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

Now it's even more pronounced, to get any kind of total to put us in a position of favouritism would require taking a pretty major risk.

Probably about batting out a day to try and save a draw, then maybe push on tomorrow morning and have two sessions to bowl at them and hope they fold? That's the conservative option.

How can a team score over 400 and have a lead of 10 runs? I am not suggesting anything untowards but what a weird game. Batsman's wicket so to speak.

Strange tactics from McCullum to get that last wicket yesterday. They should have been more aggressive against both batsmen, not just the #11. It felt that through trying to restrict the set man from scoring, the actually allowed him to do that by making it too easy to pick up singles when he needed to.

Field should have been in catching for both of them

Are you Jerzy in disguise?

Interestingly placed at tea. A couple of quick wickets it'll all be on.

Considering what happened in the first test, that's a pretty good performance. Difference between the teams probably that 60-runs and 90 minutes worth of time that the Pakistani 10th wicket pair took on the 4th morning.

Positive signs looking ahead to the third test. Probably bring Wagner in for Craig? Interesting if they will stick with McCullum as an opener given it has been a reasonable (by our standards) success. Not sure we really need both all-rounders in the 11 but if Baz opens there probably isn't a better middle-order option to drop one of them for.

Yep good signs but I think the crucial factor was our spinners not taking enough wickets on that track. They needed to take at least 10 between the two of them but only got 5 in the match.

Happy with a draw there. Plenty of positives for sure.

Feel like Craig has contributed much more with the bat than Neesham or  Anderson... Macca opening makes sense as he's likely to get out for sod all if he comes out against the spinners, but can attack the new ball on a pitch with very little sideways movement.

Love test cricket.

It can be in the UAE, in Newlands, at the MCG, at the University Oval, in Mumbai, Kolkata, Kingston, Lords, Yorkshire,even Brisbane...

Vettori into the test squad with Hesson wanting to play 3 spinners on the slowest of the 3 UAE tracks. 

Daniel Vettori is like the AWs Ivan Vicelich. Even though he is largely done at that level, he is still the best in his position.

I'd say he's more like Ryan Nelsen given he had the title of best bowler, best batsman, coach and selector about 4-5 years ago.

He can still do a job at test level in this unique situation and should be able to handle the bowling workload given he will share it with 2 other spinners. We do lack a bowler such as Astle, McMillian or Ryder who can bowl tight probing delivers at 110kmh and that hold up on some surfaces and swing very late. Maybe a job for one the batsmen to work on?

I'm not convinced. We need wickets, and Vettori has never really taken a lot of wickets, especially in his late career. I think Pakistan will be happy to just play it safe and take 2 runs an over off him, and he'll get maybe 1 or 2 wickets in the match. I'd rather us add Wagner to try and find some swing.

Finding swing in the UAE might be a tough ask regardless of the usual level a player gets and the last pitch appears to be the slowest of them all and swing is much less effective is there is no pace to go with it. At least with spin there is the bounce and fact the batsman has to make his own pace on the ball. I doubt we'll see more than a 15 overs an innings from Anderson/Neesham as it is.

EDIT: It does beg the question though; Does Hesson see any future for Patel in the NZ team?

Sad news about Phil Hughes. Hope he pulls through.

You'd like to think a helmet would protect against that sort of thing...piss poor really on the designers' behalf TBF...

Yes it's sad and I hope he pulls through but unfortunately accidents do/can happen, and that's exactly what it is. Thankfully, they happen very rarely... my heart also goes out to the bowler - poor bastard will be feeling terrible.

Seen it happen with a similar blow to a much slower bowler in a few games I've played in and been hit a few times. While helmets can stop some injuries completely, sometimes they are just there to lessen the severity of unavoidable injury.

Where it has hit him appears to be the 'sweet spot' where the grill ends and there is no helmet as below. In the 20 years I've been playing cricket, I have always worn a helmet but always know that I'm likely to get injured by the ball at some point - it's the risk of trying to hit a rock solid piece of leather and cork with a plank of wood. Sometimes you win, sometimes the bowler wins.

If the helmet had an extended grill or lower protection to the helmet itself, it would hinder movement and possibly even promote neck injuries as your head can move around a LOT when playing hook, pull or sweep shots (shots where the helmets most comes into play). What you also need to remember is that Huges took that shot on, tried to pull it and missed. He had the option to duck or sway but chose to have big nuts and take it on (which is to be commended). It was the perfect storm of a well directed bouncer, aggressive shot and head position at a particular moment in time. The bowler will feel awful despite playing within the rules and Phil Hughes, who will hopefully pull through this awful event, will likely be the first to admit it's part of the game and he could just have easily baffed the guy for 6. Good luck to him!

Terrible news, hope he pulls through. Feel sorry for the bowler too, how is he ever going to be able to pick up a ball again?

He's only a young fella too, 22 I think and played a handful of games for Aussie. maybe 1 ODI and 3 or 4 T20 games. I hope that his team and also opponent plaeyrs rally round him as well.

when I was younger and (more) stupid I got hit in the head without a helmet on. Was so lucky to just have a broken cheekbone, and seeing this just makes me feel even luckier. 

It pretty much ruined my cricketing career. Whenever I came back to bat I had this nervous twitch where I would back away a little, causing me to constantly get bowled or move away just enough to get the edge. I stuck at it for a couple years before it frustrated me enough to give up. I had gone from opening with an average of 40+ to being lower order with an average of about 5. 

After the incident the college introduced the rule that every player had to wear a helmet. Sensible really. 

A couple of years later I was at work with a guy, and we'd worked together for a year. For some reason that day something clicked and I asked him 

did you ever play for x college - "yes", 

did you open the bowling? - "Yes". 

Did you ever bowl a bouncer and hit someone in the head - "...yes...", 

that was me! - "holy sh*t!"

We became good mates (we kind of were already, it's amazing it took a year for us to discover this)

Every time I see the bloke who ruptured ligaments in my left foot by jumping on it in a game of indoor football, I get the red mist and want to smack the crap out of him. Bouncers are part of cricket so it's quite different, akin to tackling in rugby if it is within the rules.

oh absolutely, it was my fault for not wearing a helmet, not his fault at all. 

Same happened to me Tegal... it was a windy day at Whakatiki St, the track was hard, fast and bumpy, their opening bowler was slippery enough but not extreme... I was a bright eyed 17 year old up and coming opening bat... blah blah blah lol

Haha, sorry, wasn't saying it was your fault - what I meant is, as it's within the rules of the game it's a risk you take by playing and you can have a chat to the guy about it after as opposed to a nasty challenge (i.e. throws the ball at you after picking it up in his follow through)

More scans to come for Hughes. What a terrible situation. Cricket Australia has abandoned all other shield games, good move on their part with many players surely knowing each other very well and keen to step away from the game for a few days to digest yesterdays events.

Interesting that the manufacturer is saying he was wearing an older model. I guess a new model may have helped but seeing where it hit him, I'm not sure any helmet other than a full motorsport helmet would have helped.

First thing I'm doing at practice tonight is checking my grill is in place and there are no hairline cracks or soft spots in it! 

Tragic accident definitely. I remember a story about Jeff Wilson hitting someone in club cricket when he was a teenager, and them finding him later on the side of the ground bawling his eyes out. 

Maybe they'll switch back to these...

I hit Matthew Bell in the crackers with a insulation taped tennis ball once. Felt awful.

It will be a minor miracle if we bowl these guys out.

If we can get another two today and have them 5 down at Stumps. That's a pretty good day you would have to think.

Ooops, no wickets after Tea so very much Pakistans day. Will needs three or four in the morning session tomorrow as an exercise in damage limitation, otherwise we're staring at 550+ again.

Lots of discussion on Stuff.co.nz around removing the bouncer OR the media glorifying bouncers by showing them in promotional material. Kneejerk reaction much?!

ridiculous. You know the risks when you play a sport. What happened was pretty much literally one in at least a million balls bowled. 

I'd suggest that a lot of the people talking sanitation are people who don;t understand the game and who have never played it.

as usual.