**Official** New Zealand in South Africa

[Neil Young]

Laughing if you actually made the bet now

Hmmm...

 

[BeeGee]

I agree with Scaly that McClenaghan should have been MOTM. Awesome spell of bowling.

Good to see Franklin contribute with both bat and ball. The downside is that our ******** selectors and coach will use his LO form as evidence to justify his continued selection in the Test team.

McCullum's field settings in this match were very good, much better than in the Tests and better than Taylor's when he was ODI captain. But, FFS, can we PLEASE stop using Mills to bowl at the end of the innings!?

Lot's of room for improvement from NZ (and SA). Quite a few passengers in that NZ performance: Elliot, Neesham, Guptill. And Nicol could have been in contention for SA's MOTM, he was that harmful to the NZ effort.

Would love to see Munro come in for Nicol.

 

[BackFootPunch]

****, we won. Good work boys.

Impressed with McClenaghan, looks to have the goods.

 

[Spiced]

****, we won. Good work boys.

Impressed with McClenaghan, looks to have the goods.

Most likely your best found this tour. Looked good and by far your best bowler this game.

 

[Immenso]

I only watched the first 30 overs before fallin asleep, but.... is the praise for McCullum's field settings confusion by fans re: new law meaning only allowed 4 outside the circle? Or was he genuinely good and better than his rival?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Great spell from McClenaghan at the start yesterday. Bit of a a shock to see NZ with nevertheless.

 

[Immenso]

Really loving being able to watch this with sound effects but no commentary. Wish there was an option to switch the commentary off all the time.

Woah, I missed this? How did you do it? I didn't see any thing re: this, and if they mentioned it I probably had the mute button on and mised it.

 

[Cabinet96]

Woah, I missed this? How did you do it? I didn't see any thing re: this, and if they mentioned it I probably had the mute button on and mised it.

I think due to a power failure at the ground, they only had pictures and no commentary for a period.

 

[Bahnz]

I think due to a power failure at the ground, they only had pictures and no commentary for a period.

Yep, was awesome.

Went to bed during the second blackout. Surprised and pleased to see us getting over the line. Love odi's like this so much more than t20's.

 

[straw man]

Went to bed when Watling and McCullum were batting quite well together. Thought we were a middling chance to win from there but very surprised to see we did it with runs from the lower order. Mills hasn't scored any runs in ages, while it looks like Franklin worked the ball around nicely as in T20 world cup.

Disgraceful not to be able to have the review system for a time there.

 

[morgieb]

Haha, wow. Franklin leading them to victory?!?!?

 

[Flem274*]

Haha wow, didn't expect this.

I'll admit it: even though I realise Franklin's batting in ODIs in the past couple of years has actually been credible because down at 6/7 he can get away with his "technique", I didn't think he would score runs here. Most of his success has come in the subcontinent where the pitches are slower and he appears more comfortable.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

ffs, went to sleep when Watling went out so i could wake up at a reasonable hour, then this happens and i wake up at 12.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

McClenghan is test quality. Would've picked him on the basis of the first T20 almost, he's just always making batsmen look uncomfortable.

The more faith I lose in Franklin the more he seems to come up with absolute gems like these. Decent LO player for now. McCullum can play as a specialist fielder tbh.

Yeeeeaaaah bowl mill5 at the d3ath cuz he's exxxprieyinced

 

[Chewie]

lolprez

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

MitchM with 4-20
JimmyGS with 0 (2)

Mixed debuts for the two CWers.

Very surprised to see a win when I woke up.

 

[Briony]

MitchM with 4-20
JimmyGS with 0 (2)

Mixed debuts for the two CWers.

Very surprised to see a win when I woke up.

Was saying right through the chase that the kiwis should be able to to this. When you only need four an over sensible batting should see one home but they made heavy weather of it.

Still think Ingram should go. The player SA misses who balances up their ODI line-up is Duminy.

 

[Briony]

SA looked a bit rusty, sure they will pull it together in the remaining 2 games. The pitch did dry out at the end and was a good decision for NZ to bowl first. Oddly 240 would have been enough to win. I must complement Brendon. He kept the pressure on SA while we where batting. Hardly kept fielders on the boundary for the first 30 odd overs and we could not rotate the strike. If not for his fielding positions SA would have easily got 240. Got to give credit to Cap and Coach,

Personally for me it was a terrible game too watch. Besides it ending up being a close game it was boring as hell. Too many Extras, Power failures and a bad pitch. Although weather conditions did contribute too it during preparations.

As for Miller not in the team, SA has 2 problems: With Kallis not playing we need to replace him with a top order batsmen or all rounder. Miller does not fit in the 2 categories. Problem no 2. We have a list of about 18 players the selectors believe will be more suited for conditions in England when we play the Champions trophy. Miller is untested in England.

Disagree about Miller being untested because he was a gun in England for Yorkshire in T20s so hard to imagine that he couldn't adjust for ODIs. He should be allowed to build an innings more though. Ingram's problem is that he can't work through the gears. If they play Kallis he can be the anchor, they don't need two.

It was a competitive match but not high quality. There were extras and the batting in general was poor. In day matches the team batting first has to bat more sensibly (Amla for e.g. ugly heave across the line) because conditions often suit bowling first up and become much easier for batting later on.

AB should stay fielding because he's one of the top fielders in the game rather than have to keep.

Franklin's copped a lot of stick here of late. At least he did something for his detractors.

 

[Howsie]

lol, so McCullum is a middle order bat now huh? This **** isn't even trying to hide it anymore, 'what's best for McCullum is best for New Zealand' and he's just like damn straight it.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Not really referring to CWers since they generally got there long ago, but I think fewer and fewer people these days are buying into the "McCullum is a chronic underachiever with the bat" myth. It's pretty clear that he's simply not very good. There's no magic spot in the batting order waiting to unleash his incredible talents because he doesn't have any.