Dochart: Will Young has scored more runs than Conway for this series.

I hope he gets a century and make it a big one.

Yep, to be fair its hard to take him seriously at avg 30 with no 100s, as much as I personally love a player who can drive consistently. But hes hardly been given consistency. Hard to think they placed more faith in Blundell than Young.

Rachin also needs to deliver, Williamson nobody knows exactly when he will hang up everything and given Latham, Conway, Mithcell and Blundell have been patchy, Rachin needs to start lifting to his true ability in the high 40s. Otherwise we do not have a top batsmasn. If we can get consistency of delivering runs 1-7 from our next team, I think our bowling will put us back in with a chance of a WC (I mean in time, not the next). Teams need that top batsman to lead by example.

Edit: oh that sucks. NZ hitting any ball thats put on a platter. lovely 4 by Williamson but sucks to lose Young when he was looking so good. I thought it would be Latham that would go first.

If NZ can put 450+ on the first innings, I think Eng could lose this overt confidence with trying to score super fast. Wickets could tumble. Scoreboard pressure and all that.

Williamson is looking very good, Latham is making the most of his good luck too.

Edit: you gotta play cricket in partnerships to get the bulk of the runs, if Will Young starts NZ off in a positive manner and consistently gets us over 100 before the first wicket then Id be happy enough with that.

edit: Did Latham really hit that? looked like the ball passed the bat ..... yep, a fine one. 

Now Williamson and Ravindra need to put on 150 between them.

Rachin still doesnt have the maturity for lengthy innings. No wonder hes only averaging 38 now. He needs to hit the ball into the ground whenever its toward fielders, hes so often caught like that.

I dunno about it not being a no ball, we have seen those given. Id say Carse is very fortunate, there was no heel behind the line it seemed very much on the line. I could be very wrong, my old eyes only got the one replay.

This is where NZ need a big partnership to get us to 400.

why am i not surprised, NZ losing 7 wickets for a 120 runs. Sigh

vexxxboy:

 

why am i not surprised, NZ losing 7 wickets for a 120 runs. Sigh

 

yeh not good, but two positives, we finally got an opening 100 run partnership, we also avoided all collapse with Santner, who love or hate, can hit a ball. still. not the long term changes Im after.

Well this Santner innings is showing what happens when you have an 8 who can score and ideally the 6, 7WK as well as that 8 depending on who is playing, it puts a bookend on an innings.

edit: the problem is they decided on GP as the batting spinner, so when they put yet a 3rd one in to replace Nat Smith, you lose all the offense with the ball, especially given Southee is in his last. 

going forward Id expect to see Smith, Foulkes etc putting on those runs, he did score a 40.

Brilliant ever increasing pressure by O'rourke on Bethell, Ive never seen him sharper (pace bounce). Finally a screamer goes to the hand of the point n gully expert catcher GP.

Edit: Cmon BCaps, about time Brook didnt ride his luck to a century. Now if Pope can get done for nudda then Id be very happy.

edit: dont stop O'rourke. he is literally blasting them away. Root gone.

I had been thinking all series long we are missing the express pace, O'rourke getting some of those up to 140kph. I feel the difference between low 140s and high 140s combined with accuracy can be such a big difference.

edit: NZ have 250 runs to get these 5 wickets, but if they can get them under 150runs, a win is really on the cards. but it feels like NZ have lost the intensity when Orourke was really high pace and just before that Henry with real movement. NZ dropped Smith for Santner, Santner scored 70 runs but he can he bowl a number of wickets for 70 runs? If Southee was Smith or similar it wouldnt be an issue, just rotate the 3 seamers with Santner/GP. But this is Southees farewell series on his home ground.

Nah this is not good enough.

You need 3 genuine pace bowlers 138kph minimum. If they can bat, even better. 

NZ were on top only 5 over ago, now its just Pope and Stokes chipping away at that score. They will know if they can get to within 150 before losing another, their bowlers can score the rest.

But just a mess of a NZ selection.

edit: perfect ball from Santner to Pope. If he and GP can continue that, it should give the pace bowlers nice long breaks, or if you bowl Santner and GP, you need less of Southee. Preferably we want O'rourke non stop, but that is not reality. It would be nice to see Orourke/Henry bowl the builk of the pace bowler overs.

Gorgeous by Santner who mops up Stokes wicket. Santner does just enough for players to miss the ball. This could end up a big lead by NZ. 200 odd would be nice.

Well done GP, that is 3rd good one to make up for the dropping of two sitters this series (not close to Lathams drops). 

NZ should rub this in if they going on to win. They could have been competitive if they didnt drop the Series Test 1. 

TeaLeaf:

Well done GP, that is 3rd good one to make up for the dropping of two sitters this series (not close to Lathams drops). 

NZ should rub this in if they going on to win. They could have been competitive if they didnt drop the Series Test 1. 

Dochart: 

What a difference in this test match compared to the other 2. Young and Santner in this side has been the difference in batting stability and more wicket taking options.

Stability but keeping the run rate up. But yes, just intent but having the players to apply the intent, 

edit: 4 days should be enough at this rate. but metservice is saying rain until evening tomorrow, but gives no mm'hour gauge on each hour. Hope we have some play. 

edit: Young and Williamson, dream partnership. Both have control. Young is more like Taylor in that he plays the ball rather than waiting for the ball which is what Williamson does to give him as many options as possible. 

edit: provided O'rourke and Henry dont clean up Eng in 2nd innings, will they give GP far more overs given how much Bashir is turning it and the turn against the angle Santner got.

If Young can for once truly replace Conway, the importance of replacing Mitchell becomes less of a priority mode.

and the obvious easiest improvement is Mitch Hay replacing Blundell. 

Once this team is back up to big scores and lots of wickets, you can put Mitchell anywhere and he would be ok. Its 95% solved. A real fix would be picking a  team which Im not close to yet. BUT;

1. Latham 

2.Young

3. Williamson

4. Rachin

5. Mitchell

6 GP

7 Mitch Hay

8. N Smith/Foulkes (all rounders with good pace)

9. Henry

10. Matt Fishr/Ben Sears. Fast, will see if Sears heals.

11 Orourke.

Can't agree with you guys on the relative unimportance of Mitchell if other guys in the batting line-up are firing. The reality is that the middle order has been inconsistent and light on runs for too long. Perhaps McMillan can sort that out if he gets the coaching job after Stead is moved on but I still think Mitchell doesn't warrant a place in the side moving forward. The innings was saved by a miracle knock from Santner, not by anything Mitchell or Blundell did yet again.

He used to be so solid in the middle order and I won't soon forget his efforts in 2022 where he was outstanding, but it's now end of 2024 and he's just not cutting it. Needs to go back to domestic cricket and rediscover his form if he truly values the Silver Fern and wants to be a part of the test side, otherwise go and cash in on the T20 money train.  The team has been carrying too many simply out of touch players for too long which is a big part of why NZ won't be appearing in the WTC final next year. The side has just drifted on past glories.

Still got to get the victory over the line, which I'd argue has proven to be a 50/50 proposition for NZ for a while now. A fair way out from Zimbabwe obviously but, assuming a new coach is put in place and they select on actual merit instead of sentimentality, this is the side to take the park in Bulawayo in batting order

Tom Latham (c)
Rhys Mariu
Will Young
Kane Williamson
Rachin Ravindra
Glenn Phillips
Mitch Hay
Nathan Smith
Matt Henry
Ben Sears
Will O'Rourke

Rest Of Touring Squad

Spare Bat - Muhammad Abbas
Spinner - Tim Pringle
Allrounder - Will Clark
Nasty Fastie - Matt Fisher

That's your test side barring injury for the forseeable. The next WTC cycle for NZ doesn't begin until this time next year with the three match series at home against the West Indies. In 2026 NZ tour England mid year and have four tests in Australia at the end of the year including the Boxing Day fixture. I'm planning on going to both at this stage, provided I think they are a starter's chance of competing and acquitting themselves well. I believe the side above is the makings of a pretty decent team.

Think (hope) Williamson will hang in there to maybe retire after the series in Australia, or whoever we are hosting after that tour at home in early '27.

So you guys have no place for Santner and Jamieson in your teams?  Or even the squads?