*Official* Semi Final 1 - Sri Lanka vs New Zealand

[Woodster]

Woke up this morning to see the scorecard, and thought it looked comfortable, but apparently the boys made the Lankans sweat, so I'm glad for that at least. This is frustrating. In the last 2 WC semi's we played in, we were genuinely spanked, but in this one, we'll always be left wondering what might have been if Taylor hadn't holed out at mid-wicket, if Styris had batted out Murali's last ball, if Oram had middled that slog off Dilshan...



Oh well. In terms of how we played, I thought this was a decent world cup. Southee is coming along magnificently, we really have to keep a hold of Donald. Hope Danny sticks around in ODI's for a while longer tool.

Well done to SL. The better side on the day, and more likeable than either India or Pakistan, I hope they go all the way.

They absolutely made SL sweat for a period towards the end, the wickets of Dilshan, Jayawardene and Sangakkara made it a nervy time for SL, then Silva chopped on to Southee, and while they were always favourites, they were visibly on the ropes.

There are always moments in a game to reflect on and wonder if those things went your way would it have been different, but as you say, the best side did win today.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Wow did we actually win and did we actually lose 7 wickets in the process? Was watching the game at the CH grounds and man was it crazy. Was drunk and yelling Sri Lanka Zindabad along with a good portion of the crowd, whatever that means, I'm sure the Pakistan fans wwill enlighten us. No disrespect meant, we was just having fun and cheering our team, see u guys in the finals Pakistan.

About Murali, getting a wicket on the last ball ever at home tells the story of how ****ing awesome the man has beed for the country. What an awesome legend, screw all u jealous pussies who dont accept that.

Like a G6, like a G6

Man it sounds as if you are still drunk lol

 

[Teja.]

She's not even pregnant, yet she went completely nuts.

I first read this as 'She's not even pregnant yet' and thought 'itstl', then finished reading the entire sentence and lol'd

 

[Ausage]

BEST GAME OF THIS WORLD CUP FOR ME.

Yes. I watched the game with a Sri Lankan girl

 

[James]

I was so nervous switching on the computer this morning hoping to see a NZ victory in front of me. What might have been I suppose.

At least we made the semis again and put up a decent showing. I'm pleased about that, and we have a lot to build on. Most Kiwi fans I think were surprised by how well we've done considering our pre-World Cup form, myself included. Great to see Williamson show what he's got on the world stage, and Southee go from strength to strength. As someone else said, I hope Donald stays around and we can finally build a core coaching group that can take us forward.

Pakistan are clearly the under-dogs out of the remaining three teams so I'll give them my support I think!

 

[straw man]

Well done Sri Lanka.

Was not very hopeful this morning when got up and started to read through this thread. A story of missed opportunities from NZ. We all knew that we should have pushed on to 240 or possibly more from that position - that score would have made a big difference to Sri Lanka's mindset when they were wobbling just a little at 169/4 and 183/5.

Doesn't look like our bowling or fielding was quite as tight as it was against SA. McKay seems to have done well (barring the 5 wides near the end). In fact Vettori, Oram and McKay went at around 3.6 per over, while Southee and NcCullum less impressive at around 5.6. SL obviously have some very classy batsmen and I couldn't consider Samaraweera to be part of any 'weak middle order'.

In some ways getting close makes our eventual loss harder to take. At least we made it a lot more competitive than the group match vs Sri Lanka.

 

[straw man]

At least we made the semis again and put up a decent showing. I'm pleased about that, and we have a lot to build on. Most Kiwi fans I think were surprised by how well we've done considering our pre-World Cup form, myself included. Great to see Williamson show what he's got on the world stage, and Southee go from strength to strength. As someone else said, I hope Donald stays around and we can finally build a core coaching group that can take us forward.

Yeah Williamson impressed us all this match and the last one. Ironic that he outscored and had a higher strike rate than any of our lower order 'big hitters' in this match. Showed a versatility that we hadn't expected and is already a better player of spin than half of his team-mates.

Don't want him to stay at 6 in the ODI team too much longer though. For starters it may affect his test game.

 

[Flem274*]

Well done Sri Lanka, you were the better team last night.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah Williamson impressed us all this match and the last one. Ironic that he outscored and had a higher strike rate than any of our lower order 'big hitters' in this match. Showed a versatility that we hadn't expected and is already a better player of spin than half of his team-mates.

Don't want him to stay at 6 in the ODI team too much longer though. For starters it may affect his test game.

Agreed, he's certainly a special talent. I'd say a reasonable solution would be to have him at #3, which would mean one of the top 3 would have to drop down - likely McCullum, with Guptill and Ryder opening.

 

[Hurricane]

Agreed, he's certainly a special talent. I'd say a reasonable solution would be to have him at #3, which would mean one of the top 3 would have to drop down - likely McCullum, with Guptill and Ryder opening.

With the benefit of hindsight and knowing that SL would open with spin - we could have opened with Kane, And had McCullum at 6.

This only came to me after McCullum had been dismissed however. Prior to the game I wanted Brendon to open - thought he might come through.

 

[Flem274*]

McCullum is this close to me wanting him to open only in tests.

The only thing saving him is I don't want Ryder opening, which is what will probably happen if McCullum gets sent down.

 

[slugger]

well done sri lanka... I hope nz can make the semis agian in 2015

I just thought that ryder bowled one more over to many, his first went for 9 runs. i think vettori should have just finshed off oram. mkay and southee.. those extra 6 runs from ryder second over just was enough to start turning the pressure back on to nz.

 

[BeeGee]

Well done Sri Lanka.

Was not very hopeful this morning when got up and started to read through this thread. A story of missed opportunities from NZ. We all knew that we should have pushed on to 240 or possibly more from that position - that score would have made a big difference to Sri Lanka's mindset when they were wobbling just a little at 169/4 and 183/5.

Doesn't look like our bowling or fielding was quite as tight as it was against SA. McKay seems to have done well (barring the 5 wides near the end). In fact Vettori, Oram and McKay went at around 3.6 per over, while Southee and NcCullum less impressive at around 5.6. SL obviously have some very classy batsmen and I couldn't consider Samaraweera to be part of any 'weak middle order'.

In some ways getting close makes our eventual loss harder to take. At least we made it a lot more competitive than the group match vs Sri Lanka.

I was impressed by McKay. He basically walked off the plane and on to the field and put up some reasonably impressive figures against top opposition. A worthy replacement for Mills. I'm very excited about the seam bowling talent we have coming through.

 

[Burgey]

I was impressed by McKay. He basically walked off the plane and on to the field and put up some reasonably impressive figures against top opposition. A worthy replacement for Mills. I'm very excited about the seam bowling talent we have coming through.

This. Thought McKay looked a very good prospect indeed.

 

[DIRK-NANNES]

soooooooooo disappointed

a dozen or so more lower order runs and we would have been sweet

 

[Fusion]

Pakistan are clearly the under-dogs out of the remaining three teams so I'll give them my support I think!

 

[Bahnz]

Vettori's reasoning on bowling another Ryder over: I needed to get through some others and Ryder was in the game...

YAAARGGHH!!!

What happened to that aggressive captaincy against South Africa? What happened to the idea that we have to bowl them out? We were never going to keep them short by that stage of the game, we had to go for the kill. Fume.

Having said all that, I don't think it made a difference to the final result. But it is a sadly appropriate way for Vettori's career as captain to come to an end.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

So much for "Mismatch unless NZ raise their game"

NZ batted like poo.
Fielded worse than against SA.
Southee bowled like poo.

And it was still reasonably close.
Maybe some respect next time? Nah, who am I kidding. NZ will never get that.

Sri Lanka deserve the win. NZ just aren't capable of stringing good games together. One of the top 4 needed to score big. The wicket of Taylor was key, a long hop that he would normally smash for 6 goes straight down the fielders throat. In the 34th over or something, was it? Yet again, building a platform for the latter stages only to lose important wickets right before the last 10 overs. The wickets of Kane and Styris also. Kanie was looking so good, and then he walked across his stumps.

Meh, at least NZ showed some fight. Made it interesting near the end.
The reasoning behind Ryder bowling was to bowl NcCullums remaining 2 overs, because obviously Vettori thought spin wasn't a great idea. I agree. Hindsight being 20-20 and all, he got a lot of stick. But I'd imagine NcCullum would have got tonked, tbh. It was a gut call that didn't work out.

Go Sri Lanka in the final!

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

McCullum is this close to me wanting him to open only in tests.

The only thing saving him is I don't want Ryder opening, which is what will probably happen if McCullum gets sent down.

Yeah, need to find someone to open with Guptill though. I'd imagine the selectors will start out with the same old suspects - How, Watling, Redmond etc

 

[_Ed_]

well done sri lanka... I hope nz can make the semis agian in 2015

We'd probably get a home semi if we did. **** that'd be huge.

It's good to hear the guys fought all the way. When I went to bed it looked like we were going to lie down pretty tamely.