*Official** New Zealand in England

[Neil Pickup]

It really REALLY bothers me how Butcher still makes it into the slips, he's ok fielding at Gully it seems but the moment he goes into the slip region he loses it, i think he just suffers big lapses in concentration (something thats hindered his batting alot over the years). Surely we have someone better to go in there?

You'd think we would, but we don't!

 

[Rich2001]

Surely we have someone better to go in there?

1/ If we had would they not already be there?

2/ And who would you suggest? I mentioned Vaughan in a earlier post but never checked it so not sure how that went down, you could always play Read instead of Giles and have slips of:


WK - Jones or Read
1st - Jones or Read
2nd - Trescothick
3rd - Strauss
4th - Flintoff

I mean if we had the first 3 spots covered by Wicket-Keepers then surely they could all catch right?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

You'd think we would, but we don't!

I guess not, also it really bothers me having Giles in Gully sometimes! He's got ok hands when the balls at him but asking him to dive! hahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[SpaceMonkey]

1/ If we had would they not already be there?

2/ And who would you suggest? I mentioned Vaughan in a earlier post but never checked it so not sure how that went down, you could always play Read instead of Giles and have slips of:


WK - Jones or Read
1st - Jones or Read
2nd - Trescothick
3rd - Strauss
4th - Flintoff

I mean if we had the first 3 spots covered by Wicket-Keepers then surely they could all catch right?

Why not.

WK - Jones
1st -Trescothick
2nd - Flintoff (thankfully probably one of the best slip catchers in the world)
3rd - Strauss
4th - Thorpe

Then you can stick Butcher under the helmet at short leg or somewhere that'll teach him!

At least the likes of Bell / Pieterson / Clarke / Newman / Batty are good fielders so the future isnt too bad Although i have this really bad vision of Key and Giles as our 2 Gullies

 

[Neil Pickup]

There is no way that Jones and Read will both play the same Test match barring a sudden attack of the legendary Delhi Belly..

We've got Trescothick, Flintoff and Thorpe at present.. Strauss appears to be short leg, Hoggard/Saggers/Harmo/Anderson/Jones are not slips anywhere other than in the West Indies. That leaves Giles, Butcher and Vaughan - and there's your problem!

 

[Rich2001]

Then you can stick Butcher under the helmet at short leg or somewhere that'll teach him!

At least the likes of Bell / Pieterson / Clarke / Newman / Batty are good fielders so the future isnt too bad Although i have this really bad vision of Key and Giles as our 2 Gullies

Ok I was j/k with the WK idea but you knew that right...

As for the Key comment above, there's your answer he fields at slips for Kent, does it all the time

Ok it's time to tell you why Key has been catching so much and scoring so many runs, its simple really.

When he bats we tell him it's a Apple.... When his in the slips we tell him it's a pie or something

 

[thierry henry]

Why can't New Zealand batsmen score centuries? Richardson and Fleming are two of the worst 50/100 converters of all time and the bug seems to be spreading.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Ok I was j/k with the WK idea but you knew that right...

As for the Key comment above, there's your answer he fields at slips for Kent, does it all the time

Ok it's time to tell you why Key has been catching so much and scoring so many runs, its simple really.

When he bats we tell him it's a Apple.... When his in the slips we tell him it's a pie or something

I hope he wears a mouth guard in the slips then

 

[SpaceMonkey]

There is no way that Jones and Read will both play the same Test match barring a sudden attack of the legendary Delhi Belly..

We've got Trescothick, Flintoff and Thorpe at present.. Strauss appears to be short leg, Hoggard/Saggers/Harmo/Anderson/Jones are not slips anywhere other than in the West Indies. That leaves Giles, Butcher and Vaughan - and there's your problem!

Mute point as he isnt playing atm but Anderson is a very good fielder, he's taken some stunning catches in one day matches so far. He could easily do a job in Gully but been a fast bowler i doubt they would want him diving about there in a test match.

 

[blackcapsrule]

Why can't New Zealand batsmen score centuries? Richardson and Fleming are two of the worst 50/100 converters of all time and the bug seems to be spreading.

It is getting very annoying. Fleming 97 last night, was a huge dissapointment, he batted well and got out just before the milestone.

For me Richardson is the worst he seems to always be scoring 60-90

 

[Loony BoB]

Complain about the people who have trouble converting 0's to 50's before you complain about people who have trouble converting 50's to 100's - I'm more than happy with someone scoring 97. People complain that he doesn't make 97 into 100 but seriously, 3 runs isn't that big a deal - other people can get them if needed.

Fleming is improving, too, and Richardson probably would have scored two centuries in the last test if it weren't for a bad umpiring decision. So long as they're improving, I'm not going to complain about them at all. And I'd rather have someone who constantly scores 50, 50, 50, 50, 50 than someone who scores 100, 0, 0, 100, 0 0...

 

[Mingster]

Styris is finding form, if slowly. At least he finally moved into the double figures.

We should get to 500 by lunch if McCullum and Cairns can last for the first 30 minutes, then we should be fine.

I'm worried about our bowling attack, but Oram hinted in the papers that he might bowl in the Test afterall.

 

[tooextracool]

How can you possibly enjoy watching Papps? He played and missed at least fifteen times!

umm 15 times out of 230 balls? even don bradman would have been proud of that.

 

[tooextracool]

WK - Jones
1st -Trescothick
2nd - Flintoff (thankfully probably one of the best slip catchers in the world)
3rd - Strauss
4th - Thorpe

1) thorpe isnt much better than butcher in the slips
2) what do you do when flintoff bowls?its no wonder that all the catches are dropped when he bowls!

 

[tooextracool]

as an aside I believe the 'success' of the top order was due to 2 things from a batting perspective.........

*Fleming at #3;
*and batting with a less defensive style of batsman than Richardson.........

both of which i suggested at the start of the test......as usual i was right

 

[tooextracool]

i have been really impressed with brendon mccullum's batting this series....he does look to have a good technique and has an excellent cut and straight drive. he has a really bright future!

 

[meatspx]

Styris is finding form, if slowly. At least he finally moved into the double figures.

We should get to 500 by lunch if McCullum and Cairns can last for the first 30 minutes, then we should be fine.

LOL - it's not as easy as that. NZ could just as easily score less than 400 (like they did in both innings at Lords). Anyway, 150 runs in 2 hours is quite unbelievable, I'd settle for another 70-100 runs today. I hope Cairns & McCullum atleast try and play themselves in, before attacking.

 

[twctopcat]

both of which i suggested at the start of the test......as usual i was right

Smart ****. If only you knew.

 

[luckyeddie]

Smart ****. If only you knew.

Ask CIP er sorry, TEC, how Bangladesh went on in the first test against West Indies. He suggested that their score was irrelevant because WI would thrash them irrespective.

(just thought I'd mention it - now seems as good a time as any )

 

[twctopcat]

Ask CIP er sorry, TEC, how Bangladesh went on in the first test against West Indies. He suggested that their score was irrelevant because WI would thrash them irrespective.

(just thought I'd mention it - now seems as good a time as any )

I only had a moan because
a) no-one likes a smart ****
b)he should get off his high horse
c)why not?