*Official** New Zealand in England

[Langeveldt]

Congrats to Harmison who is telling us that his winter in the WI was not a flash in the pan, but maybe a sign of things to come...

Congrats to England and Ashley Giles who came off with ball and bat...

And congrats to Chris Cairns on a fine test career.. Entertaining player, great for the game.. Sad to see him leave today..

 

[biased indian]

WASH
when was the last time england did this

 

[Loony BoB]

Players of the Series: SJ Harmison and MH Richardson

Well deserved.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Would've given it to him myself, that Cairns wicket was an absolute beauty- and vital.

I'm beginning to believe in this over the wicket theory.

As long as you've got someone on the sweep, they can't score any runs. Then they get frustrated, and get themselves out. Maybe sweeping. Also, it is generally straight into the rough, and if one turns, you've also got problems.

The problems with it before has usually been too weak legside fields, and, whenever they do have legside fields that are strong, he usually bowls outside off stump.

But if he bowls like he did today, it can be very effective.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I'm beginning to believe in this over the wicket theory.

As long as you've got someone on the sweep, they can't score any runs. Then they get frustrated, and get themselves out. Maybe sweeping. Also, it is generally straight into the rough, and if one turns, you've also got problems.

The problems with it before has usually been too weak legside fields, and, whenever they do have legside fields that are strong, he usually bowls outside off stump.

But if he bowls like he did today, it can be very effective.

Its a great tactic when the balls turning but its pretty useless in the first innings when the batsmen can play it relatively easily.

 

[Tom Halsey]

It didn't turn too much today.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Seriously, where has been the much hyped experience of this NZ side in the middle order during this series?

Trust me. I know the feeling!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

WASH
when was the last time england did this

Bangladesh last year, no?

 

[Rich2001]

Bangladesh last year, no?

It was indeed... However if your talking NZ one then it was about 25 years ago.

 

[Kent]

McMillan is gone now, surely.

The ball kept low, but yet another creasebound LB to a fast bowler. It's become as predictable as a clay court specialist losing in the first round of Wimbledon, so he can forget about answering his critics by scoring 200* in Bangladesh. We already know he can flay minnows on slow tracks, so his 40+ average should no longer be halting the development of another player on a tour like that. If Richardson and Fleming eventually retire in quick succession, McMillan looks incapable of shouldering anything like their runscoring responsiblity.

 

[Tim]

A caller questioned Snedden on talksport on saturday why McMillan was in the team. Snedden answered with: "50 test matches, an average of 43..enough said"

But if you go deeper you find he has scored a truckload of runs against weak bowling attacks & little against good attacks.

Sorry Macca but I think it's time for Peter Fulton or someone else.

 

[Kent]

Jones grassed another..but it didn't really matter anyway.

Quite frankly..test cricket is what matters to me most & the test cricket NZ have recently played has been well below that of what they were achieving in years gone by.
There is absolutely no doubt that Bracewell has been part of the reason & that there are players in that team who don't like his hands on approach.

Far too soon for that conclusion IMO. Was the coach to blame when we got spanked 3-0 in SA in 2000, or was it just the fact Kerry Walmsley and Brooke Walker were on the field? That SA side weren't mugs, and neither are England.

Bracewell did misread the so-called English conditions, but the only thing he clearly got wrong in his selections was Mills over Franklin IMO. Can you imagine the backlash if he'd left Bond/Astle/Tuffey at home, and they were coming out in the media right now saying they were fit and wished they had been there?

He put a lot of faith in Tuffey for this series, but Tuffey let him down. He put faith in Martin, but Martin let him down. He kept faith in Vettori.....

Bracewell can't be blamed for the batting positions thing I don't think either. He batted McCullum at #3 a few times, and he was the only one who openly said he wanted to bat there. Generally he tried to make things as comfortable as possible for his middle-order, but once again, the players let him down.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Far too soon for that conclusion IMO. Was the coach to blame when we got spanked 3-0 in SA in 2000, or was it just the fact Kerry Walmsley and Brooke Walker were on the field? That SA side weren't mugs, and neither are England.

Bracewell did misread the so-called English conditions, but the only thing he clearly got wrong in his selections was Mills over Franklin IMO. Can you imagine the backlash if he'd left Bond/Astle/Tuffey at home, and they were coming out in the media right now saying they were fit and wished they had been there?

He put a lot of faith in Tuffey for this series, but Tuffey let him down. He put faith in Martin, but Martin let him down. He kept faith in Vettori.....

Bracewell can't be blamed for the batting positions thing I don't think either. He batted McCullum at #3 a few times, and he was the only one who openly said he wanted to bat there. Generally he tried to make things as comfortable as possible for his middle-order, but once again, the players let him down.

Well said, he had to take Tuffey and Astle, although i think Bond was just a step too far and no one would have said a bad word if he'd have left Bond at home. The guy's hardly bowled for a year. Tuffey clearly isnt 100% with his injury so at least he has that as an excuse, Martin on the other hand has no excuse and definitely didnt live upto the hype that was surrounding him coming into this tour. Vettori impressed me, bowled well without luck and will really be annoyed he missed this last test which really would have suited him to a T. As for the batting, if it wasnt for Richardson and Fleming i think NZ would have struggled to reach 250 in any innings which just isnt good enough. McCullum i really felt sorry for, been moved around the order so much vs the new ball sometimes and the old ball other times, he was always gonna struggle and did well to do as well as he did.

 

[Tim]

England were the same mind you..there were times where had NZ bowled better, they could have been in dire straits, but as it turned out they batted the better of the two teams & won the series.

 

[Kent]

A caller questioned Snedden on talksport on saturday why McMillan was in the team. Snedden answered with: "50 test matches, an average of 43..enough said"

I've just been listening to that online, and you're right. An incredibly poor answer, seeing his average outside NZ and India is now just 26.5. After 7 years!!

What do we expect? He's playing with a 10 pound, sawn-off mallet! The guy needs it to be as slow and low possible.

Fleming's non-minnow average: 39.4 (McMillan 30.1)
Fleming's non-NZ, non-India average: 44.6 (McMillan 26.5)

 

[Tom Halsey]

I doubt it. NZ by 120 I reckon

Tip: Don't listen to DD's predictions.

 

[luckyeddie]

Tip: Don't listen to DD's predictions.

<quack> That was him. I was doing my 'Motty' bit, learning all the players' names for the football matches later.

 

[Tim]

I wasn't looking to blame Bracewell entirely..but up until this year we'd be doing ok in tests..but since December we've now lost 5 out of 8 test matches under Bracewell!

I didn't mind us drawing in test matches as long as we were getting to the stage where we would start putting some wins together..I was hoping Bracewell would achieve that, but we've instead gone backwards.

Is it me or did Bracewell bring too much arrogance to this squad? I mean before NZ left for England there was talk this was the best NZ side ever (even from the players) and that England should be ready for an all-out assault...which obviously threatened at times, but never really got going.

Personally I think Tuffey needs the rest of the season off...he obviously is still struggling with his knee injury & his confidence is in the negatives. McMillan is just being his usual self & I was lead to believe at the start of Bracewell's reign that he would not be tolerating too many average performances, so surely McMillan must go too.
I'd personally want a batsman to replace Cairns...probably someone like Peter Fulton who likes to spend more time at the crease rather than a whirlwind assault like Cairns, Oram, McMillan etc.
Quite clearly we have too many aggressive players in the middle order..we need someone at 5 who is prepared to knuckle down & bat a few hours.

NZ have to got to do something about their pace bowlers...maybe they should bite the bullet, spend some money & send 3 or 4 promising quick bowlers to the MRF Academy or something to help speed the process up.
There is a 17 year old from Christchurch who recently got into the NZ Academy..he's been officially clocked in the mid 140's..NZ Cricket have to make sure these guys stay on track.

 

[Arjun]

NZ have to got to do something about their pace bowlers...maybe they should bite the bullet, spend some money & send 3 or 4 promising quick bowlers to the MRF Academy or something to help speed the process up.

The MRF Pace academy will only work well with the right raw material- that is why there have been some quality fast bowlers for South Africa and Australia, but India has never produced a quality fast bowler.

As Dennis Lilee said, it has to be a question of muscles- a fast bowler has special muscles that help bowl faster- which is why Bond can bowl fast and Tuffey can't. On CricInfo's New Zealand page, I remember reading an article where a bowler's action can be modified specially to get extra pace, but it has to be done at a very early stage.

 

[Tim]

We have a 19 year old named Richard Sherlock who is quite a small & skinny guy..infact he's almost like Sami. Yet for someone reason he generates an extreme amount of pace.

At the start of the season (his very first spell in FC cricket) he knocked over 3 or 4 Wellington batsmen in the space of 5 overs & was never seen again for the rest of the season..I presume because of injury?