Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II
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What are everyone's thoughts on the keeping situation? Ronchi is written off. I love Watling in tests but he's not much of an ODI player and he's also into his 30s so doesn't have any long term upside either. I don't think there's a standout limited overs wicket keeper-batsman out there at the moment, so I think we've got two batsmen in the squad who have kept wicket before in Latham and Nicholls so why not hand one of them the keeping duties. Neither are dead certs in the side but Latham is relatively secure and the more experienced of the pair so he would be my choice. This is also tremendous for the balance of the side.
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@antipodean said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
I wouldn't have batted second at Manuka Oval...
I thought that was a very odd call by Kane when he won the toss. Why would you ever allow Australia the opportunity to have first crack at a belter of a pitch and get runs on the board? Especially when our bowlers are struggling?
As others have said, two very limp performances by a weak assed lineup. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded two losses if we had fought hard and got within 50. But two by over 100 runs is disgraceful, and also demonstrates how shit our bowling has collectively been (although in the first game it was more the fucking awful fielding). Congrats, Black Caps. You have played the Aussies back into form. -
@Donsteppa said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
Who are the cry babies blaming the CWC loss on batting first? Always bat first in Australia...
Still feels sour and bitter the next morning... though at least the bowlers can open an award winning bakery when they get home.
Some on here, can't remember who.
It's more a revisionist stick to beat baz, than an intellectually honest argument. -
Sooo two games two pretty resounding losses. Looks bad but there is one or two positives we can take...
Positves
Guptill. Was all over Starc and Hazelwood, who are probably the best opening combo going around at the moment. Smacking Starc around is no mean feat and he looked comfortable doing it. He's in for a big summer in the shorter forms, and IMO should be selected at 5 in the tests (he's a fuckload better than Nicholls).
Yeah OK not many big positives but some semi-positives:
Neesham. Looked very assured at 4, and when Rosco returns he should be our 5. Showed he can play a sensible innings against quality bowling, and when he gets his eye in he's one of the cleanest hitters going around.
Kane. First match failure but he was all class last night for his 81. Just ran out of partners in the end. We expect Kane to do well so this is a bit of a given, but it's still good to see.
Santner. For all the talk of missing Vettori, Santner bowled 19 overs for 87 runs (4.6 RPO) and took one wicket. Pretty good return given the scores Aussie posted. A couple more wickets would be great but when bowlers are bleeding runs at the other end it's pretty hard to build any pressure.
Negatives
Pretty much the rest of the team.
Munro and CDGH - not international quality. Happy to smack shit bowling but struggle against quality opposition.
BJ - as Shark says it would probably be a good idea to throw Latham the gloves and play an extra batsmen. But who is that extra batsmen? If Munro is the next in line we are pretty thin there.
Henry - I had big man-love for him in the past but he was dire. Half volley after half volley to Marsh was some pretty stupid bowling. Handy with the new ball but he needs to add some variation to his bowling if he wants to succeed in the shorter forms. Southee still well ahead of him in ODIs.
Latham - looked out of sorts at the top of the order. He's a class player so should be perservered with but he was disappointing, just needed to hang in there with Guppy for the first 10 - 15 overs.Biggest Negative
The sloppy as fuck fielding, letting the Aussie top order off the hook. This is a part of our game where we have made up for a lack of talent with an awesome work ethic in the field. Baz used to lead the way in this regard, but it has been going downhill since his retirement. We cannot afford to give guys like Smith lives, he will make us pay every day of the week. This should be the focus for Kane and Hesson in the coming weeks.
Overall a pretty disappointing effort, with some flashes of brilliance thrown in to keep it kind of respectable. We're missing players to injury, which given our depth we can't really afford, and as Shark shows with the 11 he posted we can put up a pretty competitive team when everyone is fit. Hopefully we get a few of those guys back over the summer.
I don't think I'd change much for the final match. Probably just Ferguson for Henry to give him another taste of international cricket. But given the squad we have over there, there's not much we can do. Except fucking field better!
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@Crucial said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
I think it's great that we have been trying to find tweakers for test cricket but are there really no accurate slow bowlers out there in NZ? The kind of guys that may get found out once an over and hit for 4 but end up 10 overs for 40-50.
I don't think anyone in world cricket has accurate slow bowlers, really? At least there is no bowler who can keep it to 4 runs an over long term. Besides, Santner has just bowled 19 overs for something like 87 runs in this series so he is well below 5 runs in an over. I think only Tahir, Narine and Shakib can do that job in ODI's. Santner isn't as good as them because he isn't very dangerous but his accuracy is good.
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@shark said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
We'll need to make some changes for our next series. Safe are Guptill, Williamson, Boult and Southee. To that you can probably add Henry and Santner. Obviously Taylor is an in, which solves the top order depth issue. Anderson may also return. Neesham has shown me enough with the bat to suggest he might be the guy at five, but in my top team I have a specialist batsman there. We should be able to jettison Munro and the outclassed CDG. For mine, Watling isn't a ODI keeper and it's time we either gave the gloves to Latham and then played an extra batsman lower down, or we need to unearth a keeper who can belt it at around 7 or 8. Sodhi has to come back into the squad and I think Nicholls should be persevered with.
Based on what I've seen in the series and what I already knew, my top ODI XI if all fit, would be:
Guptill
Latham wk
Williamson
Taylor
Nicholls
Neesham
Anderson
Santner
Henry
Southee
BoultHaving Latham as keeper has some merit. I don't think it is worth doing to fit Nicholls into the side, however.
That bowling attack, IMO, is simply not going to be successful. You are basically picking 3 strike bowlers. They all want the new ball and all of them can be tonked at the death. We need to pick two of those guys and then we need to pick one player who does something a little different. That could be pace (Ferguson, Milne) or it could be whatever you call McClenaghan's bowling. I don't much like picking an express quick if that is all they have to offer. I think express pace goes for too many at the death.
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I agree with most of what this guy says. I really miss the old Aussie commentating team. They couldn't go on forever, but their replacements to a man are fucking shithouse. I can't stand pretty much all of them. Tubby can be OKish but is influenced by who is in the box with him. They just talk so much fucking rubbish it becomes hard to listen too. I enjoyed it more with them muted, which sucks because their job is to add to the sport, not detract from it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/87196566/come-back-bill-lawry-we-miss-you
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@hydro11 said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
If we needed another specialist bat Tom Bruce is an option. He's a big hitter for sure - probably similar to Munro.
Bloody hell that kid is striking at 136 in List-A. Looks like a pretty impressive start to his first class career, could be worth a shout at some stage over summer. IMO we need to get guys like this early and iron out any flaws in their technique. No point leaving him plundering domestic attacks for years and then promoting him when it's too late to fix any deficiencies that would be exposed at the next level up.
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For a while I got annoyed by Lawy's bias, but eventually found that he just loved great cricket - and it was usually Aussie playing it when he was commentating at home. Jacob Oram scored a ton to bring us home against Oz in Oz approx 10 years ago and no-one loved it more than Lawry.
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If you can get it over the internet, pick up ABC Radio Australia and mute the TV. They've got your bloke Waddles over here at the moment, and in the box are a diverse crew with the odd ABC stalwart (Jim Maxwell) and newer people like Simon Katich and Chris Rogers. Also female ex-cricketer Lisa Sthalekar.
In other news: Warner is now the only Aussie to have 6 ODI tons in a calendar year. Previous holder was Ponting. Warner also moves to 4th on the list of ODI centurions with Matt Hayden. The three in front are Ponting, Waugh, and Gilchrist.
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Milne or McClenaghan in for Henry in Shark's team. You've got to have people who can do something more than pitch it on a length at the death. Milne is way better than Ferguson at this stage, but the idea of fielding a couple of 150k+ bowlers at some point has appeal. Maybe not on an Australian road, though!
Neesham doing well at 4 was the biggest positive to come out of this series for me.
For the final game, might as well roll the dice a bit and give all of Nicholls, Ferguson and Astle a game.
Rest Santner and Henry and - I'd be perhaps inclined to give Tom Latham a rest and try someone else opening. Maybe Nicholls, maybe Munro, maybe even Watling though that doesn't seem likely to become a long term option.
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@No-Quarter said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
@hydro11 said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
If we needed another specialist bat Tom Bruce is an option. He's a big hitter for sure - probably similar to Munro.
Bloody hell that kid is striking at 136 in List-A. Looks like a pretty impressive start to his first class career, could be worth a shout at some stage over summer. IMO we need to get guys like this early and iron out any flaws in their technique. No point leaving him plundering domestic attacks for years and then promoting him when it's too late to fix any deficiencies that would be exposed at the next level up.
I remember watching him a year or so back at Pukekura Park and that ground just couldn't contain him. I think that could have something to do with the high strike rate however.
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@hydro11 said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
@Crucial said in Aus v NZ -Chappell Hadlee series II:
I think it's great that we have been trying to find tweakers for test cricket but are there really no accurate slow bowlers out there in NZ? The kind of guys that may get found out once an over and hit for 4 but end up 10 overs for 40-50.
I don't think anyone in world cricket has accurate slow bowlers, really? At least there is no bowler who can keep it to 4 runs an over long term. Besides, Santner has just bowled 19 overs for something like 87 runs in this series so he is well below 5 runs in an over. I think only Tahir, Narine and Shakib can do that job in ODI's. Santner isn't as good as them because he isn't very dangerous but his accuracy is good.
Most of them now are fast spinners. Jadaja barely tries to spin it & just bowls fast & tight, Moen tends to fire it in & so did Afridi & Tredwell. The only other slower bowlers are the huge turners - Narine, Mishra, Tahir as you note.
Pretty much no bowler has been under 4 an over in the last 3 years. The thing we are missing we had in the past is an Angelo Matthews style bowler, like Styris, Oram, Harris, Astle
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@Rapido Heard a bit of Radiosport yesterday - which I eventually had to turn off - where they were lambasting Kane for not batting first - as though it was a complete fuck-up that removed all chance of us winning.
Now - it is true in some places where you get evening dew - that conditions are going to change markedly and there's advantages to batting second. And on other occasions the pitch or weather might dictate a bit of advantage. But, beyond that - batting first or second in an ODI is largely a psychological decision.
If you put a team in and bowl them out cheaply - it's a good decision. If they post a big score it's a bad decision. Same difference if you bat first.
Usually, I have to say, everything else being equal, I like batting first. But, one of the things about the Aussies is that they've got Starc and Hazelwood to open up, so there's a reasonable prospect they're going to knock over our top order and we're out of the game before it's really started. So there's a lot to be said for letting them go first and hoping they'll chase a total too hard and set us a sub-par total.
Reality is - their bowlers are a bit better than ours and so are their batsmen. So our slightly worse batsmen are facing their slightly better bowlers and that adds up to quite a significant difference - meaning we'll usually lose regardless of whether we bat or bowl first.