*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

[Hicheal Michael]

Any reason why these games don't have ODI status?

 

[thundaboult]

148 kph, that last one.

 

[Jezroy]

Any reason why these games don't have ODI status?

Guess it’s so teams can play as many of their squad as they like.

 

[straw man]

Impressive warm up performance. Now I feel like posting some superstition about peaking too early, but nah this has to help with the confidence after so long on the sidelines.

 

[thundaboult]

Don't think our boys will get this kind of surface or movement in the real games, but hey this is great for confidence

 

[thundaboult]

oh and, #unleashtheneesh

 

[Neil Young]

Munro and Southee? It's like the past 2 years haven't happened. Grow some balls, Stead. Shambles.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Unbelievable that they opened with Munro.

Apart from those selection fails, good solid warm up, should get a bit of confidence from that!

 

[Mike5181]

Isn't Latham only out for like one official game? Seems like they've legitimately just dropped Nicholls from the opening spot, otherwise it makes no sense not to give him game time in the position.

 

[Jezroy]

For those that saw more than I did, did our fielding seem better than it did over summer? At some points against Sri Lanka especially it was the worst I can remember.

 

[Jezroy]

Is Trent's mouth getting bigger, or his face getting thinner?

 

[Jezroy]

Munro and Southee? It's like the past 2 years haven't happened. Grow some balls, Stead. Shambles.

Disturbingly, Kane probably also keeps pushing their case too. It’s so yuck watching them play and fail. Even when they have succeeded, it’s looked yuck (eg. Southee looking pretty good in that last ODI vs Bangladesh, then slowly watching some of the middle/lower order get into him).

 

[Binkley]

Dammit! I cancelled my Sky subscription at the end of our season, because all I use it for is cricket watching. And I decided that, with a restless toddler in the house and a new job, I really couldn’t afford to lose sleep cricket watching during the World Cup. But apparently at some point in the early hours of this morning, while watching coverage of last night’s match on Prime, I re-subscribed.

 

[Zinzan]

Pasting my comments from the WC sub-forum warm-up thread since ya'll discussing it here....

Meanwhile it's depressing that Mr mediocre Tim Southee looks to have come out of it well at least on the scorecard with his 1-26 off 7, when he actually looked fairly toothless in those conditions while Boult was making it talk at the other end.

I can still envisage Southee getting belted for 80+ off his 10 on a good batting surface. On top of that, and as per usual, he yet again wasted a DRS review on one clearly missing leg. Haven't they learned to not even get his opinion on reviews by now?

 

[Moss]

Watched most of NZ's batting and a little bit of the bowling effort. Few observations:

Boult: had the advantage of the conditions, but looked really good. Extremely vital to NZ's chances as on his good days his opening spell seems to decide the outcome of a game.

Southee: For whatever reason he insisted on testing the middle of the pitch when everyone else was pitching it up and reaping the rewards. Also was amusing to hear Ian Smith describe Matt Henry's selection as an "interesting" one.

Ferguson :Was in great rhythm and bowled with very good pace. A few loose deliveries but better than figures suggested.

CdG: His kind of pitch so naturally did well, but for the type of bowler he is really needs to work on landing 6 balls on the same spot.

Neesham: Didn't see his entire spell but as usual a lot if dross in between. Don't that's going to change anytime soon.

Guptill:Very scratchy and wasn't timing or middling the ball. In the absence of a settled opening partner he seems a bit confused about his gameplan.

KW: Very slow to start off with, but showed patience when India packed the offside field and kept him tight, was pretty fluent when he grew in confidence. Hopefully has rediscovered some form, as he'll need to be quicker out of the blocks when chasing 300 plus totals obviously.

Taylor: A pretty good innings and very proactive against the spinners. Even during the middle stages was a little too eager to feel bat on ball, Kuldeep should have had him caught behind but Karthik fluffed a chance that you imagine Dhoni wouldn't have.

Nicholls : only a warm up game, but couldn't get the spinners away for his first 15 balls or so.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Stead is promising changes for the West Indies with Matt Henry, who sat out this match alongside injured wicketkeeper Tom Latham, due a crack but it seems Munro may yet get another chance to open with Guptill.

"Not sure if we'll change the order yet but certainly Matt Henry is highly likely to get a run in the next game. We've got a squad of 15 and it's our intention in these first couple of games that we've got all guys ready. You never know what can happen at the last minute with training injuries."

Latham's fractured finger is ahead of schedule, with him batting and catching balls, but there are no guarantees he will be fit for the opening match against Sri Lanka on June 1 in Cardiff.

“Because of that it's made us look at the options we have around our batting order. The reason Henry Nicholls batted at five today shows us the versatility he has. We also know he can bat at the top as well so it gives us some different options to keep considering."

Ffs Munro’s not going anywhere.

 

[Jezroy]

Ffs Munro’s not going anywhere.

So funny how unwilling they were to give him a whirl in tests after one bad one, but they’re letting have a comedically bad run in short form cricket.

Keeping in mind his ridiculous first class record.

 

[Jezroy]

And Cardiff weather looking pretty good for Saturday. Hopeful for a full game.

 

[Jezroy]

Also the games are Sophia Gardens this year so far have had a fair range of scores, with average being 262 across 6 completed innings. Glamorgan did have one shocker where the got 140 odd to bring that down though. More interesting to me though was that the bowlers that had success were the medium/fast bowlers. Not really been great for spinners. Promising signs.

 

[straw man]

Also the games are Sophia Gardens this year so far have had a fair range of scores, with average being 262 across 6 completed innings. Glamorgan did have one shocker where the got 140 odd to bring that down though. More interesting to me though was that the bowlers that had success were the medium/fast bowlers. Not really been great for spinners. Promising signs.

Sounds like Henry should play over Southee and Sodhi then.