***Official**** Sri Lanka in New Zealand 2014/2015

[WindieWeathers]

And WW will be well aware of that too, lol @ him even try to go there re that heartbreaking test when rain robbed us in the last session. IIRC it was beautiful sunshine just 20 mins after they'd called it off.

West Indies were extremely lucky they only loss 4-1 (home & away) and not 5-1.

I do think SL will be tougher than them, but provided the pitch has good bounce & carry, I still back NZ.

NZ were the better side no question..but in both series WI never had the opportunity to field it's best side out of the pitch and the same is true for this current series in SA aswell.

Anyway like i said i think SL will test NZ here...their experience in England i think will be key.

 

[Zinzan]

Anyway like i said i think SL will test NZ here..

Winning the toss will go along way towards that for SL. It proved a huge advantage for India in Wellington last year on a similarly fresh looking wicket. If the coin lands NZ's way however, It'll be curtains for SL.

 

[Bahnz]

That was not conclusive imo.

Wow, what a surprise.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Quite obviously a conspiracy against little NZ.

 

[Kippax]

Could've made like clay court tennis and had an umpire check the bruise on Bravo, I thought.

 

[Kippax]

Looking at a pitch photo from here in NZ two days out can be quite misleading btw, especially so when tomorrow's forecast is for 16 hours of sun and 25 degrees.

Do not remove more the one third of the plants leaf in any one cut. So cut the wicket down to 8mm at the start of preparation and cut it each day taking off around one millimetre each time. The final height of the wicket should be around 4 millimetres long.

 

[Maximas]

From a NZ perspective, the only thing that irks me a little is I think the SL pacemen selected are a actually little quicker than NZs overall. Not that it means much when you have Southee & Boult as your openers, but it is one downside of having Bracewell selected as the 4th seamer as opposed to a Matt Henry (or even Milne as a bolter).

Certainly not a big deal, but is a little odd.

It is a little odd, while we aren't complete mugs against good pace guys like Liam Plunkett have given us a bit of grief in the recent past so it wouldn't be the worst thing to get a young tearaway in perhaps. Our guys aren't that quick on the whole, Lakmal is a pretty steady low 130s kinda guy, Eranga is more of a mid 130s operator and the other guys in the squad tend to push 140, although none of them have really proven their capacity to maintain it over 5 days.

 

[Bahnz]

Anyway, really tough decision to make between Bracewell and Wagner...I noticed Wagner getting a bit of reverse in his 5fer last week, so that tips things in his favour imo. Still, it's hard to say no to a guy who's been taking his wickets at 13 apiece this season, especially when he's already grabbed a 9fer at this ground.

 

[Mike5181]

I don't think it's a tough decision at all. Wagner's averaging 27 or so in the last 18 months of test cricket. He deserves a decent run in the side. Give him this series, and if he fails - then look at someone like Bracewell.

 

[Bahnz]

You can't just base the decision though on how Wagner was playing 6 months to a year ago though. Starting with his stint at Northants, Wagner has taken 22 wickets in 8 matches at an average of 50. Those are not the kind of numbers that a first choice test player should be putting up in domestic cricket. Like I say, there's been a timely improvement in his form in the last couple of matches, but overall it's a risky decision to include him in the side.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

About time for a sticky isn't it?

 

[YorksLanka]

Wow just seen a PIC of the 'wicket' on cricinfo,thought it was the outfield!! Hope we win toss and bowl first but still think we will lose- not having a go at the kiwis btw for producing these as all countries do the same and have to play to their strengths and our batsmen have to learn to adapt to differing cconditions..

 

[OverratedSanity]

You should be grateful if it's a greentop. Would fancy Lakmal to take a few.

 

[Maximas]

Greentop indeed would be better for us than seamy road, our bowlers put it in the right spots and present the seam and they don't do it too slowly, I really don't see why they wouldn't succeed but we'll see, just nervous cos I really need Lakmal to take some poles and prove phlegm wrong

 

[YorksLanka]

I agree with OS and Maximas, lakmal looks better than ever and was getting up to 140k's in SL which is pretty decent..he will do well if he can stay fit I reckon..i hope our boys continue to focus on bowling the right areas rather than getting over excited at having a track that assists them and bowling too short..

 

[NZTailender]

You can't just base the decision though on how Wagner was playing 6 months to a year ago though. Starting with his stint at Northants, Wagner has taken 22 wickets in 8 matches at an average of 50. Those are not the kind of numbers that a first choice test player should be putting up in domestic cricket. Like I say, there's been a timely improvement in his form in the last couple of matches, but overall it's a risky decision to include him in the side.

Even so, if I were Wagner I'd feel royally pissed off if I was left out. He was instrumental in our home wins last summer, as well as in the WIndies, and only missed out in the UAE due to the desire to play multiple spinners. And when you consider the latter, given how much rope they gave to Sodhi you'd surely think it's the least they could do for Wagner.

 

[Neil Young]

There was no one better than Sodhi, though.

 

[Smudge]

About time for a sticky isn't it?

Considering the first test is less than 24 hours away, you would hope so. And I don't want to hear the tired excuse that it's Christmas Day and the mods are having a day off...

 

[viriya]

Didn't know Chandimal was directly affected by the tsunami.. and can't believe it was exactly 10 years ago.. wow.
Dinesh Chandimal recalls Tsunami pain | Cricket News | New Zealand v Sri Lanka | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Flem274*]

This pitch better not be as green as everyone predicts otherwise whoever bats first will get Basin Reserve'd and will need a 300 to save them.

As good as that test was, it should have been a win the toss and win the game pitch and those suck.