Hard News: Wonderful athletes
131 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Newer→ Last
-
All right nz! a win by 90 runs plus the bonus point too!
About Bloody Time
-
How... how.. how... how the hell did that happen?!!
-
a team with a more fragile batting line-up than us! thank the gods.
-
I still say the English cricket team and john Bracewell are made for each other
-
And so what are the Astle theories then?
1. He just totally lost patience with Comical.
2. He's been told that on current form he was not in the frame for the WC; Sneddon came over to organise the graceful exit.
3. He just lost passion in the game (the official version)
I can't decide which of the top 2 is the real situation.
-
I think its a combination of several of those things and others too. A while back he was publicly keen to go past the world cup, I like the abbreviation 'cos on current form thats where the black caps will end up, down the WC. It's not too late the coach has had a couple of selection choices forced upon him by injury and it is obvious what effect one or two players can have on a game. I don't actually think it is all bracewell. Fleming has to shoulder quite a goodly proportion of the responsibility for a lack of onfield leadership. His captaincy is quite plainly not what it once was. He should be selected on batting form (when he finds some). My captain is the obvious choice, Vettori. A player who is at the peak of his powers. Which means that currently fleming and vincent will open. But, where's the chance for Jesse ryder? he's shown some good touch domestically, we know though that domestic cricket in nz is a largish step back from the international game, whereas in oz at the moment it's probably a slight step down. I'd back any of the sheffield shield sides against england at the moment, in fact I'd back the Grafton United one day 6b 'Fat Boys' against england (I bat at eleven).
So in the mindless tradition of armchair fans, here's the team that should play today.
1 Lou Vincent
2 Peter Fulton
3 Stephen Fleming
4 Ross Taylor
5 Scott Styris
6 Jacob Oram
7 Brendan McCullum
8 Daniel Vettori (c)
9 James Franklin
10 Mark Gillespie
11 Shane Bond
12 Andre Adams
Sub Field Hamish MarshallStyris bowls through his spell early on (first change) goes off for fielding sub marshall (which is what he is good at) then come back on at the death so he can bat. Anyone genuinely injured is replaced by allrounder adams.
If this team takes the field against Australia today we will win.
-
Pretty sure Styris isn't over there yet, and Adams has come home, AND FULTON IS NOT AN OPENER.
When will we learn that until people have had a few years in that position they won't cut it????
Anyway, with that hobby-horse out of the way, I'll challenge you on the Fleming captaincy issue. While his batting is obviously well short of where it needs to be, I think his handling of the bowlers in this tournament has been as good as ever.
Although it was ultimately unsuccessful, his handling of the bowlers in the loss v Aus last week was top stuff, and if the catches and run-outs had come off we'd have won that.
The problem is he's never had enough runs to play with.
-
Like I said in the mindless tradition...
-
WH,
Mostly agree with your personnel Reece, but think Fleming should open and captain the side. And I'd have Kyle Mills at 9 instead of Franklin or Patel, depending on conditions. I'm no fan of Bracewell, but it looks as if we are playing something approaching our best team at the moment. Our bowling actually looks very good.
We really have to find a better way of testing our 2nd XI (particularly our batsmen) against international quality opponents. I guess this used to be done with tour games but its the only way to figure out who should really be playing in the national team.
-
well they made 343 so we're up against it, but you naver know.
-
OMG that was quite a thrilling game!! I thought we really had a chance, even after the rain came and stopped play. Oh well they mostly played well and that was a terribly high total they had to chase so all in all a great game :)
-
those dropped catches kind of matter now don't they?
-
1 Lou Vincent
2 Peter Fulton
3 Stephen Fleming
4 Ross Taylor
5 Scott Styris
6 Jacob Oram
7 Brendan McCullum
8 Daniel Vettori (c)
9 James Franklin
10 Mark Gillespie
11 Shane Bond
12 Andre AdamsAlso, given that Oram and Styris can both potentially bowl 10 overs, you've got 7 bowlers there, and you strictly need 5, but maybe six to cover it. So you'd drop either Franklin or Gillespie and probably put in McMillan (whose form is on and off, but so is just about every other batsman). Probably Mills would come back so both would go.
I'm getting the impression James Marshall should be in the team ahead of his brother. He's hit some form domestically, I think Hamish has forgotten what it's like to score runs, and it's bad for his confidence to keep him there as a professional 12th man.
And, remember that Fleming isn't an opening batsman, he only took over the job when there was no one else to do it. Neither was Astle - he got promoted from 5 or 6 to open the batting at one day level years ago, and was so successful at it he's been there since. The opening combination in both forms of the game has been NZ's weak point since... Wright?
Best to keep thinking of it as something else and put in a slugger. Recycle the Greatbatch idea - we just need someone who can see the ball well, and hit it over the infield, because there's no fielders out there in the first ten overs.
-
All fair comment of course, as it is we would have recognised batsmen to 7 guys who can bat a bit at 8 and 9 and our current sharp end in 10 and 11 more than enough bowling to cover any eventuality. Oram produced again last night, Mcmillan didn't. Styris will when he returns, hopefully tomorrow. how about a chance for Jesse Ryder?
-
Jessie Ryder’s not in the enlarged World Cup squad of 30, so they’re not allowed to take him to the Windies.
Anyway, apparently he doesn’t meet (meat?) the fitness criteria, so that’s why he’s on the outer. In other words, he’s too fat.
One thing that I posted on at the Sportsfreak forum, is why Vettori never bowls during the Power Play overs. OK, it’d put a dent in his figures, but he’s our best ODI bowler, and it was like lambs to the slaughter watching Oram, Mills and co getting carted to all quarters last night.
-
I'll challenge you on the Fleming captaincy issue. While his batting is obviously well short of where it needs to be, I think his handling of the bowlers in this tournament has been as good as ever.
-
Lol; well spotted Reece.
I’ll rephrase. Fleming’s handling of the bowlers has been as good as ever; except for the fact he bends to the wishes of the vice-captain too much.
-
they did innovate sort of with the power plays and that was effective though wasn't it. We are good at tying the innings down in the mid stages most of the time. we did well with the part timers keeping it tight. astle used to be excellent for that as did harris and others. Now it looks to be vettori and patel doing it. If styris can contribute along those lines we'll be looking much brighter.
-
ps; we do well by taking the pace off the ball making the batsmen play shots and frustrating them.
-
Yes they do; that's why I think they were better suited to bowling in the Power Plays (possibly buying a wicket in the process) than the medium pacers on a flat deck.
-
NZ make 318/7 england bowl 37 extras, england are toast, very very burnt toast.
-
In all my years of wtching professional sport, I am sure I have nver seen a more dispirited performance than England on Tuesday night.
What a shambles.
-
And then in their very next game, their very next game, they manage to bowl australia out inside 40 overs. I smell a set up.
-
I think most sides manage to tie things up in the middle stages quite well for two reasons.
Firstly because sides look to score big runs in the first 15 overs and the last 10 overs. The only reason they don't is if they have lost a lot of wickets and if thats the case they can't score freely in the middle overs anyway.
The other reason is that if they have successfully got 100 off 15 overs for one or two wickets then they don't really need to score all that freely in the middle stages. The field has gone out to the boundarya nd there are singles everywhere.
If you get 100 of the first 15, and aim for 100 off the last ten (which many sides do these days) then that's 200 runs with 25 overs in the middle where just 4 an over will see you to 300 runs. These sides know all this so they are never in much of a rush during the middle.
Like LegBreak says, if you bowl in the middle overs your figures are always going to look reasonable if you are an average bowler and very good if you are a good bowler ie. Vettori.
-
and there we go, the 100 up for the thread that will not die...
the offere still stands RB, or should I just send you something?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.