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#3299327 21-Oct-2024 10:41

Bracewell won’t be available for the next 2 tests. Sodhi will come in for the next 2 tests. If the next 2 tests will be spin friendly they would either select Santner or Sodhi and probably Southee will be dropped.

TeaLeaf

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#3299334 21-Oct-2024 11:04

Dochart: Bracewell won’t be available for the next 2 tests. Sodhi will come in for the next 2 tests. If the next 2 tests will be spin friendly they would either select Santner or Sodhi and probably Southee will be dropped.

yes good point. Geeze Sodhi had so much promise with the turn he gets, but he mostly bowls the wrongin. Id love to see him in Ind. For me Santner is good in a holding roll and can bat a bit. If Blundell was performing in the middle, runs at the tail wouldnt be so important. Bit of a pickle, ideally I would pick Sodhi, but runs are needed. If Santner can hold Ind well below the 5rpo they want in Tests, it could put pressure for them to score against the wicket takers....

Just back to the Women, the coaching demanding they aim for 160 scores proved vital. Hopefully this tournament shows women can score at a higher clip, with the opening match vs Ind being critical and the Final both being 160 & 158, scoreboard pressure wins matches, especially in the womens game. quite incredible given the huge losing streak they were on prior.

Edit: In the news its nice to hear O'rourke paying homage to KJ as his mentor in the team, isnt the first time he has said this. Perhaps he can help Sears get to Test level too :-)

Dochart

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#3299341 21-Oct-2024 11:33

Losing 10 games in a row to Aus and England and now T20 World Champions for the White Ferns. Unbelievable to see them come back like this. West Indies and South Africa did NZ a huge favour by knocking out England before Semi Final and defeating Aus in the semi final. The two teams where we had a 10 match losing streak against.

TeaLeaf

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#3299388 21-Oct-2024 11:44

Dochart: Losing 10 games in a row to Aus and England and now T20 World Champions for the White Ferns. Unbelievable to see them come back like this. West Indies and South Africa did NZ a huge favour by knocking out England before Semi Final and defeating Aus in the semi final. The two teams where we had a 10 match losing streak against.

Yes indeed, aussies who were the only team to beat NZ in the WC. aus as Favs just had a bad one, sucks, but NZ men know how that feels. NZ aiming for 160 vs Ind first game was so critical because if they didnt beat Ind they wouldnt have gotten out of the Tables rounds let alone all the way to winning the Final. aus beat us 148 to 88. So daring to risk it all first match vs Ind essentially won the cup. But very thankful we didnt meet aus again in the finals haha.

I dont expect NZ to start dominating aus any time soon, but if they keep aiming at 160 every match they will start beating teams and become a genuine threat to Eng/aus.

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#3299535 21-Oct-2024 16:52

That was some marvellous stuff there by both national cricket teams.

Superb efforts all-round!

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thermonuclear

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#3299646 21-Oct-2024 20:05

Handsomedan:

That was some marvellous stuff there by both national cricket teams.

Superb efforts all-round!

Bonus points for the Richie Benaud reference.

Could hardly believe it when I got up to hear the T20 result this morning, been a week for the ages and NZ cricket all in all. Still think McMillan is a genius coach, easily the best one going round NZ if you take out all the ones that ply their trade overseas. Wish he could be talked into running the men's side but, as has been mentioned, I think he wants to spend more time at home with the family.

Men's side was done a huge favour by Sharma in that 1st test, it could have gone very differently if he'd decided to have a bowl first. Underestimated the abilities of NZ's bowling attack and paid the price. To be fair, he can probably be forgiven for thinking it was all going to be one way traffic.

If NZ can get Sears and Jamieson fit, that is going to be a serious pace attack to rival anything going around currently.

But well done to the White Ferns, if only I had some money on them, they must have been big outsiders before the tournament began.

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Dochart

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#3299958 22-Oct-2024 15:59

Williamson out for the 2nd Test. Another opportunity for Young to cement his place in the side. If Daryl Mitchell keeps underperforming when Williamson comes back slot Young to No 5 instead.

thermonuclear

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#3300004 22-Oct-2024 17:10

The 2nd Test is being played in Pune and is only the third time India have hosted there in the long format game. It's expected to be a turning wicket, the very first test played at this venue resulted in 31 of the 40 wickets falling to spin. With that in mind this is the side I would select

Latham (c)
Conway
Young
Ravindra
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell
Henry
Sodhi
Patel
O'Rourke

I agree that both Mitchell's and Blundell's places in the side should be in jeopardy, which is incredible considering they pretty much held the batting together in 2022 in England. Was also lucky enough to see Blundell score that century opening the batting against Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 2019. Still believe Ronchi is no batting coach, they definitely need a change there. Georgia Plimmer couldn't hit the cover off a rice pudding before McMillan turned up, now she looks like a genuine opener for the White Ferns.

Would pick Sodhi everyday over Santner as the second genuine spinner. The side is already well served for offies with Patel and Phillips in the line-up and Santner just doesn't take wickets. Sodhi can be expensive but at least he gets batters out for the most part.

TeaLeaf

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#3300268 23-Oct-2024 10:00

thermonuclear:

Latham (c)
Conway
Young
Ravindra
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell
Henry
Sodhi
Patel
O'Rourke

Yep thats the team for me too. 5 wicket taking bowlers and Rachin who is handy. Plus Sodhi worked very hard on his batting at avg 22. Hes not a genuine all rounder but close enough on the right pitches. But despite Henry and Sodhi being handy 20+ batsman, its a flappn worry with Blundell who avg'd 9.8 in 23/24 and hasnt had enough bats this season to counter that. If D Mitchell was also not in a form slump it would be less frustrating. Really the question for NZ, who in the team is solid with the bat consistently the last couple of years. Rachin and GP (relative to his position and taking wickets). Once Taylor and Watling left our days of making 400+ consistently went with it. No doubt they all doing the best they can, but we know they not performing to their ability, which goes back to the Ronchi imo. That has to be solved. Somebody like Guptill might make a good batting coach, somebody who has good skills at batting positively. Of course Macmillan would be the perfect fit back in, but I respect his probable reasons. Im trying to think of somebody whose family would be adults by now that was an aggressive batsman but with solid technique.....

thermonuclear

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#3300463 23-Oct-2024 12:18

On McMillan, he said he stepped out of the Black Caps set-up initially because he wanted to spend more time at home with the family. Yet, he's in the Middle East with White Ferns for the WC and I assume he'll be with them in India for the upcoming ODI series as well. Quite a long way from Christchurch.

I do wonder if the "family" reason is a polite way of leaving the men's set-up because he didn't agree with how Stead was/has been running things. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ended up putting his hat in the ring for head coach as soon as Stead steps down or is sacked.

On the batting, we all know most of these guys can do it because we've seen them perform. All of Latham, Conway, Mitchell, Nicholls, Blundell and perhaps even Phillips have seen their averages drop under the current leadership. Williamson is not from this planet so he's kept his average high when he's actually been fit to play, and Ravindra is new into the side.

They all have the ability to bat and score big, so it has to be either mental or small technical deficiencies that are not being addressed. As I've said before many times, an ex-NZ/Australia ODI wicketkeeper is not the guy I'd have trying to get the test batting unit primed for battle. Being an ex-international cricketer doesn't always make you a good coach or mentor, we need another Hesson-like character in there, someone from outside the old boys network who actually knows his stuff.

TeaLeaf

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#3301024 24-Oct-2024 12:10

I think its a bit of both mental and technical depending on the player, with Conway I think its been both.

Some of these guys like Mitchell and Blundell peaked well above their FC avgs in Test cricket, so I just wonder if its reality setting in. Once Taylor went into a form slump then retired it felt like they stopped feeling so confident to play their shots to bad deliveries.

The main thing though is NZ is terrible vs spin for the main part, so Im expecting a 3-4 day win to Ind on this pitch but of course hoping for much more.

I get the feeling Captain Latham and Coach are going with Santner.... If they pick Southee over Orourke that will pretty much say it all about what is going wrong.

With Blundell being so inept vs spin and having done better as an opener, Id be tempted to pair him with Latham and push everyone down the line one. If he fails vs the quicks opening, we havnt really lost much.

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TeaLeaf

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#3301173 24-Oct-2024 17:52

Orourke dropped after 7 wicket match last outing, Santner picked over Sodhi.

Good start at 4rpo until Latham plays and misses LBW.

Dochart

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#3301179 24-Oct-2024 18:09

TeaLeaf:
Orourke dropped after 7 wicket match last outing, Santner picked over Sodhi.

Good start at 4rpo until Latham plays and misses LBW.

It’s Henry that has been dropped out of the side but not due to form. He has a minor injury.

After 12 years since we last won a test toss against India in India we finally have the opportunity to choose to bat first. So far so good. If we can score 350-400 runs in the first innings that would be good. This is great chance to win a test series in India. Win the 2nd test and we win the test series. History will be made. Last time a foreign side won a test series in India was in 2012 by England.

TeaLeaf

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#3301181 24-Oct-2024 18:17

Dochart:

It’s Henry that has been dropped out of the side but not due to form. He has a minor injury.

Ugggh I had a mental fart reading playing eleven. Oh that sucks, even worse for us 8 wickets for Henry last match. It would have been interesting though what call they would have made.

Lets hope it keeps going at this pace and Santner makes runs along with drying them up with the ball.

Dochart

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#3301183 24-Oct-2024 18:22

TeaLeaf:
Dochart:

It’s Henry that has been dropped out of the side but not due to form. He has a minor injury.

Ugggh I had a mental fart reading playing eleven. Oh that sucks, even worse for us 8 wickets for Henry last match. It would have been interesting though what call they would have made.

Lets hope it keeps going at this pace and Santner makes runs along with drying them up with the ball.

Young and Conway are doing well so far. It’s going to be a dilemma if Young performs well in the 2nd Test and Williamson is fit for the 3rd test.

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