Cricket: NZ vs England
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@Chris-B said in Cricket: NZ vs England:
@rotated The nice thing about this current generation of Black Caps is that they're providing a lot of credible options for the all time NZ XI - Latham, Kane, Rossco, Watling, Boult.
Not all of them are necessarily going to get in, but it makes a change from 15 years ago, when we were scratching around basically picking anyone who averaged more than 40 with the bat and a guy like Chats who could (and this is very harsh and unfair) block up an end while Sir Paddles went to work was at least in the conversation.
I think you may be underestimating your age there Christopher. Paddles's last test was nearly 30 years ago.
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@Chris-B said in Cricket: NZ vs England:
@booboo I meant that 15 years ago, we were considering people like Rigor, Fleming, Cairns, Andrew Jones, Chats, John Reid Jr. as potential players for the all time XI (along with Sir Paddles et al).
Aah. Gotcha. I have a habit of remembering stuff as being more recent than they were and getting a surprise when I have to add 10 ... or 15 ... years to how long ago it actually was...
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This England team resembles the black caps of old. Good enough to get into strong positions, but not good enough to shut the door so let us off the hook.
Still lots of work for us to do, as @Chris-B says. And England are yet to bat on this pitch so we might find that whatever we end up with is not enough.
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@Cyclops said in Cricket: NZ vs England:
Still lots of work for us to do, as @Chris-B says. And England are yet to bat on this pitch so we might find that whatever we end up with is not enough.
Bat two days, there is no way you should lose from there. Would take a miracle
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Being one up in the series is such a luxury. We have no qualms about time.
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I would have preferred it if we had got past 400 before we started swinging at everything. Especially Santner if he wants to claim allrounder status.
Will be an interesting little period here. Hopefully we can nab a couple of wickets before stumps. They were looking pretty flat in the field so a couple of wickets could trigger a proper collapse.
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@Cyclops Yeah - pretty much both of them got two hands to each catch, so you'd hope to catch both and expect to catch one.
Jeet starting to test the armchair selectors'patience - though in recent times the NZ selectors have proved to generally have more patience, but once you gone you stay gone (Marcellus Wallis).
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I'm of the view that modern cricket cricket effectively started in 1970 for purposes of comparisons. I would not have Rigor in my ATG Kiwi XI when he has to compete with CS Dempster, 1947-1956 Sutcliffe and GMT. He only gets into a post 1970 discussion as well based on stats as I regard Wrighty's body of work inthe late 70s and 80s pretty highly based on the attacks Wrighty had to face. I don't think Rigor faced the two Ws at their peak but I haven't bothered to cheack because I don't rate him enough to spend the time stat-crunching.
Latham to me is really approaching ATG status based on his consistent body of work, his technical merits and tbh, his willingness to sacrifice self for team. I really hope he succeeds in Aus because that will provide the strongest underpinnings to any claims of ATG given the strength of the current Aus Pace attack.
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@Chris-B said in Cricket: NZ vs England:
@Cyclops Yeah - pretty much both of them got two hands to each catch, so you'd hope to catch both and expect to catch one.
Jeet starting to test the armchair selectors'patience - though in recent times the NZ selectors have proved to generally have more patience, but once you gone you stay gone (Marcellus Wallis).
Re Jeet. Have seen the odd Tweet and comment.
But tell me: do we have anyone better?
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Cant say I am a fan of Jeet, he does remind me of rigor, capable of batting time but with few shots, and you need to hide both in the field. What he does do well in my opinion (even if not lately) is blunt the new ball, even if just by time and not always by score. Does seem to prefer pace and average versus spin isn’t very respectable.
However there does not appear to be many options as a replacement, as I asked recently.
As a NZ supporter almost have to hope he finds some form and doesn’t play risky shots early, and just hide him in the field. I do have hope that he is more suited to Australian pitches.
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Even though we struggled to get wickets for most of the day, apart from that one big partnership, England haven't run away with the game - they're still over 100 runs behind and really only have one proven batsman left and he's already at the crease - I was worried about how quickly they were scoring but it was pleasing to see the NZ attack able to change mode and concentrate on line, length and drying up the runs. On pitches like this, that's just as necessary a skill for test bowling as swing bowling. Wags had some nice moments with his knuckleball and showed he could bowl a good length when it wasn't conducive to his bouncer attack.
I'm hoping that England don't pile on quick runs while losing wickets as I'd rather we batted again with either a 50-80 run lead or by the time England adeclare/are dismissed NZ just has to bat time without pressing to score an excess of runs.
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I just saw on the TV news that Henry was guilty of a schoolboy error when a runout of Burns was likely. NZ didn't help themselves although Raval did show he can field - occasionally.
The forecasted rain should work in NZ's favour as England need a result, not us.
