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

[straw man]

So I've seen a lot of people in the media and news comment sections excuse Vettori's poor bowling returns based on batsmen not needing to attack him. It's really just a sideshow but it'll be interesting to see how he goes now he actually is being attacked by the batsmen.

 

[Mike5181]

Worst captaincy from McCullum. Let's get an injured Mark Gillespie to bowl when both batsmen are set and seeing it like a beach ball.

 

[BeeGee]

This is a lot of fun.

I'm guessing they're planning on a 400 run lead. Personally I think SA already have enough and are being too conservative.

 

[Mike5181]

We aren't going to chase 400 in less than a days play without our best batsman. Wtf is South Africa doing? 250 is enough.

 

[_Ed_]

Reviews gone. Nice one.

 

[Garson007]

Reviews gone. Nice one.

I don't think that matters much.

 

[straw man]

This is a lot of fun.

I'm guessing they're planning on a 400 run lead. Personally I think SA already have enough and are being too conservative.

We aren't going to chase 400 in less than a days play without our best batsman. Wtf is South Africa doing? 250 is enough.

SA getting a lead of 400 that NZ know is an impossible chase will be very dispiriting for our batsmen. If there was even a glimmer of hope for a win that would be a big positive for our batsmen's mindset. SA are rubbing it in now and that will actually help them IMO.

SA have the luxury of both too many runs and too many overs to bowl us out - when we've been in this situation in the past we've usually capitulated in just 40-50 overs so I think SA will win this easily.

 

[Garson007]

Oh FFS declare.

 

[Immenso]

It's lucky we deployed sweepers in the first over of the innings so that we could restrict them to 6.37/over. Imagine how quickly SA would have scored if we had orthodox fields. Sarcasm .........

What a steaming pile of ****.

 

[Zinzan]

We aren't going to chase 400 in less than a days play without our best batsman. Wtf is South Africa doing? 250 is enough.

Or with our best batsman ......

 

[Garson007]

One over with the second new ball. :| Lovely Smith.

 

[straw man]

Bracewell hits the 30 wickets mark with an average of 22.83. Pretty good even if this innings was less convincing.

 

[Cabinet96]

Don't see why everyone is so surprised with SA's negativity, it's always how they work.

 

[Mike5181]

Would be nice to see Flynn score a fifty here.

 

[SteveNZ]

Cannot understand the 'why aren't they declaring now' stuff I'm reading on here and Twitter etc. Unless it's only to serve people's own desire to see a sniff of a possibility of a result going NZ's way.

 

[straw man]

Don't see why everyone is so surprised with SA's negativity, it's always how they work.

Personally I don't see it as negativity. Not giving NZ a sniff arguably makes NZ's batsmen more vulnerable.

Plus the NZ batsman will still utilise their 'play positively' mindset and get out to attacking shots even if the chase isn't on Then again if we just bat to survive and SA get to bowl a lot of dot balls, they're good enough to get our guys out. So basically we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

 

[Garson007]

I'm curious. Does anyone call Flynn, Doctor?

 

[Flem274*]

And so it begins.

Play 9 bowlers, Taylor and a keeper.

 

[_Ed_]

Stellar start.

 

[Flem274*]

We're losing the series regardless if we draw or lose this test match, so should we just have a crack?

Guptill could benefit from having a swing rather than trying to construct an innings.