*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[Perm]

Vettori's place in the side will never really be under too much pressure IMO, he is NZ's best spinner at the moment and can bat quite well and has already proved an effective captain. True, he is not bowling as well as he can and I'm not too sure why that is. He really needs to develop some more tricks or work on bowling with more variety and spin because at the moment the opposition batsman play him with little difficulty. I'm unsure about the spinning depth in NZ at the moment though, obviously there is Jeetan Patel but who would be next in line? Nathan McCullum? Look at his bowling average, its pretty poor.

 

[Natman20]

I saw Jeetan Patel play a few years ago before he was selected for NZ and was thinking how great he could be. I think the spinners in New Zealand are fairly new and young from memory just like our developing batsmen. I think in a few years spinners like McCullum, Martin and the others (I know there are more I cant remember names) could turn into spinners worthy of making the squad. Overall I am liking the depth for New Zealand at the moment but it still is not up to that of Australians depth. Do you think we have better spinners than England? I would like to see Fulton as captain. I don't really know why he just looks to me to be one of those strong people that just look like they have leadership qualities - that is of course if he performs and stays in the squad.

 

[Perm]

Yes Fulton could be another possible option for the captaincy if he cements his place and Vettori doesn't. Jamie How also captains Central Districts so if he getes into the team he could be another option.

 

[Perm]

Bruce Martin has
167 wickets @ 30.83 and 1169 runs @ 20.15 in FC cricket
54 wickets @ 26.85 and 321 @ 12.84 in List A cricket

Nathan McCullum has
34 wickets @ 38.94 and 801 runs @ 26.70 in FC cricket
35 wickets @ 39.77 and 428 runs @ 14.75 in List A cricket.

Martin doesn't look too bad, I hadn't really paid much attention to him in the past but McCullum has never really impressed me, even if he did make the preliminary squad for the CT.

 

[thedarkmullet]

I think at the moment its definatly Vettori's batting thats keeping him an automatic selection in the test side. In ODIs, however, he has remained extremely effective as a bowler. I reckon given the lack of test cricket in the coming year Vettori will continue to perform well in ODIs and further the case for his captaincy in both teams.

Im a big fan of Vettori's but would love to see him bowling in tandem with Patel more regularly none the less.

 

[aussie]

Question on Adam Parore

Do you Kiwis reckon if Adam Parore hadn't retired when he was pretyt much at his peak & was still playing now, would he have been able to keep McCullum out of the side?

 

[Dick Rockett]

Do you Kiwis reckon if Adam Parore hadn't retired when he was pretyt much at his peak & was still playing now, would he have been able to keep McCullum out of the side?

It wouldn't necessarily have come to that. Parore did play solely as a batsman on a number of occasions during his career.

 

[Perm]

The Black Caps first warm up match for the Champions Trophy was rained out, however we won the second game against the MCA Presidents XI by 39 runs. Scorecard. Good to see Vincent and Fleming getting 50's at the top of the order and Hamish Marshall scoring a steadying innings of 43. Gillespie and Patel picked up three wickets each.

Our third warm up game is currently underway against Baroda in which Vettori is the captain. We scored 267/8 in our first dig with Scott Stryis getting 52 before retiring hurt, Shane Bond and Marshall chipped in with good 40's.

 

[Natman20]

Good to see Gillespie with another 3 for. I would like to see him play against SA

 

[NZTailender]

Gillespie looks the goods thankfully. Even if it's just tour matches.

 

[Matt52]

Hoping Gillespie does well. I have seen him play in a few domestic games and he had this huge run up. It took about 45 minutes per Gillespie over. He seemed quickish, although perhaps not with the bounce that Bond can get. It will be interesting to see him play. They didnt have a speedball radar in the domestic games so you cant really tell how fast or slow they are.

 

[James]

Gillespie is around the 135kph to 140kph range. He's fairly small and a little over weight and doesn't get anywhere near the bounce Bond does.

 

[Sir Redman]

Like to see Gillespie in the team for these games, but I'm 90% certain Bracewell will take the cop-out option and select Franklin.

 

[shortpitched713]

I heard they might use Gillespie as a "slog overs specialist", whatever the hell that means. It will be nice to seem him get destroyed by the likes of Afridi, Pollock, and Razzaq!

 

[Natman20]

We also have patel to perform that role as well He is a way better option than Franklin IMO. If Tuffey gets back to full fitness and bowls at the same level he did maybe with a combination of Tuffey, Bond, Mills (or Gillespie depending on form in games) I think we will have a pretty ocnsistent bowling attack. Franklin is a big ? IMO

 

[Perm]

At ODI level Franklin is not quite up to it, he's a great bowler but his confidence gets wrecked pretty easily. You see him getting hit for four, chances are another ball in that over will go to the boundary aswell.

 

[Smudge]

It will be nice to seem him get destroyed by the likes of Afridi, Pollock, and Razzaq!

It would be nice to see him knock over those three players.

 

[Perm]

Bond Searchs for his Golden Gun
Gillspie Lives Up to the Hype
Baroda Match Report

Three really good articles here, I recommend everybody who is interested in NZ cricket read them, especially the first two.

 

[Natman20]

Sounds like they are finding it hard to get to grips with the conditions. The articles were quite good because they described strengths and weaknesses of players.

 

[Perm]

It would be really disappointing if our guys struggled to adjust to the conditions, especially considering we have had two warm up matches already. If they do lose out and don't qualify I daresay alot of it will be blamed on conditions which means that we should've been in India earlier so we could acclimatise.