**Official** Pakistan v New Zealand in the UAE 2014

[Hurricane]

How good was mahela away from home maximas. Just trying to assess the impact of not having him

 

[Bahnz]

Craig to practice opening for the next month.

Then we can go with

Latham
Craig
Williamson
Taylor
McCullum
Anderson
Watling (+)
Southee
Wagner
Boult

+whatever else we need (yes I'm aware thats an opener)

Nah, we lose the LH/RH opening combo, Hesson will never agree to it.

 

[cnerd123]

Southee to open IMO. He's the next Sehwag.

 

[Hurricane]

Craig to practice opening for the next month.

Then we can go with

Latham
Craig
Williamson
Taylor
McCullum
Anderson
Watling (+)
Southee
Wagner
Boult

+whatever else we need (yes I'm aware thats an opener)

Looks like ten men?

 

[OverratedSanity]

How good was mahela away from home maximas. Just trying to assess the impact of not having him

Poor on any surface providing even a little sideways movement or extra bounce off a length. I'd say any reasonably talented youngster would be able to produce sonething close to Mahela's output. Sanga will be the big overseas miss when he leaves.

 

[Days of Grace]

Why are we assuming that BMac will not continue to open?

The momentum he created early on in all six innings in the UAE was superb.

 

[Maximas]

How good was mahela away from home maximas. Just trying to assess the impact of not having him

He struggled outside the SC, however he was still capable of playing vital knocks against good bowlers on occasion and given he has been a fixture at 4 for so long he will absolutely be missed, the problem for us is not really missing his output in these conditions but more the fact that there is no replacement ready to go for him at all, as I've previously mentioned his mentoring role and calm hand out in the field is also something no youngster is going to be able to come in and reproduce either, I've always felt Mahela was more involved in the leadership under Matthews than Sanga

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah, I think it's pretty naive to claim Herath will be toothless anywhere these days.

Well he was toothless in Australia a couple of years ago so has he improved since then? I doubt it, I have always regarded him as quality

 

[hendrix]

Well he was toothless in Australia a couple of years ago

No he wasn't.

 

[OverratedSanity]

He struggled outside the SC, however he was still capable of playing vital knocks against good bowlers on occasion and given he has been a fixture at 4 for so long he will absolutely be missed, the problem for us is not really missing his output in these conditions but more the fact that there is no replacement ready to go for him, at all

His better knocks in those conditions were really, really sporadic though. Will be missed by design of him being a future in the side fir so long but that's about it for me. They certainly won't miss his drs reviews either

 

[OverratedSanity]

Well he was toothless in Australia a couple of years ago so has he improved since then? I doubt it, I have always regarded him as quality

They dropped like a dozen catches off him.

 

[Maximas]

Well he was toothless in Australia a couple of years ago so has he improved since then? I doubt it, I have always regarded him as quality

Whoa, not sure where this has come from, a five for in Hobart, 4 dropped catches in Melbourne and 7 wickets in Sydney, probably on of the best performances by a touring finger spinner in Australia during my time watching cricket (since about 2003)

 

[Maximas]

They certainly won't miss his drs reviews either

Oh god, believe it or not I actually think Matthews has been worse in this regard at times, some of the reviews off his own bowling have been absolute shockers. I'll never forget that one at Syndey where Herath could have had Clarke first ball but Mahela didn't review

 

[Hurricane]

He struggled outside the SC, however he was still capable of playing vital knocks against good bowlers on occasion and given he has been a fixture at 4 for so long he will absolutely be missed, the problem for us is not really missing his output in these conditions but more the fact that there is no replacement ready to go for him at all, as I've previously mentioned his mentoring role and calm hand out in the field is also something no youngster is going to be able to come in and reproduce either, I've always felt Mahela was more involved in the leadership under Matthews than Sanga

I have always had a theory that you need 4 good batsman and a couple of role players and you will go ok. If you still have dilshan then you will have 3 which means you will come off 60% of the time. Don't ask me to justify that analysis or where I got those assumptions

 

[Maximas]

We have two players of substantial quality and one decent role player at this stage IMO

 

[hendrix]

We have two players of substantial quality and one decent role player at this stage IMO

Mathews, Sanga and Herath makes 3.

 

[Maximas]

I thought he meant with the bat, well for the whole team I think we do indeed have 3 quality players and 3 good role players (Silva, Eranga, Lakmal), Prasad and whoever keeps could definitely be decent role players in they turn up but batsmen no 2, 4 and 6 are my concerns at this point

 

[Athlai]

Looks like ten men?

Yup, hence the +

 

[Hurricane]

My bad for the above posts - if no Dilshan and a good role player in his place then revise my estimate down to a 50% hit rate with the batting. You won't be pushovers but won't be favourites

 

[Flem274*]

The thing is that I'm always right and Flem is always wrong.

You live in a novel universe.

There are a few Bangladeshi buffets I'd take Lakmal over, but that's about it.

Herath won't be a huge threat but he'll be able to block up and end and still take advantage of any batsmen who try to do silly things against him. I think Prasad holds the key in many ways, he is pretty dangerous with his pace and movement off the deck and we'll be relying on him to be our strike weapon, if he fires a couple of times and takes a few quick wickets the rest of the attack are largely stayers who can do a job all day and with some assistance off the pitch can hopefully pick off the rest of the order.

As for the batting Kuashal Silva and (if he plays) Sanga are vital, both can do it tough against decent fast bowling and with Sanga just finding his mojo again in the ODIs hopefully he's right to go in NZ, of course Matthews is probably the game breaker in NZ, arguably the best player of pace/movement in the team and in the form of his life. Thirimanne will probably get another shot in the test team and he is probably a better player of pace than spin, but hard to say how he'll go because he has the ability to do well but often looks short of confidence and form at test level.

NZ should win, but if Sri Lanka win the right tosses and execute well then look out

It's Eranga or bust for Sri Lanka. He's the threat in the pace attack.