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600 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313012 26-Nov-2024 11:54

IPL auction winners and losers from the NZ point-of-view.

Picked Up

Bevon Jacobs
Mitchell Santner
Lockie Ferguson
Glenn Phillips
Trent Boult
Rachin Ravindra
Devon Conway

Failed To Open The Chequebook

Tom Latham
Kyle Jamieson
Nathan Smith
Will O'Rourke
Adam Milne
Michael Bracewell
Daryl Mitchell
Finn Allen
Kane Williamson

Interested to know more about this kid Jacobs from Canterbury via Gauteng. Obviously got fans in the IPL franchise that bought him, I'll assumed he's pretty decent at short-form cricket though I can't say I've ever heard of him. Don't follow T20 that much though as it's a stupid game. ;)

thermonuclear

600 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313035 26-Nov-2024 12:56

Looking forward to the home test season getting underway in a couple of days at Christchurch. Sounds like England have a big issue with their one specialist keeper on tour going down with a broken digit. Will be touch and go to get a replacement flown out in time for the Thursday start, may have to go in with Ollie Pope as the keeper. Not good for them.

I'm going to stick with my side for the 1st Test from the players available in the squad.

Latham (c)
Conway
Young
Williamson
Ravindra
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell
Smith
Henry
O'Rourke

Reasons as per my previous post on the subject. Four seamers would be overkill on a Christchurch wicket before Christmas, and it allows both Young and Williamson to play. I'd rather have more batting than bowling, especially when your choices for 4th seamer are between Southee and Duffy. I expect England's attack to be stronger than the last time we faced them with old-man Anderson now retired. I would have taken a different keeper than Blundell into the match, too bad it isn't him with the broken finger.

That said, Stead has already signaled he wants to play four seamers. 🙄 That being the case, I would drop Mitchell for Young, he was man of the series against India in a low-scoring affair.

Okay, the top three batsmen and bowlers for NZ over the past twelve months according to CricInfo:-

Batting

Ravindra -- 855 runs @ 50.29
Williamson -- 757 runs @ 50.46
Phillips -- 559 runs @ 34.93

Bowling

Patel -- 37 wickets @ 26.40
Henry -- 33 wickets @ 16.45
Phillips -- 30 wickets @ 27.36

The last test played at Christchuch was earlier this year in March. Could maybe justify four seamers then after a long hot east coast summer in the Garden City. Australia only took in three front-line seamers and managed to beat NZ with three wickets to spare after a poor first batting innings from NZ put them on the back foot from the start. Bowling wise, these are the headline numbers for NZ in that fixture:-

Henry 9 wickets
Sears 5 wickets
Southee 2 wickets
Phillips 1 wicket
Kuggeleijn 0 wickets

I forget the circumstance but O'Rourke must have been injured for Kuggelein to be there. In the absence of Jamieson and Sears through injury this time around, still believe a three-pronged pace attack of Henry, O-Rourke and Smith looks strongest on paper. You'd back Henry and O'Rourke to do most of the damage based on recent form. Plus the advantage of England not having seen O'Rourke or Smith yet.

EDIT:

NZ need a 3-0 clean-sweep of England to keep their faint hopes alive in the World Test Championship. Can't really see that happening, not least because of inclement weather at some point during the series. But, the way England play, what chance of any test going five days. Guess we will see.

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313060 26-Nov-2024 14:24

thermonuclear:

Latham (c)
Conway
Young
Williamson
Ravindra
Mitchell
Phillips
Blundell
Smith
Henry
O'Rourke

Re Bumrah, he is just something else on those hard concrete like pitches. He has such a short run up to deliver the kinda pace he does so on aussie wickets its raw shock power.

Talk of cutting Young to fit Williamson in. It would be great to have Williamson keep #3 and extend our batting line up with Young at #4, where he should always have been. I dont think it would impact Rachin too much to play #5.

I think Stead will pick Southee as his last home test, but imo the Bowling line up has to have the young Cantab duo of Orourke and Foulkes, both have similar bowling stats.
Zakary Foulkes Profile - Cricket Player New Zealand | Stats, Records, Video
Foulkes and Henry (and southee) give handy tail end runs. Ive heard nothing about both Sears and KJs rehab. Sears with his slight body imo is able to deliver long spells at high heat.

If Stead isnt going to pick NZs best batsman not to get a go in Cleaver, then I think its time he picked Mitch Hay who is a beacon at avg 46 FC and won NZ the second t20 with his incredible glove work with that all time WK record with 6 catches, half of them going the wrong way he did incredible to catch up with. Either way hes not going to do worse than Blundell Mitchell Hay Profile - Cricket Player New Zealand | Stats, Records, Video

You would expect a #6 or 7 WK to score a lot of 50s, Hay proves the point in 19 matches 1x146 & 10x50s at avg 46. I think he will fill a very similar role to BJ Watling as our last line of defense and if we have bowlers who can also stick with him all the better.

Dochart

804 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313081 26-Nov-2024 15:45

I agree, Young at 4 and moving Ravindra to 5 shouldn’t make too much a difference. NZ pitches get better for batting usually. Williamson will retire soon so when that happens can move Young and Ravindra to 3 and 4 respectively.

With NZ so keen on keeping the 4 pacers option why doesn’t Daryl Mitchell bowl anymore. It would make so much easier to add Young into the side. Daryl would not need to bowl unless we can’t get wickets cheaply.

What the playing 11 should be on match day:
1. Latham (c)
2. Conway
3. Williamson
4. Young
5. Ravindra
6. Mitchell
7. Phillips
8. Blundell (wk)
9. Henry
10. Southee
11. O’Rourke

thermonuclear

600 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313171 26-Nov-2024 16:45

Hmmm, you know Christchurch is going to be a well-grassed green wicket. Normally flattens out and the grass length will help with the pace and bounce. Not sure I'd like to see NZ lose the toss, get inserted, and then Kane's in early with the loss of an early wicket. Think Young at first drop is the way to go with Williamson at four so he's not in too early. Latham and Conway have been inconsistent at best for a fair while now.

However, as you say, our super-coach will leave Young out so he can play Williamson and Southee. If they are going to sacrifice a batsman to make room for Williamson, if should be Daryl Mitchell to carry the drinks so Young can play as he's been in better form. We all realize that won't happen though, let's see if their selections are vindicated. Hope NZ don't find themselves with too much pace bowling and not enough batting on a spicy wicket.

Tealeaf, I know you've been banging the drum for Foulkes for a while. He's not in the squad so would need injuries to hit the team to even get a look in at selection. His numbers are good for a 14 match First Class career so far but Smith has 53 FC matches under his belt with a similar bowling average, has a 12 run better FC batting average, was second-top wicket-taker in domestic last season, is a centrally contracted NZ player, and is coached by Jurgensen who coached Boult, Southee and Wagner in their pomp for NZ and rates the guy.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing Henry and O'Rourke continuing on where they left off and getting stuck into the English batting. Also looking forward to seeing the new-look English bowling attack, particularly Atkinson and Carse. Woulkes is a known quantity and they will be hoping for overs from Stokes. He'll break down at some point during the match again, though as I've made the case for with NZ, if the other three are good enough Stokes won't be sighted at the bowling crease.

As an aside, was watching a really interesting video on the Wisden YouTube channel last night concerning the demise of test batting around the world. I know I've been banging on about the poor numbers from the NZ top six for a while. Seems it's a global issue and worth a look if you're into that sort of thing

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313177 26-Nov-2024 17:02

I dont mean Foulkes right now, im meaning to say we should be getting young guys like Foulkes contracted. although on his home ground he would have gone well.

If Blundell loses us a test I will be so dirty. I think he should have the ethics of GP and step aside like GP did when he felt it was too soon, but in reverse, Blundells form is getting so long in the tooth.

With Ind beatin aus, its better for us now if Ind take a clean sweep.

I think it will end up IF we win series 2-0 we will have a chance as we will be up around 60pct. If we win all 3, I think we have a very good chance. If Ind or aus win 3-2 it will end up with 3 teams up over 60pct but effectively aus have a lead on us by 1, which is why 3-0 for us is really needed. In NZ weather though....

Im just going easy with it, we lost that first series by in Sea by being arrogant with our form selection. If we dont make it we dont deserve too

thermonuclear

600 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313186 26-Nov-2024 17:24

TeaLeaf:

I dont mean Foulkes right now, im meaning to say we should be getting young guys like Foulkes contracted. although on his home ground he would have gone well.

If Blundell loses us a test I will be so dirty. I think he should have the ethics of GP and step aside like GP did when he felt it was too soon, but in reverse, Blundells form is getting so long in the tooth.

With Ind beatin aus, its better for us now if Ind take a clean sweep.

I think it will end up IF we win series 2-0 we will have a chance as we will be up around 60pct. If we win all 3, I think we have a very good chance. If Ind or aus win 3-2 it will end up with 3 teams up over 60pct but effectively aus have a lead on us by 1, which is why 3-0 for us is really needed. In NZ weather though....

Im just going easy with it, we lost that first series by in Sea by being arrogant with our form selection. If we dont make it we dont deserve too

Okay, gotcha. He'll be a decent chance of a NZ contract once Southee goes and if Jamieson can't get back to fitness. Really disappointed he and Sears aren't available for this series, that would be some attack with Henry and O'Rourke.

Yeah, I think the weather will be crucial to NZ's slim chances of making the WTC final. Even allowing for England playing like they have a train to catch, it's hard to see Wellington having enough good weather to get a result at this time of year. The thing that amuses me most about this cycle is that South Africa are a pretty decent chance of making the final with their run in of four home tests against beatable opposition, and they started their campaign by sending the D-Team to NZ. If they do make it to the final after doing that, it will be some story.

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TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313190 26-Nov-2024 17:35

thermonuclear:

and they started their campaign by sending the D-Team to NZ. If they do make it to the final after doing that, it will be some story.

gosh that feels a long time ago it feels a late start to NZ Test season, I guess we are use to hosting a lot of lower ranked teams for 2-3 test series. We started end of October one year (Im sure of it).

I follow our domestic T20 closely but by far I follow Test cricket.

Feels as if Kane would be ending too soon, class players like him from other countries go on to late 30s. Id really like to have seen him join the 10k runs club, which I think Kholi hung around for but his avg went down a lot from 8yrs back. Steve Smith has held his avg together To think he missed a year for the ball tampering, such a shame.

JPNZ

1542 posts

Uber Geek

#3313379 27-Nov-2024 12:00

Really looking forward to this series and following along with the Aus-Ind series at the same time. All 5 days in Christchurch are sold out and the weather looks perfect all 5 days.

Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313472 27-Nov-2024 17:33

JPNZ:

Really looking forward to this series and following along with the Aus-Ind series at the same time. All 5 days in Christchurch are sold out and the weather looks perfect all 5 days.

Im going to be GLUED to my screen :-). it just feels like we have missed out on some cricket this year.

Indeed, Ind vs aus is both enthrawling now as well as potentially helping NZ into the WTC. Did I imagine we lost a test series to Bangers and then put a more respectful side together and bowled our way to a 3-0 over Ind. Nuts.

Mr Reddy played well in the PM eleven. Some other young talent in that side did well with the ball vs Eng. I feel like we are fast developing a stock of bowlers, just need a Batsman WK.

thermonuclear

600 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3313574 27-Nov-2024 21:52

Any Geekzoners making an appearance at the 1st Test in person? Sounds like the weather is going to be outstanding for tomorrow and clear skies for the whole test if it goes the distance.

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313726 28-Nov-2024 10:39

thermonuclear:

Any Geekzoners making an appearance at the 1st Test in person? Sounds like the weather is going to be outstanding for tomorrow and clear skies for the whole test if it goes the distance.

I wish...

1 Tom Latham (capt), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Matt Henry, 11 William O'Rourke.

Young effectively replaced for Smith, which I think is a good idea. But not sure Young is the one to drop.

Eng win toss and will bowl on a lush green top, NZ better produce 250-300 minimum, but that might be a big ask.

JPNZ

1542 posts

Uber Geek

#3313728 28-Nov-2024 10:42

thermonuclear:

Any Geekzoners making an appearance at the 1st Test in person? Sounds like the weather is going to be outstanding for tomorrow and clear skies for the whole test if it goes the distance.

Missed out on tickets sadly. Its a glorious day outside too and already 24c at 10:45am. Enjoy to all those that are going, I hope we win the toss and bowl

Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+

JPNZ

1542 posts

Uber Geek

#3313729 28-Nov-2024 10:43

England win and bowl first

Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

Uber Geek

#3313741 28-Nov-2024 10:46

JPNZ:

England win and bowl first

I posted above ya :-) no competitions here mind you. I would have flown in if it were possible but couldnt get out of commitments, seeing the weather forecast makes it more frustrating.

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