*Official** New Zealand in England

[nibbs]

dam Hussain. I could have handled it if Trescothick or Butcher had of gotten the match winning hundred, but Hussain!!!?!? damit damit damit. I'm very bitter and spiteful at the moment.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

 

[Loony BoB]

dam Hussain. I could have handled it if Trescothick or Butcher had of gotten the match winning hundred, but Hussain!!!?!? damit damit damit. I'm very bitter and spiteful at the moment.

What's wrong with Hussain?

 

[Kent]

Credit to England for their graduation from the Ronnie Iranis of our last visit, but NZ have arguably returned with an attack more insipid than our 1999 version. Fleming and Cairns talked a lot about being "the most talented ever" when we arrived, yet no-one in our best XI has mastered the crafts of a Simon Doull or even Shayne O'Connor.

I know Bracewell is well-suited to making do with an attack of trundlers after his recent years of coaching, but he needs to have a hard think about the future of the NZ line-up. Pitches like Eden Park's, Bond's sheer brilliance and Chris Martin's purple patch are concealing how bare the cupboard of bowling talent really looks IMO. Apart from Butler (who will need a coming-of-age that tops Steve Harmison's), all our names of the future are batsmen as well!

 

[NikhilN]

I am amazed at the results...I really thought it would end in a draw...hey Neil did you take those pics?

 

[Kent]

English fans - the 2nd test's change of network means a slightly worse time for us down here (10pm start), but will it feature the same voices, 'toys' etc.?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

English fans - the 2nd test's change of network means a slightly worse time for us down here (10pm start), but will it feature the same voices, 'toys' etc.?

Completely different commentry Team, Sky Sports have the likes of Michael Holding / Bob Willis / Ian Botham / David Lloyd / Paul Allot. Who i have to say i prefere to the ch4 team. The 'toys' are basically identicle except have different names although i find Sky Sports puts them to use alot more, although Sky dont use the 'snick-o-meter'. Sky just give a more 'professional' feel to the coverage, which is not surprising as they are a dedicated sports channel where ch4 rarely show any sport bar the cricket.

 

[Kent]

Thanks Spacemonkey. Sounds pretty good, although snicko is probably my second favourite toy after the speed gun.

Are the rights for each game sold to the highest bidder in the UK, or are Ch. 4 simply choosing to cover something else?

 

[Craig]

Congrats England.

IMO it is time to take out McMillan and put Papps as an opener, bat Fleming at 3, Styris at 4 and Astle at 5.

Chris Martin will be the likely one to miss out for Shane Bond providing he is fit enough.

So it should look like this:

Richardson
Papps
*Fleming
Styris
Astle
Cairns
McCullum
Oram
Vettori
Tuffey
C.Martin/Bond

 

[Isolator]

Personally, I think Hamish Marshall needs to be considered (at least) for the test squad. People have compared him to Vincent in terms of vulnerability, but I think he's far removed from Vincent, especially in temperament and composure. I think he'd go well with the test squad.

 

[Kent]

Fleming strongly suggested this morning he'll stay at opener for the rest of the series, and the batting order will be re-evaluated when Cairns retires. Great stuff Flem - we all know McMillan only lifts his game when he's about to get the axe, and you've effectively told him he's got 2 more tests at least! Papps now has plenty of time as a drinks boy to look forward to, maybe even if he scores 300* against Leicester, with Richardson in line for a rest if he wants it.

Some would say Papps opening with Richardson isn't exactly a catalyst for a side to win consecutive tests after only winning 1 of its last 10, although others would argue it might help "the most talented ever" from getting their butts whitewashed.

Nice to see the Black Caps are still positive (or desperate!) I guess.

 

[luckyeddie]

Thanks Spacemonkey. Sounds pretty good, although snicko is probably my second favourite toy after the speed gun.

Are the rights for each game sold to the highest bidder in the UK, or are Ch. 4 simply choosing to cover something else?

There tends to be at least one home test match per year shown on free view terrestrial television - with much gnashing of teeth last year because they tended to chop coverage at the scheduled close irrespective of overtime to run repeats of Hollyoaks until they got bombarded with complaints (well, from me anyway). Cricket is NOT part of the television 'Crown Jewels'.

Both Channel 4 and Sky use the same 1000 frames per second camera (I think Ch 4 used it twice in the last test - must be expensive to run)

 

[luckyeddie]

Some would say Papps opening with Richardson isn't exactly a catalyst for a side to win consecutive tests after only winning 1 of its last 10, although others would argue it might help "the most talented ever" from getting their butts whitewashed.

Nice to see the Black Caps are still positive (or desperate!) I guess.

Welcome to 'Reality Central'.

Now you know just what it often feels like to be English.

Here, the sun is shining, the birds are singing my morning cup of tea tastes like champagne and my buttered toast doesn't need caviar. A wonderful day. I bet someone spoils it.

<quack> Morning, LE

Oh for Chrissakes.

 

[Kent]

Personally, I think Hamish Marshall needs to be considered (at least) for the test squad. People have compared him to Vincent in terms of vulnerability, but I think he's far removed from Vincent, especially in temperament and composure. I think he'd go well with the test squad.

Fair call actually. Marshall probably needs to score a lot more f/c runs, but I think he'd enjoy the ball coming on at 140+ a lot more than other Kiwi batsmen will in this series. He'd also be a great alternative to the overdose of middle-order boundary bashers.

 

[PY]

Welcome to 'Reality Central'.

Now you know just what it often feels like to be English.

Here, the sun is shining, the birds are singing my morning cup of tea tastes like champagne and my buttered toast doesn't need caviar. A wonderful day. I bet someone spoils it.

<quack> Morning, LE

Oh for Chrissakes.

On a side note, don't Sky Sports always get the 2nd Test of the summer no matter what? I seem to remember that second Test of last summer was Zimbabwe at Durham and that was on Sky?

I prefer Channel 4 myself for two reasons:

1) I don't have Sky
2) I don't like the way that Sky commentators have a wonderful knack of over-exaggerating (a la Mark Nicholas) when it comes to certain people.

 

[luckyeddie]

I prefer Channel 4 myself for two reasons:

1) I don't have Sky
2) I don't like the way that Sky commentators have a wonderful knack of over-exaggerating (a la Mark Nicholas) when it comes to certain people.

1) That's as good a reason as any
2) If I've told them once, I've told them a million times.

 

[marc71178]

I am amazed at the results...I really thought it would end in a draw...

Even though both sides and the commentators though there'd be a result?

 

[tooextracool]

Yes, but are the England top order the same sorts of batsmen as Astle, Cairns and Oram who the Kiwis had in at the time.

yet none of them are as defensive as mark richardson....even if astle did get a few runs we had a better chance of getting him out with the new ball than with the old ball. what riles me most is that instead of looking to win we were trying to make sure that we didnt lose. it also seems like the captain had no faith in the ability of his fast bowlers and was scared they would get smacked around despite the fact that they were instrumental in the 3-0 victory in the WI. no i might have agreed with this tactic 5 years ago, definetly not now with our 4 pronged pace attack.

And of course it's not as if the old ball didn't work is it?

not for the first 25 overs....by which team we could have probably dismissed them all with the new ball.

As a final point, I don't think that it was necessarily Trescothicks decision, and having looked at the committee of 5 that were clearly discussing whether to take it or not and they decided not to, I imagine that they who were actually on the pitch know a little more about the effectiveness than you do.

interestingly enough after the 4th day duncan fletcher said that he hadnt had a word with trescothick about these defensive tactics.....trescothick himself admitted after the match that it had been his idea all along and that he had received a lot of stick for it but he still felt it was the right thing to do.

 

[tooextracool]

It should be noted that NZ were not that far on top, as shown by their inability to score runs at anything near a decent rate.

what is with you and run rate??
1) that doesnt affect richardson
2)the fact is that they had got through a difficult period when the ball was doing a bit...im sure if someone told fleming that they would be 180/1 after 55 overs at the start of day 4 he would have settled for it.

 

[tooextracool]

Well, they certainly won't drop Trescothick, because in spite of all your rants about him, his career average is over 40, and we haven't got too many of those around.

i never said they would did i? trescothick at headingly is as much as a bull in a china shop that you'll ever see. unless of course the conditions at headingly end up being completely dry and this comes back and bites me in the a**