***Official*** West Indies in New Zealand 2013/14

[Kippax]

Cairns' media career on hold - Sport - NZ Herald News

Chris Cairns' cricket commentary career is in limbo since he severed ties with Sky TV after revelations he is one of three former Black Caps being investigated by the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption and security unit.

Last Thursday, it emerged that Cairns and former teammates Daryl Tuffey and Lou Vincent were at the centre of an ICC probe into alleged match- and spot-fixing.

Cairns was part of Sky's commentary team for the first test match of the summer against the West Indies. He performed the pitch report on the second day and commentated during the morning session but did not return to the commentary box in the afternoon.

Last night, Sky confirmed it had no plans to use Cairns as a commentator again.

"He is not doing any commentating for Sky going forward," said Sky's head of corporate communications, Kirsty Way.

 

[Kippax]

Will Young 78 vs Wellington - YouTube

That was last month. A road had emerged and was roading pretty hard on days 3 and 4.

 

[Bahnz]

I'd call that unlucky myself. He middled it.

Yeah, he middled it straight to a fielder. Was not clever stuff.

It wouldn't matter now if the pitch block was dug out and replaced with cement and the bowlers were required to bowl with a tennis ball. Craig McMillan is the New Zealand batting coach. This isn't going to make it to the weekend.

 

[Kippax]

He's got the domestic engine room of Ellis, Tastle, Johnston and Bennett really firing and the Wuzids to the top of the table tbf. Nicol, Worker, Nicholls and Brad Cachopa are still looking pretty gutted with his advice though.

A good Test to bet on Dougeh as a top 3 runscorer imo, $10.

 

[Flem274*]

I hope we don't pick an attack for days 1 and 2. The pitch may yet flatten out.

While Craig McMillan is a parody of himself whenever you get him started on batting with intent and bouncers, he does have moments where he discusses positive footwork, playing straight and batting sensibly. I remember these spiels because I sit there wondering why he never applied any of those words to his own batting.

I'm still dubious about this appointment though.

 

[Bahnz]

One thing to say in the defence of Doug, is that he hasn't had the chance to play at home since March 2012. His home:away (4:12) ratio is even more crazy than Kane's. Maybe a home match on an old school green-top is just the thing he needs to get his career back on track.

 

[SteveNZ]

You may be shocked to hear this, but I wasn't being entirely serious, and I've already made about 437 posts explaining in detail why I didn't think it was a good idea to enforce the follow-on. In other words, I'd earned the right to take the piss.

Fair play, I apologise. Out of interest (and merely curious, no personal attack) did you raise these concerns at the time? Plenty of strong cricket brains, including the very ones that had to bowl the second innings overs, deemed themselves fresh enough, the Windies vulnerable enough, the conditions suitable etc to bowling again. At the time, it seemed straight forward to me for a side that had the luxury of having their feet up for 150 overs initially, then had 60 odd overs split into two days against a veritable rabble that had pitched up in drips and drabs around a week before,

If's can often bother me but it's a sound decision if we take catches that should've been taken. Forget the rain, that was always a red-hot chance.

On Craig McMillan, let's not all get confused by assuming a coach is as the player he was. Macca was a bloody talented player and one who knows a lot about the game, and when stripping away the emotion that often got him into trouble at the crease will be able to offer a lot.

 

[Bahnz]

Fair play, I apologise. Out of interest (and merely curious, no personal attack) did you raise these concerns at the time? Plenty of strong cricket brains, including the very ones that had to bowl the second innings overs, deemed themselves fresh enough, the Windies vulnerable enough, the conditions suitable etc to bowling again. At the time, it seemed straight forward to me for a side that had the luxury of having their feet up for 150 overs initially, then had 60 odd overs split into two days against a veritable rabble that had pitched up in drips and drabs around a week before,

If's can often bother me but it's a sound decision if we take catches that should've been taken. Forget the rain, that was always a red-hot chance.

On Craig McMillan, let's not all get confused by assuming a coach is as the player he was. Macca was a bloody talented player and one who knows a lot about the game, and when stripping away the emotion that often got him into trouble at the crease will be able to offer a lot.

From shortly before tea on day 3:

Would've batted for a few hours to let Southee and Boult have a rest, and then stuck them back in 10 overs before stumps myself. Still good to see an early wicket.

And again, later in the afternoon.

Ugh, this is getting ugly. People may disagree, but I don't think New Zealand should ever be enforcing the follow-on when they're not seriously pressed for time. We rely so much on Southee and Boult for our wickets that we have to be certain that they're always rested and prepared to bowl a long spell with the new ball.

And it wasn't just the number of overs that Southee and Boult had bowled, it was that they'd both been bowling towards the end of the Windies innings, and as a result, were consequently only able to deliver a short spell with the new ball in the second innings. I agree that we should've won the match if we'd held our chances, but I firmly believe that we would've won the match, even with the rain if the follow on hadn't been enforced. But again, that's just my opinion, I don't claim to be a seer or anything (he said as he happily thumbed through the wad of bills earnt wagering on the test).

 

[hendrix]

Fair play, I apologise. Out of interest (and merely curious, no personal attack) did you raise these concerns at the time? .

He did.

 

[SteveNZ]

He did.

Great, that makes him a better judge than most of the media who barely made a ripple at the time but came armed with the 'was it the right decision' angle after the fact.

And once again, that is why we love Test cricket. You could well be right - we might've won if we'd batted on. We might've had the same result, and wondered why we buggered around batting again after 61 overs broken into two days. I imagine they would've smelled a vulnerability in the Windies, and fair play to them for it not going that way. Australia got a result because they kept a similar intensity on a flat pitch in the second innings - we didn't. I would've liked to have seen a bit more fight from a side that hasn't exactly grown accustomed of the taste of success.

 

[Bahnz]

Also, while I wasn't serious with the picture comparison, I do think it's interesting how the two matches progressed. Virtually identical over the first 2 and a half days: match played on a good batting wicket, with some rain forecast for the closing stages. A solid start, middle order wobble, then several excellent partnerships eventually wearing the bowlers out and pushing on to a massive score. Then a steady beginning from the opposition, followed by a day 3 collapse that ultimately resulted in a 400 run first innings deficit, creating the opportunity to enforce follow on. Obviously Australia, with their faster bowlers, are always going to find it a bit easier to bowl a side out on a flat wicket. But, I still think it's interesting that given both the similarities in the match and the similarities in the strengths and weaknesses in the Aus and NZ teams (good fast bowling, fragile batting, nondescript spin) that Clarke and McCullum (both supposedly aggressive, inventive captains) went in different directions.

 

[hendrix]

The thing is, once Chanderpaul was out on day 4 pretty much everyone thought we would win. The fact that we didn't from there really had nothing to do with not enforcing the follow on or not. It was just good batting.

 

[Flem274*]

Did someone say extra pace on flat wickets?

Sounds like an invitation for me to wheel out my Milne bandwagon again.

 

[Bahnz]

Cricket: Kane Williamson back for second Black Caps... | Stuff.co.nz

McCullum on DRS: "As long as we're getting the right decisions then that's fine. It looks like a good product, hopefully the implementation is good as well."

A not so subtle dig at Gould?

 

[straw man]

Did someone say extra pace on flat wickets?

Sounds like an invitation for me to wheel out my Milne bandwagon again.

 

[Kippax]

Need to ask Robelinda for a 'Craig McMillan brain explosion' video.

"Their hearty laughter is haunting my ears"

"Nah it's alright, we've all been there"

 

[NZTailender]

Katich

 

[NZTailender]

An argument against following on is that we're not great chasing in Tests. Our last two Test wins were bowling last. Mind you, WIndies following on I guess the team thought they might not have to bat again.

 

[straw man]

"Their hearty laughter is haunting my ears"

"Nah it's alright, we've all been there"

Ah, memories. Tbf Warne completely screwed with his mind there, whereas more often it was just Craig screwing with his own mind as far as I could see.

 

[Flem274*]

Sammy is feeling pretty confident, though he appears to be wrong we prepared the green top on purpose. Apparently this is the first time in a few years the groundsman hasn't fielded a call from NZC according to the clip Bahnz posted a few pages back which begs the question, why were we requesting filthy roads?

New Zealand v West Indies, 2nd Test, Wellington : Darren Sammy challenges NZ to play better | Cricket News | New Zealand v West Indies | ESPN Cricinfo

Now would be a good time for Wagner to take up Sammy's challenge and back up Southee and Boult with the ball.