England in New Zealand

[candybum]

aw Sidebottom bowled well, NZ got themselves munted. Very disappointing from my perpective, McCullum and Oram out for a duck! wata duuuck! lol

 

[nam97]

Well done Sidebottom, England have got themselves a world class bowler there. How about Alastair Cook's 2 catches in the gully? Man, 2 in a row...they were blinders.

The pitch s deteriorating, we should have a 300 run lead by the time we get out tomorrow. England won't have a chance chasing down that many on such a dog of a pitch. It will be a draw, but an exciting one at that if it's any consolation. We do have the slightest of chances of bowling England out, but there batters are too good to throw their wicket away in this situation, they will bat for the draw.

 

[An Tarbh]

I think for England to have had any chance they would have needed to bowl NZ out before the close yesterday and give themselves at least a day and a bit to chase down whatever was set especially given their pedestrian run rate in the first innings.

 

[candybum]

Interesting tho, looking at the number of people at the game really surprised me, okay it was a Saturday but man there was a huge crowd! lol Given the nature of Englands batting performance too, and NZ's somewhat

 

[An Tarbh]

New Zealand look to be in the driving seat now having set England 300 and already having them at 25-3 with Mills doing the damage.

 

[sambãd5]

**** how goods mills? hes what 4-8? thats amazing! we have a real chance of winning this now. i just chucked it on to see the score, thinking it would be a draw, but now i cant pull myself away from it!

 

[sambãd5]

aah good win by the black caps.

those are the games i like watching. really exciting bowling. great stuff. haha - like in one of martins last overs, they got the other 10 players in a 15m radius! classic, cutting to a shot of vetori having a chuckle about it.

 

[candybum]

Great bowling performance from NZ, i just wonder tho, why they keep blocking and not smashing the ball. If you're gonna lose heck just smash a few balls see whats the haps! lol were they hoping for a draw?

Anyways Mills had a great day, pity he dropped a ball when he dove lol Couldnt quite do a Stephen Fleming and perform a juggling act!

 

[sambãd5]

Anyways Mills had a great day, pity he dropped a ball when he dove lol Couldnt quite do a Stephen Fleming and perform a juggling act! [/b]

haha yeah what was up with that? so close to putting it to ground, but got a hand under and rolled it up his chest.



yeah they were hoping for a draw, but once mills had his spell i think they were just playing it out to see how far they would get. they didnt have a chance of winning it at 30/4 imo. just too good of a start on a pitch which ended up being alot slower than the first innings. what i dont understand is how they would put themselves under such pressure. they didnt bat nearly well enough in their 1st innings, and when they got the black caps out for not much they should have just nuckled down for the draw.

 

[Ripper]

If we had Bond we would've skittled them for 70.

 

[An Tarbh]

England have made the right call getting rid of Harmison and Hoggard for the second test with Broad and Anderson coming into the side.

New Zealand have left out Patel as the surface would appear to favour the seamers, so Gillespie gets the nod.

 

[darwin_23]

England have made the right call getting rid of Harmison and Hoggard for the second test with Broad and Anderson coming into the side.

New Zealand have left out Patel as the surface would appear to favour the seamers, so Gillespie gets the nod. [/b]

I think getting rid of Harmison was the right call, however dropping Hoggard after only one bad game seems a bit strange - James Anderson's performances in New Zealand have hardly shouted 'pick me'.

It should be an interesting game - will New Zealand play positively like in the first test, or will they play conservatively hoping for a drawn, given they have 1-0 lead in the series? Personally I think they should continue to play positively however I don't see this happening given that we are actually winning a test match series (and not against Bangladesh!!).

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotemain'> England have made the right call getting rid of Harmison and Hoggard for the second test with Broad and Anderson coming into the side.

New Zealand have left out Patel as the surface would appear to favour the seamers, so Gillespie gets the nod. [/b]

I think getting rid of Harmison was the right call, however dropping Hoggard after only one bad game seems a bit strange - James Anderson's performances in New Zealand have hardly shouted 'pick me'.

It should be an interesting game - will New Zealand play positively like in the first test, or will they play conservatively hoping for a drawn, given they have 1-0 lead in the series? Personally I think they should continue to play positively however I don't see this happening given that we are actually winning a test match series (and not against Bangladesh!!).
[/b][/quote]

I still can't see anything other than a New Zealand win unless England's batsmen can start converting their starts into big scores which they don't look like doing any time soon, they've been stuck in this rut for some time and seem to be trying too hard to put things right. They've got to stop deluding themselves as well, what was Pietersen talking about after one of the days play when he said England had batted beautifully, bizarre stuff, reality checks all round there.

 

[darwin_23]

New Zealand has won the toss and elected to bowl... not surprising really given the usual nature of the Basin Reserve Pitch, which tends to offer assistance for the quicks on the first day, then become a pretty easy batting track after that. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good test match like the last one (from a New Zealand perspective anyways)

 

[woosaah]

these cricinfo guys are just weird

Oh dear. Look what I just wrote.
12.2 Gillespie to Vaughan, 1 run, squeezes this out on the front foot to point. A good length delivery from Gillespie - he won't mind Vaughan squeezing him on the front foot
[/b]

 

[nam97]

How is it possible every time I see Oram's figures he's going at about 1 rpo? Last time I checked he had 2 wickets for 4 off 6 overs. Mind boggling. He's so pedestrian, but bowls the most nagging length possible the batsmen just can't do anything.

 

[shefellover93]

Should be really interesting now with both teams in for a shout on Friday, I'm really looking forward to the game myself, I only hope that the two captains go for it and try to win the test series, it would be really dissapointing to see the game pater out into a draw

 

[An Tarbh]

So Mills has been ruled out of the final test, will it make much difference or will it be a more spin friendly track at Napier???

 

[candybum]

Now Oram's been ruled out. What a marnus!

 

[An Tarbh]

Decent enough start for the Blackcaps in this decider with England stuttering to 4-3 on the opening morning. Great start for Southee picking up a couple, he looked more than useful when I saw him in the Twenty20.