**Official** New Zealand in South Africa

[ohnoitsyou]

yuss

[Bahnz]

Slice of luck there for Guppy. In spite of my ongoing disdain for guys presence in the team, I really hope he makes the most of it.

[straw man]

Also good work Watling. Though it does remind me a little of how another wicketkeeper batsman of ours used to whack fifties when the match was already lost.

[Dan]

I like Guptill, I really do. It pains me that he's so incredibly rubbish at opening in Tests.

He'll improve though. I get the feeling he'd sell his grandmother to Romanian gypsies to succeed at Test level.

[Mike5181]

Peterson bowling to McCullum makes me nervous.

[Zinzan]

Haysman just said Guptill is 6'5". Very important for me to clear this up. Guptill is 6'1" range, 6'2" tops.

Lol TH & heights

[straw man]

SA commentators:

"Every NZ batsman should bat 4-7"

"Besides Watling"

Would be a gun team

Watling
Watling
Watling
Brownlie
Williamson
McCullum
Guptill

Any NZ batsman that shows a smidgeon of promise down the order is immediately punished by being mooted as potential opener. Brownlie and Flynn too. In the paper the other day someone (Ian Snook I think) wanted to go the whole way and swap our 1,2,3 with our 4,5,6

[straw man]

Wow. Jeremy Coney ripping into Hesson on the UK Sky coverage.

Basically called him a lightweight and a liar.

What a champ

[wellAlbidarned]

Just noticed that Kleiny has a badly mixed action. Needs some work with Pickup.

[straw man]

These defensive shots from Guptill are just so ugly and amateur looking

[straw man]

Whatever happened to Guptill's pull shot? He hit it so well but because he got out to it a few times early in his career he binned it, such a shame imo, loved watching him bang that out.

Nah don't reckon his pull shot was that good. Tended to duck his head down at the point of contact, and always hit it up, rather than rolling his wrists on it. Definitely something intl attacks can exploit easily, so he was right to put it away.

Yeah I remember this well. Problem was his pull/hook wasn't just slightly wrong - needed to be completely reworked as he could only swing from low to high and it was a physical impossibility from there to keep it down. So six or out. He did hit a few sixes though.

[wellAlbidarned]

Really should've been giving Williamson a twirl on this pitch if ****ing Peterson is turning a few

[thierry henry]

Remember Guptill pulling Akhtar for an absolute monster 6 at Eden Park on Boxing Day 2010. Almost went completely out of the ground and the side boundaries are ok length there.

[Mike5181]

I wish the commentators would shut up about McCullum's SR. It's about batting time and patience at the moment. Make the South African bowlers ****ing tired, and then cash in.

[thierry henry]

Don't review ffs