*Official* 2022 New Zealand Tour of England, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands

[Immenso]

Abso-****ing-lutely concur with TH's takes.

A draw would be a good result, considering not only the crappy hole they dug in the first test (and day 3 of this test) but also the crappy hole they dug in the 'warm-up' (that they also lost). Going for 3 in a row?

If they wanted to win the series, they should have gotten serious earlier. Not slog on the evening of the 4th day of the second test. It's too late now. Needed to be 'tougher' earlier.

This is just an 'out' for a team as soft as melted butter.

 

[thierry henry]

a total of 300 on the final day or 2 sessions is always defendable. we needed to always have a speculative look (remember we won those hilarious SL and Bangladesh tests where both sides scored a million against arguably a more solid batting order than England). I didn't watch the collapse so I can't comment on how we batted, but we were always correct to be targeting something to have a speculative bowl at.

tbf I wasn't necessarily saying that we should have just tried to block for 2 days. If we had just batted normally we would've given ourselves a chance for a little crack at the end anyway. What actually happened was we have batted significantly SLOWER than the overall run rate for the test, but with 2 run outs and 4 guys effectively "holing out" playing aerial attacking shots. Just the worst of both worlds, slow but reckless. When Bracewell joined Mitchell was right when we should have realised we were in the ****. To ramp up the aggression at that point feels a lot like giving up. And yeah, saying "well Bracewell is **** so he should bat like an idiot" is also a version of giving up.

 

[SteveNZ]

I'm actually not sure what I'm seeing with this team. Whereas 2 years ago you have a clear feeling of leadership, ownership of roles, being switched on to the task at hand, there just doesn't seem to be anywhere near the same clarity about who we are as a team. Crazy run outs, weird innings' like Bracewell's, no real sensibility to the selection process, and it's showing in our results.

The feeling to me, and I'm outside the environment obviously, is that this team is Stead's now. It isn't the end of the Hesson era over-flowing, nor is it really Kane's at present either, because he's missed so many Tests. And maybe I'm being harsh, but I think that's starting to show.

 

[Kippax]

Macewell's innings seems to be getting singled out a lot and all I have to say is well duh this guy, no disrespect to him, is more known for his T20 than FC run scoring. You don't average 33 in FC cricket by being consistently good at batting.

Nah when you factor in Mitchell turning blind as he did in the Southee run out, I'd assume Macewell was batting at a T20 tempo because that's what the coaches and captain had directly requested.

 

[Flem274*]

I think we're going in circles, but on the bowling - I suspect Latham doesn't rate Macewell. We've praised Latham before for trusting his spinners a lot more than KW and setting decent fields. He only bowled Macewell once the quicks well and truly failed.

 

[Flem274*]

Nah when you factor in Mitchell turning blind as he did in the Southee run out, I'd assume Macewell was batting at a T20 tempo because that's what the coaches and captain had directly requested.

I haven't seen it yet so thank you. Yeah and in that case, you can't blame the debutant for following team orders.

 

[Chubb]

Macewell will bowl England out tomorrow, just wait.

 

[Meridio]

I had noticed Mitchell turning blind on a number of 2s and 3s, seems to be something he does. Can feel a bit cruel to be picking on that when he's batted so well this tour but it's directly cost a wicket here and is just such a basic thing to be doing wrong, I wouldn't expect decent schoolboy players to be doing that.

 

[Immenso]

I'm actually not sure what I'm seeing with this team. Whereas 2 years ago you have a clear feeling of leadership, ownership of roles, being switched on to the task at hand, there just doesn't seem to be anywhere near the same clarity about who we are as a team. Crazy run outs, weird innings' like Bracewell's, no real sensibility to the selection process, and it's showing in our results.

The feeling to me, and I'm outside the environment obviously, is that this team is Stead's now. It isn't the end of the Hesson era over-flowing, nor is it really Kane's at present either, because he's missed so many Tests. And maybe I'm being harsh, but I think that's starting to show.

Who we are as a team now is having a strategy of hoping that the opposition are stupid, inept, or grossly under-prepared.

So, our tactic for tomorrow is to hope for some sort of combination of stupid & inept from England. Because tomorrow certainly isn't something we are putting ourselves in control of through our own cricket.

 

[SteveNZ]

Yeah, no blame apportioned to Macewell here. It was clearly a team directive - you wouldn't play like that on Test debut if it wasn't.

The Southee run-out was just so, SO dumb. You're a batsman down, with a slim-ish lead and you do that. Absolutely criminal.

 

[thierry henry]

Oh yeah I absolutely agree that most of our bizarre and idiotic cricket seems to arise from very deliberate, idiotic tactical decisions and not so much individual brain fades. That's what makes it so infuriating, as compared to say, guys just nicking off to good bowling. We're actively turning away from good cricket to play bad cricket because someone seems to think that it just might work.

 

[SteveNZ]

Who we are as a team now is having a strategy of hoping that the opposition are stupid, inept, or grossly under-prepared.

So, out tactic for tomorrow is to hope for some sort of combination of stupid & inept from England. Because tomorrow certainly isn't something we are putting ourselves in control of through our own cricket.

I agree. Or we hope we get on top early in a game, and put pressure on from there. Which didn't work in the SA or Bangladesh losses, and hell it didn't even work last week. Nor here. The battle-hardened approach that won a WTC and made two 50-over finals + a T20 one is so far gone. I wonder how much can be attributed to a) no Kane for extended periods b) the coach c) the stand-in captain who cannot buy a run against good opposition d) No Wagner etc.

 

[thierry henry]

It's basically all a play on McCullum's "my technique is bad now so I should just slog", writ large. Pessimism masquerading as optimism. Anyway, I'm becoming delirious and should do some work today too.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

NZ will win by 20 runs, and England will regret not taking a lead.

That's right

 

[Flem274*]

I have an exam tomorrow but the most crucial thing is I watch the death and destruction of the New Zealand cricket team tonight and be right about said team on the internet today, tonight and tomorrow morning.

 

[thierry henry]

I'm watching the World Cup qualifier at a pub tomorrow morning and have just realised the cricket runs almost perfectly into that, so I'll be even more productive tomorrow than I am right now

 

[Bahnz]

Is it confirmed that Jamieson can't bat? If so it must be a very serious back injury. Otherwise you'd think he'd be at least able to go out and try and block it for a few balls to help give the other batsmen an opportunity to slog a few runs.

 

[thierry henry]

Is it confirmed that Jamieson can't bat?

Have you watched him over the last year ayyy lmao

 

[straw man]

TH more in his element here than at the World Height Convention

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yeah we have to go for the win. In NZ's cricket history we've only ever won 1 series in which we fell behind (2-1 over England in 1999, although that was 4 tests so could afford a draw).