***Official** Sri Lanka in New Zealand

[NZTailender]

Poor final 10 so far for NZ. Pick up the pace, ffs. We were looking at 300+ earlier.

 

[NZTailender]

Taylor Congrats son. A fine 100!


Now go for broke.

 

[_Ed_]

And he follows it up by belting one out of the ground and in to a neighbour's back yard.

 

[NZTailender]

This match should see James Marshall out of the side for a while. But will it signals Hamish's comeback?

 

[MoxPearl]

This match should see James Marshall out of the side for a while. But will it signals Hamish's comeback?

no :P

 

[NZTailender]

Spoke too soon.

 

[Bahnz]

Stupid for Hamish to be batting that far down the order anyway. Can't believe Fulton, Vettori and James were batted ahead of him. Bracewell is one strange, strange man.

 

[NZTailender]

Stupid for Hamish to be batting that far down the order anyway. Can't believe Fulton, Vettori and James were batted ahead of him. Bracewell is one strange, strange man.

Agree about Danny and James, but I believe Fulton should bat at 4/5 ahead of Hamish. Hamish, IMO, is better at rotating the strike. Combined with McCullum and Vettori batting lower than him, they should be able to finish a game well.

 

[Bahnz]

I dunno, for me Fulton has a greater 6 hitting ability than Hamish, and should thus be batting below him in the order.

 

[_Ed_]

57-5 in the last 10, that's not good enough really.

Fantastic innings by Taylor though.

 

[James]

57-5 in the last 10, that's not good enough really.

Fantastic innings by Taylor though.

Not good enough but superb bowling. Have to give credit where credit is due.

 

[Lostman]

looking at the NZ batting lineup the only batsmen that worry me as of right now are McCullum and Vettori. With Astle opening with McCullum, the NZ middle and lower order does look pretty brittle in my opinion. Plus in all likelyhood SL's spinners are going to be bowling at them in the middle overs. (murali, jayasuriya, dilshan)

GRIEEEEEEGGGGGG!!!!!!

 

[Bahnz]

57-5 in the last 10, that's not good enough really.

Fantastic innings by Taylor though.

Yes, and while Taylor's innings was an incredible effort for what was effectively his debut, he clearly got into a mental block in the high 90's. Had he treated 100 like any other number he would have got to it a lot quicker.

 

[Sir Redman]

FFS, should have got 320 there. Pitch was a belter. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you've got a middle order of Vettori - J Marshall - H Marshall. Though I thought Hamish looked pretty good actually.

285 is well in reach for Sri Lanka, especially once Franklin goes for 40 in his opening spell.

 

[_Ed_]

Not good enough but superb bowling. Have to give credit where credit is due.

Definitely, but Vaas was bowling beautifully early in the innings too and we batted sensibly at that point (Astle's ridiculous chance apart).

 

[_Ed_]

FFS, should have got 320 there. Pitch was a belter. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you've got a middle order of Vettori - J Marshall - H Marshall. Though I thought Hamish looked pretty good actually.

285 is well in reach for Sri Lanka, especially once Franklin goes for 40 in his opening spell.

I agree, I hope Hamish gets a few more chances this summer, looks like he might be crawling out of that shocking 2-year slump.

And yes, it's a gettable total for SL. They have some superb hitters and our pace attack of Franklin, Mason and Gillespie does not fill me with confidence. Hope they bowl brilliantly and earn me a Greig for saying that though.

 

[James]

True, comes down to what Sir Redman said, if he had our best eleven on the park, we probably would have made 300-320. Without Styris, Fleming, Oram, McCullum we do miss a lot in the middle/later order.

I still don't understand why we're opening the batting with McCullum. We're going down the same route as the Test team in trying to make opening batsman out of middle order batsman. Just doesn't work IMO.

 

[Turbinator]

Someone please explain to me this rotation policy with the NZL side, cuz' what's the point of not fielding your best team and resting them for the WC when you don't play much cricket in the first place?

 

[James]

We're playing a huge amount of ODI cricket before the World Cup - that's why.

 

[Turbinator]

O yes wow, up to 21 ODIs including this Sri Lanka series.