**Official** New Zealand in England

Ryan Sidebottom reminds me of Curtly Ambrose with the bat.

Jamee999 said:

Interesting tactically now, it's effectively a 1-day, 1-innings match, and it'll be interesting to what extent NZ are willing to roll the dice, or if they're just gonna play it safe and go for the draw. I reckon they should probably gamble...

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In the opening Test of a series, that'd be pure insanity.

There's no way they can possibly agree to, in effect, a 43-over-a-side (with no field-restrictions) game.

It'd be fascinating if they did, obviously. But it ain't happening.

BTW, this is it for a winner, dance to this and you're gonna get thinner, move, slide your rump, just for a minute let's all do the bump.

Great to see Vaughan in full flight last night.

So disappointed this was rain affected. If this was day 2/day 3 we'd be in for a beauty of a match I reckon.

Good to see both sides getting their moments in the sun and the captains lead the way. Also great to see Strauss back. Everyone loves a comeback kid after all.

Great to see Vettori in the wickets in the test format. I on;y saw a little bit of him bowling last night, but it seemed he was bowling wiht a bit more loop than he sometimes does in tests.

Good on him, and well played Vaughan. I went to bed when he was on about 10 n.o. so I'm sorry I missed it.

Great to see Vettori picking up wickets. Since he's been captain his form with the ball seems to have picked up.

Great to see NZ at 40-0 at the close of play. Hopefully they can build on that tonight.

Hooray Vettori & Vaughan! Wish I could've seen it. Heard Martin bowled very well too, which is good


40 for 0 - our biggest opening partnership of recent times?

NZTailender said:

Hooray Vettori & Vaughan! Wish I could've seen it. Heard Martin bowled very well too, which is good


40 for 0 - our biggest opening partnership of recent times?

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I think How and Bell got past 40 a couple of times in the home series. But if they can add 10 more runs, I'd imagine it would be our first 50 run opening partnership for 18 months (given how few tests we've played in that time, that's still not saying much).

Pleasing bowling effort. Vettori so often bowls excellently for so little reward, so it's great for him to pick up a fiver today. The same could be said for Chris Martin who again got mediocre figures of 2/70 odd, when he could have easily picked up 4 or 5 himself. Keep trying Chris, it'll happen for you soon.

Since there's no chance of us winning the match I'd like to see a day of real graft, finishing with the loss of only 3 or 4 wickets for something around 300. I'm sure it won't happen, but it would be nice to see, given what might be required in the rest of the series.

I just want to see one of our lads get on the honours board for batting.

Excellent effort from the bowling attack to restrict England to a 40 run lead IMO, especially after Cook and Strauss had got them off to a good start (albeit spread over three days). Can't see anything but a draw, even with NZ's potential to collapse at the sight of Ryan Sidebottom.

NZTailender said:

Hooray Vettori & Vaughan! Wish I could've seen it. Heard Martin bowled very well too, which is good


40 for 0 - our biggest opening partnership of recent times?

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Actually How and Bell put on 48 in the second innings at Napier.

Excellent posting from every one on the thread with special mention for Richard. Really enjoyable Rich, keep it coming. I haven't been able to watch much of this game but will try and catch a bit of the 2nd test.

Richard said:

Aye, and he should've had Vaughan too, of course, without falling into broken-record territory.

Martin easily the best of NZ's bowlers. Hope Mason gets picked ahead of Southee for the next game, I really do, for all sorts of reasons.

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Really agree, hope Mason does come in for Southee.

Richard said:

Haha, Sky showing a repeat of the incident which featured Heath.

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Surely not! That would explain why someone came up to me today and said they'd seen me on the telly. Its not as if I haven't been on the goggle-box before.

Halfpast_Yellow said:

Really agree, hope Mason does come in for Southee.

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That would be grossly unfair

Southee is 19, took 5 wickets on debut and smashed a 50, and has bowled ok here

He is an investment in the future and, if fit, needs to be played

social said:

That would be grossly unfair

Southee is 19, took 5 wickets on debut and smashed a 50, and has bowled ok here

He is an investment in the future and, if fit, needs to be played

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Explain grossly unfair.

He only came into the side for the 3rd test because of injuries to all the bowlers ahead of him in the pecking order, who are now fit and should in return have been selected ahead of him for the Lords test. Sure he bowled well in a session or two in his debut test but that is simply no way justification for shooting him immediately to the top of the bowling picks below Martin/Mills.

If anything is 'grossly unfair' it has been 1) the media hyping up the kid on that one debut performance and placing a huge weight of expectation on him to perform/expect selection, and 2) the mismanagement by the selectors which resulted in him playing the test ahead of one of the other experienced and in form NZ bowlers who should have been in the side instead.

This is Test Cricket and the opening match of a series. You look to play your best product bowlers(if fit) at the time of the match, not your 'investments in the future' and media hyped teenage talents. Save the 'investing' for A tours, county matches, and perhaps dead rubbers.

I'm actually quite sad to be somewhat vindicated by my pre-test insistence Southee should not play at Lords. Following his development somewhat it was obvious that yes he did have a good couple of sessions with the ball in Napier and a he rode his luck a bit with the bat and had a slog in a lost cause at the end, but in the wider picture was he was still a 19 year old and still quite raw at adult 1st class level, nevermind test level. It's quite frustrating that the NZ team management weren't able to do their job properly and have the balls to stand down the media hype and make the justifibly correct selection calls.

And aside from all that, even if the hype had been justified he should absolutely not have played with that recent back injury or soreness or whatever it was, being his age and all, and our history with stuffing our bowling talent when they're young by bowling them into the ground in the pressure situation that is test cricket. FFS NZ selectors! Way to learn nothing from Chris Cairns or Dan Vettori.

Halfpast_Yellow said:

This is Test Cricket and the opening match of a series. You look to play your best product bowlers(if fit) at the time of the match, not your 'investments in the future' and media hyped teenage talents. Save the 'investing' for A tours, county matches, and perhaps dead rubbers.

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Yep. Its cliched but true. The most important match is the next one. Always looking 2-3 yrs into the future means it never arrives.

Pick your best 4-5 bowlers. There is nothing else. If he is in that group then great if not then let him work on his game at the development level.

AWTA.

Screw the future. We are trying to win a test series right here, right now and Mason maybe looks the better bet at taking wickets/bowling consistently than Southee a.t.m.

-nvm-

Umm, sir, today IS day 5.