*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of New Zealand 2018/19

[Flem274*]

yeah boults pace is up but his accuracy is way down. southee's accuracy and pace was rip last night. thankfully ish had a blinder during the middle overs and henry was tidy without being his best early on.

 

[TT Boy]

By the time SL lost 7 wickets uttered few expletives and headed to gym. Didn't want a dud game, need some competition really. By the time finished the gym and casually turned on radio sport in the car it was carnage. Rushed home to see the last few overs, that was some serious hitting. Interesting stance too from T Perara, front foot plonked down and hit through the line. Awesome awesome hitting. Did help our folks kept dropping catches but nothing to take away from the knock. SL could be the dark horse for the WC. They seem to bat deep, they just need to fix the bowling though. Woefully out of plans with the ball.

Their bowling attack is awful, particularly for English conditions, none of their batsman average over 35 and you have to go back years to when they last won a bilateral ODI series. On current form, they are probably the worst team going and you would fancy Afghanistan against them.

 

[M0rphin3]

Yeah, SL batting can be decent if they get to play their best XI (albeit not super strong), but bowling is woeful. Not even a good spinner, let alone a decent seamer.

 

[thundaboult]

can southee just disappear already...for how long have people been wanting him to go away from the limited overs scene...yet he's there ALL. THE. TIME.

 

[Moss]

Neesham at 6 adds a lot to the team, particularly if he can keep putting in half decent bowling efforts (big if I know). Santner or CdG at 7 followed by 4 frontline bowlers is probably NZ's ideal combination.

 

[criccontent]

New selector removed Chandimal and Thisara from captaincy and gave it to Lasith. Looks like there is rift between Lasith and Thisara. How can SL be successful when there is a rift among the players.

 

[Bahnz]

Neesham at 6 adds a lot to the team, particularly if he can keep putting in half decent bowling efforts (big if I know). Santner or CdG at 7 followed by 4 frontline bowlers is probably NZ's ideal combination.

Yeah, I think his bowling will be a big handicap for New Zealand in the world cup. Just too many half-trackers. Trying to cobble 10 overs together out of Munro, Williamson and Neesham/Colin will be a continuous exercise in damage-control.

 

[Athlai]

People drastically overrate the importance of a frontline 5th bowler in modern ODIs.

 

[Flem274*]

People drastically overrate the importance of a frontline 5th bowler in modern ODIs.

completely the opposite, especially if you don't bat to 11 like we don't

 

[Athlai]

No way, what kills us is our death bowling. The 5th bowler issue has always been a massive myth.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Williamson with two overs for eight, and a dropped sitter off his first ball, was good in game two. Baffled why he only bowled himself for two, though?

 

[Flem274*]

No way, what kills us is our death bowling. The 5th bowler issue has always been a massive myth.

that also kills us yes

even when boult, henry and southee are in form we frequently knock the top off only for them to accummulate from our 5th bowler with ease or even score 6s and 7s then they go mental at the death.

also the best way to stop teams scoring 250 is to take all the wickets and cobbling together overs from part timers isn't going to achieve that.

 

[M0rphin3]

Williamson with two overs for eight, and a dropped sitter off his first ball, was good in game two. Baffled why he only bowled himself for two, though?

Yeah literally why does Kaneh underbowl himself is a mystery to me. Not half a bad option, could even get 5+ overs of him, if he's keeping it tight.

 

[M0rphin3]

that also kills us yes

even when boult, henry and southee are in form we frequently knock the top off only for them to accummulate from our 5th bowler with ease or even score 6s and 7s then they go mental at the death.

also the best way to stop teams scoring 250 is to take all the wickets and cobbling together overs from part timers isn't going to achieve that.

Nah, my boi Athlai is right tbh. I mean ideally what you say makes sense, but as he said, it's overrated though. Death bowling a much more serious issue, focus should be there imo. And even if middle overs are tight, death bowling really sucks (as was the case with the last game tbh) and it hurts p bad.

 

[weldone]

Neesham's form is bad news for all other allrounders except Santner. Can see this top 8 in action during World Cup

Munro
Guptill
Williamson*
Boss
Latham+
Nicholls
Neesham
Santner

 

[NZTailender]

Neesham's form is bad news for all other allrounders except Santner. Can see this top 8 in action during World Cup

Munro
Guptill
Williamson*
Boss
Latham+
Nicholls
Neesham
Santner

I feel this is what they're building towards.

They'll take Henry but he'll do a Mills while Ferguson plays.

Does Todd Astle get a look in as second spinner/reserve frontline spinner?

 

[straw man]

At this late point I guess it's a done deal that Nicholls makes the squad, but it's just as the reserve batsman in case one of the top 5 is injured imo. Shouldn't make the XI otherwise, so promote Neesham to 6 and CDG comes in at 7.

On death bowling, it has to be Boult and Ferguson right?

 

[Athlai]

I don't think we should lock Ferguson in just yet. Seems to be having the problem where he is knackered after three overs again.

 

[straw man]

I don't think we should lock Ferguson in just yet. Seems to be having the problem where he is knackered after three overs again.

In the first match they showed a chart of his delivery speeds over his spell - it was pretty consistent 140-average for the first 7 or 8 overs, after which it was up and down as he bowled a lot of slower balls. I thought he was pretty good at the death, has a couple of different slower balls which are reasonably well disguised - probably better than Southee who is extremely inconsistent and Henry who barely has variations.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah I'm hoping we see Ferguson get "match fit" again like he ended up last season.