*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[Kippax]

Any update on what the Sears injury is, nzfan? Another run as a specialist bat for Hutt District last Saturday.

 

[nzfan]

Any update on what the Sears injury is, nzfan? Another run as a specialist bat for Hutt District last Saturday.

Still nursing his ankle unfortunately I hear. Not ready till mid Ford trophy. Would have been real good in super smash. The hazards of bowling quick. The sources tell me the folks that have faced him in Plunkett shield and played the test in Aussie say Sears is quicker than Aussie fastie nasties.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Nevertheless I will revisit this thread in some years to come with Ben Sears (injury not withstanding) and Ravindra being the two of the more important members of the Black Caps squad. I'd say give it 5 years time. Bit of a Wellington bias but I wouldn't suggest putting a dollar against these two lads, you will lose it

Certainly think he will get a run at international level at some strange and hopefully do very well, but I just think he has a bit more to prove domestically at this point in time. No point rushing him in when he’s not ready ... they played it well with his elevation to the Firebirds, I’m sure they’ll do the same with the Blackcaps. That Ireland and Scotland tour looks perfect to me.

 

[nzfan]

Certainly think he will get a run at international level at some strange and hopefully do very well, but I just think he has a bit more to prove domestically at this point in time. No point rushing him in when he’s not ready ... they played it well with his elevation to the Firebirds, I’m sure they’ll do the same with the Blackcaps. That Ireland and Scotland tour looks perfect to me.

I think NZC has done a good job, getting him to go through 2 U19s tourney then the NZ A. Firebirds had to play him, they had no other choice. Once Firebirds played both Sears and Ravindra there was never any doubt they will have gone fine. Now they are both settled in the team nicely. Jakob Bhula is a very promising player but it's quite hard for him to get into this team for now. Hopefully he'll get a go next half of the season and the next year. Finn Allen should be getting more game time or he needs to move. Bloody good player of spin.

Absolutely no rush, I think. Best to get him by next year by then few careers would have ended. In any case he's behind Young and Conway. There is no need for whole sale changes as yet.

 

[Flem274*]

Munro has great domestic numbers but they were pretty much all pre fc retirement. I havent checked the season t20 record for this one but he looks terrible. India are going to wreck him.

 

[Kippax]

Did hit a white ball 167 on Hagley Oval's long boundaries six weeks ago, but yes averaged 26 and had just one 50 in eight knocks in domestic T20 this season.

 

[jcas0167]

Just looking at that 08/09 season de Grandhomme's batting numbers were very impressive. I think he got an unbeaten 50 in the Plunket Shield final which Auckland won. Could have potentially played test cricket a lot earlier if he had maintained that.

Myburgh & Merchant were also touted as a top order saviours back then.

 

[thierry henry]

Munro has great domestic numbers but they were pretty much all pre fc retirement. I havent checked the season t20 record for this one but he looks terrible. India are going to wreck him.

He averaged 56 in the FT last year and this year he is the top runscorer averaging 60+

SS he’s averaged 26-27 the last 2 years at the usual excellent strike rate. Only a bit below his usual 30-odd which allied with the strike rate is fine in T20.

Surely at this point we can all accept Munro smashes it at domestic level, is good (but definitely worse against elite bowling) at T20I level and has done his dash in ODIs. No need to construct false narratives to find a reason to drop him.

 

[Flem274*]

yes and no, im more partial to the obvious incredible hand eye of munro than most on this forum but he's in mud form atm. he looked like a tailender against bennett and newton.

how many ford trophy games has he played this year? there's been one huge ton.

his batting is definitely 'worse' since giving up red ball cricket imo, even if it isn't reflected in some of his stats yet. i can't remember the last time he monstered some poor 135 clicks pacer back over his head. he plays really square these days.

 

[thierry henry]

I mean sure maybe he looks worse, but there’s no really statistically significant drop off in his domestic numbers

I’m pretty averse to dropping Munro for looking crap when basically he’s always looked crap - the main reason people have been sceptical about him all along, irrespective of the numbers.

 

[thierry henry]

Like if Munro is gonna give us 28 average 150 s/r it still earns him his spot. It may not be so impressive that it absolutely bars us from bringing in a young guy who might be more useful for the future and in multiple formats. tbh I kinda just feel sorry for the guy, he has more than earned his spot in T20 and it would be very harsh to drop him for still making runs but looking bad.

 

[Flem274*]

he's performed for nz t20, i don't dispute that. i don't want him blacklisted from t20, i want to hide him from india next week because right now he and guptill were an absolute mess in the super smash and i don't want to repeat the mistakes of the lead in to the real wc. while guys are batting like crap 9 months out we should trial the reserves.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

I see Neesham got into a twitter feud with Sean Plunket over climate change and ended up blocking him, just when I thought I couldn’t like Jimmy any more ...

 

[nzfan]

Like if Munro is gonna give us 28 average 150 s/r it still earns him his spot. It may not be so impressive that it absolutely bars us from bringing in a young guy who might be more useful for the future and in multiple formats. tbh I kinda just feel sorry for the guy, he has more than earned his spot in T20 and it would be very harsh to drop him for still making runs but looking bad.

I wouldn't care the least if he's picked for T20, it's a hit and giggle anyways. I don't think anyone can claim to being consistent in this format barring very few. I think we need a change in one dayers surely and if Munro is not providing great starts (even a 10 ball 20 is fine) in T20 it's time to look at other players that have performed in super smash.

 

[nzfan]

India A facing off NZ XI today. Is it of any importance or just unofficial matches where everyone gets a hit or two i.e. glorified center wicket net session.

 

[nzfan]

SS Volts vs Aces semis today as well. Plenty to watch. There's been lot more super smash games on TV this year. I think NZ domestic T20 is the only domestic T20 competition in the world where only selected games are on TV. That's a shame really. I always wondered why hasn't NZC thought about making this comp a franchise like it's everywhere?

 

[thierry henry]

Not sure if this is already a popular sentiment but does anyone else reckon the Super Smash is actually a perfectly good T20 comp (in terms of player quality) which is just doomed to flop financially because New Zealanders just don't get into NZ domestic cricket?

Like, casuals always rave about the Big Bash yet in reality the Big Bash is often stacked with absolute nobodies and even the international players are fringe guys and guys who haven't even played international cricket. The idea that it's "on another level" to our comp is pretty much just smoke, mirrors and cultural cringe rather than cricket quality. Or am I delusional.

 

[Athlai]

Not sure if this is already a popular sentiment but does anyone else reckon the Super Smash is actually a perfectly good T20 comp (in terms of player quality) which is just doomed to flop financially because New Zealanders just don't get into NZ domestic cricket?

Like, casuals always rave about the Big Bash yet in reality the Big Bash is often stacked with absolute nobodies and even the international players are fringe guys and guys who haven't even played international cricket. The idea that it's "on another level" to our comp is pretty much just smoke, mirrors and cultural cringe rather than cricket quality. Or am I delusional.

A lot of the best internationals in the Big Bash are blokes from Afghanistan who I imagine aren't getting paid a fortune to be there.

 

[Bahnz]

Not sure if this is already a popular sentiment but does anyone else reckon the Super Smash is actually a perfectly good T20 comp (in terms of player quality) which is just doomed to flop financially because New Zealanders just don't get into NZ domestic cricket?

Like, casuals always rave about the Big Bash yet in reality the Big Bash is often stacked with absolute nobodies and even the international players are fringe guys and guys who haven't even played international cricket. The idea that it's "on another level" to our comp is pretty much just smoke, mirrors and cultural cringe rather than cricket quality. Or am I delusional.

Well, given that the Australian based teams always did a good deal better than ours in the defunct Champions League (for example, the Hobart Hurricanes made quick work of a full strength Northern Knights side in 2014) would suggest that the Aus teams are a standard above ours in general.

 

[Athlai]

TBF 1 T20 game in 2014 is a ridiculously rough standard to judge everything on. India could get thrashed by Bangladesh in a single 1 off T20 game. The prior year a Volts team that absolutely should not have won our competition on paper, beat the Australian team handily and narrowly avoided making the finals on NRR in a pool with Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians (who won their semis and faced each other in the eventual final).

The gulf is massively overstated.