Its Summer! - the Fever Cricket Thread. (Part 2)

Kumar Sangakkara.... One of the greats.

Pretty under-rated too I reckon

Having been somewhat a critic of McCullum (though by no means his biggest) I've got to congratulate him on a great captain's hundred when really needed, and in difficult circumstances.  Hopefully He and Williamson can keep going and help us put up 400+, as this pitch looks like it could get pretty flat over the next couple of days.  

Agreed completely on Sangakarra comments above.

P.S. TL, what on earth has gone on with the green looking end of the pitch?  Disease issue killed off some grass and needed some clippings?

Edit: Ok, Cumming going on about it now, deffinitely grass clippings - what's the deal?

Yeah we got hit by disease a few weeks back and that area nearly died off completely. We managed to nurse it through but with all the fungicides we sprayed it hasn't quite come up the same as the rest of the pitch - the green colour is from the dye in the chemical. The grass cover was slightly thinner there so we put some clippings on to even up the coverage. (Hopefully) that will mean it won't break up but we'll have to wait and see. Glad they left out Ashwin anyway. I don't want to speak too early but so far we're pretty happy with the way it's played.

For all the talk over whether McCullum deserves his place in the team as a specialist batsman, he now averages 40.50 as captain, while averaging 39.68 when not playing as keeper. Great knock today, and also stoked that Kane has kept up his ludicruous form, he's such a nice guy and just a phenomenal player, his success is well deserved.

Great innings by Baz today. I think there were comments about Kano's record- but I think that the support for the batsman has been much better- so has allowed him to play. 

Even today, comparatively to previous, the openers held out for a few overs. considering that 50/5 used to be a score you could put a guaranteed bet on with us. 

So happy to be a cricket fan right now. Hope we're going to get a test in, but it seems somewhat unlikely with the weather :(

The disease was a 1 in a million and we've still managed to produce a pretty decent wicket that will hopefully favour NZ a little. We're happy even though the prep hasn't been perfect - remember the wicket has only been out there four days which, in portable terms, is really cutting in fine. It means you can't confidently predict what it might play like. Still don't want to hang on my words though but day one was very good from our perspective. If we'd won the toss I think our bowlers would have done more damage than theirs did in the first session or even the second/third.

To back up the earlier statement, India have the worst away record of any team in the last 5 years. Source: Brian Waddle and Dion Nash.

Winning this should not be a surprise but does not cement us as 'worlds greatest'

No one said "worlds greatest"

McCullum is our KP. A different kind of talent and can often be hit and miss. You have to accept it though.

A truly great innings. Measured and devastating, patient and forceful...

Amazing innings. But if our batsmen are doing this well...how will the indian top order go??

I've yet to be proven wrong.

You're yet to give us any credit either JV.

We have played sublimely so far in this test. Batting, bowling, fielding, all superb.

McCullum finally had a good captains knock. The key is for him to follow it up or it just looks like a one off.

I gave credit a few pages back to Taylor, Williamson, Southee, Boult, Watling, Wagner. Its all there.

Yawn. Feel like I'm listening to mark watson

No. Mark Watson thinks every sport is shark except for triathlon.

Mmm eating tasty words...

We're talking about cricket here vader. McCullum is more than just a batsmen to this side.

Highest first innings score at E.P too I think. Hopefully we can take all 20 now

Great innings by Mc Cullum , class knock by Williamson, poise and elegance (soft dismissal though).  I'd probably drop both openers.  Bring in Latham and Raval.  No place for Ryder after his latest antics!! Boult had potential to be world class and Sodhi looks an interesting prospect.

what a cracking start this morning!!

15/4 !! should have enforced the follow-on. 

You would think Ryder would have learnt by now that maybe he should stay away from the drink.

Every follow-on decision has its positives and negatives, I wanted them to follow-on, but I could see the reason why they wanted to bat again as well (and lets face it, the game is still well in NZ's favour). In fact I don't remember a follow-on decision when everyone was onboard, there is never a consensus.

Ah well, at least the match has livened up now, never a dull moment with these "Black-caps".  India could still win this, their awesome batting line-up  has to fire at some stage, shame the crowd is so small....

Vader can you just go back to <a href="http://i.imgur.com/7CZby9V.gif">shark</a> bagging the asbp and auckland city? You clearly know nothing about cricket and it's painful to read.

Cheers.

Oh and what N-Bomb said. 100% agree

THis shark drives me crazy.

I thought the BCs had turned the corner and were about to enter a new "golden age"...I was starting to trust them again.  What a joke.