*Official** New Zealand in England

[marc71178]

They were due a bit of luck and the Thorpe dismissal was it I guess.

 

[twctopcat]

Saggers has quite a spectacular batting technique.

Is he really better than Harmison?!

Lol, he's got a bigger backlift than Lara. Not quite the end product though.

 

[luckyeddie]

Lol, he's got a bigger backlift than Lara. Not quite the end product though.

In fairness, because Lara gets out usually, the end product is the same.
It's the bit in the middle which is different (and a lot longer, in Lara's case)

 

[Loony BoB]

They were due a bit of luck and the Thorpe dismissal was it I guess.

I think a lot of luck has gone both ways - it's not like that was our first share of it, what with the Harmison lbw appeals. All the bad calls have gone both ways though, so we're probably just about even over the tour with them.

 

[MoxPearl]

yep

Some of the calls have been shocking.. but atleast they have been consistant =]

 

[Tim]

NZ stuffed this series up big-time & management need to cop alot of the blame.
Certainly injuries took their toll, but NZ had a fit side at Lords and their poor performance set the tone for the rest of the series.

For starters...the opening combination of Richardson (mainly), Fleming & Papps have done their job..they've averaged around 70 which is brilliant. But the middle order has been rubbish & shuffling the order around in pretty much every innings has contributed to part of the failure.
McCullum's moved up & down...Oram likewise..Styris & Astle seem to be swapping every innings & McMillan the sole player who has pretty much batted in the same position can have plenty of blame laid on him for triggering serious batting collapses or getting out at a key moment.

I can't explain Tuffey's poor form, but he looks like the same average bowler that he was pre-2002 and thats not a good sign. I think Vettori has bowled well & at times he was a little unlucky...Cairns until the 3rd test was crap, Oram has bowled pretty well & Martin has simply failed to fire.

England deserved to win this series, but I can't help but feel if NZ had turned up like they promised they would then this series was never out of the question for them..they've struggled against Harmison..but that's about it & they needed to break England's opening partnership alot quicker.
Also..once again, like I said awhile ago they showed little respect to Giles in this series & fortunately for every other nation they'll see alot more of Giles in the meantime anyway.

 

[Loony BoB]

NZ stuffed this series up big-time & management need to cop alot of the blame.
Certainly injuries took their toll, but NZ had a fit side at Lords and their poor performance set the tone for the rest of the series.

For starters...the opening combination of Richardson (mainly), Fleming & Papps have done their job..they've averaged around 70 which is brilliant. But the middle order has been rubbish & shuffling the order around in pretty much every innings has contributed to part of the failure.
McCullum's moved up & down...Oram likewise..Styris & Astle seem to be swapping every innings & McMillan the sole player who has pretty much batted in the same position can have plenty of blame laid on him for triggering serious batting collapses or getting out at a key moment.

I can't explain Tuffey's poor form, but he looks like the same average bowler that he was pre-2002 and thats not a good sign. I think Vettori has bowled well & at times he was a little unlucky...Cairns until the 3rd test was crap, Oram has bowled pretty well & Martin has simply failed to fire.

England deserved to win this series, but I can't help but feel if NZ had turned up like they promised they would then this series was never out of the question for them..they've struggled against Harmison..but that's about it & they needed to break England's opening partnership alot quicker.
Also..once again, like I said awhile ago they showed little respect to Giles in this series & fortunately for every other nation they'll see alot more of Giles in the meantime anyway.

I actually don't have too many complaints about the batting, personally - four of our batsmen average over 40 in the series, one had 39, two more just over 30 and another on 27.6 (Astle, who did get a 50 and a 40 at Lords to be fair to him). While it's not amazing, if you take away the one god-awful innings at Headingly and go by the rest of the series, it's not too shabby. I'd say the only person who has really failed is McMillan.

The bowling is a different story, and I won't go into detail because we've been talking about it all through the thread - it has, aside from a single innings at the start of this third test, been utter tripe.

 

[tooextracool]

just looking at the turn and bounce that giles is getting on this wicket, i shudder to think what a quality spinner would have done here.......well of all the wickets for vettori not to play on!

 

[tooextracool]

Although one of tooextra's "80 mph merchants", I was quite impressed with Franklin's return. Considering the almighty talent pool of Australia were excited about Nathan Bracken, when you add the fact that Franklin is scoring f/c tons I think he has a very strong claim to be persisted with now.

from what i've seen from franklin so far i must say that i dont think he will be a regular in the kiwi side over a period of time. hes too one dimensional...the bracken/mullally type. although he does have plenty of time to prove me wrong here

The only question I have is whose spot is he more likely to take long-term - Cairns', Tuffey's, Martin's or Vettori's?

martin's as good as gone already....

I have no doubt that Fleming would've turned to Vettori for an extended spell when Vaughan and Trescothick were looking flash. In other words, you could form an argument that England may've been 200/2 at stumps with Vettori having 20 overs to his name, rather than 225/5 with 0 to his name.

well there has been some turn in this wicket and i do think that vettori would have been a lot more difficult to play here than in any of the previous tests. did you see the amount of turn cairns got from his slower ball/off spinner to vaughan?

Perhaps picking 7 medium-pacers is a good tactic for NZ? The law of averages says at least 2 or 3 of them will be fit and having a decent day with their swing/accuracy/slower ball!

it was fulfilling for me to see chris cairns bowl that slower ball this test....i was puzzled to see that someone who reaked havvock on the last tour with that delivery barely used it at all on this tour

 

[tooextracool]

2. Simon Taufel very rarely makes mistakes

well flemings lbw decision was an absolute shocker.....hit way above the knee roll and remember fleming is pretty tall.

 

[marc71178]

I can't explain Tuffey's poor form, but he looks like the same average bowler that he was pre-2002 and thats not a good sign.

I reckon it's something to do with fitness.

 

[Kent]

well flemings lbw decision was an absolute shocker.....hit way above the knee roll and remember fleming is pretty tall.

Now Flintoff was on a roll. Nathan Astle might have fallen second ball, but instead lasted just two more as Taufel upheld another, less marginal, appeal. - cricinfo

Less marginal?! Less marginal?!

If it was India's best batsman sawn off at a crucial stage, cricinfo would probably sack the English cheerleader who described Fleming's decision as 'marginal'.

 

[luckyeddie]

Now Flintoff was on a roll. Nathan Astle might have fallen second ball, but instead lasted just two more as Taufel upheld another, less marginal, appeal. - cricinfo

Less marginal?! Less marginal?!

If it was India's best batsman sawn off at a crucial stage, cricinfo would probably sack the English cheerleader who described Fleming's decision as 'marginal'.

True, and two wrongs don't make a right - but it was a darned sight more 'out' than Thorpe

 

[luckyeddie]

well flemings lbw decision was an absolute shocker.....hit way above the knee roll and remember fleming is pretty tall.

Very true, and Boyks was having kittens at the time ('Bloomin' jet-lagged Aussie umpires').

Styris just got a shocker too.

Megan, your man is human after all.

 

[MoxPearl]

man ever i could tell styris missed that ball by heaps :/

 

[luckyeddie]

man ever i could tell styris missed that ball by heaps :/

The amazing thing is, even Dermot Pratt-Reeve-Pratt said he heard nothing - yet there seemed to be a HUGE noise.

 

[MoxPearl]

There was a noise.. but it was definatly not the bat

Anyways on the TV replays u could tell the ball missed by a few inches

 

[MoxPearl]

hmmmm on replay u could see it was the chin strap hitting the grill :o

 

[Kent]

looks like a very fine nick to the keeper - cricinfo

I don't know who's having the bigger shocker this morning, T'awful or the cricinfo cheerleaders.

 

[luckyeddie]

hmmmm on replay u could see it was the chin strap hitting the grill :o

I said something yesterday or Thursday about the latest trend of umpires to (seemingly) rely on a single sense to the exclusion of all else - it's a bit silly when that sense is hearing, and the game is being played in a bubbling cauldron.