***Official*** New Zealand in Zimbabwe & Zimbabwe/New Zealand/India ODI Tri-Series

[Zinzan]

Bond has slipped in his follow through and injured his ankle, The over will be completed by Jacob Oram

...It's like he has popsicle sticks for bones. :S

EDIT: Oh, and, replacing Bond, Oram got Pathan out with his first ball of that over. I wonder how often that's happened...

Bonds injury didn't look so bad to be honest....He went over on his ankle after his delivery and didn't look too bad walking off. I think his leaving the field was more of a thing of caution. Looking at it, I suspect he may have just bruised ankle needing ice - hope i'm right - he did only have 3 balls to bowl, so why risk it.
Thankfully this is NZ's last match for a while before the south african series so he has time to recover.

On the game....India will be kicking themselves for being 25-30 runs short. Not unlike NZs batting performance in the last game against India. At one stage It looked like 320-330 was a possibility at 255-1 after 25 overs.
Without wishing to state the obvious too much....the new ball is the absolute key for India. If New Zealand make a solid start it could be a long night for India as New Zealand bat a ridiculously long way down.

IMO 55-45 in favour of New Zealand at the half way point.

 

[Macka]

Fingers crossed that injury to Bond isn't serious. It didn't look too bad.

 

[godofcricket]

I have never seen Kaif score runs that consistently....maybe indians have found his right place, if he can play like this then i see a very indian batting line-up specially when tendulkar comes back!!!

 

[Sir Redman]

Well that was a great recovery by our guys, but the Indians will be kicking themselves for not making 300.

Oram bowled rubbish for most of the innings, as did Styris and Astle while Mills was good in patches. Bond opened up quite well but didn't get much luck and Vettori was excellent. Our fielding towards the end of the innings was pretty horrible. Firsty Vincent dropped that sitter and then threw an awful throw which cost a run-out, and then Fleming dropped one right when we were picking up a string of wickets. Both Vincent and Marshall are great at making sprawling saves but have a disturbing tendency to drop sitters.

I don't know what's wrong with our bowlers - they continue to bowl short and wide at Sehwag and expect not to get slaughtered. If they want to bowl there then we need a third man, deep backward point, another couple inside the circle around point and we need every single ball to be short and wide.

Now we really need someone to score a century. How we go against the new ball could be the key to the match. Marshall is well overdue for a decent score, as are Cairns and Oram.

Finally, fingers crossed for Bond. It didn't look too bad, he just rolled his ankle in his follow through. He was walking off the ground quite easily though.

 

[Loony BoB]

I have never seen Kaif score runs that consistently....maybe indians have found his right place, if he can play like this then i see a very indian batting line-up specially when tendulkar comes back!!!

One would hope the Indian batting lineup would be very Indian.

 

[Zinzan]

I have never seen Kaif score runs that consistently....maybe indians have found his right place, if he can play like this then i see a very indian batting line-up specially when tendulkar comes back!!!

Having not seen all that much of Kaif before and must say I've been impressed. Seems to play a relatively risk free game whilst still keeping the scoreboard ticking over. A handy asset in both forms of the game. Has he had many opportunities at test cricket??

 

[SJS]

Hurting the umpire's sensibilities !!

Mohinder Singh Dhoni ( the name has the same rustic flavour of the protagonist's batting) may consider himself unlucky to be given out LBW today. The ball(when it hit him) was suspiciously close to the outside edge of the off stump and was well above the top of the stumps seen side ways and had over 8 feet still to go !!

But what kind of a batsman gets hit on his shoulder, outside the offstump, while well out of his crease and on his knees attempting to sweep the ball !!

The umpire probably couldnt stand the ungainly sight.

 

[Jono]

YES! Kaif proving what he can do when he's at 3 and actually given time out in the middle. Another brilliant knock. I'm delighted to see him scoring runs! Absolutely delighted.

Let's see how well India can bowl now.

 

[SJS]

YES! Kaif proving what he can do when he's at 3 and actually given time out in the middle. Another brilliant knock. I'm delighted to see him scoring runs! Absolutely delighted.
.

Oh yes. He batted beautifully. Wish he hadnt taken that single in the last over. Not for his century but for a few more precious runs for India.

Still match on

 

[godofcricket]

Has he had many opportunities at test cricket??

I am not sure, he hasnt been that useful in tests i guess.....but they should definetly try him, maybe replace Laxman???

 

[Dasa]

I am not sure, he hasnt been that useful in tests i guess.....but they should definetly try him, maybe replace Laxman???

Never. Kaif doesn't compare to Laxman in Tests.

 

[SJS]

Never. Kaif doesn't compare to Laxman in Tests.

And the bowling, the field placing and hence batting in test matches doesnt compare with ODI's.

 

[Retox]

NZ is off to a good start here.

 

[godofcricket]

Never. Kaif doesn't compare to Laxman in Tests.

Well i was only saying that becuase i find Laxman quite useless for some time now.......in the last 14 tests (including 2 against Bangladesh) he hasnt scored any century, just 4 fifties, i thought it might be the time to replace him and looking at kaifs performance, then he might be the player to come in place of him.

 

[Loony BoB]

. . 4 L4 . 1 | L4 . 4 1 1 4 | 4 . 4 4 4 4 | . 4 . 4 4 . | 1 1

Batsmen:          R  B 4s 6s S/R   
SP Fleming (LHB) 28 19 6  0  147.37  Striker 
NJ Astle (RHB)   28 19 6  0  147.37  Non-striker

 

[Jono]

L4 . 4 1 1 4 | 4 . 4 4 4 4 | . 4 . 4 4 . |

WHAT THE?

Argh I sense bad things... very bad things.

 

[Loony BoB]

Run Rate: 9.13 (Required: 4.89) Current Partnership: 70(47)

 

[SJS]

NZ is off to a good start here.

Understatement of the year

 

[Loony BoB]

Loving this.

Alright, who do you think will make the faster 50 (by balls faced), and who do you think will get it first (time)? Astle currently going faster but he's facing less balls.

Good times. Run rate dropping though... 9.13 down to 8.1

EDIT: From cricbuzz... "Ganguly is bold enough to opt for the 2nd Powerplay!" Bold indeed. Or possibly stupid? I wonder if captains are giving these powerplays any thought at all.

 

[Retox]

Understatement of the year

When Astle and Flem fire they fire... to bad they don't fire enough...