James said:
What a disapponting game over night.
What continues to strike me is the consistent non performances of Jacob Oram who calls himself a batsman all-rounder in ODIs.
With an average of 17.51 and recent scores of 15, 15, 24, 2, 0, 36, 5, 14, 35, 11 at an average of 15.70 is this enough to keep him in the team? If he can't bowl it isn't enough for me. Bring in James Marshall.
Yeah that game was really disappointing, I got up at 3 am to watch it and thought that we had a great chance of winning. As most of you know, I am a Jacob Oram fan but I found it so painful to sit through his innings this morning. Today he seemed really out of sorts I don't know whether it was a mixture of his injury problems or that he is feeling like he really needs to stand up now that Cairns is on the outer, and that he has to come in and do what Cairnsey used to do in ODI's. Also he seems to be having trouble adjusting to these slower wickets in South Africa, he looks better with the ball coming on at speed rather than dribbling on to the bat, yet most of NZ's batters seem to be struggling with it too. I also think that he is having problems coming to grips with not bowling, to quote him from the 2nd Test in England last year, he feels as if he is only playing with one arm - well something along those lines, as bowling used to be his safety net that if he didn't stand up with the ball he would try to make a contibution with the bat and vice versa. It could also be a bit of anxiety that he faced with his batting when he made his test debut, as he felt like he wasn't good enough to be a test batter after he got a duck in his first test.
I don't think that dropping him is the right option, I think that he needs to be given time to settle back into playing one day cricket and batting to the level that we know he can. His 35 in the 1st ODI, was promising, you could tell that he wasn't quite right but if he can score 35 when he isn't quite right then i am sure that when he gets it all sorted he will be fine.
Oram has now played 76 ODI matches, and we have to remember he isn't an explosive batter like Cairnsey was/is, he needs time to get his eye in and then he can launch from there. When you look at Cairns's Statistics v Oram's statistics, it seems that Cairns was a better test bowler and odi batter than oram and oram is a better test batter and odi bowler than Cairns.
But we can't just point the finger at Oram for NZ's loss, all the top order have struggled with the ball coming on much slower than conditions in New Zealand, Fleming and Astle haven't stood up either in of the ODI matches so far.
As for the squad for the next game, to be honest I have no idea as it is too hard to pick as it the top order minus Styris, Vincent and McMillian have all made a contribution. I would probably stay with the same line up and hope that the pitch is faster than the other two.