The Silver Fern

For my money, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Eagles and Lions are the five best teams in the league, and pretty much any ordering of those five would be justifiable. Then a clear gap to the sixth team (another grouping of Vikings, Steelers, Texans, Commanders).

Chiefs have been like this all year tbh. Mahomes has quietly been a bit average but their defence and special teams has pulled them through.

Spags has had a crack at HC and wasn't impressive. Being a great DC (or OC) doesn't mean much in terms of HC success - although successful coordinators often get a second chance so it's a bit surprising he hasn't had a second go. Some coaches do really benefit from having had time to reflect on what went wrong.

Yeah team mankad 100%. If the non striker is marginal then I think warn first but if they're really taking the piss then don't even warn them.

I don't think either player is cheating though - the non striker is taking a risk trying to get an advantage. Very similar to a stumping really.

@Chris-B said in Black Caps vs Sri Lanka:

Chapman and extras saving us from being bowled out for 26!

Young, Ravindra, Mitchell, Latham, Phillips and Santner collectively contributing 5 runs off the bat.

We could have picked 6 random ferners and not done much worse! Anyone specialise on the nick for 4?!!

Ravindra and Phillips get a pass because those were two incredible deliveries that are wickets 99 times our of 100, although I don't remember the last time Phillips looked like he was in any kind of form. The time off between now and the Pakistan tour might be good for him if he can hold his spot.

Mitchell played a lazy shot but also undone slightly by the movement. Latham extremely disappointed and his place in the squad in danger I think.

I've always thought Santner is overrated as a batter. Slightly unusually, I think he's a better bat in tests than in short ball stuff. He's well organised and fair sound defensively so is a tough wicket, but in short form he just really struggles to generate any kind of strike rate.

Henry gets one back and back to 0 catches for the match now. Sri Lanka wobbling big time now.

Sri Lanka's had plenty of nice starts, their issue has been collapsing after the first wicket. Big test now.

Gutted for Nissanka, love watching a batter with a clean bat do well. Hopefully he makes it back out.

Saints, Jets and Bears all fired their HC in season, so they're all vacant too. Bears might be the most appealing of the lot. Jets roster is actually pretty decent apart from the lack of a QB but the ownership is beyond rancid which drags them down.

Of the post season firings I'd agree that the jags are probably the most appealing.

Unrelated factoids I read about today.

There are 4 instances of a test team made of entirely 30+ year olds. 3 of them are the black caps in the last 12ish months.

There are two additional instance of a team with no one in their twenties - the last two Australia-India tests where they had ten 30 year olds and a teenager.

The whole 'nz test team is getting old' thing has been floating around for a little while now, but that stat really reinforces how usually dependent on oldies we are.

@KiwiMurph said in NFL 2024:

@Cyclops said in NFL 2024:

On the Purdy contract, he's never looked like a guy that you could sustain success while paying him top of the market money. If the 49ers were better this year I could have seen him taking tier 2 money (say 45m per year), along with a long deal and good guarantees, since he's earned so litte, but with the 49ers a bit of a rabble this year you wonder if he might be tempted to test free agency. I don't think there's really any better landing spots though.

Purdy still has an extra year on his rookie deal left so he's not really in a position to test free agency.

The news today is the elbow injury for Purdy is nothing long term.

Ah yeah, I'd forgotten the window to extend a rookie opens the year before they hit free agency.

All the cards with the 49ers then. He's earned nothing, has had a few injuries and still fighting the perception that he's a system quarterback. Plus even if he lights up next season, they can still tag him at least once without the price going crazy, maybe even twice. An offer with decent guarantees but a law AV would be a really tough one for him to pass up. If he has Kirk Cousins' confidence he'll stare them down, but that can go very wrong.

On the other hand, He'll have earned about 4m (maybe more, not sure if performance escalators apply for 7th rounders), and can probably earn a ton through endorsements with the crazy Mr Irrelevant storyline. He's not going to be that hard up any time, and despite this year, he's still in probably the best place he can realistically be to compete for rings. Maybe he'll take a left out of Brady's book and be happy with a lower offer (30-35m say) and hope that the extra flexibility to surround him with talent gets the 49ers across the line.

Henry player of the match? 4/19 are excellent numbers. Nice innings from Young but absolutely zero pressure throughout that innings.

Too late now, not enough runs. Chapman not interested in blocking out overs to let young.get the ton. Seems fairly unusual these days for that to happen.

From the looks of the forecast there should be enough time to get a full game in, although might be tight, in some ways an early rain break, to shorten the first innings would be ideal, since there will definitely be enough time for 50-60 overs, but maybe not 70 overs.

Will be freezing!

Bumrah off for scans (not sure what the injury is). A massive blow if he can't bowl again.

Yeah pretty clearly grounded just before he flicked it up. Sensational athleticism though. Shame - would have loved kohli to get o golden duck there.

Kohli has such a weird record. Average in the high 40s is very good but not great. 30 centuries though is fantastic. There are 17 guys to have got to that mark, and him, Jayawardene and Cook are the only ones averaging under 50.

Jayawardene is only just (49.84) and was a bit of a flat track bully, while Cook took almost 300 innings to get there. Both fantastic players, but neither were close to having 'best of their generation' tags like Kohli does.

When you dig into Kohli's record, he is fantastic in India and in Australia (only just dipped under 50) and South Africa, while everywhere else is mid 40s or worse.

Basically, against tough opponents, in tough conditions he thrives, but in situations where other batters would cash in on 'easy' runs he doesn't, which holds his average back.

That feels pretty decisive, we don't have the batting to get home from here.

Be interesting to see where the final AFC playoff spot goes. Broncos have the advantage, being win-and-your-in and the Chiefs likely to rest Mahomes and maybe more players.

Dolphins need a Broncos loss and a win over the Jets (who specialise in pointless week 18 wins long after elimination from the playoff race).

Bengals need both Broncos and Dolphins to lose and then a win over the Steelers. Toughest path, but would be an incredible recovery from 0-3.

On the Purdy contract, he's never looked like a guy that you could sustain success while paying him top of the market money. If the 49ers were better this year I could have seen him taking tier 2 money (say 45m per year), along with a long deal and good guarantees, since he's earned so litte, but with the 49ers a bit of a rabble this year you wonder if he might be tempted to test free agency. I don't think there's really any better landing spots though.

I'd compare him to Dak Prescott. A solid, reliable QB but not able to consistently take over a game in tough situations the way the truly elite QBs can. The cowboys have had some tough years and I think there will be more in the future because of the terrible deal they gave him.

Lyon's test best is 47. Can he finally get a test 50 tomorrow morning?

Prior to Duffy's triple wicket over, they were 120/0 needing 53 from 42 and Santner (our best bowler to that point) had just bowled his last over. There really should have been no way back.

How did we win that? Yikes.

All a bit easy for Sri Lanka. Missed the start of our innings - were conditions much tougher?

I'm a bit sceptical when I see a scorecard like our innings - the lower order cashing in can often be a sign that the top order bungled things, rather than a miraculous recovery than saves the game.