Bondy....Lou Vincent....and the summer of CRICKET

I was just perusing some old threads and came across one slagging Lou Vincent (lost the link dammit) around World Cup time.....

Anyway....it got me thinking about the summer of cricket ahead.

I, for one, am a confirmed cricket fan so will be watching closely.

Biggest Disappointment:

BONDY injured For the first time since Paddles we have a bowler capable of tearing opposition teams to pieces. A GENUINE FUCKIN MATCHWINNER. 6-23 or the like against the Aussies at the World cup. I mean...hello.....thats not normal. When hes bowling you feel like someone is about to get out...doesn't matter who the batsman is....or conditions. He'll fucken roll ya.
The biggest star NZ cricket has had in years I reckon.

Bondie's the difference between NZ possibly being OUTSTANDING (if fit) and 'Normal old NZ' battling it out.

The X factor a top team needs.

The "LAST CHANCE and shouldn't even have one AWARD" (and previous 'entertainment for all the wrong reasons' award') goes to me old mucker LOUIE VINCENT. Semi (and I mean VERY semi) justified his selection in recent test century against India. JUST. I would've closed the gate before then...CCCCCUUUUU.

Hes got another chance. OK....score some fucken runs......OR ELSE. I can assure that old Shoaib isn't losing sleep about getting carted to all corners of the park on the first morning in Hamilton in a couple of days!

If he doesn't score.....has to be gone before the JAJA's. No two ways.

Its your chance LOUIE to prove me wrong.


X FACTOR WILD CARD.

Lets hope Cairnsey has an injury free one. Still has the ability to be the most destructive batsman in cricket.

Bowling...I can take or leave. Cairnsy ON FIRE with the bat is X-factor. Not quite a Bondy but fucken majestic to watch.

And definately a possibility.

POTENTIAL STAR OF THE YEAR. My vote to 'piggy'. Solid as fucken houses. Genuinely and instincively talented. Ready for the next step. See his sporting talent lineup. Waikato B ruggers.......Waikato junior soccer....almost off scratch in golf....etc etc)

Defrinately a chance that Piggy will hit the big time this summer.

OVERALL VIEW. Flakey at the top with Louie boy there. Richardson sound as a pound against allcomers.

Middle order good if Flem fit.
McMillan back in form.
Piggy and Cairnsy VERY able.


Bowling the weakness.

Without Bondy back to 'pop-gun' unless Butler pulls out a star turn (possible).
Vettori as per will do everything and more.

A 50/50 summer really.

Pakistan....sharp as tacks.

JAJA's. Mate they won't wanna lose here.

Possibly...could be a great success (beat 2 top sides)

At worst.....average.

Not DISASTER (NZ cricket syle 'disaster'...ie catastrpohic)

Others.....perhaps wanna give their thoughts on the above catergories.

And the upcoming series.

WAHOO. I love my cricket.

The intrigue ahead!!!

I love cricket commentaries...

"...Bound moves and bowls... Jump plays it languidly into the off-side for no run, its fielded by Bounce who pauses and examines the ball, possibly he's spotted some small defect worthy of his attention... now the ball is back with the bowler, as an ambulance passes by the ground breaking the air of silence that has descended on the players... In comes bound again, and Jump plays a straight bat for an easy single past the bowler to score the first run in 7 overs and at the same time become the first Central batsman to score a three figure prime number before xmas in the shell cup... The wicket is doing nothing now to help the bowlers and batsman appear to be content to let the game meander to a draw in three days from now..."


Pity New Zeland won't win anything important as usual this summer, but thats not the point with cricket, its an exercise in culture, innit?

Its a real polariser.

ya love it or ya don't.

Probably a lot to do with playing it as a youngster.

All I know...and can't explain it....is that cricket's number one for me.

Love most sport but the old cric's definately the fave

NZ wins something most summers now FB, stop being a pessimist. I think we'll struggle this year but the paki series should be close. Hopefully the cheat will hurt himself so its a genuine cricket series. He was certainly throwing them in pakistan.

Agree about Vincent but he does deserve to be there for the next 2 tests. I think a test century ensures that, and in reality we haven't got a lot to replace him with.

I think NZ has already had success this season... the drawn series against India was pretty huge IMO.

It will be interesting to see how we go against Pakistan. They've been our bogey side since the 92 world cup. Maybe we can finally break the hex.

The Dude who te hell is "piggy"

Im assuming you mean Styris but that nigga aint off scratch

PIGDOG is Scottie Styris.

I dont mean to be picky of nuffink but Im a golfer , cant go saying 5 handicappers are "nearly off scratch"

http://www.golf.co.nz/members/details.cfm?State=P&MemberID=385839

563 - bloody good score and great to see vettori getting his first test century. I see him being a genuine allrounder soon.

England got THRASHED by SL (at least I predicted something right) and we've now regained our rightful #3 ranking.

Let's hope we can consolidate with a 2-0 win over the pakis

weathers pretty shit in Tron though................looks like the 1st test will be a draw unless the rain has put a bit of life into the wicket

Great batting display from Vettori, he's only gonner get better at batting & at only 24 he got a lot of cricket left in him

good to see a no9 getting a 100

Yeah, well we basically have to enforce the follow on now if we want to win

Not looking too likely

I think butler has to go. He has been given a chance and is simply not up to test match standard. About time Mason was brought in instead.

Still a chance for a victory inzaman not out and tuffey bowling well. Tuffey and Bond opening the bowling would be as good as any side in the world.

5 for tuffey.. he's pretty much a one man band at the moment... Cairns and Butler are both pretty lucky to be bowling in a test match at the moment.

Butler's still young,yeah but if he's not up to standard at the moment, he should be replaced.........

Cairns is bowling like crap, but he is a useful 3rd or 4th seemer that can take wickets, plus his batting keeps him in.........

just 47 to aviod the follow on... i'm not liking our chances, especially with more rain forecast

Louie 'THE ROCK' Vincent has to go.

8 and 4 in this test.

No pressure....very easy batting.

GONE

yeah... i hope they get rid of him... he's had one good innings in about 2 years...

it can only be a draw from here, unless we have a huge collapse

Fuck yeah get rid of him!

where's Matt Horne ?

I think he would be a good option with Richardson, especially in test matches.

What the hell is going on?

Is anyone watching this live?

Unless the pitch is an absolute minefield (and it may be) then this is an absolute disgrace

yeah... 42/3 ... this isn't much fun

ouch.... 42/4

let's settle it down boys

42/4 ...not looking too flash.

42/5!!!!!

make that 42/5

What the fuck is going on? I'm gonna go watch the tv now instead of getting updates on cricinfo.

I'd actually consider dropping Cairns at this stage too... they won't of course, but really... he hasn't done a lot in a long time...

well they were only saying yesterday what a wonderful batting surface it was.........



Vincent has to go, the guys crap, he's dropped some key catches too

what the hell??? are they throwing the game or something??/

mcmillan run out!!??!?!

Self destruction here we come! Oh so familiar

Its painful to see the great work of the first innings being completely undone in the second.

Offered no stroke??? We could put a 10 year old in and he'd do better. Always play a fricken shot you moron!

Run out? Bowled without playing a shot???

Funnily enough.

It may make a contest out of a dead rubber.

If we lose our next 3 quickly........

Pakistan will have 3 hours or so to score the runs.

Could be exciting.

if we bat out another 10 or so overs we should be ok. That'll leave them 35 or so overs to get around 180 or 190. Do-able, but there might be a little bit more in this pitch with all the moisture

87/7 Oram & Vettori showing some batting ability

i think we're mostly out of trouble now.. *touch wood* ... they'll need over 5 an over to win from here... but a few more overs would be nice

Bad light now. Looks like it will probably be all over.

that was bloody funny, thank god for the rain otherwise the Krap Caps were Goooooooone

Rowie again showing how little he actually knows. The required run rate was up to 6 already before the bad light and still 2 wickets in hand. Bad performance in the second innings, but also some great bowling by the pakis on a pitch that had livened up with the rain and higher humidity.

Hart needs to improve or be replaced. Another sitter put down, although the umpire would probably have given it not out. Changes fro next test should be mason for butler, jones for vincent and mccallum for hart. I think only the mason for butler is likely though.

The test was never in danger, so we lost a few easy wickets when a result was unlikely, there's nothing to say that Pakistan wouldn't have lost a few cheap wickets chasing a total quickly & shut up shop them shelves


NZ still dominated this test match for 4 of the 5 Days

I think we outplayed them overall... some terrible batting yesteday though.

I hope Vincent gets dropped. I wouldn't mind giving Hart one last chance, but I agree, there's not much reason to keep him in the side. McCullum is a better keeper, and Hart's not exactly keeping himself in the side with his batting.

Vincent has to go.


I have more faith in the likes of Danny Vettori to score runs when required.

Which was shown to be the case twice in this test match.

You can almost bank of Louie 'ROCK' getting out cheaply.

If the TAB does spread betting like "Who will be first batsman dismissed' I would imagine Vincent would be on very short odds.

I was watching closely yesterday on cricinfo to see how many he would get. A scratchy 4!!!!!! NICE ONE. And NO surprises there!

His ODI batting is even worse. He will fuck around for 40 balls for 15 or so runs then gets out as soon as he tries to pick up the tempo. Valuable contributor indeed.

He was damn lucky to start with a hiss and a roar. He has survived off that effort for the past 2 or so years.

BUTLER....hmmmm. Give him another crack. Shows just how much we miss Bondie. I reckon with Bondie at full fitness we would have had every chance of knocking Pakistan over. The guy has x-factor.

Batting first....570...Bondy fired up. You'd be feeling very confident.

it's amazing how everyone in NZ can see Vincent should be dropped, except the selectors

How can they continue to select a guy who has continually proved himself to be the most flakey top-order batsman in international cricket.

Is Lou Vincent the Caleb Ralph of NZ Cricket????

Vincent will almost definitely play... Jones has been dropped for Wiseman

http://www-nz.cricket.org/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/DEC/027733_NZPAK2003-04_23DEC2003.html

Selections are killing our team!

they won't drop anyone i don't think... except maybe butler.

however they certainly won't give mason a go, nor will they give mccullum a go, nor tim macintosh or richard jones....

they will drop jones and play wiseman for butler is my guess, as much as i hate wizzer i think thats the way its going to crumble in the end - plus i don't think jones is up to scratch anyhow... imagine the run rate with him and richo opening... god that'd be a chore and a half... so it'll be back to jake the snake oram opening with tuffey, and cairns first change... don't really like the look of the strength of that attack, but it looks quite balanced with wizzer and the mighty vettori rolling the fingers over... all we need is for oram and cairnsy to pull a wicket or 2 out of their rings and we could sniff some pakistani tail...

i think the emphasis has spun around for the next test, and with shoaib back, he and sami are going to fire up against an easily intimidated kiwi batting line-up, and with nobody to bite back with the ball we're gonna need somebody to put their hand up and play very well with the willow to see us through... either the pig styris or mark richardson would be my picks...

here is what the team will be, i'd probably put money on if i had some!

the REAL rock
the grain of sand: vincent
phlegm
the pig
fatty mac
cairnsy
jake the snake
roberta hart
the mighty dannards
hightower
woeful wizzer
with butler 12th man...

and JAH - while i agree wholeheartedly that mccullum is better than hart, and will fulfill his place as kiwi test keeper at some stage in the future, he hasn't been performing well enough to warrant his place over anyone else (not that hart has either - but its an observation), and he has had a lot of opportunities in the one day arena and hasn't really played to his potential there either... in a years time he'll be a shoe in i think... especially once bracewell gets hold of him

as for the game just gone, i wouldn't read too much into the second innings... really it was just a lack of mental preparation by the boys as they knew the game was going ABSOLUTELY nowhere... it was a lose lose situation really... the highlight of my day was watching robbie hart give it the bryan young special though... classic times watching shit players shoulder arms and have their castle destroyed... in fact its the most amusing thing about the game of cricket... i nearly pissed myself... hahaha...

personally i think both fleming and vettori have reached a stage in their careers where they are confident in their roles in the team, and their context in world cricket - they are both showing a higher level of maturity that you see when someone is in the peak mental condition of their career... i think astle would also be in a similar position if he was playing... very reminiscent of steve waugh about 6 or 7 years ago, when he realised that he was in fact an awesome talent and it was about time he showed it (for those that didn't realise steve waugh's average wasn't always 50 - it was down around where fleming's is and even lower, especially early in his career)... hopefull fleming can play a few more magical innings's and start to push his average well above 40, and same with astle... and look for vettori to continue to improve his batting too

i could go on all day... haha...

bah! cairnsy injured! so jones is in...

150/5 after the first day, the rock on 53* and looking steady as per... test very much in the balance as i think shoaib may have another twinge...

Another good lower order effort so far. Hart out to another very poor shot, almost as good as vincents.

got seriously sun burnt yesterday, but it was worth it... great innings by Oram, he looked so comfortable at the crease until he got out.

It's been pissing down all night / morning, so chances of play starting on time are slim... seems to be clearing up now though, so hopefully we won't lose too much time

OK can we drop Vincent now?

please?

whats it gonna take ffs?

He is clearly clueless.........Id rather have the gutless Matt Horne in there............or anybody, maybe its time Jones had a crack at opening

Great spell with the 2nd new ball by Butler, when hes got rythmn he is international class.

Jake the Snake bowled well too and even Scotty looked promising with only two overs.

I am very concerned about Vettori though, seems he always takes 1-70 or so. The comentators bought up a stat that since is 6-70 odd in Australia his wickets have cost us 50 each and I bet his career average is around 37 too. He doesnt loop it enough, nice call by me about his batting but

This test is nicely set up for us now just need a reasonably quick 250 odd and we have a good chance to bowl Pakistan out on a wearing pitch esp the fact they have picked a team with a ridiculously long tail, for an interntional side. I mean.......Sami is a number 8?

ha ha I dont think so

shame to see the Indians handing the Aussies back the initiative Melborne, dont know about you guys but I was intrigued after the 1st day of the possibilty of smf eating his shoe

Another good day for the black caps, butler with his best ever performance. Vincent was truly awful. He struggled so much more than any other player he has to go. Jones to move up and cairns back in the middle order is the way to go. We need to score quicker tomorrow. The best outcome could be the black caps being dismissed cheaply and us having more time to bowl the pakis out.

With a lead of 170 I stated at the start of the NZ 2nd innings that we were effectively 170/1.

Thats how much faith I had in Lou Vincent.

Bye bye Louie.

yeah, i have a feeling that could be his last ever innings for NZ

I don't think he'll make the one day squad (Jones will open, and Marshall will come into the middle order).

I'm not that worried about Vetorri. Possibly, we might have to consider not playing him in certain games (maybe in some of the games vs SA for example). He hasn't really had a bowl on a wicket that's taken turn for a while (even in SL and India).

He's under the tuition of Bracewell now, so that might help too.

Vetorri may not take the volume of wickets that other players do, but that wicket he got yesterday was one of the key batsman which in turn helped to trigger the Pakistani collapse. Butlers figures probably look better than they should as he cleaned out the tail.

Vettori is still the key to a balanced team

he might not be taking wickets, but he hasn't been going for too much an over & helps build pressure

103/9 ...not looking too good at the moment. Pakistan will have heaps of time to get what isn't going to be an overly large lead.

All out for 103! Pakistan will be chasing 273 for the win.

You can always count on NZ to stuff up a winning position.

another dismal display of batting.... ok, so they're chucking them, but that's no excuse for some of the dismissals....

hopefully there's something in the pitch we can make use of... and their batting is pretty weak... but I have a bad feeling about this....

right, FB, that's why they haven't lost a home series in about 5 years...

lost 7 for 9 ... pretty amazing collapse

Another 50 or so would have made a massive difference.

Still enough to win.

But back to the balance being fairly even.

7 wickets for 9 runs.

Back to the bad old days!

see how much it swung the ball - that was reverse too - gotta be ball tampering! We'll see if the kiwis can do the same thing.

HAHAHA

and the black caps wanna compete with SA for 2nd spot???

Lou shot his mouth off b4 the series about this being a war and he was waiting for the Paki's

All he did was work up Shoaib Akhtar and co

Lou has really fucked up hahaha

I've got out the totem pole, time for a rain dance methinks!

what are farking batting balls up, good thing I went to the cricket yesterday & not today


just proves that our 2nd Innings collapse in Hamilton wasn't a one off



talk about playing our selves into winning situations only to blow it

Not looking too good

we're going to need 3-4 wickets in the last session if we're going to have any chance...

no not looking good


Harris & Vincent have been dropped from the one day side for the first two games against the Pakki's

can't win 'em all

It's stopped raining, so I'd say they'll be starting on time...

Don't know why Inamam didn't bat on last nite tho...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2770254a1823,00.html

Thats why

yeah, i saw that.... heh.. well, they've got no one to blame if they don't have enough time to win...

but I don't think that's going to happen... it's raining, but they only need to get about 10 overs in at most

7 wicket win to the Pakki's



Nz only has them shelves to blame

Oh fuck!!!

I think I'm gonna move to Australia

I guess we can get back to #3 if we beat Sth Africa

beat SA??? hahahaha
A team that is just killing WI at the moment!!

Get used to 5th Place Krap Caps

stranger things have happened rowie... remember 2 years ago when we played a 3 test series in Aus, and almost beat them, then SA came and played a 3 test series, and got thrashed 3-0 by Aus?

It'll be a tough ask, and we have a pretty poor record against SA, but we've got everything to play for.

It's not going to be an easy win to SA at any rate

SA are currently giving the West Indies a hiding at the moment

& without Shane Bond SA will murder our bowlers

yeah, as SMF keeps saying, taking 20 wickets is the hardest part for us... but who knows... if Bond's not back, maybe Butler and Tuffey will up their games.

Killing west indies at home is not exactly the top of the hard to do list in world cricket at the moment.

I agree SA should beat us but so should aussie have a few years ago, and do you remember the world cup rowie.

Anyone can win a one off game, Over a series i cant really see NZ beating SA

Anyway Well Done Krap Caps, good game today.

India are creaming the Aussies which is also fun to watch haha