NZ vs SA TEST CRICKET

OK these ODI's have been fun but its time for some real cricket soon, 1st test is only 10 days away


Wed 10 - Sun 14 Mar 1st Test v New Zealand Westpac Park, Hamilton

Thu 18 - Mon 22 Mar 2nd Test v New Zealand Eden Park, Auckland

Fri 26 - Tue 30 Mar 3rd Test v New Zealand Basin Reserve, Wellington

Some big calls coming up for the selectors so lets hear what the biggie experts have to say

I hate Vincent but Im also a big believer in giving the incumbent another go if he performed in his last series, luckily Lou is injured so I can replace him with Papps

Id like to find a place for Marshall as he is gonna be a great test match cricketer……….. but who do you drop?



The other BIG call is McCullum vs Hart and Im giving it to McCullum but not by much. Hart is gritty, dependable and mature. Needed more runs from him at crucial times vs Pakistan though so that tips the balance against him. McCullum wouldn’t have done much better vs Chucktar tho

Heres my team for the 1st test

Papps
Richardson (my fav cricketer)
Fleming
Styris
McMillan
Cairns
Oram
McCullum
Vetorri
Mason
Tuffey

12th Wiseman…………..in for Mason on dry wicket

I got a lot more to say but It’ll have to wait, wouldn’t mind leaving Papps out for another bowler (Butler) but we need another opener

The Maestro why is Richardson your favourite cricketer? He's good at occupying the crease. Fleming has better skills surely.

I'd have the same team, except Butler in for Mason. The only reason is Butler is probably the only player, besides Vetorri and Bond (and maybe Cairns when in form) who shows signs of being a genuine wicket taker, which is - obviously - crucial in a test match. Having said that Tuffey's been developing in the vein for a while too.

There are plenty of bowlers in that side - Tuffey, Butler/Mason, Cairns, Vetorri, Oram, Styris. Cairns probably won't get through a huge workload, and Styris is really a part-timer, but 3 seamers and a spinner is plenty (if they're good enough).

Agree with McCullum being in the side. He's earnt a call up with his batting. He's become an integral part of our one day side, and there's something to be said for consistency in the keeping position. He's also the future - Hart's towards the end of his career.

Finally, I wouldn't give Wiseman a game in the dryest track in the world. Surely we have one other spinner better than Wiseman??

I think Papps should open, he's been in great form for canterbury in the 4 day form

Butler in there for Mason, but I would like Mason to have a crack at test cricket in this series

McCullum deserves a chance

Mutant ................no we dont, and Im factoring in Wiseman because I believe dry wickets will be the best for us to play SA on. Last thing we wanna do is give the accurate genger a greentop to torment us on.............and then if Ntini got his back us as well? SA could easily roll us for 100

styln Ive always liked the grafters, my fav cricketer of all time is Glenn Turner.

When I was young rep cricketer I was skinny and a late developer................ so I learnt to be an obdurant pain-in-the-ass little opening batsman

since then you've dropped the little opening batsman bit have you.

Agree with your team Maestro, although Butler for Mason might be a better option. I see little difference between them but mason is more solid and I think butler, although a wicket taker could be taken apart by the SA top 5.

i want to see richardson bowl.

Why would you persist with Wiseman? Whats he ever done? He puts about 2 revs per pitch on the ball. May as well just use Rigga as another spinner.

Dont get me wrong...........Ive made plenty of digs against Wiseman on this site, personally I think his worse fault is his lack of guts/ belief in his ability which has been plain to see and manifested itself it Flemings attitude towards him

You gotta understand though that if we need two spinners Wiseman is the 2nd best in the country no question

Auckland captain Brooke Walker is prob 2nd and the yay-yas would kill Walker

Wisemans job on a turner is bowl 20-2-50-2 in support of Vettori and he is capable of that

esp if Braces gets in his ear and gives him some belief

I hope we can build on the success of the ODI's but first we HAVE to win game 6, this could be a big momentum swinger, if SA were to beat us good and proper in the 6th match that could be what they need to turn the corner...

Looking foward to the test series though...

Fitzy, we should check out the game at the basin, the day before we leave!

I'll definitely be spending a couple of days at the basin... may even take a sicky if it's a good game

/me reads thread



dammit to hell I soooo meant to tip Chris Martin............he was a legend in SA ages ago and I meant to mention him

anyway yeah Chris Martin, tall into the wicket bowler who deserves another shot

Yup, he's not bad against the Safa's..

Well, we should have the momentum heading into the test series after thrashing the 5-1

yeah... it'll all be undone a bit if we lose the test series.... more pressure on us then the saffers, I think.

It's still a valuable role to be able to occupy the crease for long periods of time and no doubt a real match winner at times. Glenn Turner was a more complete batsman though surely?

I love this stuff....

Go the gamesmanship:

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2833614a1823,00.html

Yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with it...

BTW, was Styris's non-dismissal in the Napier game one of the most bizarre things you've seen in international cricket? I don't know how he managed to look up so late.. Pollock seemed to be coming off his full run up... but the umpire completely missed it all too.

ummmmm, i agree.

i don't know much about cricket... have not paid much attention until this year really...

wish i had no job so i could go to a whole test!

Glenn Turner developed into a more complete batsman yes, but in his early years he was known as an utter stonewaller

Mutant yeah ha ha thats waht I was saying at the pub when it happened live, dont think Ive ever seen that happen

fuck knows what pig-dog was doing, thinking about his tea?

and Pollock the lazy-injured genger must have known and just couldnt be bothered restarting his run-up............ and/or was just hoping it would be given out

5-1

3rd in the world

yeah baby

we 're actually 4th ya liverpool nonce

You know fark all about cricket gay-lord

NZ and Sri Lanka are practically equal on points in 3rd

we're .26 points behind SL

I'm sure most of us will get a good laugh out of this

Bangladesh dispatch Australia to win Plate final

http://nz.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/MAR/085018_U19-WC2004_04MAR2004.html

it's always such a shame to see Australia lose

Good shit.

ahhhhhhhhh they couldnt even win the Plate!




those boys are going home in shame!!!

Lazy ginger? hahahah you will get a smack for that one next time I see you Mr.Masty He should have been given out, he got bowled, umpire should have watched the fucken game not think of the money NZ deposited into his bank account before the game

I don't think he should've been given out.... there are all those laws now (right at the beginning of the rule book) about "spirit of the game"... it's not really in the spirit of the game when you get bowled, and you weren't even looking... wow, Sth Africa, you're such a good team if you have to rely on getting people out when they weren't even watching the delivery...

and I don't think Sth African fans should start accusing *us* of being corrupt

*cough* hansie *cough* gibbs *cough*

(that's a real cough by the way.. hopefully I don't get really sick until Wednesday )

Classic post Mutant you set yourself up a shocker though Q



TrogDor wants to take Wednesday off!

1st Day of a test match I should always have off!

Stupid job and being responsible!

I was only joh keh n !!

This is gonna be a corker series, I hope the Weather doesn't spoil it tho

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2838330a1823,00.html

I'm loving this...

Wish I was watching it live

The Sri Lankans are the biggest cheats in world cricket... not only do they have a chucker, but they doctor their pitches to suit their chucker... ok, so everyone doctors these days, but to have spinners taking TEN wickets on the first day is just ridiculous.... as much as I love to see Aus lose, I hope they cane the Lankans for the rest of the series.

Hmmmm I actually don't like all these verbal attacks one team does towards the other one. It always sets you up for more dissapointment. Its going to be a cracker of a series thats for sure.

Masty you going to any of the days here in Aucks?

I think its a laugh. By speaking out like that it is obvious that Fleming is getting to them ...no doubt exactly the type of reaction that Fleming is looking for.

I don't think flem was "shooting his mouth off" at all... he may have done on the field, but to the press, he's always been his usual confident self. He'll say "we deserved to win", but that's about it.

Kind of smacks of a desperate team

Boucher is sticking up for their teenage captain..

Smith must have phoned his mummy and said "Fleming is being mean to me mummy"

"just tell Mark Boucher honey, he will stick up for you"



na.. but seriously, Im loking foward to the test series, some real cricket!

i do think that SA have a better test team than OD team but we can go toe to toe with anyone so bring it on!

Flem's just the master of friendly banter

Smith will have his captaincy exposed by the best in the business.........


Expect some tears

You have to crawl before you can walk, Smith is crawling like a baby atm. But when he gets walking, his going to be another Steve Waugh.

I have all faith in the young man.

It's too bad he doesn't listen to the more expereinced players in the team re the pitches and whether he should bat first or second. If NZ win the test series it will be due in part to Smith's ineptitude.

the shit thing is, because the fucking australian cricket assholes had a HUGE whinge to the ICC about the test match rankings, we are somehow 6th on the new standings...

after south africa went an won in the sub continent, and in the windies (both of which oz failed to do) the saffers got a little too close to the ockers on points, and this hurt the feelings of poor old ponting and co... as a result the system has changed, and despite having the 3rd best home and away record of the current test playing nations, we are somehow 6th!

if there is some common ground between NZ and SA cricket it is that we have both been DONE by aussie whinging...

the reality of the test series is that NZ have a shitload to gain, and SA don't really... if the series is a draw nothing will change, but if we manage to pull out a big victory similar to the one-day series i think we might be able to jump back to our rightful 3rd behind the saffers and the ockers - i truly believe thats where the NZ cricket deserves to be, especially over the last 3 years...

Hold on man, thats a BIG call...

just like LeBron James being the next Jordan?, before him (James) it was Vince Carter & Kobe Bryant, both brilliant players but they aint no MJ.

Smith is a very good cricketer but S.Waugh is one of the all time greats.

I would wait until he has had some big test series wins to make a claim like that..

He hasnt even toured India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka...

we'll see how good he is once he has toured some more.

I agree with Re-Action...............Smith IS going to be an all-time great (barring injury)

He's got that determined fringe-genger-yaya thing going on...............and he has A LOT of time when batting

Steve Waugh was not that big a deal anyway man, his batting record was inflated by the 50 odd not-outs in it.

And as a captain he had some of the worlds top cricketers at his fingertips, not to mention the worlds best depth if some of the stars (ie McGrath/Warne/Gilchrist/Hayden etc) got injured

Not saying Steve Waugh was fark all.................but Allan Border was a similiar battler and a better player imo

Maestro - don't know what you are on about with the not outs, its irrelevant. It may just have likely hindered his record than helped it, not being able to go on with his innings once started, it makes no difference to his average basically. Its like saying an average is inflated due to dropped catches.

Fleming pulled Smith up about time wasting, he didn't like it so fleming kept up the pressure, good on him. Cricket is a mind game and Fleming is all over Smith on that one. You can guarantee it will continue while the black caps are going well.

12.1 Vettori to Gibbs, no run, outside off, and turn, left alone, smiles
from Vettori, almost licking his lips

from cricinfo. Could be an interesting test. If you were to make a pitch to suit NZ it would be a spinning one.

good to see smith out..

53/1

hope we get some results from this series and not a whole load of drawn matches...

Which is exactly what I said earlier in this thread, as well as Wisemans inclusion AND I wouda tipped out Martin to make the 13, um if Id remembered

so dont you be messing with me over averages justasmallpairofunderpants

WTF does Smith the filthy genger think he's doing winning the toss AGAIN?

prick!



He played our cards by selecting Wiseman so winning the toss was crucial

Looks like Gibbs is trying to hit Vetorri out of the attack.

Smith and Gibbs out - BIG blows for South Africa however looking at closing in on the 100 before the lunch wich is what Im more concerned about. If we end the day on around 300/5-6 I would be a happy man. Specially on this pitch.

JA Rudolph 56
JH Kallis 49

SA 177/2

The NZ pace attack has had no luck

Damn I was expecting better news than that.

How do you mean Richy?

Im watching it and the Saffers look comfortable as, did we drop catches earlier?

great wicket to bat on, SA are going to post 400+ unless they absolutely throw it away

It is spinning but S-L-OW and the quickies are just fodder.............its so slow its like they have marked the wicket out 25% longer or something

"Will the wicket detoteriate? ".......... is the key now..........be great to see whizzer get a few

we will score runs on this pitch

anyone know of a live stream to listen to?

Looks like at this stage paying attention to this test match will almost be a waste of time.

Paying attention to any test match is a waste of time, unless you got a free day and 24 cold ones to get down ya.................................

SA looks very much in controll and they reached the targets so far that I thought would be good. Maybe 310+, would be mint by the end of play.

The pitch is slow but it can be worked on. I think NZ will drop quicker than SA, Cairns pulled a 141Km/h on it so there is a lil pace on it.

SA 279/4 at stumps. Im please and dissapointed. I recon at least 30 runs short of what we could have scored.

All in all SA 55% and NZ 45% of the day

We need at least 450 on this pitch or else it just won't be enouth.

How good was the new ball for NZ, brilliant bowling in the last session.

55%/45% ?.........cripes thats generous ............Id say more 70-30

I was at home today and The Kiwis had a shocker in the field, far too many four balls just given away.......Vettori often the culprit. We could have kept it a lot tighter

NZ were basically lucky that SA batsmen threw away their wickets, one batsmen beaten and the rest just bat batting............edges were not carrying to the slips

Bowler of the day Pigdog by miles, Nathan would have been good at his pace too

Losing the toss was crucial!

but Im confident NZ will own the SA attack UNLESS it starts keeping ultra low

Oh...........and wtf?






Whos "we" white man?

ha ha we should ban the ya-yas from the cricket threads! Theyre annoying!

Well I was going to invite you out for a day on the boat watching cricket drinking beer Masty but now you can get fucked

I actually think SA are going to fall short of a good total (400+).. but it probably won't matter... this isn't looking much like a result pitch...

NZ bowled well in patches, but the spinners let us down a bit... I think the seamers were a bit underused... Oram looked good for most of his overs, as did Cairns, and Tuffey was good towards the end. So many went past the outside edge, espeically off Oram.

I just have a feeling SA are going to come out thinking they are comfortable

305/6

Lets hope we get a lower order collapse.

they're batting well now... partnership of 46 at 4 an over

wat was that?? did u say 424/9??

cricinfo illuded to a potentially dropeped catch by the keeper for kirsten on 99...

can anyone confirm or deny?

hmmmm I missed that

Edge from a sweep shot?

back of the bat?

hard to give

Bloody Kirsten...............we always have problems getting him out

Any TV watchers? Hows the pitch looking?

i think fleming dropped it..

all out for 459.... likely draw?

I think so

as long as the wicket holds up NZ will score runs on this pitch................ or I'll be

Wiseman 12-1-54-0?........... fuck sakes!

NZ will have to bat pretty badly to lose from here.... would've loved to have seen SA try to bat on a seaming pitch, and facing Martin instead of Wiseman. Would've been a differerent story I think.

Flem dropped a hard chance at silly point wasnt kirsten though

Cairns dropped a sitter haha wasnt kirsten either

457all out, SA should not have got to that score

Pitch is turning and is starting to keep low

look, i don't know why they bother with wiseman... ii've said it so many times befoore that we shouldn't pick these talentless no hope losers on the possibility that they might pull something out of their pathetic asses and get a miracle wicket or 2...

wiseman really is a bad cricketer, there is no 2 ways about it... no variation, no turn, no skill, no guile, no loop, no bounce... my kid sister has more guts than that pathetic loser...

it was the funniest moment i've ever seen watching spearman take 30 of wizzer's over in the semi final...

you might say i hate wiseman... i will give him one thing and one thing only... at least he keeps his arm straight!

Wiseman has been around for ages and has never ever produced any thing. Sure I can remember him getiing the odd wicket here and there but he usually gives away too many runs and is hardly a star with the bat.

I love Wiseman

It's about NZ produced some better spinners to back up Vettori

Wiseman is crap

They need to start developing them form a young age, that's the only way we'll produce someone of Shane Warnes ability....

Yeah and so do the entire sa cricket team.

Flems dropped a few easy ones lately

he's normally so realiable

I've been told occasionally I'm a bit of a spinner, but I can't bowl for shit.

... and safely thru to tea.... SA will have to bowl on the wickets a bit more if they want to get us out

agree on Wiseman, he's a complete waste of time... let's hope he does badly in the 2nd innings too, so they don't get tempted to pick him for any of the other games

just about Papps should be back in the Hut

10.2 Pollock to Papps, FOUR, short ball, bouncer, ducks, leaves the bat
sticking up like a periscope, takes the back of the bat to fine
leg

haha... the periscope shot... haven't seen that since Andrew Jones

Im quite dissapointed in our performance so far..

I know Richardson is there to occupy the crease and hold the innings together but 4 runs from 40 balls?

Wiseman is pathetic, if he's our 2nd best spin bowler we need to look at getting Warne over here to do some clinics for the next 20 years then we MIGHT have a decent spinner..

Vettori was expensive even if he did get 4 wickets.


Ive had a bad day and the cricket hasnt helped to much

yeah, not a great position... we need a big partnership here

Home sick and one of the fringe benefits? Watch the test.

25 runs-ish in over an hour? WFT...this is so fucking boring.....

Oh wait, McMillian just hit a four to third man....

Day 3: 1st session SA all over NZ

I like it like that !!

still a loong way to go before anyone thinks about a result yet... draw is still looking pretty likely, unless NZ collapse

big innings needed from Macca here... if he doesn't perform well, he could well be dropped from the side to play England if Astle is fit

42 runs in the session... thats fucking ridiculous...

still, only one wicket... things still very evenly balanced... id really like to see jake oram get some more runs - but hopefully the job is done by the pig, macca and cairns...

Got to love this

84.6 Pollock to Cairns, FOUR, outside off, back, chops late past where
the gully was, class
84.5 Pollock to Cairns, FOUR, on the back foot, much better cricket
shot, driving from the back foot, races past cover
gully comes out to short cover

class - hitting a four where they have just moved the guy from. SA don't seem intent on trying to win, you don't move your gully out in the first over after taking a new ball. They seem to be far too defensive for the match situation.

we're playing pretty defensively too...

but a quick fire centrury (or more) from cairns could give us a chance of forcing something... mind you, I wouldn't want to have to bat for too long on the last day on this pitch

Ive already abandoned all hope of us actually winning this test match.................quick runs are pretty hard to come by when its keeping lower and lower

Id prefer to see us look to score 550+ and just bat SA out the game with an outside possibilty of rolling them in 2 and a half sessions

Might seem like a big call 225/5 but we do have a lower order capable of scoring centuries

Im starting to fear this block now though.................havent seen much of it but theres A LOT of LBW's coming through

fuck!

I mean 225-6

we're in trouble

anyone watching? how much of this is the pitch? if so, maybe it will be a result......

230/6

getting interesting

I have been told by a couple of people that the pitch is starting to deteriorate. Could be bad news for NZ if they are gonna be batting to save the match on the final day.

Footmarks are starting to crumble and when the ball bounces in them chunks are starting to go flying out



i think its game on from here

This is also quite interesting to note (from cricinfo)

yeah, more info on stuff

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2843159a1823,00.html

that IS interesting

"Pitch-Gate?"

As an ex-greenkeeper I can tell you there is little you can do in between play to repair or alter the way a pitch will play

However you can repair footmarks on the popping crease with a soil/PVA glue/water mixture

Did the groundsman attempt to do that on the footmarks?

Id be surprised but you never know...............he will be feeling the pressure for preparing what looks to me as one of those "win the toss and you cant lose the game" type pitches

*bitches once again about the jammy genger winning thew toss*

cement?

ah of course..............he's filling in the cracks

So what is it.........glue or cement?

Im having a hard time trying to act knowledgable over here!

reading between the lines, I think what happened was the NZ team saw the pitch was falling apart, and asked the groundsman to glue/cement parts of it together (especially on the bowlers footmarks)... they did it, the Sth Africans complained, and the referee ruled it illegal....