Its Summer! - the Fever Cricket Thread.

Buffon II

We are proper shark these days.

it's been two really shark performances from our 'B' squad. No Conway, no Boult, no Williamson. Have to give someof our back up squad gametime, good to see Sears get a run, just a pity our batters didnt stand up to the test.

That South Africa team that is touring here is a fudgeing disgrace. If we don’t whitewash them we should never play test cricket again.

Buffon II

That South Africa team that is touring here is a fudgeing disgrace. If we don’t whitewash them we should never play test cricket again.

We can't even dominate Bangladesh

Oceanic6

TV Guide incorrectly telling me we are playing Pakistan not Bangladesh. 

IMG_20231227_191251.jpg 1.34 MB

Holy crap, it's like 1971 never happened 

How bout that Finn Allen eh??? Been loving this series against Pakistan, really good stuff.  

Just been watching the Women's Pacific T20 Cup being broadcast on TVNZ on demand. Samoa just pulled off an epic come-from-behind win against Vanuatu, smashing 16 off the last over

Congrats to the Wellington Blaze!! They beat the Central Hinds in the T20 Super Smash competition this afternoon in Auckland.  Came right down to the wire. 

Oceanic6

Congrats to the Wellington Blaze!! They beat the Central Hinds in the T20 Super Smash competition this afternoon in Auckland.  Came right down to the wire. 

The Blaze looked washed up by only scoring 89 off 17, but managed a literal 1 run win off the last ball. Melie Kerr is a superstar. Sophie Devine bowled 2 wides in the last over and still won it lol

Test cricket is the absolute best. No other format will ever come close.

Absolutely. Australia and India losing home test matches on the same day must be pretty rare! Both matches showing no matter how dominant you are, batting 4th is always the toughest thing to do in a test match.

Thought Ashwin might sneak them home there for a bit. 

Agree Buffy- Test is best!

What an amazing last 6 months for Ravindra

Kane Williamson now has 31 test centuries.

I doubt we will ever see a batsmen like him again for New Zealand.

Williamson has converted 10 of his last 11 fifties in to hundreds.

The one he didn't convert? 52 not out against India in the World Test Championship final to get us over the line along with Ross Taylor.

An all time great of the sport.

Wonderful stat on the TV just now. This is the 8th time that Kane Williamson has brought up his 34th fifty. #NZvSA

— Michael Wagener (@Mykuhl) February 16, 2024

Well he is gonna have a 9th chance now. What an innings by Kane.

32 test hundreds.

Our greatest ever sportsman.

Second test is not off to a good start

what is it about play the aussies that we in turn to amatuers?

I'm feeling optimistic with where we are at with the test match.  We can do this!!! 

Is anyone watching the T20 match with NZ v Afghanistan?  Afghans are playing well. 

Yep and that fielding performance was probably the worst ive ever seen.

And Finnie the slog, crap shot first ball.

We are going to lose this 

55-7, man it will be a miracle if we can win this from here. 

No miracle to be had.  Congratulations Afghanistan, fully deserved  he 84 run win.  The first T20 win against NZ.  Back to the drawing board for us. 

We are shark.

Another Black Cap-itulation

And another one.  As my colleague called it, who cares about plastic cricket.  

Hope the West Indies win the tournament. 

Black Caps officially knocked out as Afghanistan beat PNG

Procrastinixing

I'm feeling optimistic with where we are at with the test match.  We can do this!!! 

 Sad reading back at this post :(

Must say, with cricket being my second sport, this tournament has brought home to roost a few hard truths. Not many have covered themselves in glory - Perhaps Glenn Phillips, Trent Boult & Lachie Ferguson are the only one who can say they've performed well in this world cup so far. Doesn't mean much to be fair, and Boulty pretty much picks and chooses when he wants to play nowadays, so you can't set anything for the future around his availability...

Probably the most disappointed I've been in the Blackcaps since being rolled for 45 in Cape Town some 10+ years ago now. 

Get Stead gone.

Procrastinixing

And another one.  As my colleague called it, who cares about plastic cricket.  

Hope the West Indies win the tournament. 

We are shark at test cricket now as well so don't even have that to fall back on.

Been in decline since that test championship win in 2021. Need a big overhaul.

I seem to think we have a test coming up this year against Afghanistan away at a neutral venue.

Who would like to bet that NZ cricket are utter hypocrites and decide to pull out of that citing Taliban atrocities?

If they do after playing them in the World Cup then that will be enough for me of watching this team, pick and choose when they want to play.

Looking forward to today's game with Uganda.

We should be able to register a win today.  Though I'm struggling as to how it took 18.4 overs to bowl them out.  

Corey Anderson playing for the USA. All aboard the bandwagon I say!

Now Aussie might be gonna lose the Scotland to knock England out!

Afghanistan in to the semi finals!

Fantastic achievement for them. Really want them to go all the way now.

Watched this. Some terrible cricket but one of the best games I have seen for a while, with many permutations and games at play. 

Can’t fathom why Bangladesh didn’t have a crack at the total within the eleven overs to progress to the semis. 

Really deserved to lose as a result and very happy for Afghanistan. To tip out the ausis makes it sweeter.

What we would give for Rashid Khan, what a player.

If we don’t chicken out and pull out of playing a test against them, I wouldn’t mind them challenging us in that format.

'Chickening out', or doing the right thing?
Perhaps we should ask Afghan women what they think!
Does Afghanistan playing international cricket, just strengthen the Taliban's position? Make them appear more legitimate?

The rich Dubai based ICC I read, are giving Afghan Cricket about $16M a year. None of that case is being siphoned off by Taliban officials? Are the ICC hoping they can convince the Taliban, to eventually allow girls & women to play sport again?  If so it ain't working, as there seems zero change in the current terrible situation for females there. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/new-zealand-announce-one-off-test-against-afghanistan/articleshow/109722347.cms

New Zealand Cricket announced on Tuesday that they will proceed with a Test match against Afghanistan, just a month after Australia cancelled a Twenty20 series against the same team.

If you can’t see how playing them one day at the World Cup to please the iCC and line your pocket and not the second day is all right,  then there is no hope. 

If you truely cared about women then we would have forfeited our game at the World Cup

Good to see they are playing but I wouldn’t hold my breath this doesn’t change 

Turns out that the Littlest Hooligan might be a cricketer rather than a footballer. She didn't even know what the game was last year when the crew from the Grafton United club turned up at her school to teach some skills. But she played her first season last year and fudge me if she isn't turning into a pretty handy medium pacer. She's been practicing in the holiday programmes and she clean bowled her old mum in the back yard last week.
I think the thing is that she's not really confrontational. On the football field if she gets challenged for the ball she'll more often than not go "fine, have it if you want it so much". But there's not that level of up-close and personal in cricket (although I've explained to her that maybe one day she can learn to bowl bouncers and she listens to that with great interest)