***Official*** South Africa in New Zealand 2012

[_Ed_]

Two hundy for Mills!

[Hurricane]

Two hundy for Mills!

Yep great achievement.

Good servant of NZ cricket.

[straw man]

Tbf most of those guys would walk into the current team we have. The opposition bowling attacks back then were a fair amount better as well.

Guys like 'Flem, Astle, Mc Millan, Cairns, Parore, Nash, Allott' were the best 3-4 players at a time spread over maybe an 8-year period (replace McMillan with Styris/Oram as McMillan was absurdly overrated in ODIs). We still have 3-4 quality players at a time and some decent filler.

Our fully-fit ODI team right now is not as good as the best ODI teams we have put out over the last ten years, but it's not that far off imo. All this shows up is that predictably, our depth is seriously lacking when you take out a couple of key players. No Taylor, no Oram. We're struggling to make up for the recent loss of Styris and Vettori, probably as much for leadership and keeping ****s like Ryder focused as anything else.

Further to this, as much as we might like to moan about Nicol, Bates, Ellis and CGD struggling, fact is nearly all of our players struggle initially when they first step up to playing a good international team. It takes time at the top level for some of them to reach the required standard. We've been a little unfortunate that we were not able to just field 1-2 of these in an otherwise solid lineup, against competent but lesser teams than SA in the leadup to this series.

What does piss me off is that we gave up a huge mental advantage by surrendering in that third T20. Then we stupidly batted first in the first ODI and named a ridiculously unbalanced team for the second ODI (no N. McCullum was a complete wtf). Ryder has been a huge distraction though I don't know that there was that much the team management could have done to control that. In general our ODI strategy has been lacking (I don't know that Wright is the best for ODIs - very much for tests though) and we've even let fielding standards slip at times. Cannot afford such things against a top team like South Africa. They would have seen us, rightly or wrongly, as professional and efficient leading into the series. However we have gradually shown them that we are not, and that even if they slip up, we will slip up more. The pressure is off.

[Flem274*]

Mills 200!

Jesus, even if half of this lot would be in our seconds, this isn't a good look.

Speaking of which, do we even know what our first eleven is now the players who smoked Zimbabwe have been brought back down to earth?

McCullum
Guptill
...
Taylor
...
...
Oram
NcCullum
Mills
...
...

Five spots up for grabs. I guess Williamson at three and Brownlie at five should be in, and Nicol will get more opportunities but where do you put him? Bracewell and Southee are probably the other bowlers.

[Hurricane]

Can't believe the commentators are trying to inject some sort of hope for NZ into the game. Maybe if they were 6 down we might have a hope.

[Flem274*]

We don't have a show in hell until AB gets a duck.

[Flem274*]

NcCullum has bowled handily tonight.

[straw man]

Got the feeling McCullum will bat at three in the tests and Nicol will open with Guptill with Williamson at five.

Nicol as a sacrificial opener to take some of the shine off the ball is possibly our best option.

Have thought more about this and decided I don't like it. McCullum and Guptill are our opening pair - they may not be brilliant but they are the best equipped for the job. I don't mind them putting Nicol at 3 and Williamson at 5, but don't want Nicol opening.

[Flem274*]

Playing*

[Hurricane]

NcCullum has bowled handily tonight.

He's a hack

[straw man]

Five spots up for grabs. I guess Williamson at three and Brownlie at five should be in, and Nicol will get more opportunities but where do you put him? Bracewell and Southee are probably the other bowlers.

Southee and Williamson are definites. Losing Ryder sucks but we'll just have to get used to it imo.

Make up the last couple of spots from the rest.

[Hurricane]

Have thought more about this and decided I don't like it. McCullum and Guptill are our opening pair - they may not be brilliant but they are the best equipped for the job. I don't mind them putting Nicol at 3 and Williamson at 5, but don't want Nicol opening.

I don't mind either way really. The advantage of Nicol opening is that he is used to it so will feel more comfortable there.

[Flem274*]

The more I think about it, the more I cannot fathom why they picked Nicol. Ellis is a hero in the Shield, but Nicol isn't great.

The leading runscorer, and Central Districts rescuer on occassion, is Kruger van Wyk. If they are truly selecting using the pie thing, how the hell does Nicol's whatevers outweigh 638 @ 91.14?

van Wyk is the only batsman currently past the 600 run mark. Sinclair has 561, and then you meet the main pack headed by Woodcock with 484.

edit: I know the Plunket Shield isn't the be all end all but if you suck in the Shield you're probably going to suck harder in tests. Even Dougeh tore it up for NZ A first.

[Hurricane]

Southee and Williamson are definites. Losing Ryder sucks but we'll just have to get used to it imo.

Make up the last couple of spots from the rest.

Franklin maybe?

[Flem274*]

Dropped.