*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[wellAlbidarned]

I'm torn. I want to make myself feel better by saying it must be a tough pitch so this is a good score, but on the other hand Ronchi scored runs

 

[LegionOfBrad]

He was on for a one a ball hundred before falling for probably the most obvious trap I've seen in a long time.

 

[Moss]

They weren't hard won. They were won by aggression. Aggression is easy. It's high risk, high reward.

Fair enough, AWTA. I guess it's more the frustration at batsmen not knowing when to rein themselves in (Ronchi, McCullum), but that was the approach that paid dividends I guess.

Though I think the score is under par (particularly if England bat tomorrow without much cloud cover), I think we'll take 297 for 8 when you consider NZ's most "test style' batsmen Watling and Williamson were dismissed cheaply to good bowling, and Latham went to pieces in the second half. Needed Kane or BJ to hold things together if NZ were to get a bigger score. While McCullum could've knuckled down after tea, Ronchi knows only one way to play effectively and did that as well as he could.

 

[El Nino]

He was on for a one a ball hundred before falling for probably the most obvious trap I've seen in a long time.

One a ball

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Guptill - nice ball, classic guppy hard hands
Latham - Not quite full enough, but he'd been nailing the straight drives all day until then
Williamson - misread length, was committed too early to a shortish ball
Ross - didn't see that Broad was coming from wide of the crease. Nice ploy.
Baz - In the slot, didn't execute
Watling - Gem
Ronchi - Gonna Ronchi. Could've sent it into the stands on another day.
Southee - Gonna Southee. Seems like he's been given a license so we'd better get used to it.

 

[JediNudist]

I'm torn. I want to make myself feel better by saying it must be a tough pitch so this is a good score, but on the other hand Ronchi scored runs[/QUOTE

So what are you saying ?

Just looked at scoreboard now. after getting up at a sparrows fart 5.30am.
Anyway great for Ronchi , silenced the doubters. Wow Guptil another duck ! Williamson ANOTHER DUCK !!!!! surreal.
Hopefully 350 they can get.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I'm saying the batting conditions can't be that difficult if Ronchi got a good score

 

[hendrix]

Excellent day's cricket.

Latham has now proven himself in the Windies, UAE, and England.

Ronchi gonna pinch hit.

 

[mightymariner]

Might be going tomorrow, quite excited.

 

[Flem274*]

Nah guys this is a plunket game. First 40 overs impossible to bat in, then the engine room delivers. Sounds like ronchi did what he did to southee and boult in that game. Craig needs his customary #8 ton tomorrow having a biff and the innings gas hit peak plunket shield.

So beware moeen when england bat.

 

[Athlai]

At 2-2 after being put in I'll take that. Impressive amount of runs on a shortened day, effectively took away the rains impact on the game. Hopefully we can jam out another 20-30 runs to get near par and get a bit of cloud cover to swing a few out.

 

[Spark]

Latham looks a decent player, but holy **** what the **** happened to him when he got to 70? Concrete in his boots and swapped his bat for a toothpick.

 

[Dan]

Latham looks a decent player, but holy **** what the **** happened to him when he got to 70? Concrete in his boots and swapped his bat for a toothpick.

I didn't stay up to watch it but yeah, that can happen to him from time to time. When he's on, he's a genuinely good Test opening batsman. But combine some good bowling with fatigue and he can look very, very village.

Something experience will help him with, I suspect.

 

[Dan]

Nah guys this is a plunket game. First 40 overs impossible to bat in, then the engine room delivers. Sounds like ronchi did what he did to southee and boult in that game. Craig needs his customary #8 ton tomorrow having a biff and the innings gas hit peak plunket shield.

So beware moeen when england bat.

Needs more Andy Ellis or KNB to hit peak Plunket Shield, imo.

Drop Kane to #6 for the second dig; sacrifice Craig to the New Ball Gods and get a higher-quality engine room running.

 

[hendrix]

Latham looks a decent player, but holy **** what the **** happened to him when he got to 70? Concrete in his boots and swapped his bat for a toothpick.

I didn't stay up to watch it but yeah, that can happen to him from time to time. When he's on, he's a genuinely good Test opening batsman. But combine some good bowling with fatigue and he can look very, very village.

Something experience will help him with, I suspect.

Pretty much. He really struggles once he gets past about 130 balls faced. It's been a feature of his career so far.

What's weird is he's usually a pretty good player of spin yet he was missing leg stump half volleys from Moeen.

 

[Bahnz]

I struggle to get over how rubbish Southee is becoming with the bat. Not much better than Stuart Broad now.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I'm saying the batting conditions can't be that difficult if Ronchi got a good score

There was enough there for the bowlers throughout; except the spinners.

Was one of those days where it's tough to work out; did England not build enough pressure, or did NZ put the English bowlers under the pressure to force further bad balls? They certainly didn't let any England bowler settle into a rhythm - the exception being Ali to Latham.

 

[straw man]

Fairly pleased to see that score after time lost to rain. I've only seen some highlights so can't comment on the pitch much, but we have enough runs that a good bowling performance will get us in a position to push for a win.

I can't get too worked up about so-called soft dismissals when attack paid off for much of the day - it's almost like people would prefer a Watling 50(130) recovery over a Ronchi 88(70). Disappointed to see Taylor get out for not much again, though was unfortunate - I don't think he could reasonably have expected the ball to behave like that. Very pleased for Latham - simply amazing to have a calm and compact opener capable of occupying the crease and making runs.

 

[91Jmay]

England bowled large spells of utter tripe so glad to have 8 to be honest.

 

[Flametree]

Sorry, I don't care what the approach is, unless you're declaring in the next 10 minutes, hitting a length ball loosener straight down mid-off's throat first ball after tea is just dumb... McCullum has scored two doubles and a triple batting "properly" not so long ago, so I just don't get the "40 off 30 and out playing a stupid shot" thing. It's not what a test number 5 should be doing. I appreciate that putting the bowlers under pressure is good, and in a match likely to be shortened by rain there's a case to err on the side of aggression... but if McCullum is at the crease runs will come, he puts the bad ball away as well as anyone, he doesn't need to swing at everything.