*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2012

[ohnoitsyou]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

btw Mr ohnoitsyou lurking in here, I love your username.

what does everyone think of Ryder opening?

[Days of Grace]

You know what I'm most happy about this morning?

Not having to watch that awful ad again.

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[BeeGee]

Good effort lads... now double it!

[Hurricane]

I think based on everything we know now it was the right decision to bring in Astle. His wicket was quite crucial.

I don't think his bowling was consistent enough to be picked either ahead of Jeets or picked ahead of anybody else outside of the sub continent.

[hendrix]

^I agree, but to be fair, Franklin did pick up Mathews in the first test.

[Prince EWS]

Astle played a pretty important innings as well though; held things together after a mini-collapse. Game could've been completely different had New Zealand rolled over there and Sri Lanka taken the momentum into the fourth innings.

[Hurricane]

do u think he did enough with the bat to warrant selection in sa?

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

do u think he did enough with the bat to warrant selection in sa?

Absolutely not. I was just pointing out that he contributed towards the win in a way that Franklin might not have.

[Bahnz]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

do u think he did enough with the bat to warrant selection in sa?

Probably not imo. Played better than I expected him to, but good enough to keep Vettori out of the squad if he's fit? Don't think so.

Pity, I'd love to see him and Tahir engage in a battle of the rubbish leggies.

[Hurricane]

Points for the test series

McCullum 4 - In the end his 60 and 34 were handy that helped our cause. Copped some bad luck with an lbw but he angered the cricketing gods with his 2nd inning dismissal in the 1st test.

Guptil 0 - What was his high score 11? Even though his fielding was gun I am not giving out points for that.

Williamson - 6. Performed amazingly well in one out of 4 innings. Looked like he meant business in this 2nd test. Batted like an old woman in the first test.

Taylor - 9. 2 gun knocks and that is as much as you can ask from him. He created this victory through will power.

Flynn - 4. A good fifty. Did not come to the party in other innings. Needs to get more consistent.

Franklin 1 - took a wicket

Van Wyk - 3 - kept well. Did not perform with the bat. Got too cute in one inning.

Tastle - 5. Decent effort. May not be test standard as a bowler right now.

Bracewell - 3. Finally got it together in the final inning. Plus a handy inning in one dig. Will be dissapointed he didn't do more. Did enough to keep his spot.

Southee 10. No need to comment on him.

Patel 5. Bowled very well at times. Possibly needs a better arm ball to be more effective. Would have liked 1 or 2 more wickets. Did enough to hold Dan off from taking his spot.

Boult 8. Bowled without luck at times. Test standard opening bowler.

[Bahnz]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Points for the test series


Flynn - 4. A good fifty. Did not come to the party in other innings. Needs to get more consistent.

Flynn actually scored two good 50's. Though I suppose you should still give him a modest score for failing to convert on either one.

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by Bahnz

Flynn actually scored two good 50's. Though I suppose you should still give him a modest score for failing to convert on either one.

old age - alzheimers etc setting in for me.

[Flem274*]

Originally Posted by Bahnz

Probably not imo. Played better than I expected him to, but good enough to keep Vettori out of the squad if he's fit? Don't think so.

Pity, I'd love to see him and Tahir engage in a battle of the rubbish leggies.

Haha, based on the one game I've seen of both and Tahir being the finished article, Tastle > Tahir. True, Tahir ran into Clarke on God mode on a road, but Tastle bowled to Sri Lanka on their home turf on an even bigger road and was respected by the opposition when he would have been a prime candidate for the pressure release.

I wouldn't pick him for SA though. He has promise but it's easy to forget he's very young as a pure leg spinner and needs more time to get better. He'll probably get picked and take 5fer on a randomly slow and low pitch since I've said that but i'd rather he didn't bowl to the South Africans on pace friendly pitches. Also, if South Africa are stupid enough to pick Tahir against weak opposition (and tbf it would be just like us to fall in a heap to him after seeing off the quicks) we don't want to lose the advantage by picking a raw leggie of our own.

[Athlai]

We're not terrible. Reading day five from here was pretty gun. Surprised phlegm want more nervous.

[Howsie]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Haha, based on the one game I've seen of both and Tahir being the finished article, Tastle > Tahir. True, Tahir ran into Clarke on God mode on a road, but Tastle bowled to Sri Lanka on their home turf on an even bigger road and was respected by the opposition when he would have been a prime candidate for the pressure release.

I wouldn't pick him for SA though. He has promise but it's easy to forget he's very young as a pure leg spinner and needs more time to get better. He'll probably get picked and take 5fer on a randomly slow and low pitch since I've said that but i'd rather he didn't bowl to the South Africans on pace friendly pitches. Also, if South Africa are stupid enough to pick Tahir against weak opposition (and tbf it would be just like us to fall in a heap to him after seeing off the quicks) we don't want to lose the advantage by picking a raw leggie of our own.

Errrr, respected? The fact that Sri Lanka were just trying to survive played a massive part in Astle not getting blasted around the ground. He's terrible and in all probability will never be near test standard. He bowled a couple of decent deliveries but for 90 percent of his work he looked part time.