The Silver Fern

1st ODI tonight. Weirdly, this is our first ODI this year. Sri Lanka have played 15 this year, so this is mostly an us thing. I'm a bit sad (I quite like ODI cricket), but also if dropping ODI in favour of more T20 cricket allows us to also run a full test program (by NZ standards) then I'm okay with that. The tour of India would not have been better if it had been three ODIs and two tests, for example.

@No-Quarter said in Black Caps tour of India:

@dogmeat said in Black Caps tour of India:

I see Kohli has dropped to 14th in the test batting rankings one point ahead of Darryl Mitchell. Kane and Ravindra in Top 10.

Somehow Matt Henry is ranked the 10th best all-rounder and (less surprisingly) 10th rated bowler

Kohli has always been a very good, but not great, test batsmen. A tier below Kane, Root and Smith. In ODIs and T20s though he's probably unmatched by any player in history which keeps him in the "fab 4" bracket.

It’s been a leanish period for Kohli with only 2 hundreds in his last 60 innings.

But he went through an unbelievable purple patch from about 2016-2019. that had him above those other 3 IMO.

A ten year old (ish) in the nineties:

@No-Quarter said in Black Caps v Sri Lanka Test Series:

watching our pop gun attack getting ground into the dust conceding 600/3.

and in 2024:

@Donsteppa said in Black Caps v Sri Lanka Test Series:

The ten year old cricketer in the house is still bemused at one team scoring 602/5

It's taken us a quarter of a century to improve by 2 wickets.

@Cyclops said in Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test:

@African-Monkey

Random bit of trivia - kiwi umpire Steve Dunne was named to stand in two tests at his home ground, Carisbrook. Both were abandoned without a ball bowled (although the second was replaced with an unofficial one dayer).

For some reason, I feel like I came across that question before in quizzes haha.

@Canes4life said in Interview with the Naenae Express:

After reading this thread last week, I saw Chatfield over the weekend in the Hutt. Funny how life works.

Not really, the Hutt is very small and insular. I’m surprised you don’t see him every day.

@NTA said in T20 WC - Black Caps v PNG:

@MN5 said in T20 WC - Black Caps v PNG:

What kind of sicko are you ? Why ?

I like supporting the Tier 2 nations.

I prefer the term ‘minnows’….less demeaning

The decision to not play warm ups might have made more sense if this had been our first game.

@KiwiMurph It might fit insofar as financial considerations have overridden maximising team peformance.

Super rugby finishes and then this is when England is available to come. The guys responsible for balancing the books aren't going to say no - they're going to tell Razor to deal with it. Something similar may well have happened to Stead.

(Maybe we will see one of those games of three halves in the free weekend? Though that belongs in a separate thread. There's some Crusaders who will need some sort of hit out).

@Donsteppa said in T20 WC - Black Caps v Afghanistan:

Williamson is half right on this one in the NZ Herald.

“They had every opportunity to get a very good score. Our fielding didn’t help our cause - without a doubt that would be the most frustrating part for me. It is something we pride ourselves on, so that was very disappointing.”

There's been no visible pride in their fielding for a couple of seasons now.

That seems to have stretched to the batting too.

They all need a does of whatever Glenn Phillips has.

SA probably should have got home after that Klassens onslaught, but the impact of Bumrah on that pitch was also undeniable.
Still should have had enough though to go ass deep into Arshdeep in the last over

Waking up this morning with a hangover in Bangalore, fitting place to watch the final. Insanely emotional for the locals. Although was having more fun when SA looked to have it in the bag.

Although happy with the win some starting to see the BCCI influence being too strong, eg power over schedule impacting other teams for an ICC event

At least a contest for the final

2 -2 was a much better outcome than I feared. Especially after the lopsided scorecard in the first full game of the series. Nicely done.

@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

@MN5 said in Black Caps v South Africa:

@Chris said in Black Caps v South Africa:

@Donsteppa said in Black Caps v South Africa:

On Conway, his technical issues are one of the awkward joys of cricket. By the time TSFers and Junior parents are talking about things, there's no way that he is blind to it. If only the fixes were always quick (even I'd have been a decent batter )

They can be quick with the resources Conway has but something is holding him back.
Maybe it is other issues but there is to much repeats for me to understand why there is no correction at all, not even a forward press or back foot movement to get his feet moving to get into a better balanced position.
No correction of that front foot placement nothing just same every innings so same results.

So same dismissals always off balance Lbw,Snicked off or caught in the covers or gully.

Really frustrating. I watched his whole innings and he looked good getting to 17 before disaster struck.

Very frustrating it is like there is a mental block and he reverts back to staying cast on the crease.
I hope he/they get it right NZ needs him firing.

@ACT-Crusader said in Black Caps v Australia:

@Bovidae said in Black Caps v Australia:

I don't see a change of test captain while Stead is still the coach. We'll be needing a Hesson moment for that to happen.

Forget about Darryl’s comments, when is someone (Weenink or DPL) going to comment that Stead and Southee have the full support of the Board…

The problem is, they genuinely do have the support of the board.

I think the comments from Darryl are being grabbed as a symptom reaction. The reality is we have limited Test quality players, and we need to get the best out of them. We lost that test because we couldn't keep going in the first innings, and we dropped catches, and too many of our bowlers were toothless. Those are structural issues with our cricket - but I see little appetite to seriously address them.

Another park effort from professionals.

It looks like you can have up to 8 overseas players in your squad but there is a limit of 4 in your playing XI.

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I'd like to thank @Crazy-Horse for his contribution

@booboo said in Big Bash League 23/24:

@mariner4life said in Big Bash League 23/24:

while they may not be "as big as they used to be" they are still bloody good.

30 games, 19 with more than 20,000, six with more than 40k
Only 5 had less than 10k, and 4 of those were in Tassie

A quick squiz at the crowds for say BBL 5 sees them not significantly different except for the 1 game that got 80k. The final was a couple of thousand more, but Sydney v Melbourne at the 'G will pull more than Sydney v Brisbane in Sydney

Fair call

Still remain Grumpy, and maintain it's not as good or as popular as it used to be.

Aha! Did not compute. That's a good thing then.

A 2 - 1 ODI series win in the end. The moment of last night's Super Over loss coinciding with the exact moment that "Sumo" decided to tell us Sophie Devine had never played in a losing one.

Emily Drumm was brilliant as a player. Some of her opinions & decisions as a selector, and published views on Tests, arguably don't meet the same high bar.