**Official** New Zealand in South Africa

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by straw man

Better effort - well done McCullum and Brownlie.

Guptill though - that successful West Indies tour seems a loooong time ago now. Since then has 118 runs in 10 innings at 11.8 with one fifty.

Steyn was surprised by the dismissal.

[KungFu_Kallis]

Originally Posted by Briony

Elgar really has provided nothing for them given that AB has keeper allows them to play an extra batsman or bowler.

Yeah, Elgar's was one of the scratchiest innings wasn't it? Combined with his Perth pair he's either horribly out of form or doesn't appear to have the temperament for Tests.\

Edit: Or just plain not very good, which would be a surprising selection then. Seems to be rushed in his strokes, made Johnson look 150kph and even Franklin look like a fast bowler at times, heh..

Somebody like Ryan McLaren or even Rory Kleinveldt would probably add more value to the side, particularly in terms of looking after Kallis's workload. I feel they should be blooding a pace bowling allrounder like McLaren at this stage rather than leaving it until Kallis falls over. On the other hand I suppose they are sticking to a 7 batsman formula that is working, and like having a first class opener like Elgar or Rudolph coming in so low down which can also help combat the 2nd new ball. I suspect Duminy has a strong chance to come back in when he's fit again though, particularly with his added bowling ability, and Elgar/Rudolph have only been keeping his seat warm in the mean time.

[Flem274*]

hey we didnt even do our usual score of 150/5. go us!

would bring in Munro and one of the left armers for the next test. yeah Munro will get owned but thats the point - I'd rather he gets shown exactly what he needs to improve sooner rather than later so he can go away and develop a proper offside technique.

if he succeeds then great, we can try to forget franklin ever happened.

[NZTailender]

Brownliiiieeeeeeee. Lucky to be there by all accounts, but always seems to make a decent score when you're least expecting it.

[Briony]

Yeah Brownlie rode his luck but SA had one of those horror days in the field where their bowling was either top class or wayward and they dropped catches or all over the place - Elgar, Kallis, Petersen, Morkel. Petersen himself said that they were terrible. Apparently they declared so that their quick bowlers didn't have to bat. Surprising how little respect Amla and AB showed though the way they were moving about the crease.

[Mike5181]

Originally Posted by GingerFurball

Since when is batting for 45 deliveries "doing the hard work"?

You obviously didn't watch the game then.

[Flem274*]

Can we chill with that comeback? It's the worst comeback ever and just makes otherwise decent blokes look like ****s.

45 balls was a minor miracle in context of NZs batting in the game yes.

[Mike5181]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Can we chill with that comeback? It's the worst comeback ever and just makes otherwise decent blokes look like ****s.

45 balls was a minor miracle in context of NZs batting in the game yes.

I don't see how it's the worst comeback ever. Had he seen the game, he would have known the first 20 overs or so of our innings was the most challenging period of play for our batsmen. By the time Brownlie got to the crease, South Africa had started to bowl a little wayward, and it didn't look they did much research on him because they kept feeding his back foot strength. Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with the days play. Hopefully these two can form a decent partnership, and chip away at that lead. I'd be happy with them just batting again actually. You'd think South Africa will be on their game, and won't let as many chances go as they did yesterday though.

[Flem274*]

Originally Posted by Mike5181

I don't see how it's the worst comeback ever. Had he seen the game, he would have known the first 20 overs or so of our innings was the most challenging period of play for our batsmen. By the time Brownlie got to the crease, South Africa had started to bowl a little wayward, and it didn't look they did much research on him because they kept feeding his back foot strength. Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with the days play. Hopefully these two can form a decent partnership, and chip away at that lead. I'd be happy with them just batting again actually. You'd think South Africa will be on their game, and won't let as many chances go as they did yesterday though.

You could have just said that. It's becoming a gripe of mine because lately every **** and their dog is pulling out some variation of you obviously don't watch cricket.

And yeah the test is going to end tonight, but I hope I'm wrong.

[Kippax]

Presume Phlegm watches plenty these days ftr. May have looked at getting himself onto one of the following ISPs so it's unmetered as well.

Our current broadband partners are:

Vodafone
Orcon
Slingshot
Woosh
Xnet
Snap
Wiz Wireless
Farmside
PlaNet

[Flem274*]

At the start of last year I got on slingshot unlimited for $90 due to being a long term customer. Complete steal by NZ internet prices since I flat with 4 peeps.

[Mike5181]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

At the start of last year I got on slingshot unlimited for $90 due to being a long term customer. Complete steal by NZ internet prices since I flat with 4 peeps.

I'm on Orcon $99 unlimited atm, I think.

[Spikey]

Unexpected Cricinfo Headlines



Kallis reopens death penalty debate

[Zinzan]

^ Lol I saw that. Cricket much?

[Flem274*]

Haha yeah saw the headline before I checked the score and thought "what the **** have we done now?"

Debating whether to watch this or the HRV Cup. If I watch the HRV I might miss the rest of the test.