I guess NZ haven’t learnt their lesson from the England series. Batting has mainly let us down more than bowling. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sri Lanka end up winning this test series.
Would have been better to bring in Young instead of Tickner and get Daryl to bowl more.
Dochart: Would have been better to bring in Young instead of Tickner and get Daryl to bowl more.
Yep thats my main point trying to make. Nicholls out with another silly shot selection, out for 2. And we have selected the extra Bowler who hasnt worked, with Mitchell being the better bowler. Was just idiotic dropping Young when we have enough bowlers but a very weak middle order and Conway in at 2, I will see how much his Avg has changed at 2.
Conway in at 2, I will see how much his Avg has changed at 2.
I can't agree with Conway dropping back to 4, on the basis of an admittedly very small sample size of four innings in that position he's only scored 53 runs at an average of 13.25. He's batted 8 times at number 3 while Kane was out of the side for various reasons, and scored 486 runs at an average of 60.75. As an opener he has scored 781 runs at 55.78 through 15 innings.
Given he's unlikely to displace Kane at first drop if Kane is available, he's clearly more suited to opening than Rosco's old spot. Of course he's going to get a jaffa occasionally and go cheaply, but that's the same no matter where you bat, and the stats suggest so far that he's well equipped to open and score heavily.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Nicholls does need to go back to domestic cricket. There's a great article on CricInfo statistically analysing NZ's performance leading up to their WTC win, versus their performance since. Nicholls was averaging 55.33 with the bat prior to the WTC final and only 29.60 since.
He's currently the weakest link in the NZ batting unit, and has been for some time. I'm all for giving a guy security in his position so he can show his true ability, but he's had a long run at it since the WTC and hasn't recaptured his form. I hate to think how that series in England would have gone if he hadn't been injured, and Mitchell came in to score all those runs and hold the batting together with Blundell.
Tickner's not a test bowler, and I'm speaking as a Central Districts supporter. If they're not going to pick Boult again, what happened to Ferguson as an option? He was next cab off the rank on that ill-fated tour to Australia in 2019-20. Has he made himself unavailable for test selection or something?
Ferguson has been injured recently and has just gone back to 1st class cricket the other day so probably be awhile for him to get back into the test side unless injured.
Even though Conway averages lower as opener compared to No 3, he is still our best opener that we ever had in recent times. I would continue using him as an opener. Bring in Young and Phillips at No 4 and 5 respectively and you have a solid batting lineup. Once we bring back Boult, Jamieson and Ferguson our bowling should be much better.
Dochart: Ferguson has been injured recently and has just gone back to 1st class cricket the other day so probably be awhile for him to get back into the test side unless injured.
Even though Conway averages lower as opener compared to No 3, he is still our best opener that we ever had in recent times. I would continue using him as an opener. Bring in Young and Phillips at No 4 and 5 respectively and you have a solid batting lineup. Once we bring back Boult, Jamieson and Ferguson our bowling should be much better.
Yep, I feel like after Fergies tour of Aus where we failed to finish them off 5 or 6 down has branded him white ball only which was a real shame. Ben Sears injury is the one to watch as he was quite the pace bowler for his age, still only 25 from memory. Milne has been fairly good white ball bowler since his last injury, only low 140s but thats 10-15kph more than we have now.
We definitely do not need 4 seamers and Mitchell plus the spin of Bracewell. M Bracewell Im really unimpressed/dissappointed with so far if honest, he has not lived up to being a Batting All rounder, but hes also down the batting line and hes only had 6 tests. But Phillips has a better bowling FC avg at 40 and a better batting FC avg of 42. So GP could replace Bracewell, or replace Tickner and put him in at 5.
As you say Dochart, 4. Will Young 5. Glenn Phillips.
As I mentioned other day, recently our best batsman are Mitchell and Blundell averaging ~70 each and then a long way down to Latham around his reliable ~42.
We really need that 2-5 positions to start delivering runs again, especially at home. Kane had dropped from 56 to 52 avg, but Im sure he will pull himself out of the funk, as will Conway.
What I would like to see from Conway is to start digging into the bowlers post 15-20 overs, so often he has followed Tommy, we get a great start in the sense of seeing the new ball off, but he isnt showing the intent that we know he is capable of, rather just blocking, which has become a problem for the team as a whole.
Thats a long tail with Henry having a bat avg of 20. KJ should be a big improvement to our bowling, but NZ not selecting Boult is a real shame. KJ makes 5 seamers including Mithcell, Phillips being the spinner.
Im interested to know when Foxcroft will be eligible as hes an auto selection imo, like Phillips can bat and bowl.
I think it will be awhile for Foxcroft to debut. He could have been in the Blackcaps side by now but during Covid only NZ residents and citiziens could come into NZ. He had to stay back in South Africa.
I think he could play again around 2022 and I think you need to be in NZ for at least 3 years so it would be around mid or near the end of 2025. By then Williamson should be long gone, Young could move to No 3 and have Foxcroft at 4.
Dochart: I think it will be awhile for Foxcroft to debut. He could have been in the Blackcaps side by now but during Covid only NZ residents and citiziens could come into NZ. He had to stay back in South Africa.
I think he could play again around 2022 and I think you need to be in NZ for at least 3 years so it would be around mid or near the end of 2025. By then Williamson should be long gone, Young could move to No 3 and have Foxcroft at 4.
Williamson will be an interesting one, in a team all over 30. We have seen some batsmen go on to 40yo (and now pace bowlers haha, Jimmy). I think it comes down to both form and peronal interests ie the wife and kids. But I feel Williamson might play longer, might. Where it seemed Ross didnt want to retire at 34yo like Kane will be 2025, more like he was pushed out, which I think if so is an issue, if you are not going to select young batsmen who play County cricket and at 25yo have a FC avg above 42 like Phillips (would have been an insta pick not that long ago in NZ cricket and likely be in 4 years time as the aging team retires).
I think the likes of Mitchell and Conway will go on with it well passed 34yo, given they didnt start until really late in the career, possibly Blundell. But there will be plenty of room for quality players to break into the side (there should be now).
Lets hope the new selector does the job rather than rest on the laurels.
Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
New selector needs to be someone who has played T20 cricket. That should be a pre-requisite.
I can’t think of anyone who could be a selector. Only name I could think of is Ross Taylor. If he was a selector he would definitely be picking his central districts teammate Will Young.
Just need a selector to pick Will Young and Phillips.
I’m interested to see who they pick for One day and T20 side. Finn Allen hasn’t been doing too well I don’t think I would be selecting him in the ODI side. I would like to see them pick Will Young as opener for the ODI series. He was playing well in the ODI’s then all of a sudden gets dropped.
Dochart: I’m interested to see who they pick for One day and T20 side. Finn Allen hasn’t been doing too well I don’t think I would be selecting him in the ODI side. I would like to see them pick Will Young as opener for the ODI series. He was playing well in the ODI’s then all of a sudden gets dropped.
Finn Allen needs to go back to domestic and improve his technique in conventional shots.
White ball use to the gateway to tests, I guess Mitchell did it this way.
Amazing how some players who avg around low 40s go on and avg closer to 50, in Mitchells case its more like mid 50s. Im sure if we lose players due to retirement he will drop down the order.
The way Matt Henry is tonking it, he could make t20 as an all rounder haha. In seriousness, his FC avg of 20 is no luck, hes definitely got batsman skills.
Hes just scored 38 off his last 12 balls, nearly all 6s and 4s, has taken NZ to a lead. I keep thinking Southee is fooling himself by putting himself in ahead of Henry when he plays. Sure Southee has some bat skills, but Henry can do the work before he starts swinging.
Well played Matt Henry, could have pulled it back in and started blocking yorkers (he had a close one just prior to the wicket ball), but those last 2 overs hes faced I guess he thought put it to the wind and its hard when you score 6s and 4s with ease to start thinking defense to the yorker.
Ironically I think 72no is Southees highest score too, maybe thats why he gets #8, but that was a LONG time ago. Either way its a handy tail which is keeping us in matches, but NZ top and middle need to start putting out and not relying on Mitchell and below.
Edit: What is with these one hand catches in the crowd? The first one with a glass in the hand was epic but that last one running to his right full on with out stretched hand has to be in the top 5 crowd catches in NZ of all time haha :-)
What a shame for Wags, he puts a lot of work into his batting, still, 27 is a mighty handy contribution, giving us a lead of 18. Put another batsman in there and who knows what we score.
NZ 373 all out.
I hope this gives our top and middle some encouragement, once they have faced 60 balls, to start batting with intent to score and score quickly, as we have the ability, in fact if you look at the lineup, more players are offensive batsmen.
Edit: Tickener needs to step it up big time to justify him being called recalled, hes a great guy and he laughs a lot in the game, but he needs to put the fun to the background now and bowl with fire and brimstone when he gets the ball.
Edit: I'd have been tempted to bowl Wagner ahead of Henry, to give the batsmen the concern of left and right hand swing bowlers which is largely why Tim and Trent were so good at their pick. Southee avg is climbing close to 30 with the ball now. Trent was always the better of the 2 and the one who could bowl quicker and took wickets when we really needed them, along with a lower Test avg of around 27.
Really it comes back to Henry Nicholls in general, and a little Conway not scoring at a pace that suits his natural play (30 off 88 balls). Williamson cant be expected to score every innings which is why you want somebody with an avg well over 40 at 4. Nicholls could fall to an avg of 35ish by end of this Test. Glenn Phillips has a FC Avg of 42 (not to mention his Spin bowl avg). There is no reason to justify Nicholls remaining in an AGING team. The whole point of a rebuilding phase is to play your young good players in amongst those failing or retiring. Larsen just couldnt bring himself to wield the axe even after that laughable 160ish vs WI couple years ago from Nicholls (dropped 5 times). It has felt like Larsen hasnt watched the Tests ball by ball, which I know cant be true, but Nicholls is still there.
If you throw a century into the top 4 and it becomes a 450+ type score.
Dochart: Nice to see Tickner finally getting wickets to make it justified to drop Young over him.
Yes, although he is still a little all over the shop at times, he needs to just put the ball where he got the first wicket, over and over and over again and at effort to be high 130s, which will be similar delivery to KJ with his height.
If you put Young or Phillips in the team and drop Nicholls, you give Tickener another try in the 2nd test I guess.
But this is where I say we are missing a strike bowler, Southee has largely only been successful with that left hand swing combo of Boult, I cant understand why they wouldnt use Wagner in this left hand swing bowling role with the new ball. After 10-12 overs the seam still has plenty in it for the seamers Henry and Tickener.
Im not sure who else NZ can look to that has experience bowling long overs to quality teams ie County Cricket.
So if they going to drop the extra batsman, then they HAVE to drop Nicholls for Young/Phillips imo. In fact Id still drop Bracewell and put Phillips in his role, would be perfect, lower down the order, quick runs needing scoring etc, as good if not quite bit better bowling. That puts both Young and Phillips in the team.
Sri Lanka effectively 55/3 with NZs 28 run lead, thanks to Tickeners 3 wickets. Good position for NZ, to get a good rest tonight and bowl accurately tomorrow.
Even Tickener bowled 4 balls in the same spot, wonders will never cease. What they have done is pushed the channel a bit wider, because SL by and large bat/take mark on off stump, which in the first innings had NZ bowling into them which they could on drive, pull shot etc.
The wicket has lost its green as you would expect day 4, best batting conditions today by a big margin. But NZ so far are all being accurate, a lot of balls beaten the edge of the bat, the night watchman got a feather edge on one, but other than that no luck for NZ, but they need to remain accurate, take a lead out of Henry's book.
Tickener with all 4 wickets, if I were him Id be spitting 140kph yorkers from out wide with his height similar to KJ. In fact I hope KJ and Tickener can have some sessions on how to remain accurate which KJ had a problem with prior to being called up the blackcaps.
NZ have lost Neil Wagner and Matt Henry is superman, bowling super accurate even with very split thumb webbing that is stitched and glued. NZ couldnt afford another bowler lost. This is where having Glenn Phillips in at 5 will be soooo handy with his decent off spin. Could possibly drop Bracewell in favour of another specialist batsman ie Will Young, who is 12th man, I expect him to play at the basin, just my guess.
A LOT of overs from Bracewell and Mitchell I can see coming. NZ need 2 more wickets to get to the remaining tale, the 2 in right now are quality batsmen, but it drops off after that with "Dickie" their WK being the last of recognised bat.
18 overs left to the new ball, with Bracewell that will be upon SL quickly, who not only have to beat NZ in both tests but at a real clip for the RR.
Ha, Mitchell bowling Wagner body line style and nearly got a wicket first go at it.
It will be interesting next summer when TVNZ takes back cricket broadcasting from PAY to view companies (sky/spark). And will be interesting to see if they pick up any of the pre Spark sport commentary. I enjoy the Spark sport crew too.
I remember watching Hadlee and co for free, TVNZ says its commiting to providing free to air, and I think that is fantastic. Kiwi kids need to be able to see our heros and it shouldnt be a privege based system. Of course I understand companies try to package sport and sell it, that is modern professional sport.
So Im wondering is Spark shutting down, if they lost the EPL and now NZ cricket??
Edit: NZ have been bowling Wagner relentless bumper style from both ends for nearly 20 overs, that was the first near thing with the ball bouncing a foot in front of the fielder. Sri lanka have controlled it well along the carpet to be fair, but if they want to make the WTC, these overs with very few runs are killing any chances of what was always a longshot.
New ball due in 1 over, Henry and Southee hopefully remove both Matthews and Chandimal who are both world class. If so Sr Lanka will have about 200 total lead by end of innings. But if these 2 keep going Sri Lanka could post 300 by lunch tomorrow which will give them 60 overs ish to bowl NZ out, for NZ it will be an ODI and this wicket is holding up so I think they should be looking to win, not block their way to a draw. Lets see
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
