***Official*** New Zealand in South Africa

[Natman20]

And lets not forget that Martin Crowe is no stranger to controversy himself. Here he is again, stirring up a hornets nest.
In the last 6 months, Cairns has not been performing that well if you ask me...his fitness looks way off and I think the selectors did the right thing. There's no point keeping him in the side and pretending he'll make it to the World Cup.

He clearly needs to sharpen up (fitness wise) and get a bit of confidence back.

I actually think he was a stand out bowler for new zealand in the last 6 months bowling wise

 

[Tim]

Granted all our bowlers got hit around by Australia, but he then went and got hit for 74 runs off 7 overs against Zimbabwe. But we're also talking about his batting too, and he's hardly made any runs.

 

[Will Scarlet]

NZ can win but are very likely to depend on a few players to win the games, as usual. Astle, Fleming, Bond, and Vettori will have to make significant contributions. Styris may again prove useful in an all-round role; this only applies to ODIs. Hopefully Franklin will further develop both his bowling and batting. I would also like to see Oram get some game time to help his cause.

Hamish Marshall needs to perform of risk being dropped, though unfortunately I doubt such actions would happen if he fails. His ODI average has dropped from 50 to 36 in the last year, due to a string of poor performances.

Sinclair's return to the BCs can't be far off.

SA's batting is definitely their strength. Their bowling is weak and was totally ineffective in the last ODI series against NZ. Pollock is well past his best and Ntini's form - against decent opposition - has been very ordinary in the last few years.

 

[parisa]

I was reading the other day that Stephen Fleming won't be using more of those verbal abuses against Graeme Smith this time around...it made me a little sad because I was looking forward to more of that entertaining stuff! It worked so well at that time and poor Smith took quite a blow...but he has become more mature as a captain and as a cricketer so I guess Fleming can't play the same card twice.

 

[shaka]

Fleming reckons if he tried to do so, SA would back Smith up this time, as they have had 2 years under his captaincy.

 

[Zinzan]

Good opening win for NZ against S Africa A......

http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/NZ_IN_RSA/SCORECARDS/NZ_RSA-A_14OCT2005.html

Good performances by Mcmillan, Marshall and Adams with the bat and all the bowlers except for Patel.

I'm still not convinced about Patel....I would have thought B Martin would be a better option as the 2nd spinner both in tests and ODI's

 

[cric_manic]

Good opening win for NZ against S Africa A......

http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/NZ_IN_RSA/SCORECARDS/NZ_RSA-A_14OCT2005.html

Good performances by Mcmillan, Marshall and Adams with the bat and all the bowlers except for Patel.

I'm still not convinced about Patel....I would have thought B Martin would be a better option as the 2nd spinner both in tests and ODI's

Patel is in the side for his ability to bowl yorker length,they see him as a potential death bowler

 

[Zinzan]

Patel is in the side for his ability to bowl yorker length,they see him as a potential death bowler

I know the rational....I just don't think his bowling that is effective in NZ conditions at list A oneday level will be up to ODI level. Hey.....hope he proves me wrong

 

[Tim]

NZ had another good win overnight..231 compared to S.A A's 129 (i think).

Fleming 100, Bond 5/36

But it's still a bad sign to see a number of batsmen failing.

 

[Pratters]

I hope this series can be a point which marks a positive improvement in fortunes of the South African one day team.

 

[Tim]

So far its a good sign for NZ because they don't usually do very well in tour openers.

 

[meatspx]

Why is H Marshall batting at 4, and Vincent batting at 3?
Shouldn't it be the other way around.

Good performance from Bond, even though he was expensive.

And, what are the rules for this series?
Are there super subs? - there were none used in the latest game.

 

[Sir Redman]

Why is H Marshall batting at 4, and Vincent batting at 3?
Shouldn't it be the other way around.

Good performance from Bond, even though he was expensive.

And, what are the rules for this series?
Are there super subs? - there were none used in the latest game.

There are supersubs, James Marshall was ours but wasn't used.

And agree on Marshall/Vincent btw. Hopefully Marshall's failures recently are just his continued insistence on not scoring at lower levels.

 

[Tim]

Well it doesn't matter if Bond was hit for 37 runs off 5 overs because he pretty much dismantled the S.A A's innings anyway with 5 wickets.
Apparently it was so hot that Kyle Mills was in a daze after just 5 overs of bowling so they did pretty well to bowl the opposition out so cheaply.

Hamish Marshall is quite a big concern, but it was about this stage of his ODI career that Michael Clarke started struggling a bit too. He's just gotta ride this poor form out and hopefully he'll be back in the runs soon.

 

[Natman20]

Peter Fulton is looking good in NZ A. So you would expect that the middle order would have to work or else he could be in the squad.

 

[Tim]

Yes, you would have wonder how much longer the selectors can ignore him. He seems to be the only one along with Sinclair who seems to score runs with regularity and there's no doubt that McMillan, Vincent, Styris & Hamish Marshall will be feeling some pressure over the next few months.

 

[Blaze]

He has to be given a crack in the tests against the West Indies IMO.

 

[Lyell_Chris]

Bond has problems with heat so that is why he woulda been expensive
I don't like Patel a spinner shouldn't be in there as a death bowler
Oram needs to work on his death bowling
We need a young pace bowler

 

[Tim]

The fact is, he's averaging 50 with 7 centuries and 16 half centuries including a triple century..those players don't come around every day particularly when they come from NZ, and I certainly don't see many other players building up that kind of record in NZ at the moment with the exception of Matthew Sinclair.

Its a bit rich of the selectors to say Fulton has technical issues when they're selecting guys like James Marshall, Craig Cumming, Lou Vincent etc who all average in the high 20's to mid 30's and also have their own technical problems.

Im also at odds with Patel being selected ahead of Bruce Martin, so it'll be interesting to see how much patience they will have with Patel if Martin continues his good form through-out the NZ domestic season.

 

[Tim]

For the sake of our pace bowling, I think we need to hope Richard Sherlock, Te Ahu Davis, Leighton Burtt and Ian Butler all have injury free seasons. They have all been clocked in the 140's and with Sherlock, Dayle Hadlee says he was hitting 150 km's in South Africa with the NZ 'A' team last year.