*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2012

[wellAlbidarned]

Not an ounce of fluke in this. not ****ing one. Feels so sweet.

[Days of Grace]

Originally Posted by BackFootPunch

Yesssssss. Well done boys. Williamson is a God in the gully.

With Boult, Southee and Bracewell bowling this well it better not be another year until our next proper win!

That's entirely up to the batsmen.

I actually see us as West Indies circa 1998-2000. Quality new ball lineup will always keep us in the game but we will probably still be prone to a massive collapse for a while yet.

[Tricia McMillan]

It's 3:24 a.m. here.

I'm not going to be able to sleep any time soon after that.

[Briony]

Good stuff Kiwis.

The bowlers will probably also do well in SA conditions next month.

[Zinzan]

Brillant performance NZ! So good to see us managing to bowl sides out in the 4th innings. Bulawayo, Hobart and now here in Colombo. Something the attack led by Vettori and Martin so rarely managed.

[Xuhaib]

Originally Posted by Days of Grace

That's entirely up to the batsmen.

I actually see us as West Indies circa 1998-2000. Quality new ball lineup will always keep us in the game but we will probably still be prone to a massive collapse for a while yet.

reckon you might win atleast one vs England at home. SA will be tough but even they have atleast one or even two random collapses in a series make sure you bat well in the game where they do a collapse.

[Days of Grace]

Arnold tasting it.

[Flem274*]

Yeah this isn't a new dawn as such for the batting. Our batsmen benefited massively from batting first on this complete and utter Roadie McRoad, and we still started out 14/2 and 75/5. The batsmen still have a long slog ahead to show they're up to it. Taylor was the star here and we already know that when he fires we can get a good total.

But we also dominated a world class batting line up on this Roadie McRoad, and the pitches will be much more pace friendly in South Africa. Based on what I've seen here I think we can challenge the South African batsmen on their home turf.

[Days of Grace]

Herath has eaten a few pies. Surprised no one has commented on it.

[Scaly piscine]

Mathews is a bit of a strange one isn't he?

The way he has batted when going for a draw/win at times - generally he's batted very well but the aggression and so on has been very selfish it seems.

[Stapel]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Yeah this isn't a new dawn as such for the batting. Our batsmen benefited massively from batting first on this complete and utter Roadie McRoad, and we still started out 14/2 and 75/5. The batsmen still have a long slog ahead to show they're up to it. Taylor was the star here and we already know that when he fires we can get a good total.

But we also dominated a world class batting line up on this Roadie McRoad, and the pitches will be much more pace friendly in South Africa. Based on what I've seen here I think we can challenge the South African batsmen on their home turf.

That would be something. SA have the best batting line-up imho.

[Days of Grace]

Originally Posted by Stapel

That would be something. SA have the best batting line-up imho.

In all conditions, yes.

But Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka has been one of the toughest tests for any bowling lineup for the past decade.

The pitches in South Africa almost work against their batting lineup being able to completely dominate sides.

[wellAlbidarned]

Originally Posted by Stapel

That would be something. SA have the best batting line-up imho.

You never see them scoring 600-3 at home though

[Zinzan]

Originally Posted by Scaly piscine

Mathews is a bit of a strange one isn't he?

The way he has batted when going for a draw/win at times - generally he's batted very well but the aggression and so on has been very selfish it seems.

That last shot in particular was a peculiar one. It did have me wondering whether he was looking at an outside chance of a 100. He can definitely play though.

[Flem274*]

Onus is on the batsmen now. There's all this talk of averaging 40 but 40 doesn't cut it in the modern era. If you want to be world class, you have to be averaging 50+. I don't know if they will ever get there but scoring big on roads instead of collapsing in a heap like we see so often at Napier, first innings Adelaide etc will go a long way to pushing our averages up. The New Zealand batsmen have made a habit in the past five years of rendering the pitch irrelevant in a bad way. Also, if you score big on roads it gives you valuable confidence and time in the middle you can bring to the fair and the bowling friendly decks.