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#3444452 16-Dec-2025 07:51

TeaLeaf:

Indeed some are saying Blundell will play in the final Test despite Hay being immaculate with the gloves, both generally and in run out/low catches. Not to mention the highest score in this Test for NZ.

Blundell is harder to get rid of than Nicholls lol.

Confirmed, Hay out, Blundell back in.

TeaLeaf

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#3445019 17-Dec-2025 16:40

thermonuclear:

Confirmed, Hay out, Blundell back in.

Yep. Mitch Hay was impeccable with the gloves, I can see him becoming an all time great WK for NZ. He looked at home with the bat, surpassing his FC avg of 48, which is not easy that far down the order, still think GP should be 6, especially more so with Blundell there. I do hope GP gets more of a bowl.

Im hoping its a fairwell test for Blundell..... also hoping its not a fairwell NZ test for Williamson, need him for this WTC, especially in India. Latham is up there with one of our best ever openers, he is a good batsman of spin so hoping he does well there too. Hoping for KW and some serious pace for the upcoiming Eng tour, if we cant have our best Foulkes would go well in Eng conditions.

TeaLeaf

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#3445025 17-Dec-2025 17:50

Patel selected. I was hoping they would play Kristian Clarke who is a ded set all rounder. Hes in the squad, it wont get any easier, I say play him.

I wonder if they playing Patel, will they drop GP. I hope not, because Blundell at 6 effectively means we only bat to 5, without Clarke and GP in the all rounder spots. Whilst I like Patel, it kinda shows a lack of faith in GP and Rachin backing him up in the spin department. I think in NZ spinners need to be able to contribute runs due to our pitch conditions. Interesting though.

lachlanw

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#3445161 18-Dec-2025 10:23

Patel will likely be a straight swap for Tickner I assume? Win toss, bat first, then two spinners to clean up on the fourth innings.

TeaLeaf

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#3445254 18-Dec-2025 10:52

lachlanw:

Patel will likely be a straight swap for Tickner I assume? Win toss, bat first, then two spinners to clean up on the fourth innings.

Yep.

This pitch while it turns day 4/5, right now its green and clouds around. I think Clarke offering all rounder set of stats is a mistake not to debut for the new NZ test team. It also says to me GP who has a very similar record on mostly all green surfaces to Ajaz (who has bowled a fair bit in the sub continent, first test in NZ), GP is unlikely to get much of a bowl, let alone Rachin. I dont rate Latham as a captain as much as I rate him as one of our best all time openers.

but I will support Ajaz regardless. But Latham better make sure his top 5 score 400+ on this grassy surface or this will come back to bite him.

Clarke at 24yo who avgs 33 with ball, 24 with bat, if he gets that up he will be getting close to GP as an all rounder.

TeaLeaf

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#3445273 18-Dec-2025 12:48

the 20 over standard for an opener to see out for the team has been achieved. Both players looking good, but Conway especially again playing some classy shots given there is still movement around.

This grass is dry, its only worth a couple of sessions imo. Phillips and Patel should be getting turn immediately. Im looking forward to seeing GP set up the batsman with the regulation ball and then get caught out with his "Dusara" turning back into the lefty's.

WI have been unlucky bowling some genuine jaffas, but just not enough in a row, it starts with just one wicket sometimes....

Its nearing time for these two to start getting this run rate up to 4 rpo, giving a potential to declare by Tea tomorrow with a mammoth score and 3 and a bit days to bowl WI out twice. 3rpo is only 240 a day, perhaps even 3.5 would given NZ 560 by stumps tomorrow, if they can bat that long. The openers have done very well to get through the 28 overs with no wickets in the morning session. Fantastic to see both scoring given how both were in a run scoring slump the last few years.

Edit: Scotty just said "glad NZ has gone for the TWO spinners, Glen Phillips and Ajaz Patel", somebody knows what hes talking about. Sure Rachin is very much a part timer, but GP is averaging 30 on GREEN wickets. Fair go, time to start accepting his obvious talent with the ball, getting better consistently with a lot of variety in deliveries.

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thermonuclear

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#3445393 18-Dec-2025 15:24

TeaLeaf:

Yep. Mitch Hay was impeccable with the gloves, I can see him becoming an all time great WK for NZ. He looked at home with the bat, surpassing his FC avg of 48, which is not easy that far down the order, still think GP should be 6, especially more so with Blundell there. I do hope GP gets more of a bowl.

Im hoping its a fairwell test for Blundell..... also hoping its not a fairwell NZ test for Williamson, need him for this WTC, especially in India. Latham is up there with one of our best ever openers, he is a good batsman of spin so hoping he does well there too. Hoping for KW and some serious pace for the upcoiming Eng tour, if we cant have our best Foulkes would go well in Eng conditions.

Hay looked the business, I agree, a definite improvement over Blundell in his current incarnation. Must have been a pretty mild hamstring injury to have made such a miraculous recovery for this test. Do wonder if he's actually 100% fit and wanted to play because he knows his days are numbered with Hay looking so good.

NZ are not playing India in tests next year if that's what you're talking about? NZ's only scheduled tests in 2026 so far are three against England and the start of the four test series against Australia. But agree Williamson needs to hang around for next year at the very least. In terms of the WTC, there's not going to be much hope of NZ making the final based on their last two visits to Blighty and Aussie if things don't go well on those upcoming tours.

Which makes the draw in the first test of this series so painful for the points dropped. Despite NZ being bowler's down, if they had held their catches they would have won that test.

Nice century to Conway, fair play to him. He needs to retain this form for the next 12-15 months in red-ball cricket, not too much to ask.

Dochart

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#3445445 18-Dec-2025 16:00

I’m a fan of Will Young but at the moment his form in all formats has not been good. Conway so far recently has got his form back so sticking with him was a good decision.

I knew Ajaz would be selected for this test. I remember the previous time we played here and we lost due to the pitch deteriorating. I wonder if this is why NZ is so good at playing spin due to having this sub-continent type of pitch where it spins and deteriorates later on. Has Mount always been a spinner type pitch for tests/first class or has it just been a recent thing since 2020. I think selecting Ajaz over Clarke is the right decision due to the pitch nature but we will see when NZ has the opportunity to bowl.

JPNZ

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#3445457 18-Dec-2025 17:02

What a great start, we need to push on a bit faster so we can get a result.

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TeaLeaf

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#3445460 18-Dec-2025 17:12

Dochart: Has Mount always been a spinner type pitch for tests/first class or has it just been a recent thing since 2020. I think selecting Ajaz over Clarke is the right decision due to the pitch nature but we will see when NZ has the opportunity to bowl.

Depends on how they treat the pitch moisture mostly, being clay like, but yes. Eden Park when it was used was a good one, the Basin can get dusty on day 4/5 of tests. But to be honest nearly all pitches in FC or Tests the spinners are going to have to rip it off grass, Ajaz has had a lot of experience SEA pitches which obviously spin nicely. But in FC hes had to spin off grass. Phillips has built his avg 30 bowling on grass mostly, the difference obviously being he is a genuine middle order batsman.

Yes I have no issue with Ajaz, it more selecting Blundell over the incumbent Mitch Hay who is better WK Batsman, which leaves a #6 Blundell who has avgd ~20 in the last two years.

So without Mitch Hay, you have Blundell ahead of GP for some unkown reason, leaving GP stranded outside a possible middle order player surviving and after that its Foulkes and thats it.

What Im saying is, its not really about Ajaz, he was just in a very difficult decision for Latham picking a pace bowler who can bat or spin bowler who is a genuine tail end. Im just glad the openers have produced, now there is no issue, provided we finish off a 500+ innings.

Edit: This is now the longest KW has had to wait in a Test to bat. Was a bit funny watching him shadow batting, but it must be horrid waiting this long all padded up.

Edit: This is now NZ's highest Test partnership all time. I say go Conway, make it a triple, fill your boots.

thermonuclear

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#3445467 18-Dec-2025 18:10

TeaLeaf:

Edit: This is now NZ's highest Test partnership all time. I say go Conway, make it a triple, fill your boots.

Highest opening partnership in NZ by any team. Not even the highest all-time (yet) by NZ openers, which goes to Turner and Jarvis in Georgetown of 387 back in 1972.

And definitely a ways to go to better Crowe and Jones at the Basin for the 3rd wicket of 467.

NZ need to put on 600+ and try to bowl them out twice.

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TeaLeaf

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#3445489 18-Dec-2025 22:34

thermonuclear:

Highest opening partnership in NZ by any team.

Yes quite right, I was meaning to state "opening partnership in NZ" but was caught up watching with satisfaction.

Conway looked attacking but very very selective which has been his downfall with starts of late. So glad to see him go big and hope it gets to the 300, enough time etc.

Bit sad they didnt make it through the entire days play, so close. But more than good enough in my books. Shouldnt be any problems caused with Blundell and the tail now (for this Test only, still needs rectifying). GP and Patel are going to have a field day if NZ puts on 600+. If we have a mud slide and make only 500, I think that would still be dominant position to enforce a follow on, potentially.

It could end up show case of class tomorrow if Williamson joins in with Conway, but more likely I think Kane will know to feed the strike when he can.

TeaLeaf

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#3445573 19-Dec-2025 11:02

WI could still take quick wickets, so its not in the bag yet for the NZ batsman, I would like to see us bat to Foulkes if needed.

Speaking of Foulkes, Roach and his swing is almost identical, Foulkes should look at that wicket to Latham and get more of his away to left handers further into the stumps to get the edges, rather than looking like "pretty" swing bowling.

In saying that, into the right handers Foulkes gets a LOT of movement after the swing off the seam as it lands due to his gorgeous seam presentation.

Hard to fault the guy given his start to test cricket though.

edit: looking at our batting lineup, if you throw Mitch Hay back in at 6/7 and KJ in at 8, Foulkes 9, that is a potential genuine bookend, given Henry can bat too. I guess it depends on whether they will give the genuine Fasties a chance once fit again or if they stick with Duffy and Foulkes who are currently performing. Good problems to have, provided our top draw bowlers stop getting injured.

edit: Henry reminds me a lot of Hadlee's career. In Hadlee's final 10 years he went on to avg 30 with the bat and ~19 with the bat. Essentially the 80s decade. Genuine all rounder with ease. Henry has averaged just over 20 with the ball the last 4 years (~14 the last couple), hes taken that average down from getting close to 40 to now ~27. If he can go on another few years he has a chance to get his average down close to our best. I hope he heals quickly.

Gorgeous by Conway, both the century now the double century brought up with fantastic shots. He just knows where to score boundaries from a variety of deliveries, possibly better than any other NZ batsman.

TeaLeaf

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#3445998 20-Dec-2025 11:48

A wicket just fallen, an edge through 2nd and 4th slip and then an edge drop short of Latham, yet NZ has a relatively defensive field. They HAVE to take 20 wickets to win, no point worrying about runs, fill the slip and gully cordon out and get some guys in close on side under the lid with the occasional pit high bouncer slightly to the on side.

And now another wicket, get the fielders IN. Both the set openers are gone now.

Was a brilliant effort by the openers for WI yesterday, their first opening century partnership in 60 odd matches I think (or was that innings, 60 matches is a LOT)?

Edit: Ive taken a long time to warm to Duffy, but he is producing at the test level so far, even scoring runs with the bat, averaging ~17 with the ball in his first 3 matches. Of course I will reserve judgement until 10 matches in. But his height and Fast Med pace plus his height goes well with KJ, O'rourke and Henry for the Aus tour (assuming all being fit).

I say give Mitchell a bowl in this cross breeze, he might get some movement, prior to putting GP and Patel on together imo (although I know they wont, they will go one Pace, one Spin).

thermonuclear

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#3446016 20-Dec-2025 15:28

Patel getting little support from his captain and the field. Mitchell continues to look like a very average first slip when you consider the ability of the man he replaced. Appreciate the track is playing like a road presently but the game is meandering and the pace attack is looking like they are not first picks unfortunately.

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