*Official** New Zealand in England

[MoxPearl]

oh and sinclair to open with richardson i would hope

 

[luckyeddie]

Shame the Tuffey v Stevo poll can't be resurrected and re-done; there might be a little more "objective" voting now, and sense would prevail..

I think you'd find that the final result's just a tad closer but still the same way, that's all.

 

[superkingdave]

well the only real selection dilemma for england before the 3rd test is deciding between saggers and anderson......although i feel that neither of them are good enough to play for england on a consistent basis i would pick anderson ahead of saggers.

Why don't you think Anderson is good enough to play for England?
Having watched both of them play for Lancs quite a bit, I've seen more potential and ability from Anderson than Mahmood (not saying Mahmood hasn't got a lot of ability) and yet Mahmood gets all these people bummin him all the time.

I can't see many bowlers better than him to keep him out of the side, he's going to be better than Hoggard...the only reason his figures are quite bad is because England ran him into the ground leading the attack on flat picthes last summer. He's still young as well for christs sake, have you seen that much of him that you can just discard him as not good enough?


PS Those prices at Trent Bridge seem an outrage, ive got great tickets at Old Trafford for the test at c20 quid and some tickets for the one dayer were only 25 quid

 

[chris.hinton]

right i bet you if Ian Bell played 25 one day international and did nothing you would keep him in the team

 

[luckyeddie]

right i bet you if Ian Bell played 25 one day international and did nothing you would keep him in the team

Fifty

 

[SpaceMonkey]

right i bet you if Ian Bell played 25 one day international and did nothing you would keep him in the team

Well Rikki Clarke and Ian Blackwell arent far off 25 are they? Hardly set the world alight.

 

[Loony BoB]

Cairns' last match... I imagine that if anything, that might draw people to be spending a bit more than usual. It'll be a shame if it he doesn't fire.

 

[luckyeddie]

No-one but Fred Trueman could trouble Boycott's mum and that was only because he used to bowl above the sightscreen.

'appen

 

[Dougie Rydal]

NZ Team named this morning...

1. Mark Richardson
2. Stephen Fleming
3. Nathan Astle
4. Scott Styris
5. Craig McMillan
6. Jake Oram
7. Brendon McCullum
8. Chris Cairns
9. Jimmy Franklin
10. Kyle Mills
11. Chris Martin

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Well Rikki Clarke and Ian Blackwell arent far off 25 are they? Hardly set the world alight.

16 and 21 respectively.

88 runs (9.77) and 282 runs (17.62) respectively.

10 wickets (32.10) and 15 wickets (32.33) respectively.

 

[superkingdave]

NZ Team named this morning...

1. Mark Richardson
2. Stephen Fleming
3. Nathan Astle
4. Scott Styris
5. Craig McMillan
6. Jake Oram
7. Brendon McCullum
8. Chris Cairns
9. Jimmy Franklin
10. Kyle Mills
11. Chris Martin

So no.s 9 and 10 have first class batting ave's of 27.79 and 41.48 respectively! Are those ave's misleading, i know franklins test career is 2 inns 2 ducks?

 

[Loony BoB]

So no.s 9 and 10 have first class batting ave's of 27.79 and 41.48 respectively! Are those ave's misleading, i know franklins test career is 2 inns 2 ducks?

He's averaged 37.2 over 13 innings for Rishton in the Lancashire League, including a 105* and two fifties. He's averaged 21.1 with the ball (173-37-464-22) and has one five wicket bag (5-16!). If anything, he's better with the bat than the ball in league cricket, although that could have something to do with getting used to the Duke ball over time. Not sure, though. Either way, 22 wickets in 13 games doesn't sound hugeley impressive, but hey, we'll find out if anything really is better than what we had before.

I'm happy with that squad, if only for the fact that they've dropped Tuffey. At least I'll get to see someone new at the bowling crease instead of the boring same old same old. Can't hurt to try!

EDIT: Oh, and I'm pretty sure Mills knocked up a nice 40 or 50 for NZ against one of the counties. So yeah, we now bat to 10. Haha.

 

[luckyeddie]

EDIT: Oh, and I'm pretty sure Mills knocked up a nice 40 or 50 for NZ against one of the counties. So yeah, we now bat to 10. Haha.

Ring Derbyshire to see if Nicholas Walker's got any Kiwi (or rather if his mum HAD....) you know.

He was born in Enfield which is quite a bit south (near enough?) and averages over 50 batting at No 11.

 

[marc71178]

right i bet you if Ian Bell played 25 one day international and did nothing you would keep him in the team

Is that aimed at anyone in particular or is it just one of your random ramblings?

FYI, Bell is beginning to take a very big role with the ball, and according to the media (who basically know what is going on) is almost assured a call-up for the Triseries, and the form he's in, I wouldn't back against him performing rather well.

 

[marc71178]

He's averaged 37.2 over 13 innings for Rishton in the Lancashire League, including a 105* and two fifties.

Yes, but that is league cricket, makes County Cricket look good.

 

[Loony BoB]

Oh, I know, I was just putting that in there for the UK people so you can have an idea of how good he is (since someone was wonderin'). I personally have no bloody clue how good Franklin is, I've had a cricket drought in my life for around two years. But I hear the guy can knock a number up.

eddie: Heh, makes me wonder if NZ will have 11 specialist batsmen / all rounders in a couple of years, with Oram and Styris being our main bowlers, backed up by McMillan, Richardson and Astle!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Is that aimed at anyone in particular or is it just one of your random ramblings?

FYI, Bell is beginning to take a very big role with the ball, and according to the media (who basically know what is going on) is almost assured a call-up for the Triseries, and the form he's in, I wouldn't back against him performing rather well.

Enough to force a Test place? I can see the headlines now "Bell knocks Flintoff from England XI".

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Enough to force a Test place? I can see the headlines now "Bell knocks Flintoff from England XI".

His batting alone at its current standard would easily put him in contention for a top 5 spot. But its a bonus that he can also turn his arm over like Dwayne Smith can for West Indies.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Is that aimed at anyone in particular or is it just one of your random ramblings?

FYI, Bell is beginning to take a very big role with the ball, and according to the media (who basically know what is going on) is almost assured a call-up for the Triseries, and the form he's in, I wouldn't back against him performing rather well.

Yep Bob Willias in his sky sports column basically says Bell and Mahmood will be certainties for the one day squad this summer, and he's rarely wrong as i think he's very close to a number of the england management.

 

[badgerhair]

FYI, Bell is beginning to take a very big role with the ball, and according to the media (who basically know what is going on) is almost assured a call-up for the Triseries, and the form he's in, I wouldn't back against him performing rather well.

Enough to force a Test place? I can see the headlines now "Bell knocks Flintoff from England XI".

There aren't any Test places available at the moment, judging by Fletcher's comments in an interview I read yesterday.

However, the obvious person for Bell to displace in the ODI XI is good old Rikki, and I don't imagine there'll be too many tears shed here if that happens.

I also agree with the comments elsewhere that Mahmood is likely to get a call-up. Harmison might play an ODI or two, but it's fairly unlikely. Jones will be unstressing his fracture, Hoggard is out of the ODI picture anyway because he can't bat amongst other things, so that just leaves Anderson and Flintoff, plus chucker Kirtley and Ol' Man Goughie.

Cheers,

Mike