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

Well Fulton has certainly earned his spot on the upcoming tour.  Poor Martin Guptill will need to wait for a while (or injury) before he gets another shot.  Still don't have faith in Fulton's technique, especially if we encounter moving wickets over there, but he has certainly ground out the runs and deserves his place in the side.

Glad to see him with a test ton.

I guess that is the other option if Brownlie doesn't score some runs here.

Still have this nagging at the back of my mind that Groundsmen have prepared flat wickets on the basis that damage would be limited

Fair call. But this test series is proving to throw up the unexpected. E.g. day 1 in Dunedin, both of our openers socring 100s, us still in with a shot of winning the series...

Does look like this... then again we are in the middle of a drought...

Pretty sure it (dry weather) still affects pitch preperation though. TopLeft should be able to clarify?

Seriously... 250/1? This ain't the Black Caps. Anyone believe in alien invasions?

Part of me feels like we have bought into the Engllish media complaining about the pitches. As others have pointed out we would have had results in the past two tests without rain. I think the English media (along with most Kiwis) expected a 3 nil whitewash and it doesn't fit their narrative that it hasn't gone that way.

This is very surprising. 

To enforce the follow on, or not to? Huge call coming up here for McCullum.

I'd enforce it.  Big time.

Hmmm. Interesting

Here we go.  Bowled out for 120.  England win the series 1-0.

Very close to 5/2 there. No run outs please.

Stupid.  Idiots.  Fools.

And now we are 5/2. FML

I would have liked us to have enforced the follow on there.  This lets England back into the game, even just to draw it. Hopefully we can be at 200 round lunch tomorrow and have a real crack at them for 5 sessions.

Idiots.

We'll build a lead of 400 and be fine.

Yeah tend to agree, I can see both sides of the argument, and we could easily be sitting here with England at 90-0 and wondering why we didn't build a lead and have a crack at them for five sessions on a deteriorating pitch, it's just been bad execution so far.

Still, a big chance to win if we bowl the way we did, and anyway, even if it ends 0-0, still better than what we were expecting/dreading at the start of the series.

i guess my thought is that even if they managed to bat for 2 whole days and scored say 400 runs (not looking to score quickly and trying to save the game), that would give us 20 something overs to score 150ish quick runs.  I know the fielding restrictions and tighter wide rules make a difference, as well as a pitch that has deteriorated, but there is still a chance we can win, and very very little chance we can lose.

Edit: Don't mean to come across to negative here, we are still in a VERY good position, and a reasonably quick(but not recklessly so) 150 runs tomorrow morning puts us in with a good chance of winning. I do however think in this case, and in most cases, especially when having bowled for less than 100 overs, enforcing the following on is the right call.

I'm with Mike on this, with us having bowled less than 100 overs the follow on should've been enforced, I said it at the time. Especially with the way Boult was bowling.

Then again we are still in the top position realistically 274/3 with two days left, 350/400 by lunch and declare. Then 5 sessions of pressure to get 10 wickets for a win.

We will win.

I actually agreed with the decision. As much as it was swinging a bit, the thought of a tiring pace attack trying to run through Cook, Bell, Trott etc could have been messy (e.g. 2nd Innings in Dunedin). Would much rather see them have a rest and come back firing. Plus McCullum was in a far better position to make a call on how much they had left in the tank.

Looking forward to today though.

P.S. Is anyone changing their tune on McCullum/Hesson? I'm starting to nibble on some humble pie.

Fulton batting really well.  Much more assured 50 in this innings than his 1st innings knock.  Lol at Prior though "Doesn't matter where you stand over there guys, he's got no shot on the off side".  Followed up by a one bounce four through long on from Fulton, a sweep for four behind square leg, and then a huge 6 over long on.... Don't need the off side!

Fulton could very quickly go from 50 to 100 here if he stays in.

Fantastic morning so far.

I do not want to see us come out batting in the second session.  I feel bad for Fulton if he doesn't get his hundred, but surely we want 5 full sessions at them.

I think it's very unlikely. They'll bat another 20 minutes, try to get lead up to 450 and Fulton on a 100.

Really happy for Fulton, glad he got his ton.  But we are now 470 in front, with the biggest 4th innings case at Eden Park ever being >350.  Why are we still batting?  

Edit: Sky now showing highest successful run chase for all countries in all countries is 418.  I really don't want us to be left short of time, hence why I think we should have enforced the follow on - it gives us the best chance of winning, even with the slight chance of losing.

2nd edit: This really is great to watch though!!!

Yeah, they should declare now. Maybe it's psychological... really trying to crush England's spirits?

And now they have Southee to deal with.  As critical as I have been of his batting, this is set up perfectly for him to come in and 'play his natural game'.

Lol, or not.  McCullum (I assume) overruled by Hesson, Southee didn't come out to bat and left McCullum standing there in the middle on his own!

Lol, Macca didn't want to declare. But since no one was coming out to join him after Watling got out, he declares.

Yep, I agree with you. Just trying to work out why they were doing it. I think we definitely need some sort of breakthrough with the new ball, because there seems to still be a few runs left in this pitch.