***Official*** New Zealand in the West Indies 2014

[ohnoitsyou]

He plays a wider range of shots..Darren although he's pretty complete he does love the off-side way more than the legside..where-as when Kieran is in full flow he'll hit the ball to all sides of the ground and do it in style..front cover drive, legside sweep, cut on the off-side etc...and he likes to use his feet to the spinners aswell while Darren tends to stay on the backfoot most of the time. But as Darren showed with his 200 in NZ he's a gritty little git and not just all flash...and that's what seperates the two, Powell hasn't learned the art yet of being gritty and digging deep.

Not to mention the technique and the talent

 

[Hurricane]

He plays a wider range of shots..Darren although he's pretty complete he does love the off-side way more than the legside..where-as when Kieran is in full flow he'll hit the ball to all sides of the ground and do it in style..front cover drive, legside sweep, cut on the off-side etc...and he likes to use his feet to the spinners aswell while Darren tends to stay on the backfoot most of the time. But as Darren showed with his 200 in NZ he's a gritty little git and not just all flash...and that's what seperates the two, Powell hasn't learned the art yet of being gritty and digging deep.

It has been a while since I have seen powell but his backlift and follow through are both less compact and less efficient than Bravo's introducing the chance of miss hits. Part of this is just down to the fact that powell is a bigger man, part of it is technique however. He is also sometimes late on the ball with the ball hitting his bat rather than vice versa. I wouldn't put him in Colin Munro territory who is the king of this but it is subtly there. These are my vague memories of Powell. I am willing to be corrected as it has been quite some time.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Man for man who has the better side guys? lets be honest about this

Imo

Gayle vs Fulton= Clearly Gayle
Powell vs Rutherford/Latham= perhaps even??? although Kieran is more proven at test level than those two imo
Darren Bravo vs Williamson= both very talented young players but imo Darren is ahead
Edwards vs Mccullum= well at this stage it has to be Brandan
Chanderpaul vs Taylor= Ross has been in very good form recently but Shiv has been doing it for years
Samuels/Dwayne Bravo vs Cory Anderson= Cory is a good talent but lacks the experience of those two
Ramdin vs Watling= Watling is another decent talent but Ramdin is coming into his own now and averaged 45 last year..imo he's one of the best keepers in the game right now so i'd give it to him.
Roach vs Southee= well this is a real contest ...Southee is on fire while Roach is a proven world class perfomer imo..due to Roach's lack of action you'd have to go with Southee but long term i'd stick with Kemar.
Taylor Vs Boult= Same as above really..
Narine vs Sodhi= no comment
Benn/Shilly vs Craigg= well obviously the new NZ spinner has yet to debut so there's nothing to go on right now...but clearly those two have the edge due to experience

Have i been fair? i think we have the clear advantage in the batting (especially in home conditions) and the spin department..while NZ have the pace department due to recent form...another interesting fact is Gayle, Powell, Edwards, Chanderpaul, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Samuels and Ramdin have all scored tons against NZ in the last two years...probably won't matter in this series but it's interesting non the less.

 

[Maximas]

I'd go KW marginally over Bravo, Watling over Ramdin and the two NZ seamers outclass their opposing numbers reasonably comfortably IMO

 

[Hurricane]

Man for man who has the better side guys? lets be honest about this

Imo

Gayle vs Fulton= Clearly Gayle
Powell vs Rutherford/Latham= perhaps even??? although Kieran is more proven at test level than those two imo
Darren Bravo vs Williamson= both very talented young players but imo Darren is ahead
Edwards vs Mccullum= well at this stage it has to be Brandan
Chanderpaul vs Taylor= Ross has been in very good form recently but Shiv has been doing it for years
Samuels/Dwayne Bravo vs Cory Anderson= Cory is a good talent but lacks the experience of those two
Ramdin vs Watling= Watling is another decent talent but Ramdin is coming into his own now and averaged 45 last year..imo he's one of the best keepers in the game right now so i'd give it to him.
Roach vs Southee= well this is a real contest ...Southee is on fire while Roach is a proven world class perfomer imo..due to Roach's lack of action you'd have to go with Southee but long term i'd stick with Kemar.
Taylor Vs Boult= Same as above really..
Narine vs Sodhi= no comment
Benn/Shilly vs Craigg= well obviously the new NZ spinner has yet to debut so there's nothing to go on right now...but clearly those two have the edge due to experience

Have i been fair? i think we have the clear advantage in the batting (especially in home conditions) and the spin department..while NZ have the pace department due to recent form...another interesting fact is Gayle, Powell, Edwards, Chanderpaul, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Samuels and Ramdin have all scored tons against NZ in the last two years...probably won't matter in this series but it's interesting non the less.

Darren will out score Kane at Home. Right now I would have them equal on neutral territory. My prediction over the next two years is for Kane to go better as Darren has relationship issues (not of his own making) and Kane it finally starting to fulfill his potential. It took a while for him to adjust to number 3.

 

[Flem274*]

combined XI: Gayle, McCullum, Bravo, Taylor, Chanderpaul, Williamson, Watling, Southee, Boult, Roach, Narine

 

[Hurricane]

I would take Ross over Chanders right now on current form.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Darren will out score Kane at Home. Right now I would have them equal on neutral territory. My prediction over the next two years is for Kane to go better as Darren has relationship issues (not of his own making) and Kane it finally starting to fulfill his potential. It took a while for him to adjust to number 3.

The "relationship" stuff is over now apparently...i'm not even sure he's with the same woman anymore ..and tbh i'd hope the kid is way more proffesional than that...yes he let it affect him when he played for Trinidad last season but it was simmering during the NZ series and he managed to get a double ton...so we're all hoping that episode is behind him now...we'll see in this series.

 

[Bahnz]

Nah, I love Rossco, but Chanders has been averaging 60+ for the last 6 years. The guy's a marvel. Would take Ross ober anybody else in the WI side though. Those two are the best bats in the series by an enormous margin.

 

[Athlai]

combined XI: Gayle, McCullum, Bravo, Taylor, Chanderpaul, Williamson, Watling, Southee, Boult, Roach, Narine

Yeah something like this, may have to drop Kane/Bravo on balance for the allrounder Dwayne/Anderson but that would be my ideal combined XI. Then I'd have Wagner, Jerome and Shillingford all close to the attack and Samuels/allrounders or Kane/Bravo as the back up bats.

Only big weakness there is the openers. It's Gayle and either young and untested or just total hacks.

 

[Flem274*]

Kirk is the back up opener

 

[Athlai]

Kirk is the back up opener

Which is solid enough but really when you compare it to the other spots. It's a big drop in quality.

 

[hendrix]

That WI squad is really good. I'm pleased to see that they're selecting the right guys.

IMO:
Bravo>Williamson
Taylor=Chanderpaul
Watling>Ramdin (both keeping and batting)
Southee>Roach just purely on form
Boult>Taylor - again on form
and then Narine, Gayle, Samuels are all better than their NZ counterparts.

 

[Howsie]

Boult>Taylor - again on form

On form? Taylor averages like 36 for his career. That would be abit like saying I'd take Chris Gayle over Fulton just on form.

 

[hendrix]

On form? Taylor averages like 36 for his career. That would be abit like saying I'd take Chris Gayle over Fulton just on form.

true that, but it wasn't long ago that Southee was averaging close to 40.

 

[Howsie]

true that, but it wasn't long ago that Southee was averaging close to 40.

As a 22-23 year old. Not a about to be 30 year old quick who hasn't played a test in almost five years and hasn't had bugger all cricket since then.

 

[Beamer]

That WI squad is really good. I'm pleased to see that they're selecting the right guys.

IMO:
Bravo>Williamson
Taylor=Chanderpaul
Watling>Ramdin (both keeping and batting)
Southee>Roach just purely on form
Boult>Taylor - again on form
and then Narine, Gayle, Samuels are all better than their NZ counterparts.

I really think Shiv is a better batsman than Ross, particularly on our tracks He averages 6 more runs then Ross per innings! Also I think Watling and Ramdin are equal, there's hardly anything in it. They're both averaging the same as each other over the last 2 years. Watling is better keeping against seam, Ramdin is better against spin.

On current form I'd take Brendan over Samuels too. I fear for Marlon, he hasn't looked himself recently.

 

[hendrix]

I really think Shiv is a better batsman than Ross, particularly on our tracks He averages 6 more runs then Ross per innings! Also I think Watling and Ramdin are equal, there's hardly anything in it. They're both averaging the same as each other over the last 2 years. Watling is better keeping against seam, Ramdin is better against spin.

On current form I'd take Brendan over Samuels too. I fear for Marlon, he hasn't looked himself recently.

Yeah most of that's fair. I suppose it's way to easy to fall into the trap of thinking that Shiv is not his old self when he's still scoring plenty of runs. Forgot about Baz vs Samuels. You never really know with either of those two, but certainly it's McCullum on current form.

 

[hendrix]

I'm also kinda struggling to see how people are putting KW ahead of Bravo.

 

[Maximas]

I'm also kinda struggling to see how people are putting KW ahead of Bravo.

On form, KW inches ahead for me cos he bowls some handy spin too