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***Official*** New Zealand tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa 2016

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Woah I'd heard he'd done well but that's an impressive record. How does it compare to other English domestic spinners?
Favourably. He dominates the one dayers too; he's pretty consistently been the best spinner in county cricket, bar other random overseas players for a season here or there.
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
The way it was put to him it sounded like Hesson was basically offering him a one-off tour unless he bowled the house down. Despite being the best spinner in the country, no central contract offered...at a time when far worse players were being given central contracts. Not much likelihood of playing further tours...they just didn't make him a reasonable offer.

It was incredibly poor man-management from a guy who's whole coaching philosophy is around man management.
I think it's wrong to characterise Patel as being jerked around during the later stages of his career. He was obviously only the 2nd best spin bowler while Vettori was around. He got his callup as the first choice in 2012 after Dan's test career effectively ended. IMO Hesson would've stuck with him even after the terrible SAF tour (he was selected to play for NZA leading into the 2013 England series), but then Jeets had to pull out of the running after his mum died and Bruce Martin grabbed his chance in Jeets' absence.

Sodhi got a contract ahead of him, and yeah that was a mistake. Patel really should've been called upon after Martin went to bits in 2013, but Hess and co decided to bank on youth. It worked with Anderson, so you can't say it was an entirely stupid policy, but yeah in retrospect picking Sodhi ahead of Jeets was a poor call.

But they had obviously recognised the mistake by the end of the season, and offered Patel another shot. Unfortunately he was at the stage in his career when he needed to focus on making as much money as possible, and so went with the safest option. Neither party is blameless, but I think it's wrong to focus on the team management as being primarily responsible.

It's a pity because I honestly think it probably cost us a series win in England. Don't think England would've had it nearly so easy on day 4 at Lords if Patel had been bowling instead of Craig.
 
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Zinzan

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Moeen Ali 125 @ 44.16
James Tredwell 371 @ 37.11
Adil Rashid 407 @ 33.26
Graeme Swann 404 @ 32.92


Head and shoulders above every other spinner in England.

That's quite interesting. Any other factors at play here like Warwickshire's home venue Edgbaston being particularly conducive to spin compared to other counties to explain how he's that far ahead statistically?
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
That's quite interesting. Any other factors at play here like Warwickshire's home venue Edgbaston being particularly conducive to spin compared to other counties to explain how he's that far ahead statistically?
They've got a lefty who's great at landing his foot right on a good line and length for an off-spin bowler.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
That's quite interesting. Any other factors at play here like Warwickshire's home venue Edgbaston being particularly conducive to spin compared to other counties to explain how he's that far ahead statistically?
Admittedly, conditions have been pretty favourable for him - moreso since the Bears have realised how much of a weapon he is, I believe. I also think county cricket is pretty amenable to accurate spin bowlers.

Which kinda is a sad indictment of England's stocks, really.
 

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
This is a minor point

I have been mulling on Rabada beating Nicholls purely for pace. And Stephen's suggestion that we play an express bowler.
Part of the reason for playing Bracewell is his batting. He averages 25 in First Class cricket.

Adam Milne would probably be equally as effective as Doug at taking wickets (but less effective at run control) but if batting is factor for the 4th seamer's spot then note Adam averages 28 with the bat.
And actually thinking about his batting I reckon his batting style is better suited to test cricket than Doug's.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Milne's batting is frikken awesome. Great technique (like Bracewell) and actually scores runs (unlike Bracewell).
 

StephenZA

Hall of Fame Member
I was surprised to find NZ not playing Adam Milne... much better long term prospect. And genuine pace (ideally controlled) is always a threat regardless of the deck, will need that in India. Reading here, you seem to have a genuine spin option in Patel. Need to try get him into the squad if possible and willing.
 

StephenZA

Hall of Fame Member
I`m interested to see how SA bat this morning... think it would be nice to get to 420+ (not that it should be needed) but more importantly keep NZ on the park for and hour an a half... tire them out a bit more then give then a short session to survive before lunch.
 

Flem274*

123/5
Yeah Milne has the talent to be a good fast bowling allrounder down the order.

Have Boult and Southee decided to come to the party now the game is done? Great.
Shame this is a one match series basically. The last match was rained off when it was in the balance (SA with a nose ahead maybe) and while SA batted very well, we were seriously unlucky not to take a lot more wickets early on in their innings. If we had kept them to 300-350 we'd have a mouth watering finale on the cards.

Will be a shame that we may end up getting basically 6 days of cricket between two sides that probably aren't that far away from each other in terms of performance right now.
No way. No team that spends a third of the over on the pads is unlucky. They were **** in the first innings. Every time they beat the bat, forced a streaky shot or caught the edge they followed it up with a pie or two. Close LBW shouts, edges, plays and misses - these happen in every innings, even the big 500 ones on roads. Good bowling is producing the highlights reel without the freebies.

Par score on this in the first few days was about 250. NZ were ****. South Africa were awesome.
Jeets turned down a spot playing for NZ in 2014 for the Windies tour. We've played 21 Tests since then.

Not ridiculous to think he could have taken a good 70-80 wickets @ 35ish or better. Definitely a player we should have persevered with a little more.
It's completely ridiculous considering he got like 20 tests and has the bowling average of an ATG batsman.
 

91Jmay

International Coach
Patel is miles better than any NZ spinner. The idea a joke like Sodhi is getting Test matches, even in Zimbabwe, ahead of him is hilarious. I'm not complaining as he is the best overseas player year on year in county cricket and has improved massively over the last 3 years. I can understand going Santner ahead of him as they are picking him because he can bat a bit but Sodhi and Craig? Hilarious.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
The way it was put to him it sounded like Hesson was basically offering him a one-off tour unless he bowled the house down. Despite being the best spinner in the country, no central contract offered...at a time when far worse players were being given central contracts. Not much likelihood of playing further tours...they just didn't make him a reasonable offer.

It was incredibly poor man-management from a guy who's whole coaching philosophy is around man management.
Yeah but if you had your ear to the ground at the time - and you did, because you posted on here regularly and are a learned NZ cricket fan - there was no great uproar about the fact Jeetan Patel continued to not get central contracts. The general view was that we'd seen more than enough of him on the international stage and that he was offering nothing of particular importance going forward. So it was contract a guy who averages 40 in Test cricket or invest in what the future could be. Wasn't a particular hard choice. Mathew Sinclair continued to be the best domestic batsman in the country years after he was overlooked and we had no issue in it. At some stage you say 'hey, you're probably not good enough' and you try to find the next great hope.

Jeetan had the choice to commit to international cricket and chose not to. I don't begrudge him doing so and I have no problem with Hesson's choice at the time. The fact that Jeets is an absolute demon in county cricket...who's to say that transfers into the international arena? Maybe he's just found his niche in Warwickshire? I dunno, I've never seen him bowl a spell in county cricket. But good luck to him.
 

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