Black Caps vs West Indies

12 start, quite late eh??

Time to drop Oram and look for a permanent replacement. His injuries just like Bond is fucking with the team beiung stable. Are they all made from glass?

Late start = its in Dunedin, sun doesnt actually rise in the South Island till 10ish. If at all


Im looking forward to this appealing against decisions trial and how Dizzy goes

Won the toss and having a bat, good to see him asking the batsmen to front up. Yeah Oram grrrrr.

Def looking forward to see how these appeals against the umpires are going to work out.

i'd like to see Franklin bat 6... rather than pushing McCullum or someone up the order.. I think we need to mould him into our Oram backup, cause I think his batting will turn out to be a lot better than his bowling...

huge game for Mills as well... he's in danger of being pushed out of Test contention... his chance to prove something

I'm with Re-Action, just about time to give up on Oram. He's barely ever fit. Maybe just consider him for ODIs.

Batting order is a little fucked if you ask me.

Your best batsmen who I believe is Taylor right now should be at #3 not 4. If they wanted to mold Flyn into a #3 then he should prove himself.

How
McIntosh
Taylor
Flynn
Ryder
Daniel - I think Daniel is much more stable than McCullum.
McCullum
Franklin
Mills
Gillespie
O'Brein

Thats my order.

How out already to a bad shot. Looks like we are continuing true to the form in Aussie.

Reaction: Yes but you forget that this is NZ so we're always going to lose a wicket early on... you don't want Taylor coming in before the shine is off the ball

McIntosh looking OK, nervous, but happy to leave a lot of it alone...

How.... WTF... not the shot of an opener

I get that but we are looking towards the future of this team and in there we need to find an opening partnership that will work. What we do now is send someone up the order like Flynn and then before you know it we are 2 down and Taylor still needs to face that shiny new ball. You can't hide Taylor, he needs to get in there shine on or off the ball. IMO anyway ...

yes, but you've got to take into account temperament. Flynn is really the only one who has the right one to play #3. You need someone who's as technically good as an opener, but can play shots as well.

In an ideal world, we'd play him in the lower order and have him slowly work his way up over time a la Ponting, but we don't have the luxary of piles of talent, so he'll just have to learn his trade on the fly.

Perhaps thats the problem with NZ cricket. Not patient enough with the players that really need it. We will rather push them into positions where they dont belong and then wonder why the hell they keep on failing.

Lets hope McIntosh doesn't play himself out of form, like most of the previous good domestic openers that have made the step up

pretty gritty from McIntosh, they gave him a massive working over, showing some good ticker. Like.

looks like yet another cricket player with issues against the short ball tho.... he wouldn't last long against a team like Aus (until he sorts that out anyway)

Its his first test, give him a break!

urgh, what is with NZ batsmen giving their wicket away when they get a start?

God damn, Taylor needs to put that across-the-line slog sweep shot fucking away!

Grrrr

LOL poor Flynn

Was more than 50% of the ball in line? NO. Therefore not out

It's going to be pretty shitty if they start giving marginal calls like that out. I think they should only be reversing clearly wrong decisions.

Stoked with my fat boys performance!

I think we're being a bit one eyed if we call that a marginal decision.


Yes it was a front foot LBW call but hawkeye tracked it into hitting middle stump halfway up. Unlucky for Flynn but pretty conclusive.

Also I made the call for Flynn to be put up to #3 after the last game in conversation with someone here at work. He has a far better temperament and technique for lasting out the new ball than any of our more aggressive middle order batsmen. I like the move and hope he stays.

I haven't seen it yet Dale, but it doesn't matter if it was hitting or not if he got struck outside the line

I thought that was only a case for reasonable doubt? This was to a spinner who pitched it outside off, angling into the stumps? Flynn came forward, didn't play a shot and the ball didn't get much bounce. As soon as it hit I winced knowing it was close.

Warney has got plenty of LBW decisions over his career hitting outside the line due to how much he moved the ball. Don't see this being any different?

Ungh, excuse my horrible english in that last paragraph.

if he didn't offer a shit then it's all good.

lolz

oh lulz, i didn't even notice that

Yes, good call. I'm glad Moles listened

Its only auto-not out if its hitting outside leg, fair game if its off.

I initially read the last 2 words of your post as "Molested"

I have a far reaching influence my friend...

Play called off for the day.

ghey.

How amaturish is this? Friggen having to sweep up chunks of cat litter from the field with piddly little brush and shovels. Who puts cat litter on the ground? Especially when it's big chunks of the shit. Where's the sawdust?

Oh, I see they have now got a broom to sweep it out of the way.

I think it is looking rather stupid to play a game in Dunedin at this time of the year. If it rained somewhere else in NZ at least it would be warm enough to dry out quicker.

You might be suprised how hot Dunedin can get .....but yeah as a rule there shouldnt be any major sporting events played in the South Island

When does it get hot though? February?

Anyway, another NZer gets out just short of a century ...to another stupid shot

This game is boring be to death. If I don't stop watching it I might actually die.

apparently average number of rainy days in December in Dunedin is 15... do the maths

there are other places in the sth island that are really dry in summer, and some good grounds to play at... dunedin might be ok in feb/march

Approx 50% of all test match days will feature rain interruptions = 2.5 days of a test match played on average. (I say accounting for very light rain days and longer recovery from heavy falls roughly cancels each other out)

Add the facts the Dunners ground doesnt have a decent drainage system or super soppers = genius scheduling by NZC

Personally I think Vaughan is a twerp, so there will be more of this

yeah, and to top all that off, the pitch is completely dead... probably would've been a draw even if they'd had 5 days

on another note, is Vetorri now a muslim?

I reckon he grew the beard to keep his face warm in the Dunedin weather.

Next weeks game is in Napier. Much higher chance of their being better weather for that match. I think all games before Christmas in NZ should be played in areas that have low rainfall. Summer doesn't really get going until January these days.

gonna see a lot more bat/pads given with the referal system...

looking at that delivery, we probably should've played jeetan

Mills destroying them!

Jerome Taylor destroying NZ now.

60 odd runs behind NZ's score.

Obviously you haven't enjoyed a south island summer, the heat is a lot dryer than AK


BITE BITE BITE

It's raining again this morning. If they lose more hours they will probably just abandon the rest of the match.

yeh, ghey to have it down there in December, that may well have cost us a chance to go up to 7th .We missed Southee, he would have done well into the wind, Gillespe was mud, Mills was'nt that great, guys got out to him not the other way around. We're going to have to play heaps better next game to take a win. Fuck i hate how New Zealand always gives players confidence e.g the Taylor 100. The cunt had not even scored a fitty before that

Yeah, that Taylor 100 really rubbed salt in the wound of NZ top order batsman not making it to 3 figures

He played some pretty glorious shots though

Gillespie bowled like shit yesterday. Could not bowl it in the right areas if he tried. As I was watching it, all I could think of was: "We dropped Martin and Southee for this???"

http://iainobrien.blogspot.com/

I couldn't help laughing every time he played a massive shot. Ahhhh the state of test cricket in this country...

well the maths worked out... 2.5 days lost (admittedly not all to weather, but most of it)....

pretty disappointing... we're never going to grow Test cricket in New Zealand with this sort of thing. It's a good idea moving it out of the big grounds, but surely some common sense must've come in somewhere...

I am starting to worry about the future of Test cricket in NZ. It's surely run at a loss for home games, and the other sides have little incentive to play us at their home.

Game about to start shortly.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat first.

NZ Team:

TG McIntosh
JM How
DR Flynn
LRPL Taylor
JD Ryder
BB McCullum
JEC Franklin
DL Vettori
KD Mills
JS Patel
IE O'Brien

it's already looking pretty easy for batting.... could be a long day

60odd for 3

nice

Patel should play more often IMO

Or not it seems. Windies 74/4 at lunch. Just need to finish them off this time and not let any of the bowlers rack up decent scores.

Need another wicket now. These guys have a start, so need them out. Especially Chanderpaul.

still a pretty good position, I think we would've taken that at the beginning of the day...

this will be a real test of our batting... hopefully we can finish them off fairly cheaply, then go for around 450... actually ideally you want more, it's not the sort of pitch you want to bat twice on

Props to O'Brien for getting 6 wickets. He's been pretty consistent of late (bar the last game in Dunners). He's not the scariest of bowlers but he gets it pretty consistently in the right areas. Got to applaud the discipline.

Not a bad position for us right now. After settling in tomorrow, it'd be nice to see the batsmen raise the run rate though. We need a result from this game and it looks like the rain might interrupt the game a couple more times in the next 3 days.

yeah, was impressive stuff from O'brien... i couldn't understand why he was ever in the team in the early days, but obviously the selectors got it right with him... he's been our best test seamer in recent times

a real shame about Jamie... it's hard to see how he can be left in the team now

Lets take a look then!

He's the scariest in the team at the moment. Mills and Franklin's mid 120s bowling is pretty pedestrian. It's almost like that first innings NZ only really used 3 bowlers and two guys that just leaked runs.

yeah, i think this attack would've looked a bit more dangerous with Southee and Martin rather than Mills and Franklin

100 for McIntosh!!!


...and with Ryder reaching 50 so far, this is looking good. If they could get the next 60 odd runs to pass the Windies score without losing another wicket they could get a massive lead, then have a decent amount of time to bowl them out.

Crap. I post that then Ryder gets out.

After the slow but determined start yesterday they have scored at 4.32 in the first session today.

Is it just me or does it seem like NZ are for once working according to a clearly defined plan?

Mills' stats disprove your thesis.

yeah, they're pacing it well... still need a few runs from the lower order... McCullum needs to contribute.. 450 would be nice

What's up with Powell? He's losing the plot. Running into bowl then pulling out and chucking the ball down past McCullum. Then going over the top with the mouthing off and swearing at the batsmen. Dude needs to clam down. It's not exactly helping him ...although I say that and he'll probably get a wicket now.

LOL! They just showed a shot of him fielding down at fine leg and he's still ranting on. I don't think anyone can even hear him down there.

Well, the possibility of a big lead starting too look less likely with 7 wickets down and only 12 runs ahead. Here's hoping Vetorri and Mills can get a bit of a partnership going.

Ok. This referral thing is just stupid now. On field umpire makes the "right" call on an LBW, then it gets referred and the third umpire says "nah, that's out". When there is too much doubt and the ball looks like it is going down leg. Hawk-eye shows the ball clipping leg stump. That's too close for the third umpire too call in my opinion.

It should be for reverseing obviously wrong decisions. Not agonising over ones that may be out.

Edit. O'Brien has a referral. Same sort of thing as Mills. 3rd umpire backs up the on field umpire and it's not out. Hawkeye shows it's pretty much the same as the one they reversed and gave Mills out. Hitting the leg stump. So Mills is out but O'Brien stays?

Patel on a hat trick

Patel you bloody legend!

Need another wicket now.

If they can just get into that Windies tail they should be able to knock them over quickly. Don't want to be chasing too large a score tomorrow.

Def needs to get a few now.

What will happen from here? Gale and Nash will push to make the lead 250 by COP tonight (if they play the day out). Quick push for 70-80 runs in the morning and then send NZ and hope to bowl them out. Argh ... lets hope would like to see NZ chase down a good 300 score

I feel NZ needed 50-75 more runs to make this easy. Hopefully they can knock off the last three wickets quickly tomorrow and not have too much to chase. Currently the Windies are 214 ahead.

could be a nail biter... I wouldn't give the windies a huge hope of winning it (but who knows with our batting)... but a reasonable chance of a draw.. it's NZ's game tho

already slipping away... need a wicket real soon.. Vettori needs to start mixing up the bowling a bit I think... maybe give Ryder a couple?

I think it has slipped away. Windies are over 250 ahead. Gayle is smashing runs. Unless they get all the other 3 batsmen out in the next few overs they are going to have to chase over 300.

yeah, not looking good... still, will be interesting to see their approach if they have 300 odd to chase at 4 or 5 an over... not much to be gained from a draw, so why not have a go at it? Maybe promote McCullum, play it like an ODI... can always try to shut up shop after tea, but I would rather see them go for it and lose than bat for a draw from the beginning.. windies might start to panic too

fuck we are pathetic

let's give up test cricket

Did you always give up on stuff you were not good at vadz?

franklin is rubbish... not sure why he ever got recalled... he's never been that good at test level anyway... comes up with the odd good spell like last night, but bowls utter crap the rest of the match

5 for Patel

312 off 60... will be a pretty amazing chase if we get there...

His batting was poor as well. And he dropped a catch denying Patel 6 wickets! ...luckily that last wicket fell shortly later in the next over.


Anyway, 312 to win. 60 overs to get it. They need to try and go for it. But start to defend if they lose a couple of early wickets.

We've mounted bigger totals in 50 at Napier. It's doable. Will need someone accumulating at a decent rate at the other end if T-Mac is the mainstay again though.

T-Mac out in the 3rd over though.

UNngghhhh

Flynn run out

250 runs to get. 42 overs left in the day. 8 wickets in hand.

I like the fact that are making an effort to win. Lets just hope they can maintain the momentum and no one(else) throws their wickets away.

How charges past 50 with a barrage of fours!!!

...and gets out.


Anymore wickets and they may have just start defending.

How useless is this referral system?