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

YES!!!!!!!!

C'mon.

How good is this

Fixed

Nerve wracking.

Resigned to our usual loss here. :(

Wagner on.  Hope restored.  Emotions yo-yoing

WAGGY!!!!

I fudgeing love Wagner.

WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It hasn't touched - its in the air.  The part of the foot over the line never touched the ground.  Smith is wrong.

One more. One more.

Richardson is completely right.

AND IT'S ALL OVER.  I LOVE TEST CRICKET!!!!!!!

What a game.  Never stopped believing.

how the fudge did we win that!!!! my god!! what a finish. why did MS Dhoni play like that??

well done BC's and well done wagner!!!

TEEEEEESSSSSSSTTTTTTT CRRRRRRRIIIIICKKKKKKKEEEEEEETTTTTT. love it.

Well then.

ONE-NIL

Only our 4th test win against one of the big four in the past 10 years. Last one before this was Hobart 2011.

God i hope we can eek out a result in Welly. A series win would be remarkable.

Great game of test cricket and congats to the "Black-caps", probably one of the best I've seen.  Wagner terrific lion-hearted effort.  Rahane still trying to contact the BCCI regarding DRS.  Three test  wins in a row !!

You can say what you want about India in Nz. That is a great win for us. Stoked. Now let's go nix. Make it 2/2.

Baz said to me he'll be retiring pretty soon and just wants the team to have a winning culture before he departs. Williamson will succeed him but he says he's working closely with him to improve a couple of areas where he would lack as captain. For all the flak he cops, he takes it very well and he's quite a top bloke to have a beer with.

In terms of ODI's we are there. We have all the makings of a team that could go deep in next years WC. McCullum has got that unit firing.

In terms of the Test side, i think McCullum is doing a reasonable job. He cannot be blamed for a lack of "winning culture" if it doesn't happen under his tenure as captain. Truth is we cannot compete on a regular basis with the Big 4. If he can help us move up to around 6th or even 5th that would be fantastic.

though now we are beginning to develop some real depth. I guess the thing is this- say a players name and think will the opposition be really happy to get him out or not to have to face him:

Taylor tick 

Williamson tick

McG tick

Anderson tick

(maybes- Watling)

Boult tick

Southee tick

Wagner (in his good spells) tick

that to me is really promising with McClennhan, Henry, Bennett and Milne knocking on the door, with Latham, Guptill and Ryder no t featuring in the batting side. 

I think the atheliticism particularly shown in the field and running between the wickets has been a feature of the side. Rutherford and Fulton should be asked some questions now. I think they actually did ok in the first dig, but the second at least one of them should have hung  around enough to give us a solid start.

Fulton is dead weight and has to go after the second test. He is simply not up to it. I'd give Rutherford a bit more time as he is younger and still learning.

Basically the key areas we are lacking are: Opening batsmen, a spinner, a keeper batsman (not essential but becoming more and more common in intl cricket, and more and more important in tests)

We have some depth there, as you have rightly pointed out martinb. We still don't have true balance.

Think that's a bit harsh of Watling, but otherwise agree.

Funny how all the haters have disappeared from this thread. Guess they'll all be back as soon we lose a session in the next one though.

P.S. You must be pretty happy with how the pitch held up TL. Great effort given the issues you had.

Sodhi looks promising. Almost got Pujara in the first innings with a great bit of bowling, but just didn't land it. This is his chance to try to out think some of the best players of spin on some of the worst conditions for spinners. Should definitely play. I'd like to see him get wickets giving the ball a big rip though, but I think he is potentially the best leggy we've produced in several generations, which isn't saying a lot, but he can be international quality.l

Fulton has ability. How much longer he stays is the question. I like that we can actually really drop people on performance now as there are people clamouring for their spot. These openers kick started our revival against England. We should have beaten the Poms at home. They deserve a little more faith, but not too much more. 30/3 is a score that says opener failure and the second innings also. 

Yeah h we are pretty happy with how it went. We had faith in it but we will never make overly bold predictions about how it will play - usually we just compare it to other games on the same deck and what we've done differently to that prep. The disease issue was more esthetic than anything and the hardest part about that whole thing was concealing it so the print media or tv commentators didn't make a meal of it. Some of those guys are real pests to deal with but Blair handled them pretty well. Just glad the boys won this time. Will be a long time betweem tests for EP though which is a shame IMO.

We simply must stick with Sodhi.

He is already "probably" our best test spinner (evidenced by no real alternatives - and no, I do not see Vettori as an alternative, even if he did become fit) AND, most importantly, is the potential with him is something we have not seen since christknowswhen. Yes he's young, inexperienced, has a lot to learn... but he will only learn by playing. As much as I'd love him to have a year or two in county cricket, even if he did that he would  be more likely to be underbowled than anything else and as long as Hesson and McCullum keep behind him then hopefully in 2-3 years time he'll flourish... and we'll have a world-class spinner for a decade or more!

And, he can hold a bat too.

Dunno about world class. Depends how you would define world class though. He has a long way to go that's for sure. So raw at the moment to the point he is handing the initiative to the opposing batsmen and putting more pressure on our pace attack. 

I prefer Williamson bowling at this stage.

How is he going to get there without bowling?... of course Williamson is used a little more - and if you're referring to the last test you also need to consider who he was bowling to.

Preference to Williamson (and bowlers like him) is a direct result of exposure of/to white ball cricket. Test matches are very different - and IF we can develop Sodhi (or any of the other high potential young spinners we have) then the benefits are obvious, to most.

All spinners - and especially leggies will get carted from time to time... especially earlier in their career. Given the chance some learn and grow from that - others don't and fall by the way side.

But yeah, let's flag that - bowl Williamson more and perhaps even bring McCullum into the test team.

That'll keep the runs down for sure. Job done. 

Well done, you've come across as a right prick there.

Problem is that the management will keep asking for green tops to suit our biggest strength, which is our seam attack. Means that Ish will never get to bowl in helpful NZ conditions and therefore the development is hindered.

So yes, we need to persevere and develop him but we can't do that in home tests as we need those pitches to help us win tests

It's a seriously difficult one

I see what you're saying to a point... but surely the majority of his development should happen at domestic level not at test level? Then again we have so few matches at first class level in NZ, and again most of those are on green tracks so I guess that wouldn't help much either. Has he ever played county cricket over the winter?

My point is, if he doesn't bowl - he doesn't improve. And we don't get the "chance" to have something we've never had in my lifetime.

Will he be another Warne? Hell no... that's a likelihood of about 1.27% besides the fact he isn't Australian. But can he be a world class test (leg)spinner?... my estimate as of now is around 23.78% which is just under 22% higher than anyone else we've had since Vettori wasn't shaving (see what I did there).

I'll get my coat.

Our domestic red-ball cricket is piss (in as far as developing attacking spinners - ie; leggys). I'd love to see him go to England for a year like Williamson did but being a leggy I doubt he would get much of a look in would he? In terms of overs, not simply getting a contract... possibly even lower/2nd eleven leagues.... who knows.