**Official** England in New Zealand

[PY]

Confident, then, Peter?

Whilst not wildly confident, I think we'd have to pull an Adelaide to not get something from this game.

Think Aggers got it right, draw then England win are most likely as it stands. Another 30 runs and maybe draw/NZ become more likely.

 

[Richard]

TBH, I can very well see us chasing the win, which requires to score at 3.5-an-over or so, and falling in a heap. Not saying it's going to happen, but given the last 2 years you'd hardly be surprised. I wouldn't, at least.

I'm certainly not confident. If we knock-over the remaining wicket (oh... hang on, isn't there supposed to be someone else to come in afterwards? ) instantly tomorrow then get to 100 for 1, then I'll maybe start to believe with conviction.

I really think it's 33-33-33 personally.

 

[Richard]

I do love Dominic Cork, recounting his own Test hattrick of 13 years ago on the highlights.

 

[andruid]

I do love Dominic Cork, recounting his own Test hattrick of 13 years ago on the highlights.

The Hat trick was obviously part of Vaughan's cunning plan to nick the test match, wasn't it?

 

[Richard]

Well... I'm sure he'd have had Sidebottom get 9 in 9 (triple hat-trick) if he could.

If you could get a hat-trick just by planning one, I'd imagine more people might take 'em.

 

[Woodster]

Amazing day's play and following the previous three days you would never guess that England would be in with a half-decent chance of pulling off an unlikely win.

Prior to NZ's collapse (fair play for the attacking intentions) I was thinking how they had dominated in pretty much every area, bar fielding. Their batting was good in the first innings thanks to a bit of wayward England bowling, and NZ's bowling was much more accurate, both seam and swing, when England batted. Then Sidebottom steals the show with a hat-trick and a 5for, exceptionally well deserved, with good support from Monty.

Englands catching has been outstanding, Cook has improved immeasurably, Hoggy taking a flying catch??!! Colly picked up a couple of good ones, Strauss' was a tricky skier that he made look easy.

What a day in store tonight, still in disbelief of how England have turned it round, with a little help from NZ's loose strokeplay in search of quick runs. Great character shown from England to persevere in this game.

Saw an earlier poster suggest that they'd prefer a draw, despite being an England fan would prefer it if NZ got what they deserved for the previous days efforts. While I agree that NZ have been superior in most areas during this Test and probably do not deserve to lose on overall play, I would love it, love it, if we managed to sneak it!! (still think draw is most likely, but could quite conceivably go either way).

 

[Richard]

Dav's I guess?

TBH, if England knock over NZ very quickly tomorrow then chase the runs down easily, I won't feel like we've won an undeserved victory, really. NZ have been fairly comfortably on top most of the game, but via a seriously impressive session, England have given themselves a shot.

If we were to creep home by 2 wickets I'd probably feel NZ were a tadge hard-done-by. But I'll wait and see how it pans-out, then decide whether the result was a very inaccurate reflection of the cricket played, or just a slightly inaccurate one.

 

[aussie]

correct me if i'm wrong by are all the reports saying Sidebottom took a hat-trick?. He got Sinclair & Oram in consective deliveries & well that was it..

 

[Richard]

Fleming with the last ball of 1 over, Sinclair with the 1st of the next, Oram with the 2nd.

 

[PY]

They didn't make much of it on the Sky coverage, which is probably where Aussie may have seen it? Blatantly didn't realise until someone told them off-mike.

 

[wpdavid]

NZ still big favourites for mine, however enjoyable the last session was yesterday.
There' s been a lot of talk about whether England will fancy chasing at over 3 an over, but Vettori will have an interesting call to make if he & Patel stick around for over 30 minutes. If we can't take the last 2 wickets in a hurry, how long does he leave it before declaring?

Despite common sense saying that NZ should be able to defend this on a 5th day pitch, there's a part of me thinking about Lord's 2004 and even the 2nd win out there in 1996/97.

 

[aussie]

They didn't make much of it on the Sky coverage, which is probably where Aussie may have seen it? Blatantly didn't realise until someone told them off-mike.

yea & probably the fact that i was half sleep/half awake when it happened.

 

[Richard]

They didn't make much of it on the Sky coverage, which is probably where Aussie may have seen it? Blatantly didn't realise until someone told them off-mike.

Yeah I didn't realise myself 'cos I hadn't looked attentively at the batting card (though had at the FOW), and when the Oram wicket was shown I was thinking "eh... that's the hattrick isn't it?" but no-one seemed to be saying "YES, THAT'S IT, RYAN SIDEBOTTOM HAS A HATTRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then it became clear that the commentators themsevles had missed it.

It's aussie not Aussie BTW.

 

[Flem274*]

I may sound biased here but England will have to make a superhuman effort to win this game if we bowl like we did in their first innings. The pitch is starting to turn it seems as well and whilst Vettori isn't much of a turner Patel will love the turning pitch. I think Mills holds the key as well. He's a seamer but he's slow enough and has some variation to be dangerous on this pitch. Really wish we had Styris though, he'd have loved this pitch. Or the master medium pacer Chris Harris.

 

[Richard]

Very interesting to hear Pietersen speak - this is Kevin Peter Pietersen, uber-aggressive KPP - pre-play. Certainly no big commitment to "yeah we're going to go for the win here". I don't think it'd be sensible to make-up the mind and say "we're going to go such-and-such" until New Zealand's innings is finished, personally, but I must say I'd have thought he'd have been more outgoing.

Let's hope (from our POV) that we grab these last 2 wickets quickly. And TBH, it might just be best for NZ if they fell quickly too.

 

[Richard]

Weather absolutely magnificent again... this is the best (cricket-wise best) 5 consecutive days I've ever seen in my limited scope of New Zealand.

And better than any 5 consecutive days over here for at least 20 months or so. At least.

 

[Zinzan]

Vettori gone, if NZ can just somehow squeeze another 10 runs in 10 mins

 

[Goughy]

10fer for Sidebottom.

I must be unlucky as when Ive been watching he has bowled pretty ordinary so Ive not seen much of his success.

 

[Pratters]

Excellent declaration. Shows intent to win the game.

 

[Richard]

10fer for Sidebottom.

I must be unlucky as when Ive been watching he has bowled pretty ordinary so Ive not seen much of his success.

Certainly were excellent balls to dismiss Oram and Bell. And decent ones to remove Sinclair, Fleming in the first-innings and McCullum in the first-innings.

Other than that it's mostly been poor strokes.