, I fear we'll be bullied around =\

With a defeatist attitude like that I'm not surprised you quit your job without notice and decided to sit on your couch in Chicago.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

An excellent captain would've seen us win the recent test series, not draw it IMO.

I guess we'll just never know. Either way, it's working and good to watch.

A conservative captain probably would've drawn both tests given how the games panned out.