**Official** New Zealand in South Africa

[ohnoitsyou]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

I'll be happy though. Probably just makes me more dangerous.

CW, I am happy.

Franklin to ton up next Test. Just straight up deserves to play it so much more than Munro.

**** off Munro is a gun

[Flem274*]

Is an Aucklander - sux

[Mike5181]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Is an Aucklander - sux

[ohnoitsyou]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Is an Aucklander - sux

Could be much worse, CD perhaps

[sonnench]

Pretty convincing win for us, however I don't think we were near our best, with only Day 1 being up to standard (above) imho.

Number 7 seems to still be bit of a problem for us, with Elgar failing again. Would expect to see JP Duminy come right back in when he heals up. Really can't wait for De Kock to be introduced into the test team, however I don't see that happening anytime soon. Would love for AB to give up the gloves to him, as he is such a fine fielder. Quinton obviously has things he needs to work on, but I genuinely have not been as excited about a player in a long,long time. The kid just has something about him.

Hoping the Kiwis can improve, and expect them to, however I think we will as well.

[benchmark00]

Originally Posted by sonnench

Pretty convincing win for us, however I don't think we were near our best, with only Day 1 being up to standard (above) imho.

Number 7 seems to still be bit of a problem for us, with Elgar failing again. Would expect to see JP Duminy come right back in when he heals up. Really can't wait for De Kock to be introduced into the test team, however I don't see that happening anytime soon. Would love for AB to give up the gloves to him, as he is such a fine fielder. Quinton obviously has things he needs to work on, but I genuinely have not been as excited about a player in a long,long time. The kid just has something about him.

Hoping the Kiwis can improve, and expect them to, however I think we will as well.

So if you were a selector, you'd look to insert de Kock?

[sonnench]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

So if you were a selector, you'd look to insert de Kock?

I would try and find an opening for him, yes.

In all seriousness, I really don't understand how people find his surname that funny.

[Bahnz]

Guptill 0 - Must be dropped, he looks a shambles.
Mccullum 3 - don't mind his decision to bat first, but failure to go on with things in the 2nd innings after all the hard work had been done was awful (and typical).
Kane 1 - Dreadful effort despite looking the most comfortable against the pace trio in both innings.
Brownlie 7 - Good luck or no, his century was a magnificent innings.
Flynn 1 - A bad match for him to bag a double failure.
Bj 4- mostly went unnoticed as a keeper, and survived well in the 2nd innings
Franklin 1 - His was by far the worst of the 1st innings dismissals. It's sad that he actually looked a better batsman back in the days when he was in the team for his bowling.
Bracewell 1 -his first ball was a ripper, too bad about the rest.
Patel 2 - pretty innocuous, though the pitch was never likely to offer him much support, and at least he kept it tight for the most part. Disgraceful batting.
Boult 6 - Was awful throughout most of the first day, but bounced back well in the evening and on day two. Looks a bit down on pace though.
Martin 5 - in terms of consistency of line, length and swing, Martin was the best of the three seamers. But there's no way that he's good enough to be a success as a 125-130k bowler.

[Athlai]

Pretty gutted for Guppy, his last Test to prove himself now IMO.

[Athlai]

Also I'd give Kane a 2.5 solely for his effort in the second innings, survived a period where if he fell the middle order would have been skittled. Didn't get the runs but the balls he faced saved us from further humiliation.

[sonnench]

Am curious, do New Zealand currently have any batsmen knocking on the door through their domestic performances in the longer form of the game?

I know Munro has been scoring a few runs in the Plunket Shield, but from what i have read from the Kiwi posters, he is quite a limited batsmen. Is there really no one else?

[Flem274*]

We have a batsman who has scored 6 hundreds in 7 games or something like that.

Guess what his obvious weakness is?

Bouncers.

Have no idea how he's survived. He's seemingly been hit more times this season than his run tally.

Carl Cachopa ftr.

Apart from him, it's an empty cupboard until Taylor and Ryder come back.

[sonnench]

That is bit of shame. It is however nice to see some more and more South Africans making a name for themselves in New Zealand.

New Zealand certainly need both Ryder and Taylor back, and with Williamson in the middle order as well, the lineup looks a hell of a lot better. I will be interested to see how Ryder does in his return, and the approach he takes with his batting, and if he will try and be as aggressive as he has been in the Plunket Shield. In my opinion, as good as McCullum and Taylor are, Ryder is by far your most naturally gifted batsmen, just needs to work his personal crap out. With these guys back, your biggest problem I guess will be who should open the batting. Guptill seems to be bit of minnow bully, and struggles in the longer forms against the bigger teams, and McCullum just isn't a test opener.

[Flem274*]

Munro and the Cachopa boys are much more kiwi than saffer. I think the Cachopa's in particular spent most of their lives here. No idea about Munro.

With the amount of South Africans flooding into Auckland though their team will probably have a very afrikaans look to it when the second gen kids grow up.

McCullum will remain our test opener because it's no exaggeration to say he's the best opener in the country by a distance. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. If Ryder tries to treat internationals like domestics he'll just get Southee'd by another countries bowlers instead of Southee. If he played that back away dab in the 45 all out innings instead of a few weeks ago against ND he'd be dropped on the spot and win the CW dismissals thread by a distance. Easily a worse shot than Haddin or Bell and in an unbelievably dire situation at a dire time. Hopefully he'll take test cricket seriously like he did before his shenanigans and withdrawal from international cricket.

Kippax will probably post it up again now I've brought it up.

[Howsie]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Flynn 1

Originally Posted by Mike5181

Flynn 1 (Disappointed tbh. May find it hard to stay in the team if he doesn't score runs in the second test.)

Originally Posted by Bahnz

Flynn 1 - A bad match for him to bag a double failure.

Just a tad harsh IMO. You're batting at five, your on five, and then Chris Martin walks out. Not exactly much you can do.