*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[wellAlbidarned]

How did Buttler look? Seems like I was a tad wrong there.

 

[Bahnz]

Well that is disappointing, sounds like England played well though. Was McCullum slightly over-egging the aggressive captaincy? 5 slips and a gully is fine in the first session, but 350+ in a day suggests he maybe persisted with it a shade too long.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

Well that is disappointing, sounds like England played well though. Was McCullum slightly over-egging the aggressive captaincy? 5 slips and a gully is fine in the first session, but 350+ in a day suggests he maybe persisted with it a shade too long.

He certainly took too long to put some boundary riders out. They were going at 6p/o for over a good period in the afternoon.

Its fine against England's stodgier top order but Stokes was absolutely merciless against anything off line or length.

 

[Matulino#1]

You can argue disappointment at not skittling England after 30/4

But..

That pitch looks like a road. Bit of swing for the quicks but it wasn't hooping and certainly no demons in the pitch.

Game IMO is poised to go deep into the 5th day, could be an epic ala Eden Park 2013.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah I'll be worried till we're comfortably ahead in the batting. England is not a place where you can bank on big runs even on a flat pitch.

 

[Bahnz]

He certainly took too long to put some boundary riders out. They were going at 6p/o for over a good period in the afternoon.

Its fine against England's stodgier top order but Stokes was absolutely merciless against anything off line or length.

I suspected as much. It's a bit frustrating, as if England had finished the day at 300/7 then you'd still call it - on balance - NZ's day. But 350/7 means England are...well not on top, but certainly in the ascendancy.

 

[Pothas]

Sounds like a fantastic day of test cricket, we have not scored that quickly for a good while.

 

[thierry henry]

Read a report saying that the NZ bowlers looked rusty "especially Southee"...can't agree, I thought that Southee looked in better rhythm then he has for a while- was bowling 140kph and moving it, but his lines deteriorated as the day went on.

Boult was the worrying one, bowled 130kph all day, wtf? I know it ain't about speed but for a 140+ bowler to be bowling 128, 129, 130 etc is a pretty clear sign of a lack of rhythm and I thought Boult definitely looked less threatening as a result.

Henry confused me....looked pretty good all up but was also a yard down on pace but more significantly, he seemed to be bowling with a hacky sack. The ball inexplicably just was not carrying for him, which can be a good thing at times as he has that knack of making the ball stay low out of nowhere. Doug Bracewell has the same knack, can't really explain it.

 

[SteveNZ]

Well that is disappointing, sounds like England played well though. Was McCullum slightly over-egging the aggressive captaincy? 5 slips and a gully is fine in the first session, but 350+ in a day suggests he maybe persisted with it a shade too long.

Possibly, but you can't have it every way with the way he plays his cricket. He'll over-attack at times and get it wrong, but as he's shown previously he'll do so to our great benefit at times as well.

In this instance his bowlers didn't give him much. Especially to Stokes, we bowled 3 lengths and two lines. I know they were 30-4 but I don't think we were prepared to be driven enough early either.

 

[Hooksey]

KP would have had a wry chuckle at 4-30. But England found some very rare fight, and at 7-354, are quite well placed.

 

[SteveNZ]

Read a report saying that the NZ bowlers looked rusty "especially Southee"...can't agree, I thought that Southee looked in better rhythm then he has for a while- was bowling 140kph and moving it, but his lines deteriorated as the day went on.

Boult was the worrying one, bowled 130kph all day, wtf? I know it ain't about speed but for a 140+ bowler to be bowling 128, 129, 130 etc is a pretty clear sign of a lack of rhythm and I thought Boult definitely looked less threatening as a result.

Henry confused me....looked pretty good all up but was also a yard down on pace but more significantly, he seemed to be bowling with a hacky sack. The ball inexplicably just was not carrying for him, which can be a good thing at times as he has that knack of making the ball stay low out of nowhere. Doug Bracewell has the same knack, can't really explain it.

Yeah, Boulty looked laboured. Henry I wasn't as worried about, debuting at Lord's you're always a chance of over-exerting and losing your shape/height. His seam wasn't always bolt upright so that was part of the problem, as evidenced by the one that got BJ in the kneecap.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

350 runs on the first day, imagine the carnage if England hadn't been playing against the World's Best Bowling Attack.

Ah. It's like the old colonial masters and the brash Aussies are the only ones allowed to overindulge in Nationalistic hubris. It's not my bag, but Crikey old bean.

 

[Furball]

Read a report saying that the NZ bowlers looked rusty "especially Southee"...can't agree, I thought that Southee looked in better rhythm then he has for a while- was bowling 140kph and moving it, but his lines deteriorated as the day went on.

Boult was the worrying one, bowled 130kph all day, wtf? I know it ain't about speed but for a 140+ bowler to be bowling 128, 129, 130 etc is a pretty clear sign of a lack of rhythm and I thought Boult definitely looked less threatening as a result.

Henry confused me....looked pretty good all up but was also a yard down on pace but more significantly, he seemed to be bowling with a hacky sack. The ball inexplicably just was not carrying for him, which can be a good thing at times as he has that knack of making the ball stay low out of nowhere. Doug Bracewell has the same knack, can't really explain it.

Boult's bowling the correct pace to be effective. There is little point in a swing bowler in England operating much faster.

 

[Pothas]

This Furball hating Bell thing is boring already. That CW45969 man did it to such a great extent that you can't really top.

 

[hendrix]

Read a report saying that the NZ bowlers looked rusty "especially Southee"...can't agree, I thought that Southee looked in better rhythm then he has for a while- was bowling 140kph and moving it, but his lines deteriorated as the day went on.

Boult was the worrying one, bowled 130kph all day, wtf? I know it ain't about speed but for a 140+ bowler to be bowling 128, 129, 130 etc is a pretty clear sign of a lack of rhythm and I thought Boult definitely looked less threatening as a result.

Henry confused me....looked pretty good all up but was also a yard down on pace but more significantly, he seemed to be bowling with a hacky sack. The ball inexplicably just was not carrying for him, which can be a good thing at times as he has that knack of making the ball stay low out of nowhere. Doug Bracewell has the same knack, can't really explain it.

Yeah these were my exact observations, but I only watched the first session.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, Boult bowled the exact same pace last time he was in England and picked up plenty of wickets - reckon it's a deliberate strategy rather than a sign of being out of form.

 

[Bahnz]

Possibly, but you can't have it every way with the way he plays his cricket. He'll over-attack at times and get it wrong, but as he's shown previously he'll do so to our great benefit at times as well.

In this instance his bowlers didn't give him much. Especially to Stokes, we bowled 3 lengths and two lines. I know they were 30-4 but I don't think we were prepared to be driven enough early either.

I just worry that he's getting too aggressive with his field sets now. I can't remember him ever setting 6 slips before in a test (at least not outside of hattrick balls) - it just seems to me that he might be over indulging in it. As boring as 3 slips and a gully may be, it's popular because it's almost always all that's required.

 

[SteveNZ]

I just worry that he's getting too aggressive with his field sets now. I can't remember him ever setting 6 slips before in a test (at least not outside of hattrick balls) - it just seems to me that he might be over indulging in it. As boring as 3 slips and a gully may be, it's popular because it's almost always all that's required.

Yeah he's probably got to get to a point where he recognises the point to dial it back. But as I say, I can handle that if the pay-off is a nick goes to hand at 4th at some stage where another captain wouldn't have had one. His bowlers didn't help him and he probably backed them too much, but that might also have helped them to be the bowlers they've been in the last 18 months.

All in all, definitely England's day but Buttler's wicket gives us hope tomorrow if we can clean up the tail for around 370 odd. Good pitch, if our batsmen get through the obvious threat of the new ball there's definitely runs to be had.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, there's still masses of time for NZ to put a score on the board and then try and apply the pressure on day 4. But I can't help but feel that given how little prep our batsmen have had, we really needed to get England out for under 300.

 

[morgieb]

Well that is disappointing, sounds like England played well though. Was McCullum slightly over-egging the aggressive captaincy? 5 slips and a gully is fine in the first session, but 350+ in a day suggests he maybe persisted with it a shade too long.

He got over-excited about earning the right to be aggressive, IMO.