Its Summer! - the Fever Cricket Thread.

Yep, I remember this - the only time I've ever seen anyone hit one out of the stadium. Against Australia I think.

I was at the game last night, and told the guys I was with that's Guptill's hit was the second biggest one I'd seen at the stadium.

Yeah, Gup's did go out, hit the cladding overlap thing and came back in but I think Maccas cleared that part of the roof.

I thought you despised T20 cricket el g?

I do, but got talked into it. Looking forward to the test here though, hope to go to at least two days.

Yeah really looking forward to the test, at least the t20s/odi's are a taste of what's to come.

Hope Gup can take his form into the test format. I like his attitude, he's all about impoving NZ's ranking so hopefully he can help us move up in the real game.TopLeft072012-02-18 18:08:35

Performances of note in the Plunket Shield this week:

ND vs CD

KM Jarvis      23.5     5     58     5     1     0 (is this the Zimbabwean Kyle Jarvis?)


CNTBRY v WGTN

� RA Young      c JD Ryder b HKP Boam      104      123      202      12      0

HKP Boam      17.1     2     51     6     0     0

JD Ryder      c WM Lonsdale b TD Astle      74      50      71      8      5

LV van Beek      12.1     1     42     5     0     0 (don't know who this guy is?)


OTAGO v AKLD

MJ McClenaghan      20.4     2     87     6     1     0 - Another left arm quick in good form. TopLeft072012-02-18 22:21:48

must say i did enjoy the sri lankans pantsing the Aussies

Yep, CD picked him up for the last few games as they have been hit by injury. Pretty good move I think. Didn't help their batting though!

This.

Yeah I thought Jarvis was one of the better Zimbabwean players of tour. Solid bowler.

I'm so scared that the selectors will pick McClenaghan based on 3 good games and complete rubbish before that.

Oh, and is it too early to predict Nethula never getting another international game again :) N-Bomb2012-02-19 10:47:39

LOL @ Simon Doull - "There's some special kids in Hamilton"

Would be dissapointed if this is the case. I haven't seen a more promising spinner with potential to be an attacking option in test cricket.

So what happened? were we sh*t? Or did the Levi guy just go crazy?

Two things i have been holding back from saying over the past week or two:

A) Tim Southee is a bit of a dick.

B) Brendan McCullum is a better captain than Ross Taylor.

Haven't seen enough of Taylor to really see how he will go, but as Bopman says, he did just lead us to a test win over Aussie in Aussie.

Having said that though, from what i've seen of both of them I think either will be a VAST improvement over Vetorri, who I have always maintained was a terrible captain.

Edit: point A has been clear for the last couple of years. Not sure why it has just dawned on you in the last couple of weeks aitkenmike2012-02-20 13:06:05

Jesse picked for final T20 - scored runs again today for Wellington and apparently looks in good shape!

Awesome news - guess that means that Colin de Grandhomme will be dropped, never to play for NZ ever again.

Andrew Ellis asked to leave from the side. Hence why they have picked him

Baz is a better captain than Ross in my opinion too, I think they took Ross based on the fact he was probably more likely to be a regular player in all 3 formats.

De Grandhomme is looking a bit like the new Ingram, but he did deserve his chance.

Also, fantastic match between ND and CD today, can't beat a down-to-the-wire four dayer or test

Doug Bracewell wins Cricinfo test bowling performance of the year for the Hobart test.

In regards to the captaincy debate, maybe "Brendan McCullum is a better ODI/T20 captain than Ross Taylor" could be more accurate. We may never know who is the better test captain (and hats off to Ross for the win in Hobart, I'm not forgetting that) but I have been impressed by McCullum's tactics and aggressiveness so far in this series and the Zimbabwean one before.

TopLeft072012-02-21 08:46:41

Apparently there was mankad in the India v SL game last night? Sehwag said they had warned the batsman so they ran him out and then Tendulkar comes in and tells them to withdraw the appeal.

It's on here. http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-HIGHLIGHTS-Sri-Lanka-dominate-India-in-game-eight/tabid/317/articleID/243748/Default.aspx The bowler looked pretty happy to take it...

Didn't see the match, and morning news didn't show the warning, so no opinion on that. What they did show though was after the incident the batsman KEPT LEAVING HIS CREASE! At that point I just lose all sympathy for him.

Nice of Bates to fetch Ontong's bat for him.

CHOKE

Seriously WTF? Couldn't believe what I was watching.

An epic, epic choke last night.

Nicol looks the business I reckon. He seemed to get a bit of turn last night too, maybe something to develop as another spinning option for tests.

Also, what do people think about when we should be taking the batting powerplay? We seem to be adverse to taking it early for some reason, but I reckon as soon as we have at least one big hitter at the crease and both batsmen are set we should take it. Waiting doesn't achieve anything IMHO. If you leave it until later you can end up forced into taking it when two new batsmen are at the crease and it ends up being an advantage for the bowling team instead. Which also makes me wonder if bringing a ring field in for new batsmen could be a useful tactic just to try and put some pressure on them to keep the score moving, seeing as that's what often happens when there are new guys a t the crease during the powerplay

I'm not convinced by many of the newbies, Nicol has looked good, but last night I thought he was awful. Why he got 5 overs and Ellis 4 when McCullum only bowled 7 I have no idea.

Our bowling depth looks poor, bar the bowlers last night, our back-up options are McKay (a bit rubbish IMO), Bates (not up to it yet) and Nethula (not up to it either).

As for taking it early, I think the thinking is that you don't want to lose wickets earlyish while smashing it, when in the late overs everyone's having a hit anyway. Not saying it's the way to go, just seems to be the idea.

Bowling-wise Nicol wasn't great but I think he has potential. I think with the bat he has been really impressive though - even last night, he didn't score much but he was facing some absolutely top quality bowling from Steyn for a while.

Depth is always the issue with NZ cricket unfortunately. At least with Wagner qualifying and a couple of young guys like Bates and Milne out there we might have a few more options in a couple of years. but by then Mills and Martin will probably be gone :(

I get the mentatlity of leaving the powerplay for the smashathon at the end, but because it has to be finished by 40 overs its almost too early to be part of that phase, and so the batsmen go from accumulating, to smashing, then back to accumulating for a few overs, then back to smashing. Its easy to see how they lose momentum and focus. Conserving wickets makes sense if you've got a long tail, but with all the big hitters down the order for NZ I'm not sure its the (w)right approach. Maybe even if you lost a wicket during a powerplay taken earlier you could send out Bracewell or Southee as a pinch hitter?

Found out today that my English teacher, Graham Barlow played test cricket and one day for England. Doesn't have the best of records though.

Whoa, how about that Indian chase last night? I feel sorry for Dilshan - 160* and still not man of the match...

Watched it from about the 10th over on. Immense chase, best i have ever seen. Kohli's innings was amazing, 90% pure cricket shots with the odd unorthodox creativity thrown in.

Yeah I watched from about the same point after footy training, incredible cricket. Kohli played like a freak, basically everything came out of the middle after he'd reached 50 and like you said most of his shots were great cricket shots. Awesome for the series, makes the next game a (possible) cracker.