*Official** New Zealand in England

[Tim]

NZ's lower order won't stuff up like that again. McCullum has already made amends for his 1st innings blunder with the bat & I thought last night that I saw Vettori padded up to come in next..which will probably be unlikely now.
But still they gave McCullum a chance to put it right and he has so far.

Chris Martin has improved out of sight with the bat, his knock was valuable in the end because Cairns was able to score 45 runs in 5 overs. He's still a rabbit, but he's at least learned the art of defence.

 

[luckyeddie]

It's been a thoroughly entertaining game so far - no predictions from me.

 

[Tim]

I agree, it certainly hasn't been a dour match like most outsiders predicted it would be.
It's just amazing how the intiative has changed throughout the match so dramatically in a short amount of time.
Agnew reckons England won't be wanting to chase 280, i'd say 320.

Richardson has done a sterling job on a pitch which for a batsman like him would be difficult to bat on at this stage.

 

[Loony BoB]

It'd be interesting to see how many wickets have fallen in each session. I'm not sure, but I think most of them have fallen in the morning for both sides, and if that's the case then I'm going to keep my fingers crossed tomorrow.

 

[Tim]

This gets said for almost every session but I feel if NZ want to win this test then tommorow's 1st session is crucial.

England have a chance to get McCullum quickly because im sure he'll try to continue where he left off. If he hasn't got his eye in, he could fall as quickly as Oram did on day 2.
McCullum surely will be eyeing a hundred at Lords, but whether he holds back to get the century or not I don't know.

There's no doubt that this is what NZ's batting lineup is wanting...and no doubt that it could get ugly in terms of shot selection. But they've now got a platform of 79 runs with 9 wickets in hand...Styris, McMillan, Cairns, Oram etc to come...at least 250 should be reached.

 

[Tim]

If you look at McCullum's days in U19 cricket, the longer version of the game is definately where he excelled.

He'll always be a handy #7 or #8 batsman in ODI's who can score a quickfire 30 or 40, but I think he can really make a name for himself at test level where he seems to enjoy the fact that he has more time on his hands.
What's more he's only 22 so he really does have a lot of time on his hands to fashion a good test career.

 

[Tim]

I've been reading English newspapers to get the usual bias view on things & although I know it's part & parcel I couldn't help but laugh by the comments made by the Guardians Kevin Mitchell. He suggested the NZ attack was too one dimensional (basically he believed they were rubbish)...if thats' the case, it's almost a carbon copy of what England have selected except a couple of bowlers bowl a few k's quicker.

NZ's attack is a slow one at the moment..but they're just as affective as a bunch of tear-away quicks (thats not referring to England's bowlers) when they strike form.

 

[badgerhair]

A few random thoughts on the day:

Hoggard batted surprisingly well - he actually played some pretty reasonable shots. On the other hand, he bowled abysmally: surely he knows by now that bowling short on a slow pitch is really, really unwise for him? And if he wants to bowl at the same end as Harmison, that's OK, as long as he actually bowls properly when he does it.

Giles really is useless at Lord's in May.

I thought the Flintoff-Jones assault was excellent, and they were quite right to go for it that way: had they managed even half an hour more of it, NZ might well have been seriously damaged.

But I can see why Fletcher and Vaughan were so keen to get Jones into the side: assuming there's more to his game than this kind of calculated assault, I reckon he could bat as high as four. Not that he will, just that he probably could. I was particularly impressed with his bat speed - he puts a heck of a whip on the ball, and it really travels across the ground. I can see him getting picked as a specialist bat, probably when one of the specialist bats turns up sick on the morning of an away Test, and then they can draft Chris Read in and just leave Jones to bat. I was definitely impressed.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Neil Pickup]

Or when the pitch suits them.

They have seemed very one dimensional and samey. The thing with England is that Harmo and Fred are tall and get extra bounce at pace, while NZ's big guy, Oram (the pick for me) is more about accuracy, and Jones and Hoggard are fuller and swing it, as opposed to 4xmedium fast, line and length, not do too much with it.

 

[southern man]

in answer to an earlier question - I'm pretty sure McCullum has been opening for CANT this season in the 4 day games with Papps...........not sure where he batted previously...........

Made his first class debut for Otago as an opener, Saw him score his maiden first class century of 142 against Auckland and that was as an opener.

 

[Tim]

Personally I think the bowling from both sides has been fairly even so far. Both sides have bowled a fair amount of rubbish and I don't think any bowler has really stood out, except for maybe Flintoff...but he hasn't really taken a huge amount of wickets.

If NZ were struggling against the English attack they would be out for far less than 300...I think poor shot selections from both teams have attributed too.

If Bond returns in the 2nd test & strikes form, NZ's attack will immediately pose a new threat as I believe Tuffey & Oram are at their best when they've got a genuine strike bowler to partner up with.

 

[Tim]

I'd like to see Fleming give Styris more overs in the 2nd innings. With the way the pitch is heading, if he tries a few variations he could well be a tough customer to score off.

 

[marc71178]

Styris showed a few critics that he's a handy bowler...and he mopped up the tail quickly which helped the cause.

If he's that handy, how come he wasn't used till the last moment though?

A useful partnership breaker it appears, but not necessarily much more than that.

 

[marc71178]

Agnew reckons England won't be wanting to chase 280, i'd say 320.

We don't really want to be chasing much over 200, but I can't see that happening.

I wonder if Astle will be well enough to bat tomorrow - can hope not, but I imagine that he will.

 

[Tim]

This has happened before mind you. I believe Styris made the decision himself that he would like to take a back-seat role with his bowling and bowl only if he really needed to.

I think he's better than just a partnership breaker..but there's no doubt he's wanted to become more of a batsman who bowls occassionally in recent times.

 

[badgerhair]

Personally I think the bowling from both sides has been fairly even so far. Both sides have bowled a fair amount of rubbish and I don't think any bowler has really stood out, except for maybe Flintoff...but he hasn't really taken a huge amount of wickets.

If NZ were struggling against the English attack they would be out for far less than 300...I think poor shot selections from both teams have attributed too.

If Bond returns in the 2nd test & strikes form, NZ's attack will immediately pose a new threat as I believe Tuffey & Oram are at their best when they've got a genuine strike bowler to partner up with.

Compared to the way they bowled in their last series, how well have the NZ bowlers been doing?

In my view, Harmison has only been at his WI standard for the spell on the morning of day 2, and that the rest of the time he's been some way short - justb a good Test bowler perhaps, bar his first two overs on day one, which were simply tripe.

Jones was a lot better on day one than he'd been in WI, but has since bowled at his mediocre WI level, with very little control of his line.

Flintoff has bowled about as well as he did in WI.

Giles has been putrid, but there's nothing new about that.

Hoggard has been way below the standard he maintained in WI.

Collectively, this has been a below-par performance by the England bowlers. They can do considerably better.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Tim]

Astle was off the field for an entire day, so does that mean he can't bat until around the middle of lunch time tommorow?
Or isn't there a rule that he can only bat at #7 or lower?

England bowled well in the West Indies..but I think there's a different proposition going on here & more pressure added I think.

 

[marc71178]

He suggested the NZ attack was too one dimensional (basically he believed they were rubbish)...if thats' the case, it's almost a carbon copy of what England have selected except a couple of bowlers bowl a few k's quicker.

The English attack is definitely not one dimensional - each of the 4 provide something different in their style, whether it be extra height, extra pace, swing or whatever.

The Kiwis however haven't bowled particularly well in this match (although granted they have had the odd ball that is unplayable) but don't appear to provide that much variety in styles.

 

[southern man]

I was talking about the likes of McCullum, Vettori, ...

Personally i would rather have McCullum and Vettori than Hoggard and Giles.

 

[Tim]

Yeah sure the English bowlers have more variety but if that was the case, you'd think they would have been heads & shoulders above NZ in this test..which clearly they haven't.

Clearly Tuffey is struggling for rhythm & Cairns is below test standard now for bowling..I also think NZ's bowling can improve.