**Official** Pakistan in New Zealand (3 tests)

[Bahnz]

Flynn and Fulton are batting the wrong way around. Fulton's been a specialist number 3 his entire career and untill this time last year, Flynn had always batted in the middle order. Well done to the boys, but I think the side needs a 5th bowler.

 

[Zinzan]

Also, how good is his fielding off his own bowling?

And lets not forget this one from a couple of years ago to add to the list

YouTube - Shane Bond vs Cameron White

 

[Uppercut]

And lets not forget this one from a couple of years ago to add to the list

YouTube - Shane Bond vs Cameron White

Yeah. WAG. Definitely one of my favourite cricketers around.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Yeah congratulations to New Zealand. They deserved to win. I was just really upset with the pathetic batting yesterday so kind of ignored New Zealand's performance. Vettori, Bond, Taylor, Martin...hats off to them.

Mohammad Yousuf has once again proved that he is not the right man for the job because his approach is flawed.

Pakistan could have won yesterday despite the dropped catches. 250 is a target that you should be able to chase. If you cant chase 250, then its your batsmen who are at fault. If you are 85/5 on the third day, then its your batsmen who are at fault.

Anyway, Misbah should play in the second test. I would want Farhat and Mallik dropped.
This would be my team

Salman Butt
Khurram Manzoor
Umar Akmal
Mohamamad Yousuf
Misbah ul Haq
Fawad Alam
Kamran Akmal
Mohammad Aamer
Saeed Ajmal
Umar Gul
Mohammad Asif

 

[Zinzan]

Pakistan could have won yesterday despite the dropped catches. 250 is a target that you should be able to chase. If you cant chase 250, then its your batsmen who are at fault. If you are 85/5 on the third day, then its your batsmen who are at fault.

Quite right, but from a NZ perspective you could also say Pakistan should have been chasing 350+ & not 250 to start with if NZ hadn't fallen over so badly in their 2nd innings, so there's a lot of if's & buts at the end of the day.

Still maintain that overall the fielding was the key difference, all of NZ's brilliant catching combined with Pakistan's dropped chances would be worth at least the margin 30 runs if not more.

 

[Zinzan]

It's the most I've enjoyed Ian Smith's commentary for some time. He's kinda annoyed me in the last couple of years, but thought he was in good form in the game

 

[NZTailender]

Found he criticised Vettori a fair bit, mainly about the field placings. Fair enough to point it out a few times, but he seemed to go on about it quite a lot.

 

[Zinzan]

Found he criticised Vettori a fair bit, mainly about the field placings. Fair enough to point it out a few times, but he seemed to go on about it quite a lot.

Vettori's overly defensive field's were annoying me at the time, so didn't feel Smith was over-stating it myself, that's not to say Vettori's captaincy wasn't still good overall

 

[Howsie]

So Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath make debut 100's at 19, Kane Williamson anyone?

 

[Zinzan]

Needs to get a century in an away test first, imo.

All joking aside, it's ludicrous that this is labeled an away series for Pakistan & would be even more so if NZ earn away points towards their ICC Test ranking

 

[Days of Grace]

Salman Butt
Khurram Manzoor
Umar Akmal
Mohamamad Yousuf
Misbah ul Haq
Fawad Alam
Kamran Akmal
Mohammad Aamer
Saeed Ajmal
Umar Gul
Mohammad Asif

Bit too much to ask the youngster to now bat at first drop, is it not?

Little bugger is so good that he'll probably ton up.

 

[DingDong]

So Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath make debut 100's at 19, Kane Williamson anyone?

its too soon for him. dont put unnecessary pressure on the kid ok.

 

[straw man]

So Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath make debut 100's at 19, Kane Williamson anyone?

It would be a bit rough to pick him now when he's not scoring runs for his domestic team.

 

[Howsie]

I'm not really serious

 

[straw man]

Great game that. Was the fielding that made the difference.

It should probably be remembered that NZ still managed to drop three catches - Flynn, Martin and Elliott. Elliott's in particular could have been very costly.

But yes, some other excellent fielding (McIntosh catch etc) and a generally higher level than Pakistan's. Not sure how many catches they dropped total but it must have been 5 or 6 at least.

 

[straw man]

Flynn and Fulton are batting the wrong way around. Fulton's been a specialist number 3 his entire career and untill this time last year, Flynn had always batted in the middle order. Well done to the boys, but I think the side needs a 5th bowler.

I think tbh whichever one is put at 3 is going to struggle. Fulton doesn't move his feet these days as we all know and Flynn has obviously struggled there.

Flynn at least looks semi-capable but agree it's been a tough ask for him being shunted up the order from 6 to 3 during the Aus series a while back and being stuck there ever since. Would a spell back in the domestic comp be of benefit (batting at 3 obviously)? I don't know really.

 

[Flem274*]

Wasn't able to ctach the final two innings but great win to NZ. Pakistan must be gutted we didn't roll over and die after our collapse as usual. Good win.

 

[straw man]

I'm not really serious

Sometimes it's hard to tell

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

I've just bought my test match pass for the 2nd test.

Will be there...
1st Session of Day 1
All day Day 2
Last Session of Day 3
All day Day 5

Lets hope the weather holds up.
Anybody else heading down to the Basin?

 

[Smudge]

Might get down on Saturday, depending on several things:
a) the weather
b) how horrendous my hangover is after our work Christmas party the night before
c) whether I can be bothered coming in from Petone