Wags retires
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Steve Smith:
Former Australia captain believes the persistent bowling of bouncers to a leg side field needs to be addressed.
Smith would like to see umpires given greater power to call wides.
The 34-year-old pays tribute to his retiring nemesis Neil Wagner.also
Wagner will be missed, his figures against Smith — 4-27 off 26.3 overs — suggest a genuine edge for the ex-Kiwi quick over his illustrious rival. -
For me a lot of the appeal about Wags was that he didn't seem to have the highest amount of natural talent that a bowler could have but he threw himself 110% into the fray with a heart and passion that would overwhelm much "finer" batsmen and get results surpassing those of "better" bowlers.
You could see that on the pitch he absolutely gave it his all and as a fan that's all you ask of the people in your team.
Yes he had a style of bowling that some people may say was grubby, he would irritate and intimidate batsmen till they lashed out in frustration, anger or fear and that probably generated more of his wickets than line, length, swing or seam.
But to give him credit he had a style that he stuck to, executed well and got NZ crucial wickets bowling with a dead ball at times in the innings where it would be easy for the batting team to run away with it. And at the times the NZ bowlers had the edge he would provide relentless pressure to ensure the advantage didn't slip.
I loved the guys work rate, effort and passion. He deserves as much as anyone to be in that golden period of NZ test match cricket. Well played Wags, enjoy your retirement.
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Always wondered how he would have gone in ODIs. He would have needed to adjust to more pitched up type bowling but he did have a decent first class limited overs record. Shame he never had a chance to see if he could have played both
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@Virgil said in Wags retires:
Always wondered how he would have gone in ODIs. He would have needed to adjust to more pitched up type bowling but he did have a decent first class limited overs record. Shame he never had a chance to see if he could have played both
I could never understand why he didn't get a shot. I think he earned an opportunity to show if he could do the business with the white ball
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@Windows97 said in Wags retires:
For me a lot of the appeal about Wags was that he didn't seem to have the highest amount of natural talent that a bowler could have but he threw himself 110% into the fray with a heart and passion that would overwhelm much "finer" batsmen and get results surpassing those of "better" bowlers.
You could see that on the pitch he absolutely gave it his all and as a fan that's all you ask of the people in your team.
Yes he had a style of bowling that some people may say was grubby, he would irritate and intimidate batsmen till they lashed out in frustration, anger or fear and that probably generated more of his wickets than line, length, swing or seam.
But to give him credit he had a style that he stuck to, executed well and got NZ crucial wickets bowling with a dead ball at times in the innings where it would be easy for the batting team to run away with it. And at the times the NZ bowlers had the edge he would provide relentless pressure to ensure the advantage didn't slip.
Not that I'm a tennis fan/officiando but there are similarities here to Lleyton Hewitt.
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@Bovidae said in Wags retires:
The article I posted mentions that Wagner was originally a much quicker bowler but later changed to be the bowler we all loved.
It was performances like this before he played for New Zealand that had everyone so excited - the short pitched bowling came later on.
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@KiwiPie said in Wags retires:
@Bovidae said in Wags retires:
The article I posted mentions that Wagner was originally a much quicker bowler but later changed to be the bowler we all loved.
It was performances like this before he played for New Zealand that had everyone so excited - the short pitched bowling came later on.
I remember that, that amazing achievement is what got the calls going for him to be eligible to play for NZ
