I dunno man. He just kept playing and missing. imo that shows he struggled with the pace of the pitch and the bowling, very much a hand/eye/talent thing
Agreed. To lose to a mediocre target with so many wickets left is terrible. If we missed out chasing 180-200, then I could understand. Elliott seems an average player thats had a few good innings. he can get away with it in one dayers if he has enough time but I think its fair to label him a limited player.
On another note wish Nathan McCullum hadnt hit those last two deliveries. Losing by ten would have been easier to take than losing by one.
Someone mentioned a while ago that the new tactic of NZ was to bat normally at the start and not try to hit over the top early, just retain wickets for later on in the innings. That seems to be the way they have played. I hope its not true as they are putting themselves under so much pressure at the end of an innings and sometimes we just dont make it like tonight. The first one dayer we almost couldnt muster 180 odd. We almost ran out of time. Same in the second game. And the same tonight.
Surely you should be trying to win the game with an over or two to spare, rather than waiting until its late in the innings. And that means going hard early is important. A good first 6 or 7 overs and it would have been no problem, but we just try and pace it right through and put pressure on ourselves right until the end.
When you think about it its better to have a go early. Asking genuine batsmen to hit a few boundaries early is better than asking tailenders to come in, in a pressure situation and hit boundaries early at the end of a game. McCullum and Elliott paced it so they needed 40 odd of 25 balls. A situation where one wicket means a tailender has to come in and deal with that situation. Not smart. Have a go earlier, get the runs down to something like a run a ball, then at least if you get out the tailender has a bit of time to see a few deliveries before he needs to smack it.
I hope its not a new policy of theirs to go slowly at the start and save wickets for later. Always going to be under pressure and like tonight, could lose the game with plenty of wickets left. Brings up the question Ive always wondered about with cricket coaches generally coaching players that are better than them. I hope this new Moles fellow isnt coaching them to bat like an English county cricketer from the 70's.
Then again maybe we just had a bad day.
