**Official** New Zealand in England

Obviously, bowling wide at a batsman who's prepared to leave it will always pose no problems. And I do indeed, obviously, hope we might manage to bowl straighter at him in the next 2 games.

But if we don't and he plays like that, he'll be similarly difficult to dislodge as he was earlier today.

Yeah, but I don't think it'll do NZ any good apart from situations where they need to play out time. Plus the guy's face just pisses me off. He's like Ian Bell with twice the smugness and one tenth the scoring ability.

Was a shocking effort by England at times today. New Zealand was under pressure and England just gave up the contest with some shockingly harmless deliveries. But Oram still managed some gorgeous strokes in the mix. The straight drive that he played against Sidebottom gave me goosebumps. What a guy!

Bit worried about Camps the last few days ITBT.

Isolator said:

Yeah, but I don't think it'll do NZ any good apart from situations where they need to play out time. Plus the guy's face just pisses me off. He's like Ian Bell with twice the smugness and one tenth the scoring ability.

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Oh dear. Suffice to say I pay roughly 0% attention (if it was possible to pay -100% attention I'd do it) to how someone's face looks.

I cannot recall a single occasion in my life when someone's face has pissed me off TBH. Never mind someone I've never spoken to\at.

Good knock from Oram. Hopefully he can continue scoring runs throughout the series. Vettori named Man of the Match.

Great effort by Oram to get a hundred, at Lords, in a potentially match saving situation (bit of a stretch but if he had gotten out for <10 and the rest folded like cards...).

Congrats to Flynn as well for gritting it out. Have been against his selection from the start and haven't rated him, but he doesn't deserve to be dropped after that effort. Hopefully it's a glimpse of what he can do and he will go a few steps further in the next test.

Alright, I told myself I'm not going to bed until Flynn gets out, so watched his innings from when he came in to finish....

Flynn is a better limited overs player in terms of strike rates. He's more aggressive than that innings showed. I like the fact that he never looked like getting out (aside from early on). He needs to learn to rotate the strike better, but I prefer an uncompromising batsman come good than a player who just wants to play his shots come what may. Second big partnership he's involved in this tour.

J How's method of dismissals this test really remind me of Ponting when he is in his lean period. Forward pushes at deliveries and edging to slips.

And fair enough Vettori (not Oram) getting MOTM, he singlehandedly saved NZ when it all looked lost in the first innings batting and bowling.

Richard said:

Bit worried about Camps the last few days ITBT.

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A bit worried about myself too, tbh. Sitting in my living room, blasting Incubus through speakers and trying to read a book about *** and cinema.

God, some of the posts in here about Flynn are absolutely horrible. The last thing I thought I'd be doing after the first Test was defending Flynn in the match thread; I thought it was ridiculous he was even in contention for selection, myself. However, while you can question his initial selection, his record and even his first innings knock, he played in a gem in the second dig, and I'm gobsmacked by some of the replies. Sure, he didn't score quickly, but he was batting out a draw in a Test match FFS! Not to mention the fact that he was on Test debut and spent the entire innings batting with two of the most aggressive batsmen in Test cricket. He doesn't have to be your favourite player; you can most certainly dislike him as a cricketer if you wish - I certainly do (for different reasons), but you do have to appreciate that, from a cricketing perspective, he played perfectly and guided New Zealand to safety.

Isolator, I'd like you to meet Ashwell Prince.


Ashwell is a left handed middle order batsman. He leaves everything on a good length outside off and prides himself on an impecable back foot defense. He only has a couple of really productive scoring shots off the quicks - mostly driving off the back foot to the off side. Does that discription remind you of anyone? Well, Ashwell averages more in Test cricket than all but 5 batsmen in New Zealand's history. Of those five, only one of them have played in the last 12 years, and that was Mark Richardson - hardly the king of modern strokeplay himself.

I don't think Flynn will be a particularly successful Test batsman either, but it's not because of the stupid reasons people have crapped on with in here. He looked really good in the second dig IMO; good luck to him.

I think Flynn is a top 3 batsman from what I can see from his techniques atm. For every batting lineup you need a player like him to stick around and look well assured at the crease without playing aggressive shots just because you feel the need to push up your strike rates. We have an abundance of that atm, including Taylor.

It's good now that we potentially have another anchor lower down to support the big hitters at the other end. If we had not gone off to light, Flynn would have certainly reached his half century and we won't be having this discussion.

I seem to recall Richardson getting stick for being a limited batsman early on in his international career... well Flynn has shown so far that he has onside shots he can play (1st innings) if he chooses to. But the fact that he can play like this, in his debut, without succumbing to hitting his way out of a funk he has been in this entire tour (highest score so far is 39).

Silver Arrow said:

Good knock from Oram. Hopefully he can continue scoring runs throughout the series. Vettori named Man of the Match.

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Rightly so too, his 48 is what saved New Zealand from possible defeat.

gettingbetter said:

Rightly so too, his 48 is what saved New Zealand from possible defeat.

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Bowled alright as well.

Taking that draw as a triumph TBH.

I struggle to understand why Flynn should be criticised for that innings, he did the right thing under the circumstances.

He came in with a lead of just over 70 runs soon after lunch, then lost McCullum quickly and it could well have gone pear-shaped for NZ at that stage.
He didn't need to score runs quickly as Oram was firing at the other end.

It was a very good innings on debut considering he was playing at Lords and with Sidebottom, Anderson, Panesar and Broad bowling pretty well I might add in favourable conditions.

Flynn did an excellent job of not getting out (not sure whether he gave any chances), but he was still there at the end. Good rearguard knock.

Oram (Y)

Yeah I think he'll take a lot of confidence out of that performance. I know it was only 29 runs but he was there at the end after having come in at a period where it could have gone down hill very quickly.

Looks like the second test will be a draw as well, if the weather forecast is anything to go by. Will be fine until Friday, and then rain thereafter.

Who would have thought that NZ would show England up in the weather stakes.

Might not be a bad thing actually, two draws would mean we actually have a shot at winning the series if England have a bad session or two.

A shame though, there's been good cricket played between these two countries and it's disappointing to miss out on seeing it.

_Ed_ said:

Might not be a bad thing actually, two draws would mean we actually have a shot at winning the series if England have a bad session or two.

A shame though, there's been good cricket played between these two countries and it's disappointing to miss out on seeing it.

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AWTA.

On NZ-well done. Played some pretty competitive cricket as a new side (bar the top order in the first innings). Good platform to build on.

On England-Bit disappointing, felt they should have done a bit more but the weather didn't help and they (the top 3 especially) played some high quality cricket.