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

How much of a form player is Guptill? Can't argue with the patch he's in at the moment though. Will be interesting to see if he can transfer it through to the longer forms.

Isnt every player a form player?

Guptill has two gears:

gear 1: duck/ single figures

gear 2: World records scores

With or without Williamson's help!

Forget Guppy and a red ball - that ship has sailed.

Colin Munro on the other hand is looking good to replace McCullum in the test team... now we only need an opener!

I think that should Watling find some form, he could open. He has the temperament for it and with him batting where he does, he's often coming out to a new OR new-ish ball anyway. It would just depend on his ability to bat immediately after keeping for a day and a half. 

It's pretty tough for an opener to keep (see: Parore, Gilchrist, Stewart, McCullum, etc) so whilst I agree he could technically do it, I don't think it's the right move unless we have a quality keeping option who can bat 7 or 8. And whilst you could argue we do have in Ronchi, is there anyone under 30? 

Excellent job by our mid-tail enders to get a very good score.

That had to have hurt! the ball under the visor trick.

Fudge yea that looked brutal.

I thought the Pakistani player running on the side of his foot one ball earlier looked bad enough.

Why do some batsmen refuse to either get the newer helmets that don't adjust OR close the gap on the helmet you do have?

Because you can't get a broken eye socket with them.

New Zealand beat Australia by 159 runs.

What a terrific sentence.

Was gutted my Sky cut out yesterday so I couldnt watch us hammer the nail into the coffin.

We just need a couple more wins to make it a glorious tour.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful to watch.

Wish I could be there on Saturday but I have to go to a wedding (and my wife's due date is Sunday) so looks like I'll just be checking cricinfo...

A few stats from the game...

• If Aussie had doubled their score, we would have only won by 8 runs - we need to be careful of that.
• I was 30 seconds late to a conference call as I wanted to watch the Aussie batting highlights. 

That is all.

Was free on Prime too! The whole game.

F**k.  did not know that.

Marsh HA!

Wade HA!

Smith HA!

Aussie HA HA HA HA!

Smith is a whinging tosser.

God i hope we turn them over in the test series.

Well they have won 29 to our 8, so I'm not holding my breath.

loved Elliot's voice when he told Wade "love your work"

Just love the Aussie press reaction have them dicks never listened to some of the shark that comes out of their fans mouths. Bit like the RBB saying they dont do flares.

The top Aussie captains kept their cool and control of their players better than he has done. Waugh, certainly and Punter to an almost similar degree were captains I respected. Clarke and Smith are shaping up to be the generation of NSW and Victorian...what Buffy said above

Also loved that Smith was given out sweeping on the front foot LBW to a spinner. Vettori and Wiseman (and NZ by extension) were absolutely cheated in 2004/2005 when they couldn't get a single decision against Gilchrist and others sweeping off the front foot. Alongside other terrible decisions.

That's what the Aussies mean- weren't these decisions, the rub of the grain all meant to go to us like it did when we were growing up? Though I was clearly out, I should be given not out.

If the roles were reversed and the game in Australia, they would have been branded heroes against the stupid kiwis. They love to dish it out but hate being on the receiving end. This is just another case where the batsman knew full well the ball had hit his foot - must've hurt like hell, and he stood his ground. Some would call it cheating, others would have called it gamesmanship. But whatever you call it, he was caught out by the cameras. He should have walked when he saw it on the big screen and showed some sportsmanship.

Need a player for the next two weeks in Wellington.

Anyone keen?

Can supply a shirt, possibly white trousers also and all otehr gear except shoes. 

Can you supply a Zimmer Frame? I might be interested then. My Knees are shot.

Bracewell in...haven't seen the side named yet but assume that it's this...or similar. 

1. Guppy
2. Latham
3. Williamson
4. Nicholl
5. Baz
6. Watling
7. Anderson
8. Craig
9. Bracewell
10. Southee
11. Boult

So you managed to find a few extra players then?

Taylor was a big loss in ODI series against both Australia and Pakistan. I fear he'll be an even bigger loss in the tests.

I hope our bowlers do well, otherwise I can see them rolling us quite easily, which would be a shame (especially since this is one of the more hateable Aussie sides, there's no-one there I even semi-don't mind).

Fixed for my Saturday XI 

So what's everyone's views on the bum grabber. Was it:

A. A sexual and consensual act between two gay man 

B. Or simply having a laugh and Taking the piss?

C. Who gives a shark.

I can see Smith batting first if he wins the toss because of the arrogance that comes with being Australian captain. And I hope he does.

I am interested. If you are not, then move on sunshine and fudge off

Our bowling attack worries me. We've got one bowler out of form and probably nursing an injury, another just back from injury who will take time to find his rhythm, and couple of medium pace trundlers who don't do much with the ball. Then the spinner, dear god. In 30+ years of watching test cricket I can't recall another so-called frontline spin bowler as inaccurate as Craig. Maybe, just maybe he'll pull a rabbit out of a hat and win us the game on day 5 but the banal reality is that he'll almost certainly get pasted for 5 or 6 runs an over. It's incredible that a bowler of his age and experience seems to have so little control and sends down so much rubbish. 

Perhaps it was some sort of "initiation" act? Let me feel your bum and have it shown on TV type thing or perhaps Number 1 fancied a piece of the new player? Almost Hopoati-esque. Not a good look for either player though, gives plenty of sledging material should the NZ guys choose to use it.

Mark Craig isn't as bad as you say but he is a true reflection of our spin stocks in NZ - not flash. Fact is we have to pick *A* spinner but he kind of needs bat as well so it's either Santner or Craig - neither of which are really expected to win us the game in NZ conditions, but you have to have that variation in most cases. The spinner might chip in with a wicket or two and is required to bowl when the ball is old and batsmen are set facing the tiring pace attack. Corey Anderson will contribute in a similar way. Not ground breaking insight but the answer to your post re Craig is a relatively simple one.

is there any way to get tickets for the weekend? Any re-sale (tout) places selling in NZ?