***Official*** New Zealand in Zimbabwe and South Africa 2015

[Flem274*]

how the **** did they score 235?

 

[Flem274*]

much plunket shield. much troll.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

If KW scores 121* his average will hit the big five oh

 

[Zinzan]

On a pitch like this though that line up doesn't look crash hot. Elliott. Munro and Ronchi are pretty average players of spin.

Williamson will need to hit a 90 here for mine.

Yup, although 'not the worst' and 'crash hot' are quite different though right.

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Tom Latham ruining his odi chances to replace McCullum or challenge Ronchi.

Good score, leading to a successful chase, but these slow starts are not what is wanted or needed in ODI cricket these days.

 

[NZTailender]

23.5
Panyangara to Latham, SIX, great stroke, absolute quality. He slidies it on to off stump and doesn't realise Latham's nimble feet coming at him. He meets it and lofts it beautifully over the midwicket boundary and it travels the distance too. Excellent shot.

TWM Latham 61* (68b 4x4 1x6)

And with that, I'm off to bed.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Gupps

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Gupps

Effective chase. Bludger of a match. Pleased for Ish.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Would've done it in 30 overs if Taylor wasn't there.

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Would've done it in 30 overs if Taylor wasn't there.

Hopefully he has learnt. Was amusing listening to him be interviewed about his innings in the last match.

 

[Energetic]

Back to usual for Zimbabwe.

 

[Hurricane]

Have we ever chased 200 odd none down before?
Well done blackcaps

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Tom Latham ruining his odi chances to replace McCullum or challenge Ronchi.

Good score, leading to a successful chase, but these slow starts are not what is wanted or needed in ODI cricket these days.

Admittedly very small sample size for Latham (8 games) and no strike rate info but

McCullum as an ODI opener 106 matches, 4 centuries, average of 32.87 (boosted by averaging over 100 vs Canada and Ireland)

All-round records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Latham as an ODI opener 8 matches, 1 century, average of 45.66

All-round records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Just saying

 

[_Ed_]

That's a better score to wake up to.

But there's still room for improvement - I feel like we let them off the hook from 146-8. Raza played superbly, but we should have at least cleaned up the tail at the other end.

 

[Prince EWS]

That's a better score to wake up to.

But there's still room for improvement - I feel like we let them off the hook from 146-8. Raza played superbly, but we should have at least cleaned up the tail at the other end.

Yeah it would have been one thing if he forged a partnership with Cremer or Utseya, but Tinashe hasn't even pretended he could bat since he was about 19.

 

[Bahnz]

Tom Latham ruining his odi chances to replace McCullum or challenge Ronchi.

Good score, leading to a successful chase, but these slow starts are not what is wanted or needed in ODI cricket these days.

I don't think a slow start in ODI's is necessarily a bad strategy. Yes, McCullum has his own way of doing things, and it's great when it comes off, but more often than not recently it's resulted in NZ being 1 down inside the first 2-3 overs. With the extra fielder inside the circle, ODI's have been flipped on their head. The first 10 overs in particular is the bowler's time, while the batters turn for scoring at 6+ rpo is now the 15-40 over period. The impact of the field setting rules has been accentuated by the 2 new balls - the middle overs with only 4 fielders outside the circle are now the easiest for scoring freely, after the swing has worn off but before the ball has started to soften. Being cautious and scoring at 4 rpo in that initial period in order to ensure that your powder is dry for the middle-overs acceleration is a fair strategy imo. NZ executed it pretty much perfectly in this game.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah it would have been one thing if he forged a partnership with Cremer or Utseya, but Tinashe hasn't even pretended he could bat since he was about 19.

We would've rapped up the score for about 180 if we'd held our chances. Fielding was abysmal and, alongside Henry's bowling, is where we can look to improve the most in the decider.

 

[Howsie]

tbh I don't mind Latham opening in ODI cricket. I think in the long run he'd be better suited coming in at four but seeing as that won't be an option for a good number of years opener will have to do.

 

[NZTailender]

Yeah apart from fielding and the second spells from Henry and McClenaghan it was pretty much a perfect game. Latham ending up striking faster than Gups was great to see, but also kinda irrelevant I guess considering they ended up doing it easy. Congrats on his maiden ton though - I think he can be a good opener for us; much better than him being at 5 or 6.

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

This love for Latham to be a permanent future ODI opener is very premature. He could well develop into a fine a ODI opener.

But this was a 100 on a Zimbo pitch with some turn, but nothing else to worry the batsmen, against a Zimbo attack where batting is almost certainly Zimbo's stronger suit in getting the team to a 10th place ranking.

In the context of chasing 230, Tom Latham's innings last night was fine. In the case of displaying to the selectors that he is can do the job which NZ typically want, at the end of 9 overs Latham was 14 runs off 26 balls. NZ RR was 4.3 at that time. If he kicks on and gets a 100, he looks a hero. More often than not, he will not get a 100. If he gets out in the 10th over, it is a bad innings.

Bahnz makes a most interesting point about overs 1-10 not being about "powerplay scoring" these days. I do not think he is correct with De Kock, Gayle, Hales, Dilshan, McCullum, Warner even Finch all doing their thing, but I do not wish to debate it right now, because in a year's time, post NZ Aus ODI series, we can have a much better indication of where things are at in current ODI cricket for the first 10 overs.

The most pleasing for me last night, other than Ish's success, was watching KW mark two get some big turn off that pitch. For all the naysayers saying that under his revised action, he would offer nothing more than darts without spin, he was significantly and genuinely tweaking it against Zimbabwe.