** Official ** Sri Lanka in New Zealand tour

[Tim]

I wouldn't drop Astle..he's still shown he can get runs, he's just been a little inconsistent.

 

[dinu23]

I presume this is for ODI's ?

The selection of Arnold IMO, depends on how well he does in the games leading into the first ODI.
I would personally be tempted to give him one last go regardless.

Maharoof IMO, would be picked ahead of Herath for ODI's and more so for NZ conditions.

Since Jayasuriya and Dilshan are capable of bowling 10 overs between them, and considering NZ conditions unlikely to be of much use to spinners (even though Eden Park has in the past helped spinners) , even Chandana may not be an automatic pick. Inclusion of another batsman may be a better option .
Saman Jayantha would therefore be a better selection.

So I would suggest this -

Jayasuriya
Atapattu
Saman Jayantha
Sangakkara
Mahela Jayawardene
Arnold
Dilshan
Vaas
Maharoof
Zoysa
Dilhara

yeah, your team suits better for the NZ conditions. but i woudn't send jayantha at #3. if he is in the team he has to open. then atapattu comes at #3.

 

[nookie_lk]

Whatever the condition is as a norm Sri lanka will take a specialist spinner...so i guess it will be herath against Jayantha...

 

[nookie_lk]

And i seriously hope they give maharoof a chance to bat around no 6 or 7. I think its a waste when he plays at no 9 or 10. He's a such a good batsman...and i think he can perform well if there is a senior batsman with him in the middle...

Maharoof went to the same school which i went and hes a good mate of mine..he scored a double hundred in just 180 balls against a leading cricketing school in colombo while batting at no-3, which is a all time school cricket record in sri lanka. He also has played well for his club when batting in the middle order...i think they should give him a chance to prove himself with the bat. like pakistan tried out with Malik.

 

[anzac]

New Zealand currently does not have the player depth to drop someone as talented as astle. A half-in form astle is better than a lot of others combined!

how do we know we don't have the player depth - they aren't being bloody well selected!!!!!!!!

Fulton, How, Taylor, Ryder, Stewart, McIntosh & Vincent have all been making runs at domestic level for the past couple of seasons..........admittedly some are off form atm, but all have stronger domestic credentials for selection than one H Marshall - and look at what he has done given the opportunity!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Richard]

Without flicking back through the archives I presume Richard is talking about NZ's test form?

It has really only been down right poor this year. If you look back over the last 3 years we've actually done pretty well overseas with the exception of the ill-fated tour of Pakistan.

Draws in Sri Lanka, India & Australia are commendable while we also won in The West Indies for the first time.

It was actually tooextracool who was doing the talking. I was doing the responding.
A flick through the archives might be worthwhile, incidentally - we were referring in fact to Sri Lanka.
And if you did want my take on New Zealand's Test form relative to England, here would be the place to look.

 

[Richard]

yes so overall they are average, which is precisely the point. and please remind me where this series is taking place home or away?

Away - which means they'll likely be very poor.
Nonetheless, they performed far, far better than I would have expected in my wildest dreams at Cairns recently, so you never know.

 

[Richard]

The opposite is definitely not true though IMO.

Certainly there's far more similarity between four with five and six than there is with four to three.
The chances of an opener falling in the first 15 overs (and so a three facing the new-ball) are always pretty high, even nowadays.

 

[Richard]

I wouldn't drop Astle..he's still shown he can get runs, he's just been a little inconsistent.

He's simply been by-and-large poor since he came back from his latest knee-op.
Hopefully he can recover the sort of form he was showing for the 3 years before that.

 

[tooextracool]

Away - which means they'll likely be very poor.
Nonetheless, they performed far, far better than I would have expected in my wildest dreams at Cairns recently, so you never know.

yes indeed they did, although they nearly ended up losing that game and if it werent for their only quality batsman they would probably have lost quite comfortably. i do however expect the likes of jayasuriya, jayawardhene and samaraweera to fail miserably like they usually do outside the sub continent.

 

[Richard]

I'd be surprised were any of them to score many, yes.
Nonetheless if the wickets are flat I'd back them to force a draw more than I would have done in the pre-Dyson days.

 

[tooextracool]

I wouldn't drop Astle..he's still shown he can get runs, he's just been a little inconsistent.

astle has always been an extremely inconsistent player, its a pity though that he never did that talent enough justice. an average of 37ish is certainly not anything more than decent, yet he could have done so much more.

 

[Richard Rash]

astle has always been an extremely inconsistent player, its a pity though that he never did that talent enough justice. an average of 37ish is certainly not anything more than decent, yet he could have done so much more.

I doubt he could have done much more. He doesn't have the technique to consistantly score runs. He broke into the caterbury side as a bowler who batted number nine and basically slogged. He has a great eye but not great talent.

But i kmow what you mean in that he showed glimpses like that 222 against England. And as a one day player i rate him a lot more

 

[tooextracool]

I doubt he could have done much more. He doesn't have the technique to consistantly score runs. He broke into the caterbury side as a bowler who batted number nine and basically slogged. He has a great eye but not great talent.

But i kmow what you mean in that he showed glimpses like that 222 against England. And as a one day player i rate him a lot more

he has a fairly decent technique, a great eye and good shot selection. players with far less ability than that have done a lot better though. im pretty certain his technique is as good as someone like gary kirsten or even mark richardson. yet the both of them ended up with significantly better averages. IMO the only thing that possibly let him down was concentration, but as you said, on his day he was absolutely devastating, as the 222 and the performances against india would suggest.

 

[Richard Rash]

he has a fairly decent technique, a great eye and good shot selection. players with far less ability than that have done a lot better though. im pretty certain his technique is as good as someone like gary kirsten or even mark richardson. yet the both of them ended up with significantly better averages. IMO the only thing that possibly let him down was concentration, but as you said, on his day he was absolutely devastating, as the 222 and the performances against india would suggest.

Granted i spose when you put it like that i will have to agree with you and when i think about it i would say that mental application has been a huge factor in his faliures although i still think his technique is nothing more than average and not that flash really.

 

[Tim]

There is speculation today that one of Jamie How, Jesse Ryder or Ross Taylor could replace Craig McMillan in the ODI side named this afternoon.

Personally I can't see it happening.

 

[shaka]

I reckon Styris should be dropped

 

[Will Scarlet]

Prior to a 2002 I got really frustrated with Astle because he premeditated too many shots the ball or two after hitting a glorious boundary. He'd try to repeat the shot irrespective of the next delivery.

He even did this in the recent Adelaide test, trying to hit consecutive boundaries from Lehmann.

 

[Will Scarlet]

NZ team named

NZ team named for ODIs.

The full team is: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Brendon McCullum, Hamish Marshall, Mathew Sinclair, Jacob Oram, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills and Ian Butler.

How the hell does Butler maintain his spot? He took 1/141 for ND! Surely Canning is a better prospect.

 

[sportychic33]

butler reatianed his spot i think for a couple of reasons
1) 1/141 is in a 4 day game not a one-day game
2) bracewell is probably feeling a little guilty after brendon bracewell's comments and is trying to place some trust in the players.
3) i think that having butlers pace would round out the attack extremely well.
It is wicked to see Tuffey back and hopefully he can get back into getting a wicket in the first over.