Hurricane
Hall of Fame Member
He will be in consideration for the next match.I just can't get over the fact that Rob Nicol is our only reserve batsman
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*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2012
- Thread starter Meridio
- Start date
Flem274*
123/5
Okay, so I’ve stepped away from the computer for a bit to lower my blood pressure.
It’s pretty easy to sit here behind my keyboard and mouth off, but here’s my best monkeys take on it with our best copy of Microsoft Word, player by player.
McCullum isn’t stupid. He knew last night that losing a wicket is the last thing we wanted, just like on day 1 he knew we weren’t in a position where we could afford a batsman to throw it all away. One thing I have noticed, along with the need to feel bat on ball early that the commentators mention all the time which betrays a lack of confidence early in his innings, is he has to remind himself to respect good bowling, or at least that’s how it looks to me when I watch him. Jayawardene and Sangakkara have respected 10,000 good balls before and will respect 10,000 more. It’s ingrained into how they bat. I don’t know whether his dominance of age group cricket has given him no appreciation of respect for the bowler, or whether his role as a wicket keeper batsman curtailed his batting development earlier in his career, or whether it’s arrogance. He tries to bat like the second coming of Viv or Gilchrist but even they blocked ocassionally. McCullum has neither the ingrained ability to respect the bowler nor the execution of those two batsmen. His technique is actually pretty decent but when it comes to actually batting he’s the second coming of McMillan. At his age he probably doesn’t have the time to change his ways so it might be worth telling him to get out there and pretend to be Sehwag minus the sucking in NZ thing.
I admire Guptill’s determination to be a good batsman. It’s obvious from his actions he really wants it, but he isn’t and never was good enough for test cricket as things currently stand. He’s good enough to pick up one half century per series but a combination of glaring technical faults, poor shot selection and never dominating any level of professional cricket in the whites for an extended period has both denied him the time to tweak his game and learn how to construct an innings. He’s a decent ODI batsman, a world class fielder, and if he was dropped he would probably take domestic attacks to the cleaners, especially on his home ground aka the roadiest road that ever roaded. Test cricket isn’t the place to learn how to bat though.
Williamson has no confidence, or at least that’s what I guess is behind the poking and prodding. As Howsie said earlier he’s a shadow of his former self. I was hoping his century against South Africa would be the making of him but it obviously hasn’t. Confidence isn’t something that can be solved by scoring another 284* for ND (he failed in Australia right after), especially since everyone including him knows NZ FC =/= test cricket, so really I’ve got nothing for him other than faking it until you make it.
Taylor must surely be weighed down by responsibility. Fans, the opposition, his team and Taylor himself know he is the wicket, especially with no Ryder or Vettori. Unlike Chanderpaul, Taylor wasn’t given the opportunity to get comfortable in test cricket alongside Brian Lara before becoming both the captain and the big wicket. I’m going to speculate this is the reason behind Taylor being edgy early, then either scoring really fast with high risk shots or really slowly. This is an issue that can only be solved by batting with better batsmen, so um, move to South Africa I guess?
Daniel Flynn looks like a test batsman nowadays, and his only issue is milestones, both personal and match related. Just needs to chill out and bat in a bubble and he will be fine.
Franklin is Franklin. I cbf even starting on this one. Suffice to say the next test will probably be his last.
So yeah in a groundbreaking discovery, we basically need to pick the least flawed batsmen. Looking outside the squad, Ryder is an obvious candidate, because his issues are all off field. Brownlie is an excellent player of fast bowling but we won’t know how good he is against test standard spin until he faces some again. Batting higher in the order, maybe even opening, will help him avoid starting against spin especially in home tests. I wouldn’t mind him trying his hand at opening for Canterbury in their next game (especially since they've got Fulton there). I really haven’t seen enough of Watling mk II in the whites to say anything but he is easily our most improved ODI player and is willing to do anything required of him to the best of his ability, and that earns him Phlegm Points.
It’s pretty easy to sit here behind my keyboard and mouth off, but here’s my best monkeys take on it with our best copy of Microsoft Word, player by player.
McCullum isn’t stupid. He knew last night that losing a wicket is the last thing we wanted, just like on day 1 he knew we weren’t in a position where we could afford a batsman to throw it all away. One thing I have noticed, along with the need to feel bat on ball early that the commentators mention all the time which betrays a lack of confidence early in his innings, is he has to remind himself to respect good bowling, or at least that’s how it looks to me when I watch him. Jayawardene and Sangakkara have respected 10,000 good balls before and will respect 10,000 more. It’s ingrained into how they bat. I don’t know whether his dominance of age group cricket has given him no appreciation of respect for the bowler, or whether his role as a wicket keeper batsman curtailed his batting development earlier in his career, or whether it’s arrogance. He tries to bat like the second coming of Viv or Gilchrist but even they blocked ocassionally. McCullum has neither the ingrained ability to respect the bowler nor the execution of those two batsmen. His technique is actually pretty decent but when it comes to actually batting he’s the second coming of McMillan. At his age he probably doesn’t have the time to change his ways so it might be worth telling him to get out there and pretend to be Sehwag minus the sucking in NZ thing.
I admire Guptill’s determination to be a good batsman. It’s obvious from his actions he really wants it, but he isn’t and never was good enough for test cricket as things currently stand. He’s good enough to pick up one half century per series but a combination of glaring technical faults, poor shot selection and never dominating any level of professional cricket in the whites for an extended period has both denied him the time to tweak his game and learn how to construct an innings. He’s a decent ODI batsman, a world class fielder, and if he was dropped he would probably take domestic attacks to the cleaners, especially on his home ground aka the roadiest road that ever roaded. Test cricket isn’t the place to learn how to bat though.
Williamson has no confidence, or at least that’s what I guess is behind the poking and prodding. As Howsie said earlier he’s a shadow of his former self. I was hoping his century against South Africa would be the making of him but it obviously hasn’t. Confidence isn’t something that can be solved by scoring another 284* for ND (he failed in Australia right after), especially since everyone including him knows NZ FC =/= test cricket, so really I’ve got nothing for him other than faking it until you make it.
Taylor must surely be weighed down by responsibility. Fans, the opposition, his team and Taylor himself know he is the wicket, especially with no Ryder or Vettori. Unlike Chanderpaul, Taylor wasn’t given the opportunity to get comfortable in test cricket alongside Brian Lara before becoming both the captain and the big wicket. I’m going to speculate this is the reason behind Taylor being edgy early, then either scoring really fast with high risk shots or really slowly. This is an issue that can only be solved by batting with better batsmen, so um, move to South Africa I guess?
Daniel Flynn looks like a test batsman nowadays, and his only issue is milestones, both personal and match related. Just needs to chill out and bat in a bubble and he will be fine.
Franklin is Franklin. I cbf even starting on this one. Suffice to say the next test will probably be his last.
So yeah in a groundbreaking discovery, we basically need to pick the least flawed batsmen. Looking outside the squad, Ryder is an obvious candidate, because his issues are all off field. Brownlie is an excellent player of fast bowling but we won’t know how good he is against test standard spin until he faces some again. Batting higher in the order, maybe even opening, will help him avoid starting against spin especially in home tests. I wouldn’t mind him trying his hand at opening for Canterbury in their next game (especially since they've got Fulton there). I really haven’t seen enough of Watling mk II in the whites to say anything but he is easily our most improved ODI player and is willing to do anything required of him to the best of his ability, and that earns him Phlegm Points.
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Flem274*
123/5
That was a cute move and it's going to backfire, as it deserves to.I just can't get over the fact that Rob Nicol is our only reserve batsman
chaminda_00
Hall of Fame Member
Hearth was always awesome, just never got a game because Murali didn't want be showed up by another spinner that could take overs and wickets of him.
He has been bowling like this for 15 years at domestic level.
He has been bowling like this for 15 years at domestic level.
Migara
Cricketer Of The Year
Cannot understand why Franklin plays instead of Watling. NZ anyway has three seamers, and on SL conditions dibbly dobblies don't get wickets. Ryder would have made this side different.
I'd play,
Guptill, Watling, McCullum, Taylor, Ryder, Flynn, Wan Wyk, Southee, Bracewell, Patel, Boult
Ryder will anyway provide those dibbly dobblies if they are valued so much.
I'd play,
Guptill, Watling, McCullum, Taylor, Ryder, Flynn, Wan Wyk, Southee, Bracewell, Patel, Boult
Ryder will anyway provide those dibbly dobblies if they are valued so much.
hendrix
Hall of Fame Member
Agree with pretty much everything you've said.
The thing about McCullum is he looks much better when he has an aggressive batsman at the other end. It calms his game plane, makes him look like he can just bat and give the other guy strike.
Ironically, the biggest skill Ryder has over the other NZ batsmen is mental. He just has a simple game plan. There's no mental struggle of needing to dominate the bowling, he just hits the bad balls and respects the good ones.
Flem274*
123/5
Here's my Sri Lanka post (will keep this short)
There isn't much their batsmen could have done to mitigate Southee and Boult. Apart from Pirana those were genuine gagfc dismissals. Karunaratne especially got a nasty one on debut.
My only criticism would be Jayawardene and Mathews didn't kill New Zealand completely with the bat. Mathews especially got out in a soft fashion to a bowler who was bowling tight but not with any great venom. Mathews also looked shaky to short pitched quick bowling early on with hook shots that looked compulsive, but since this was my first real look at him in the whites you guys will know better than me about it.
Prasaana got out in supreme chump fashion.
The bowlers were excellent. Kulasekara in particular hit great lines and lengths, which is exactly what you want your medium pacer to do when there is no movement on offer. Herath was simply ****ing awesome. The 2nd innings dismissals of Taylor and Flynn especially were great to watch.
There isn't much their batsmen could have done to mitigate Southee and Boult. Apart from Pirana those were genuine gagfc dismissals. Karunaratne especially got a nasty one on debut.
My only criticism would be Jayawardene and Mathews didn't kill New Zealand completely with the bat. Mathews especially got out in a soft fashion to a bowler who was bowling tight but not with any great venom. Mathews also looked shaky to short pitched quick bowling early on with hook shots that looked compulsive, but since this was my first real look at him in the whites you guys will know better than me about it.
Prasaana got out in supreme chump fashion.
The bowlers were excellent. Kulasekara in particular hit great lines and lengths, which is exactly what you want your medium pacer to do when there is no movement on offer. Herath was simply ****ing awesome. The 2nd innings dismissals of Taylor and Flynn especially were great to watch.
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Flem274*
123/5
Watling and Ryder aren't in the squad. Ryder is on a self imposed hiatus, but is playing FC.
How embarassing will it be for Nicol to watch this performance, and still he won't get picked for the next match.
The annoying thing though about the side which failed here is that there's really no obvious way to improve it. The top 5 are made up of the best 5 batsmen in the country (along with Ryder). No matter how often the likes of McCullum and Taylor under-perform and seem to waste their natural talent, there simply isn't anyone better. Ryder is of course the exception to that, and presumably will replace Franklin for the home tests (though Vettori will be fit by then I guess and we can resume the whole "balance of the attack vs Vettori at 6" arguments again).
The annoying thing though about the side which failed here is that there's really no obvious way to improve it. The top 5 are made up of the best 5 batsmen in the country (along with Ryder). No matter how often the likes of McCullum and Taylor under-perform and seem to waste their natural talent, there simply isn't anyone better. Ryder is of course the exception to that, and presumably will replace Franklin for the home tests (though Vettori will be fit by then I guess and we can resume the whole "balance of the attack vs Vettori at 6" arguments again).
Spark
Global Moderator
Sounds like Mathews to me. Is usually on the hook, mind, so bowl short to him at your peril
Migara
Cricketer Of The Year
That was tried by Steyn, Morkel and Philander on a lively wicket, but all three settled to pitch the ball up to him after what they have seen.
Briony
International Debutant
Maybe McCullum is someone who is a bit fragile mentally and who just has to keep the scoreboard ticking along. Some batsmen are nervous starters and find it hard to tough it out.
Spark
Global Moderator
Yeah, meant more the "fell softly after a period of tight bowling" thing. Seems easily tied down, does Mathews.
Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
Well...I'm glad I wasn't able to watch that.
What's really depressing is that the only people performing in domestic cricket are either bowlers, tried and traumatised 30+ batsmen, and Ryder. So it's not really like we have many options for improving the team from the outside.
It's sad to see what Williamson's fallen to. Taking the number 3 spot has proven to be too much and too soon, which isn't really that surprising in retrospect. Also, someone should give him a new bat, his current one has seen better days.
We just have to accept that for the indefinite future, New Zealand will have the worst batting lineup of any of the main 9 test playing countries. I doubt even Ryder will improve things that much. He's too much of a free-spirit to be the basis of a successful batting lineup. What we need is another Richardson, someone who can glue our rickety batting together through sheer bloody-mindedness. But I don't see any on the horizon.
I feel dreadfully sorry for Boult, Southee and Jeets. They've done excellent work in these last 3 matches, work that would be match-winning for most other sides. Also, I'd give Bracewell a couple more games to find his stride, he deserves it after his efforts last season.
What's really depressing is that the only people performing in domestic cricket are either bowlers, tried and traumatised 30+ batsmen, and Ryder. So it's not really like we have many options for improving the team from the outside.
It's sad to see what Williamson's fallen to. Taking the number 3 spot has proven to be too much and too soon, which isn't really that surprising in retrospect. Also, someone should give him a new bat, his current one has seen better days.
We just have to accept that for the indefinite future, New Zealand will have the worst batting lineup of any of the main 9 test playing countries. I doubt even Ryder will improve things that much. He's too much of a free-spirit to be the basis of a successful batting lineup. What we need is another Richardson, someone who can glue our rickety batting together through sheer bloody-mindedness. But I don't see any on the horizon.
I feel dreadfully sorry for Boult, Southee and Jeets. They've done excellent work in these last 3 matches, work that would be match-winning for most other sides. Also, I'd give Bracewell a couple more games to find his stride, he deserves it after his efforts last season.
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Bahnz
Hall of Fame Member
But none of them want to. They all grew up watching Greatbatch and Jayasuriya and Gilchrist smashing sixes everywhere, and decided that was how they wanted to play. And because the standard of high-school and age group cricket in New Zealand is so low, they were able to do exactly that and none of them never needed to bother developing the rock solid defensive technique of a John Wright or an Andrew Jones.
At this point, I reckon it's much too late for McCullum to change. Taylor could, but he's weighed down enough be the captaincy as things are. Ryder's ego will always lead him into trouble, and he'll ignore or abuse anyone who tries to tell him that. Guptill does want to, but doesn't have the raw talent of the big 3. Williamson is too young and being asked too much...<sigh>
Hoping Flynn and Watling can add a bit of guts to our middle-order. Otherwise I'd advise just leaving the side as it is. Nothing can or will change anytime soon, but the best players are where they should be, and should be given a few more opportunities to fail. If Williamson doesn't start to show signs of turning things around by the England tour, I'd consider moving him down the order. Otherwise we kinda just have to cross our fingers and pray that Cachopa will turn out to be the next Bradman.
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Migara
Cricketer Of The Year
Happens when facing spinners mainly. But does play rash shots. He has to tighten if he wishes to open. But if he's wasted at #6, then better have rash shots, because he has to be aggressive.
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Must be quite unusual for the openers to grab a pair in the first innings and then finish not out in the second.