***Official** Sri Lanka in New Zealand

[JASON]

SL tour NZ with tour starting under 4 weeks time.
Here is the schedule

Fixtures
Sri Lanka tour of New Zealand, 2006/07
November 2006
Thu 30 - Sun 3 Otago v Sri Lankans
University Oval, Dunedin

December 2006
Thu 7 - Mon 11 1st Test - New Zealand v Sri LankaJade Stadium, Christchurch

Fri 15 - Tue 19 2nd Test - New Zealand v Sri LankaBasin Reserve, Wellington

Fri 22 1st T20I - New Zealand v Sri LankaWestpac Stadium, Wellington

Tue 26 2nd T20I - New Zealand v Sri LankaEden Park, Auckland

Thu 28 1st ODI - New Zealand v Sri LankaMcLean Park, Napier

Sun 31 2nd ODI - New Zealand v Sri LankaQueenstown Events Centre

January 2007
Tue 2 3rd ODI - New Zealand v Sri LankaJade Stadium, Christchurch

Sat 6 4th ODI - New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Eden Park, Auckland

Tue 9 5th ODI - New Zealand v Sri LankaSeddon Park, Hamilton

2 Tests , 5 ODIs , and 2 twenty twenty matches.

SL after showing promise in England have dropped down to the their inconsistent rubbish again. NZ showed how very strong they are in ODIs despite a long lay off . Kyle Mills showing that he is more than a match for Bond , and Bond in his come back from injury showing shades of his previous best .Vettori a true ODI allrounder and really top performer in both forms of the game. Only NZ batting needs to get into some runs come the SL series.

For SL the same inconsistent, minnow bashing, but struggle against quality opposition form -seems to run through over and over again. Murali carries the bowling singlehandedly in Tests mostly with Vaas sometimes chipping in ODIs . Batting has a long way to go in showing they can bat well against quality opposition bowlers and not against weak opposition or weakened opposition (such as England this Summer).

My Prediction NZ to clean sweep - Tests 2-0 and ODIs possibly 3-2 .

Your predictions, discuss .

[NZTailender]

Some of my thoughts here:

*** un-Official - New Zealand Black Caps Thread ***

[FRAZ]

Current Srilankan bunch IMHO is the most talented Srilankan team ever .And they are just like the Wasim Akram's pre - millennium team . A good blend of youth and experience. We have likes of Jayasuriya and Jayawardane in the squad along with a wicket keeper / batsman like Sangakara . The bowlers like Vaas and Murali deserve a spot in the top ten bunch easily. Srilankan problem in the Odis has been their lack of planning and BS experiments .
For me Kiwis may win the ODI series but as far as the tests are concerned Srilanka IMHO are the favorites !

[FRAZ]

Btw Srilanka1-0 (tests) 4-1 Newzealand (ODIs)

[Perm]

Hoping Maharoof has a good series, but not too good. I'll post some more thoughts later.

[JASON]

Originally Posted by FRAZ

Btw Srilanka1-0 (tests) 4-1 Newzealand (ODIs)

If anything IMO the ODIs will be where SL might get closer than Tests. Particularly in NZ conditions.
So I would say 3-2 to the kiwis or if SL play well 3-2 to SL, but I can't see SL beating NZ in NZ in Tests ( particularly with Bond, Mills etc..)

[alternative]

Too early to predict anything, but it will be a great contest.. Lankans in good form of late will be taking this series much more seriously with WC just around the corner.. Shall be an entertaining battle. Hopefully Kyle Mills and Shane Bond are fit throughout the series

[thedarkmullet]

The pitches should be pretty green for the tests, I don't see SL handling them well at all.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Jayawardane in particular goes, but overall, especially considering recent form in NZ I don't see them dominating.
1-0 to NZ for the tests(with the Wellington severely weather affected)
4-1 in the ODIs to NZ
1-1 in the 20/20

[oz_fan]

ODI's: NZ 3-2
Tests: NZ 1-1 with SL

I think this will be a very even tour with not much between the two sides. For both teams their bowling relies heavily on one player (Bond for NZ & Murali for SL).

Predictions:
Jayawardene to be the leading batsman for SL.
Astle to score a lot of runs for NZ.
Bond and Murali to both take 10 wkt matches.

[JASON]

Originally Posted by thedarkmullet

The pitches should be pretty green for the tests, I don't see SL handling them well at all.

Agree , Pitches will be very green , given this is very early in NZ cricket season.

And past experience shows Subcontinental Teams , don't do well in green pitches and SL definitely struggled in green pitches 2 years ago before the Tsunami interrupted the tour.

If that is anything to go by (and similar trend by India during tour to NZ during early NZ cricket season 4 years ago) SL are going to get cleaned out , if they do not prepare themselves and acquit themselves to the seamy NZ green tops.

[dinu23]

another 2 test series! what the hell!

oh well....talking about the prospects of both teams, there's not much difference really. It will be a good contest...atleast in the ODIs.

[James]

Does anyone know whether Fox Sports in Australia will be covering this series?

[Macka]

Yawn.

Déjà vu anyone?

[NZTailender]

Originally Posted by Macka

Yawn.

Déjà vu anyone?

Better than no tests at all.

[Macka]

Originally Posted by NZTailender

Better than no tests at all.

True. But isn't this the 3rd summer in a row we've had Sri Lanka here? I'm getting a bit tired of seeing them play here to be honest. Shows where the ICC's interest are, and we're hardly generating the crouds and hence revenue.