Your New Zealand World Cup Squad if selected today...

[Zinzan]

I've always found the Auckland hate quite baffling.

It's just what I said earlier...big brother/little brother mentality, nothing more. It's the way people are brought up to think in smaller areas, I first really noticed it when I went to Otago university & then back to Canterbury for a few years..., I won't be arguing back.

 

[Athlai]

I've always found the Auckland hate quite baffling.

I've been here two and a half years now. It's so much worse than everywhere else.

Well besides maybe Hamilton.

 

[Mike5181]

For what reason?

 

[Athlai]

For what reason?

Auckland is a disparate city thats most defining characteristic is homelessness and distance.

If you've only been in Auckland I'd definitely suggest a few weeks in any city in NZ south of Hamilton.

 

[Zinzan]

I've been here two and a half years now. It's so much worse than everywhere else.

Well besides maybe Hamilton.

Mate, you should have let Uncle Zinzan know you were in Auckland all that time and I would have taken you to some of the best spots & some mean parties around here.

 

[Mike5181]

There's a fair bit more to Auckland than that, but I'll respectfully bow out of the conversation because it will probably only piss me off.

 

[Mike5181]

Mate, you should have let Uncle Zinzan know you were in Auckland all that time and I would have taken you to some of the best spots & some mean parties around here.

Dirty Mike and the boys would be a better night out though

 

[hendrix]

I have lived for substantial years in Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin.

They're all ****ing great cities. I really don't get how anyone could dislike them. Maybe Dunedin can feel a little small sometimes, and Auckland can feel a little too spread out. Other than that they're brilliant cities to live.

 

[Zinzan]

3 things that fester away & bother me about NZ's campaign;

1) No pre-final hit-outs in Australia - If we do manage to make the final it will be our first game in Australia, making us the only side with no cricket there. Will the big grounds & extra bounce be counter-intuitive to our big-hitting approach or will it work well for the likes of Williamson and Taylor nudging it into the gaps?

2) The fact there's Quarter finals - I'd rate NZ's chances much higher if it was like '92 when all sides played each-other once & the top 4 teams on points went into the semis. Still think 3 crunch must-win games in a row for NZ is a big call with the attacking style we play with.

3) Injury to any of our batsmen - fairly obviously our biggest concern, a huge drop in quality on the bench.

3 things that don't really bother me;

1) A bowling injury - Wouldn't be a good thing, but we have great bench strength.

2) Losing the toss - I think most of us just accept that the toss has not been kind to NZ in the last 12 months & and kind of view it as a big bonus when we win one.

3) Losing early wickets - If we do lose a couple of wickets early on, we've shown we have enough class and depth to dig ourselves out & we're not that overly reliant on McCullum even if he is our golden goose.

 

[Greenlite]

I've lived in AKL for 5 years, yes people seem to be more occupied in lots of other stuff other than sport, and people are not that into their Auckland team, they only attend the finals or the important international fixtures. Smaller cities are more into the community thing and passionate about rugby, cricket etc.

The thing I dislike as most others I've spoken to are traffic, man this is NZ and it takes hours to get anywhere after 7:50am and 4pm, the parking is horrible and small, and d*cks fight for your tiny parking spot (though most ass drivers are quite skilled unlike say Hastings), and the hills, great if you want to lose weight but not on your wallet as a driver. And rains all the time.

But then there is top cafes and Better dressed girls around University, Breakers and disney iceskating, IMAX.

I wouldn't take the "best living cities" thing too seriously, Wellington was voted best city for something, Taipei was voted most livable city and I couldn't last 4 months there! Too many websites these days and anyone can claim a title for tourism's sake. My wife is from China and she'd rather live China, than AKL, it's like the same to her, only one is without her families.

 

[Greenlite]

3 things that fester away & bother me about NZ's campaign;

1) No pre-final hit-outs in Australia - If we do manage to make the final it will be our first game in Australia, making us the only side with no cricket there. Will the big grounds & extra bounce be counter-intuitive to our big-hitting approach or will it work well for the likes of Williamson and Taylor nudging it into the gaps?

2) The fact there's Quarter finals - I'd rate NZ's chances much higher if it was like '92 when all sides played each-other once & the top 4 teams on points went into the semis. Still think 3 crunch must-win games in a row for NZ is a big call with the attacking style we play with.

3) Injury to any of our batsmen - fairly obviously our biggest concern, a huge drop in quality on the bench.

3 things that don't really bother me;

1) A bowling injury - Wouldn't be a good thing, but we have great bench strength.

2) Losing the toss - I think most of us just accept that the toss has not been kind to NZ in the last 12 months & and kind of view it as a big bonus when we win one.

3) Losing early wickets - If we do lose a couple of wickets early on, we've shown we have enough class and depth to dig ourselves out & we're not that overly reliant on McCullum even if he is our golden goose.

Ok back to cricket, I think if we play Ireland or WI or, Pakistan in the 1/8, that's not really a tough game, so I wouldn't call that as needing to win 3 in a row. That's more like 2 in a row, and it's a lot easier to win 2-3 games vs different teams than playing say SL 7 times and try to win 3-4 in a row, in baseball best of 7s it usually ends with 4-1 or 4-2. My bigger concern would bento having a tough game for 2+ weeks as the scheduling is incredibly awful that we have one game per day between two minnows, yet our team doesn't even play on a weekend day. Should be like soccer where you have a game every 3-4 days so teams don't lose their rhythm and feel.

 

[Zinzan]

I think if we play Ireland or WI or, Pakistan in the 1/8, that's not really a tough game, so I wouldn't call that as needing to win 3 in a row. That's more like 2 in a row, and it's a lot easier to win 2-3 games vs different teams than playing say SL 7 times and try to win 3-4 in a row, in baseball best of 7s it usually ends with 4-1 or 4-2. My bigger concern would bento having a tough game for 2+ weeks as the scheduling is incredibly awful that we have one game per day between two minnows, yet our team doesn't even play on a weekend day. Should be like soccer where you have a game every 3-4 days so teams don't lose their rhythm and feel.

I'd be delighted if we met the likes of Ireland or Pakistan in the a quarter final. It's the likes of WI, Eng or SL that would concern me a touch in a one-off game, even though I think we're better than those sides.

Edit: Of course, we can't play Eng or SL in a Quarter, we're in the same group.. so yeah, I guess the Windies worry in a one-off, they drew the ODI series with us last year here.

 

[Bahnz]

I'd be delighted if we met the likes of Ireland or Pakistan in the a quarter final. It's the likes of WI, Eng or SL that would concern me a touch in a one-off game, even though I think we're better than those sides.

Well, obviously we won't be meeting Engand or SRL as they're already in our pool. I agree that WI are a bit scarier than Pakistan, just because of the raw power they have in their batting - though now that Bravo might be gone they are suffering from a serious cake shortage, so I'd back us to win 9/10 especially at a swing friendly venue like the stadium. At this point, as long as we avoid SAF in the quarters (which now strangely isn't 100% certain) I'd be very confident no matter who we play.

 

[Zinzan]

Well, obviously we won't be meeting Engand or SRL as they're already in our pool.

Yeah cheers, had edited that myself a minute ago, this is what happens when you post after drinking...

 

[Zinzan]

Well, obviously we won't be meeting Engand or SRL as they're already in our pool. I agree that WI are a bit scarier than Pakistan, just because of the raw power they have in their batting - though now that Bravo might be gone they are suffering from a serious cake shortage, so I'd back us to win 9/10 especially at a swing friendly venue like the stadium. At this point, as long as we avoid SAF in the quarters (which now strangely isn't 100% certain) I'd be very confident no matter who we play.

So you won't be wanting the Windies to upset them on Friday then? You'll prefer SA win all remaining games so they finish 2nd to India and hence play the 3rd ranked team in our group...likely SL, England or Bang.

 

[Greenlite]

SA should finish second behind India, possibly taking on SL in the quarters, so our opponents in the semis if we make it that far, would be either SA, SL (if we finish first), or India (if we finish 2nd in our own pool).

SA looked gutless last night and they will either pick up hard from here and play very very well, or choke so hard that they don't make it out of their pool.

 

[Zinzan]

SA should finish second behind India, possibly taking on SL in the quarters, so our opponents in the semis if we make it that far, would be either SA, SL (if we finish first), or India (if we finish 2nd in our own pool).

SA looked gutless last night and they will either pick up hard from here and play very very well, or choke so hard that they don't make it out of their pool.

I'd be comfortable enough playing SA in a semi at Eden Park if it came to that.

I'm still more concerned about how prepared we'll be for the more bouncy wicket & bigger boundaries in Aust a week later if we win happen to make that final.

 

[Greenlite]

Lol I think we can have groundsmen making up pitches similar to MCG, my bigger concern is that apparently you can take a lot of 2s in that ground, and Taylor and Anderson seem odds on running themselves or others out.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Yeah, that's a good point considering that we'll be playing a team that does have the previous experience of playing games there. On the other hand, this team seem to prepare well and have most likely thought about this problem. Wouldn't surprise me if they have some strategy up their sleeve to counter that.

 

[Greenlite]

apparently it will rain in AKL, ha!