Its Summer! - the Fever Cricket Thread.

At least Rutherford had a better start to international cricket than his old man...

 Hit it or get out, no point in going for singles to get your eye in

We are an absolute disgrace of a cricket team. Don't know why I made myself watch that, especially since I hate the T20 stuff.

England worked out very early on that playing shots straight down the ground was going to earn them a boundary nearly every time, and almost every one of their batsmen were able to place the ball there. We just had to do the same, but instead kept trying to hit to the longer boundaries and got caught. 

Bring on the test at the Basin.

Dominant, dominant performance. Only blip was the lack of production from the middle order but McCullum blast in last two overs rendered that meaningless. Brilliant with the ball.

World class performance...

FINALLY, get to watch a series decider live. Should be great. Stoked about tonight, made 80 cents betting.

I'll be there. 

Will you be getting shit faced and ripping your top off?

Only if we are winning with 10 mins to go.

Which we won't be, because deciding that would require an answer to the question "who is winning?"

That question can only be answered with an evil glare, patronising pat on the head or a full blown rant. Depending on who asked the question.

Can I just say (at the risk of being possied out of town), that I'm actually getting into T20's and now rate them as a definite 2nd in my preference list, well above ODIs which I think are a bit jaded. This is probably just cause I'm a blackcaps follower, and T20's actually give us a chance, whereas Tests don't. But whatever.

Also, good knock from Baz last night. Must have been a bit of pressure on him to score some runs with Ross coming back in the team.

Went to the game, pretty decent atmosphere, an absolute thrashing, was great stuff. Still hysterical seeing all the hate Baz gets no matter what he does.

What do people think of the fourth bowler spot in the Test 11? I see people talking about Nathan McCullum, to me that would be picking a spinner for spinners sake. Plus an attempt to strengthen the batting.

If we assume that McCullum is batting 5 and Waitling is keep then I guess this is the top 7 - Guptill, x (Rutherford, Fulton?), Williamson, Taylor, McCullum, Brownlie and Waitling.

If they aren't going to provide enough runs with support from Southee and Bracewell then we aren't going to win whoever they pick to bat 8 and bowl. So, does McLennaghan's form warrant a spot in the first test team as the fourth bowler? Good agression, supposedly quick (though he isn't registering that high) and is in decent form and will hopefully be confident.

Hopefully this discussion becomes unnecessary because Daniel will be fit and comes in but if he isn't then it's an interesting choice.

I will headbutt a brick wall if Nathan McCullum makes our test team.

Tomorrow night will be intersting. NZ have to assess the last game and think about what the English will be trying to do different and we have to have a couple of new tricks up our sleave to keep them guessing. Can't underestimate the tactics of T20 cricket.

What kind of deck we going to see TL? How are preparations on the test pitch coming?

Haven't been to the stadium much lately so haven't seen it. Basin keeping me busy. If it plays anything like the past it will have a tennis-ball-like bounce which makes it quite hard scoring straight. Coupled with the long straight boundaries, unless the boss decides to bring them up a bit. I would probably bowl first because it gives you the chance to get wickets while the other team are figuring out how it's playing and at the same time you get a look at how it's coming on. Also the lads up there have told me there is still a lot of grass on it. We (my boss) doesn't really have the art of portable pitches worked out like Eden Park do to be honest. Just hoping it's a good even match with plenty of runs, going in our favour of course.

Talking to the teams today sounds like Samit Patel will move out and probably Woaks to come in and no changes from the NZ team at this stage.

Test prep hasn't really started - other than picking out a strip and trying to protect it.

Tickets sorted, couple of pre-match bevvies at the 'bencher... sorted!

DOWN-TROW!

Its only 20/20.

Well that was a bit shite.

20k crowd, you'd think they'd put up a fight... 

;)

Utter shame though, Woe is the life of a New Zealand Cricket supporter hahaha.

That was $70 down the shittter.... ahhhh well, that's the chance we take I guess!

Had half contemplated going to the game, really glad I didn't.

So McCullum finally back at 5 where he belongs in ODI cricket - hopefully coming in around 25-30 overs into an innings and setting the pace to hopefully chase the set total.  It is that sort of role where he has (imo) had the most success.  Still think he has to open to have a role in the test side though (either that or start scoring a boat load of runs)

I worry about our bowling though, with needing 20 overs out of Franklin, Ellis and Elliott.

Where did this blue on our uniforms come from? I couldn't muster any interest in the T20s so this is my first real taste of the series...

need to break this partnership soon

Yeah. Substitute fielder please. Seems like the poms are hitting a few in the air near our fielders now but all just a bit far away.

Yuss!!!

LOL...Corro theme...

Cheered me up a little tonight. They still owe me a bit of cheer after over two decades of supporting them. 

Noticed on the tour schedule for England, they have gone Win - Loss -Win - Loss - Win - Loss, so far. Any one got tickets for the next game?