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

[Blakey]

Mega jinx by you Fulton fan boys

 

[Prince EWS]

The danger ball to Papps isn't the bouncer per se, but the back of a length delivery or the good length delivery from a bowler who gets good bounce. Papps subscribes to "if in doubt, get forward" and so he defends and attacks almost everything on the front foot. Papps pulls on the front foot, which is fine against some bowlers on some pitches but is suicide in South Africa or Australia where he had the misfortune to play the majority of his international cricket.

Somewhere in the depths of the vault there is footage of Mitch M getting a length delivery to rise and nip back. Papps comes forward but the ball beats him through the gate and knocks the stumps over. That or the nick to slip from similar bowling has always bee the quintessential Papps dismissal to me.

Yeah, all true IMO.

I definitely think Papps gets more stick for it because of the Brett Lee sconning than for any other reason though. That's what people remember about his career. What they don't remember about his career is how effective he was an an ODI anchor in that series he played against some pretty bloody good fast bowling, or on the flip side how Hafeez-like he was in nicking off to Steyn and Ntini in South Africa when he played Tests (the short ball was definitely not his issue there..). I actually think Jamie How for example is far more exaggerated with the whole "play every defensive shot on the front foot" thing.

I've always felt that Papps could be the ODI answer to Fulton - have an experienced player open the batting and try to bat right through. He's quite adept at building a one day innings in the top order - rotating the strike, going through the gears etc. He's never going to be a quick scorer at that level but he'd do that sort of role well if asked to IMO and his record both internationally and domestically in the format back that up. At completely full strength I don't think that role really exists in the New Zealand side but I certainly would've picked Papps a few times recently given who ended up playing.

Hesson seems very keen on back foot players in general though so I think How and Papps fans can basically forget about any sort of recalls regardless of how many runs they score in either format.

 

[Mike5181]

Big innings for Baz here.

Must say, I've enjoyed Cairns on commentary.

 

[_Ed_]

Apparently McCullum notched up a solid 8 in club cricket at the weekend.

 

[Prince EWS]

Struggling to remember a poorer performance from a specialist fast bowler tbh.

I presume we're excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe from that, because they've had some absolute shockers in the last few years.

Rory Kleinveldt's Test debut was particularly bad.

 

[straw man]

That is very disappointing from Fulton. The prod to Sammy could yield a few wickets this series.

 

[Flem274*]

Big innings for Baz here.

Must say, I've enjoyed Cairns on commentary.

Yeah same.

If you ever want to talk like Rigor, hold your nose shut and talk really fast and giggle randomly.

 

[straw man]

Also, we're really setting up here for the standard NZ fail-to-capitalise innings here, heading towards NZTailender's 280/6 at end of the day despite plenty of starts and the bowling not being too difficult.

Can someone score a century plz

 

[Prince EWS]

Hating the Fulton dismissal even more now that it's meant Deonarine only had a one over spell.

*puts Peter outside, with no milk*

 

[Mike5181]

That is a pretty amazing statistic. 80 consecutive tests, especially for a New Zealander.

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah very impressive.

I've always believed McCullum is at his best when he's taking regular singles, whether in ODIs or tests, because it shows he's not bouncing around doing weird things, not going hard at the ball, not in 666666 mode and not in "must b responsibubble and block EVERYTHING" mode.

So hopefully he turns the strike over a lot in this innings.

 

[NZTailender]

That is a pretty amazing statistic. 80 consecutive tests, especially for a New Zealander.

Wait so McCullum has played 80 tests without missing one?

With all his back injury issues I could've sworn he'd missed one here and there.

 

[Beamer]

I presume we're excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe from that, because they've had some absolute shockers in the last few years.

Rory Kleinveldt's Test debut was particularly bad.

Fair point! It has certainly been up there though. Awful stuff and New Zealand should really have made more of the gifts that have been on offer. Fulton and Rutherford were very poor dismissals. Still, I would prefer to be in their position. Runs on the board and the two senior batsmen at the wicket.

 

[hendrix]

Yeah very impressive.

I've always believed McCullum is at his best when he's taking regular singles, whether in ODIs or tests, because it shows he's not bouncing around doing weird things, not going hard at the ball, not in 666666 mode and not in "must b responsibubble and block EVERYTHING" mode.

Yeah this.

 

[NZTailender]

McCullum averages 45 being sent in after losing the toss...

 

[Athlai]

Cairns is a gun.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

First ball I've seen but ground looks small but that shot from Taylor seemed to struggle to get out to the sweeper. My question being, is the outfield particularly slow all over?

 

[Bahnz]

Pretty poor over rate for WI, especially given Shillingford and Deonarine have bowled nearly 1/3 of the overs.

 

[hendrix]

God batting looks easy right now. That wasn't even a half volley that McCullum just drove for four, but like all good flat track bullies he just reached out and played through the line, knowing there was no movement at all and Sammy's medium pace makes that a perfectly safe shot.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

That was very poor from Ramdin