posted Nov 28, 2008

tumolpk, Franko is on the comeback from longterm injury, and just smashed a FC double century - good signs!

Elliott was only ever going to play if neither of Oram or Franklin were available ...

Shivfan, think (and hope) the selectors will persevere with Jamie How - he is very good, but needs a 'breakthrough' innings in test cricket like he managed at Napier in ODI cricket ...

As for Redmond, a very good but weird innings, the first half was typical stodgy opener, the second half was bizarre 20/20 slogging! But he is capable of digging in ... hopefully 83 against Australia - even on a real road - will give him confidence to push on ...

260/6 not the best given the quality of the pitch for batting, but if McCullum and Vettori can add 100 to that and the tail can smash another 40 then i'll be happy with 400! ... Doubt Redders idea of 500 is feasible tho!

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posted Nov 28, 2008

Its funny you should mention Shane Bond because im getting sick of this icl and ipl rubbish and the only people benefitting are India as Mohammed Yousuf recently stated! Its ridiculous that countries are losing their major stars, fortunately in your case its only Bond but for Pakistan its literally the whole squad that is in the ipl, the likes of razzaq, rana naved, yousuf, imran nazir top top players who would walk into the pakistan side! Infact the lahore badshahs team is prob better that the current pakistan team. Someone needs to sort this mess out and tell the BCCI where to go!

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posted Nov 28, 2008

Personally i think the sooner the new coach of the New Zealnd team takes over the reigns the better.The Kiwis have been pretty woefull of late.The selection process has been add hock, and desperation has been the order of the day for a long time.To many defencive shots by the New Zealanders,not enough fight in the shot making area.Runs on the board are what win test matches, not servival tactics.

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posted Nov 28, 2008

fortunately in your case its only Bond

-------------------------

And Hamish Marshall, Lou Vincent, Andre Adams and Craig McMillan

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posted Nov 28, 2008

goodcueboy, you're not far off the truth - although I don't quite get what you mean about the desperation and the playing to many defensive shots ... The problem isn't the defensive shots, that is the foundation of test cricket, the problem is the chasing wide ones and playing stupid low percentage high risk shots ... Most of the NZ batsmen in this test have been out playing stupid attacking shots that weren't neccesary.

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posted Nov 29, 2008

New Zealand arent a bad side and play far better as a team than most. The real test for Australia will be against South Africa. The Indian series for Australia wasnt as bad a result as everyone sees it. Its the hardest place to go and win a series and India finally fulfilled their potential playing as a team.
For Australia, Katich and Johnson have come of age. With Ponting, Hussey and Clarke showing more consistency, this bodes well for them. If they can sort out the other opening spot (Hayden must go), find a keeper that can make runs (and they have a few), and sort out the Watson/Symonds position, they will be hard to beat next summer in England. English pitches arent spinner friendly (Warne was just a freak of nature) and South Africa proved a good spinner isnt required to win. Symonds and Clarke are as good as any spinners England have got anyway and definately better than the greatest fake of all time - Swann.
For England's sake, they will lose the Ashes if Moores is still in charge. Unless Vaughan comes back in some capacity, I just cant see how England can win. He is the only player with the mindset and cricketing brain to match the Aussies. And I always thought he was a very under-rated spin bowler, certainly better than anyone else in the squad at the moment.
As for NZ, they have played below par in this series so far. They are a better side than the results show.

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posted Nov 29, 2008

I agree that James Franklin should play the next series he appears to be back in form with bat and ball,really rated him when played for Glamorgan a few seasons back.Whats happened to Rob Nicol,has he played domestic cricket this season?Thought he would be close to international selection for New zealand?

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posted Nov 29, 2008

Where do you guys think Vettori will bat against the WIndies?

Seven or eight? As a WI fan, I hope it's at eight....

When DV is left not out at the end of the innings, that means that his team has been robbed of a few more runs he could've made against us.

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posted Nov 29, 2008

Ponting can wag his tail against weak New Zealand attack - the other bully Hayden likewise

A month ago, they were tamed by the Fab Indian bowlers from which they never seemed to recover
Now against weak NZ bowling they are showing their talent - the mice come out when the cat is away

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posted Nov 29, 2008

Feel sorry for the Kiwis, it's like they have few enough players to pick from anyway without key players being banned. So England beat them twice this year and the Aussies will win at a canter. I hope the situation with Zimbabwe playing no tests does not get repeated down under, but these matches are barely more of a contest than SA v Bangla. Comment about cats and mice is spot on and it's why modern players can't be compared to guys who never got to pad out their averages playing tests against the likes of South Georgia, Outer Mongolia and New Zealand 2nds.

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