***Official*** India in New Zealand 2013/14

[Blocky]

NZ's bowling tactics once they've got India needing 8 plus an over have been utterly stupid and the sad thing is they haven't changed them on the awareness of that. Using short pitched bowling when the batsman aren't looking to hit boundaries in every over makes a little more sense and I can understand that as a ploy, but getting bowlers who struggle to maintain 130kmh an over to bowl bumper after bumper is exactly why we're allowing India to come so close despite their terrible starts to chases.

 

[_Ed_]

NZ's bowling tactics once they've got India needing 8 plus an over have been utterly stupid and the sad thing is they haven't changed them on the awareness of that. Using short pitched bowling when the batsman aren't looking to hit boundaries in every over makes a little more sense and I can understand that as a ploy, but getting bowlers who struggle to maintain 130kmh an over to bowl bumper after bumper is exactly why we're allowing India to come so close despite their terrible starts to chases.

Yep, totally agree. Felt so helpless in the stands on Saturday, desperately willing the bowlers to pitch it up, but all to no avail.

 

[Blocky]

Yep, totally agree. Felt so helpless in the stands on Saturday, desperately willing the bowlers to pitch it up, but all to no avail.

It's got to be a Bond tactic, something they've been told to go to and trust - it "worked" for them in the first two games, but I actually don't think it did. I think it meant the scorelines were closer than they should've been. I also don't like this "we will rely on five bowlers for 45-48 overs" either. Ryder and Williamson are both capable of getting through some overs and Ryder has in the past shown an ability to consistently bowl blockholers when required. A little better than expecting Anderson to step up and do it.

 

[jonbrooks]

It's got to be a Bond tactic, something they've been told to go to and trust - it "worked" for them in the first two games, but I actually don't think it did. I think it meant the scorelines were closer than they should've been. I also don't like this "we will rely on five bowlers for 45-48 overs" either. Ryder and Williamson are both capable of getting through some overs and Ryder has in the past shown an ability to consistently bowl blockholers when required. A little better than expecting Anderson to step up and do it.

I think the tactic to bowl bouncers is sound provided our bowlers were accurate and not bowling wides. Unfortunately this is not the case and more often than not we're conceding runs from this delivery.

 

[shivy]

Corey Anderson looks like a gun player, is he also in the test team? Indian selectors really need to give pujara a shot in the ODI team,also wouldn't mind seeing jadeja bat up the order possibly 4th...
India really needs to develop some fast bowling depth too. need bhuvi to step it up to shami's level. Hope varun aaron can stay fit, his speed would be extremely helpful in the world cup next year...Anyone know what's happened to unmesh yadav???

 

[_Ed_]

Corey Anderson looks like a gun player, is he also in the test team?

Yep! Has a Test century to his name already. Not sure his bowling is as effective in the longer form at this stage as it is in limited-overs, but still useful.

 

[BeeGee]

Yep! Has a Test century to his name already. Not sure his bowling is as effective in the longer form at this stage as it is in limited-overs, but still useful.

11 test wickets at an average of 19 is a good start. But, yeah, his test bowling is unlikely to sustain those figures.

Mind you, they said the same thing about Philander...

 

[SteveNZ]

His consistency has been average for the three years, but then he's also batted 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7 in the order in that time period which no other batsman can claim. He was good at home against the Windies and England. Bad against England away and didn't cash in on his starts in Bangladesh, He's just come out of a series where he scored a tonne that should have set us up for victory if not for rain and had an average of around 40 - not great, but good enough in NZ.

I think there is more chance of him being dropped from ODI selection than there is test selection personally. I also think he should be looking to set himself up with a 3 to 6 month break from cricket to get his back into the right condition to push on. One of the things every Sinclair and Franklin fan used to complain about is that they never had a consistent spot in the test order so never could establish themselves with consistent performances - well, Brendon has only had the "5" slot recently and hasn't been our worst player in that time period. You also can't dispute the NZ side is playing much better test and ODI cricket since he took over the captaincy, too.

I was interested in your take on Brendon - you're not the hard taskmaster you are with our other friend, are you? I like the 'hasn't been our worst player' in particular.

I don't imagine Brendon's back is at a point where a 3-6 month break will restore it to its former glories. He's 32, a back injury allowing more freedom of movement (without surgery) at that age would be fairly unprecedented. Now's not the time to do that pre World Cup anyway, I shouldn't imagine.

I'm interested as to why you think there's more chance of him being dropped from ODIs, not Tests.

 

[Jono]

Can't wait for this match. Usually I'm just happy to watch an ODI for entertainment and don't have that much invested, even if it involves India, but this one has some spice in it after the last amazing topsy turvy game. Hopefully we see another great contest

 

[Athlai]

Brendon McCullum hasn't been our worst player, I mean we still have openers don't we?

 

[straw man]

Think everyone just needs to chill out on the who-shall-we-drop-next thing and be thankful we have enough quality players that none of Devcich, Rutherford, Elliott, Munro and Ellis are still getting picked.

(not that a couple of those are completely terrible, we just have significantly better options)

 

[Athlai]

Not including Franklin in that list makes me feel better about myself. Thank you straw man

 

[straw man]

****, can't believe I forgot Franklin

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Yep! Has a Test century to his name already. Not sure his bowling is as effective in the longer form at this stage as it is in limited-overs, but still useful.

if anything isn't it the other way around?

 

[_Ed_]

Yeah, maybe you're right. I just get the impression from his First Class and List A performances so far that he'll prove to be more effective in the latter.

 

[Athlai]

I reckon he could develop into a decent Test batsman, but I don't know how useful a bowler he'll be.

 

[Zinzan]

FFS, 4th toss in a row for Dhoni. Must be one of those BCCI coins....


Interesting to see NZ resting both McClenaghan and Anderson due to supposed niggles. That coupled with India batting first on this track (after what the Windies did) makes them hot favourites for mine.

 

[straw man]

Well, Neesham and Mills in for Anderson and McClenaghan... interesting. Definitely feel we're sacrificing quite a lot of attack and firepower there - need runs from Neesham today.

Edit: Didn't realise there are alleged niggles

 

[Zinzan]

Well, Neesham and Mills in for Anderson and McClenaghan... interesting. Definitely feel we're sacrificing quite a lot of attack and firepower there - need runs from Neesham today.

Edit: Didn't realise there are alleged niggles

Looking forward to see how Jimmy goes today. Really can't afford his usual 2-3 looseners early in his spell though.

 

[hendrix]

I don't mind giving Anderson a rest. We need to see more of Neesham going into the world cup. We've seen plenty of McCleneghan and Anderson to know where they stand and what their roles will be.