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

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
I know the "make middle order bat open" strategy is daft but if it's anyone it should be Nicholls. He's a scrapper with 9 lives, should take advantage.
I'd be so pissed if they again move Conway around and ask him to open. That's like treating your best batter with disdain. The time for him to say give me any spot is over. He should be batting at no.4 and Young having opened for so long should be given at least another 5-6 tests to settle down.

In the long run it would befit Latham to bat at no.5, he will score a lot of runs in the middle order I feel.
 

Flem274*

123/5
Latham's issue isn't position, but concentration when tested. He is often excellent at negotiating the new ball against any opposition only to throw it away on 30 or 40.

I don't know what the remedy to this is.
 

CharlesLara

U19 12th Man
I said this when Henry was doing the "Wager role", what on gods green earth are these "tactics".

Rachin scoring a double is also memey, especially because of the timing, not saying its proof he should be opening or in the team right now, but I'm not surprised at him excelling at the role he done his whole life... wow.. rocket science stuff.

This NZ side is wreaking of classic club cricket type bureaucracy, undroppables and the yes men, albeit willing (who the hell doesnt want a Test match) to fill any role provided as thats the only avenue into the team.

Very frustrating watch.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Latham's issue isn't position, but concentration when tested. He is often excellent at negotiating the new ball against any opposition only to throw it away on 30 or 40.

I don't know what the remedy to this is.
I know what you mean.... he looks absolutely on the money and for some reason some strange shot gets him out. I think he is figuring the balance of attacking or defending of late. I think both has worked for him in the past but when he was extremely good he will be less expansive but very solid and waited for the bad ball to come his way. Now he's going searching to score of good balls. It's not like he's getting out one way which is a problem. If you are nicking off you can decide to change the guard and leave everything outside off. If you are pulling and getting out you can leave out pull shot but Latham from memory has got out in every possible way which tells me it's not technique or mental space but it's more of a tactics. Should not be hard to change. Kane is a bit like that too now. Either over defensive or try attacking too much. Whatever happened to merit of the ball stuff? That is what made them so good.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
I said this when Henry was doing the "Wager role", what on gods green earth are these "tactics".

Rachin scoring a double is also memey, especially because of the timing, not saying its proof he should be opening or in the team right now, but I'm not surprised at him excelling at the role he done his whole life... wow.. rocket science stuff.

This NZ side is wreaking of classic club cricket type bureaucracy, undroppables and the yes men, albeit willing (who the hell doesnt want a Test match) to fill any role provided as thats the only avenue into the team.

Very frustrating watch.
I'm hoping they don't touch Ravindra any time soon and leave him alone. That'll do wonders for him rather than bat no,7/8. Who does that? I have never come across a team that takes an opener and bats him at no.8 in a warm up game against a county side. They won't do this to a Rutherford, if they do I'm sure he will tell them where to go. When the spot opens up they call in Rutherford, the same bloke they discarded for years. Only difference Rutherford is now 33. Nice slap on the black caps management's face Rachin's double hundred batting at the top for Durham. I think the younger ones have no choice but to listen to the management given their inexperience. If they say you clean the table, you just have to do it. No other choice. At the moment only ones that can cope are older heads. For the good of Rachin, Phillips and couple other younger ones they're better off developing their cricket outside of black caps and make the side when they can hold their own and are a bit more mature to deal with this current management.

In a way it's a win win for the black caps management. They could say there you go we released Ravindra and he does really well so we have provided him a platform. In case he sucked they would say there you go told ya he's not ready.

I'd be closely watching how they go about handling Bracewell. He's made for that no.7 sort of batter that is never shy throwing around the bat. That's what gets him runs and why he averages 33 in red ball after 12 years of first class cricket. Not solid but very enterprising. Hope they give him a good run and not bin him after couple of series.

I'm sure we will win this test match but if we don't and the next test match ends up being a serious challenge lots of questions will be asked of Stead and Larsen. I strongly feel all these decisions are coming from Steady and Larsen. Kane is too good to make senseless decisions. I used to like the way they used to handle things but of late I'm just pissed at some insane decisions which you can see from far away it won't work.
 

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
All of that aside, looking forward to tonight's game. Can't wait. Go the black caps. I think our boys always played with grit and pride. Hoping for our tail to frustrate England for about an hour. Doesn't matter how many we can get. Momentum is a strange thing. The first half an hour is going to be crucial. If we don't lose a wicket that will frustrate England and we will start seeing them get a bit desperate. If we lose wickets too quickly and that disappointment will carry on to the ground and chances are we can leak some runs out of over aggression or frustration.

We play our best when we are relaxed and enjoying playing cricket but still being gritty.
 

Moss

International Vice-Captain
Will try to put aside larger discussion on the state of the NZ team for after match. Though i will say Bracewell’s innings is the sort of situation where the coaching team needs to step in and say “the approach of getting a few boundaries early on is great, but know when to hold back and build on that. Especially when the opposition has reacted to it with deliberate field placings and change of lengths.” Don’t know if enough of that is happening seeing the way each dismissal yesterday was self-inflicted.

It’s an interesting last day for sure, but it’s hard to imagine how NZ are going to pick up 10 wickets with a bowler down and effectively 3 new-ball bowlers plus a not-quite-frontline spinner on debut. As someone else said, best bet is to somehow get 15-20 overs out of the way in the first session and ensure England have to chase in 65-70 overs, playing on Stokes-McCullum’s egos. (Of course Boult and Henry don’t do crease occupation so that may not be the most realistic expectation).
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
On the bright side, how about Mitchell eh? Closing in on 350 runs in 4 innings! Nicholls is pretty fortunate that CdG broke down, his place would be under serious scrutiny otherwise.
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah, no one expects him to average 50+ beyond the near term, and in the longer run I think his ceiling is the low 40’s. Still makes him a useful player when you chuck in his dibbly dobblies.
 

kevinw

State Vice-Captain
Another 30-40 from 10 overs would make this a teasing chase. I wouldn't bother chasing anything more if I were Stokes, but anything less and it's game on. Cricviz didn't really give NZ much of a winning chance. I'd make it 30/40/30 between NZ/England/draw at the moment.

Reckon Jamie Overton might come into the mix for the last Test, particularly if the weather remains as good as it is. Personally, I'd leave out Broad as the least effective of the three seamers to date, but no doubt Potts would be rested.
 

Moss

International Vice-Captain
Jamieson not bowling. That’s a pretty big ask of 3 seamers and Macewell to bowl out England. Hopefully NZ last 10 overs or so, you’d imagine runs will come quickly however long they last.
 

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