*Official* South Africa in New Zealand 2022

[StephenZA]

EDIT : Keegan Peterson the exception, looked quality v India and sad to hear he's injured. How did Hamza look?

He tested positive for COVID just before boarding the plane. Busy playing in the local 20 over tournament. Hamza looked alright but has never quite recovered from his original shoddy treatment.

Honestly the NZ bowling should not scare the SA batsmen. They see this bowling all the time. Obviously not international level but nothing they have not seen before.

 

[SteveNZ]

Ah yes Sky, that bastion of functionality.

Haha, I get it. My generation, or certainly me trusts a set top box much more than digital. I love SKY.

My issues with Spark are two-fold. 1) Highlights. I don't have time to watch live Test cricket most of the time nowadays. I'll watch an hour every now and then, or an overseas session that stretches past my kids' bedtime, but I don't watch full days/sessions (hence why I am excited about the England series, and why I saw most of the T20 World Cup and the WTC final). I watch any cricket I can get, but in highlights.
The Spark Sport highlights packages (and yes I bang on about this) SUCK. Truly, they are ****ing abysmal. The other day, I had to line up cricinfo's commentary feed and another open tab with Spark, to find the dropped catches in the full session replay. They leave out key moments (but never the first ball of play). When there's a reviewed decision, they don't show the review in process - they show the original ball and the original decision, then the umpire either confirming his original decision or overturning it. No idea what happened. Now in session by session, they show every god damn single. I cannot overstate how much I hate this. SKY are much, much better at this.
2) Scotty Stevenson.

 

[Immenso]

Haha, I get it. My generation, or certainly me trusts a set top box much more than digital. I love SKY.

My issues with Spark are two-fold. 1) Highlights. I don't have time to watch live Test cricket most of the time nowadays. I'll watch an hour every now and then, or an overseas session that stretches past my kids' bedtime, but I don't watch full days/sessions (hence why I am excited about the England series, and why I saw most of the T20 World Cup and the WTC final). I watch any cricket I can get, but in highlights.
The Spark Sport highlights packages (and yes I bang on about this) SUCK. Truly, they are ****ing abysmal. The other day, I had to line up cricinfo's commentary feed and another open tab with Spark, to find the dropped catches in the full session replay. They leave out key moments (but never the first ball of play). When there's a reviewed decision, they don't show the review in process - they show the original ball and the original decision, then the umpire either confirming his original decision or overturning it. No idea what happened. Now in session by session, they show every god damn single. I cannot overstate how much I hate this. SKY are much, much better at this.
2) Scotty Stevenson.

But you complaints re: the highlights are what sky do.

Used to drive me insane to get only 25 min highlights of which most was 4 x replays of same boundary from different angles. Repeat. Boundaries, wickets and milestones. Hopeless if you like watching good bowling.

This year. Sparks highlights are of same quality as what sky's were. Only 20 odd minutes. They used to do a 50 min package.

So, its pathetic for a sport played during work hours. I wont complain much if / when sky get them back as they are now only providing a sky-like service. No longer bettering them.

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah the highlights suck. Thank God for full replays on demand.

 

[Flem274*]

He tested positive for COVID just before boarding the plane. Busy playing in the local 20 over tournament. Hamza looked alright but has never quite recovered from his original shoddy treatment.

Honestly the NZ bowling should not scare the SA batsmen. They see this bowling all the time. Obviously not international level but nothing they have not seen before.

NZ and Aus batsmen are by far the best in the world at leaving on length, which confuses me because SA decks should encourage proficiency in this area too.

 

[Daemon]

Spark was awful through that first test, first time I'd really have any complaints though as I missed the rugby world cup debacle.

Poor guy didn’t even have electricity, give him a break

 

[SteveNZ]

But you complaints re: the highlights are what sky do.

Used to drive me insane to get only 25 min highlights of which most was 4 x replays of same boundary from different angles. Repeat. Boundaries, wickets and milestones. Hopeless if you like watching good bowling.

This year. Sparks highlights are of same quality as what sky's were. Only 20 odd minutes. They used to do a 50 min package.

So, its pathetic for a sport played during work hours. I wont complain much if / when sky get them back as they are now only providing a sky-like service. No longer bettering them.

Is it? Because I can't remember having any issue with the SKY highlights. But maybe you are right. Actually, perhaps I'm focusing on the overseas highlights that SKY have the rights to. And you are right on the bowling, I'm a bowling highlights guy. I want to see the ball beating the bat, the dropped catches, the context past the run scoring.

And your point about work hours is 100% spot on, as well. Does anyone know what the procedure for 'creating' highlights is? Like during the live play, are balls marked as to their highlight value? Surely that should be the case. At the moment, I don't know what the bloody hell they're doing. And the person who does it, clearly has no feel for the game and what we need to see. Why aren't the commentators or cricket people in this organisation pointing out that it's not sufficient?

I can have a sook with the best of them, but these days - and for the next 10 years of my life, probably - I'll be a highlights person when play runs between 7am-7pm. I need better from this product. I pay for the full SKY product mostly for our summer cricket highlights, as well as the Warriors and a bit of rugby. Then I pay for Spark when I have to, as well.

 

[Meridio]

What gets me with the Spark highlights is that in a ~25 minute package they spend the first ~3 minutes waffling on about the previous day's play. Like, I know what happened yesterday, I want to see today's highlights, that's why I'm watching this ffs. And yeah, they're shocking at missing dropped catches. Spark has some advantages over Sky but their highlights are woeful.

 

[Mike5181]

After that loss to Bangladesh, are we completely ****ed as far as the World Test Championship goes?

 

[Athlai]

After that loss to Bangladesh, are we completely ****ed as far as the World Test Championship goes?

Nah same as losing 1 Test vs anyone

 

[Bahnz]

They will have to win this series 2:0, win in England and probably at least draw in Pakistan to have any chance.

 

[Skyliner]

How many batsmen would win man of the match honours in their last 2 test matches, and then get dropped?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Boult's out for the next match. "Not enough bowling of late". So, Henry stays, I assume.

 

[Mike5181]

With Wagner close to 36, Southee 33, it's important we get 3-4 solid years out of Henry. Two MOTM awards in a row is a good start to the redemption arc, and long-term it's probably better for us that he gets this second test in Christchurch rather than Boult anyway.

 

[nzfan]

Boult's out for the next match. "Not enough bowling of late". So, Henry stays, I assume.

Fair enough and to say we won't miss him means we're in an amazing position as for fast bowling stock is concerned. I can't see any changes to the team. There is no need really.

I do get a feeling Boult and Southee may retire from one of the formats maybe one day cricket.

 

[Bahnz]

Fair enough and to say we won't miss him means we're in an amazing position as for fast bowling stock is concerned. I can't see any changes to the team. There is no need really.

I do get a feeling Boult and Southee may retire from one of the formats maybe one day cricket.

Aren't they effectively retired already given how little ODI cricket is played these days?

 

[nzfan]

Aren't they effectively retired already given how little ODI cricket is played these days?

That's very much true but I do think with the IPL and with younger family it's going to be common for players to play no more than 2 formats. Obviously they won't stop playing t20s, that puts the food on the table but then red ball is probably the most satisfying. This could happen with Kane as well I think.

 

[SteveNZ]

Boult's out for the next match. "Not enough bowling of late". So, Henry stays, I assume.

Was always going to happen, they wouldn't have wanted to drop Henry at any cost. And they can use the 'not enough bowling' or fatherhood reason to make it happen. Good call.

 

[Skyliner]

'Trent Boult will miss the Black Caps' second test against South Africa, paving the way for another spell in the starting XI for red-hot bowler Matt Henry.

Black Caps coach Gary Stead put an end to speculation about the bowling lineup for Friday's test, revealing that the squad will remain the same as the one that demolished the visitors at Hagley Park last week.


Stead said Boult, whose baby has now arrived, was always unlikely to feature in the second test.

"Through discussions that Trent and I had about a week ago now, we thought it was unlikely that he would be right for this. He's going to come down in the next few days to bowl with us.

"But again, you look at what the likely loads that he would need for a test match, it would put him in a very high injury risk. And we're not prepared to do that."'

 

[Bahnz]

Probably a sensible call. Player management and health work seems to be something that the NZ set-up have put a lot of effort into since the bad old 90's when all of Nash, Cairns, Doull, O'Connor and Allott had their careers ruined by injury. Even sugar-glass players like Adam Milne seem to have found their way to a degree of resilience.