Commonwealth Bank Series

[siddharth2002]

oooo next one will be interesting, but will be a 250ish scoring one me thinks!

 

[irottev]

Fantastic pitch. No problems with playing another game on it!

McGrath was very expensive but even so, he bowled a few overs for 6 or so runs near the end which really cost us. Had we taken them for 10 we would have won. Yorkers are hard to get away

I don't think Bracken stopped us, just McGrath.

The 46th over bowled by McGrath and 37th and even the 39th, those overs by him were tight.

None of the Aussie bowlers emulated Vettori's performance. On such a belter he did an amazing job. A spinner going for 34 on any pitch is fantastic, but against the best batters in the world, in a score of 343 on a belter was amazing. Unfortonatly his effort is overshadowed by the catch he dropped.

 

[MUFC1987]

I'd say the dollies dropped by Vettori and Taylor are probably what cost you the most.

 

[aussie_ben91]

I wouldn't be supprised if NZ are affected by yesterday's game. The AFL players always struggle after playing a game in Perth the next week.

Amazing from Oram, beaten his highest score the last 2 times his batted.

Just lucky Clark didn't play though, this is one of those games where he could've really been exposed. Then again, I guess I'd rather see it happen in a Tri Series match against NZ rather then in an important match in the WC.

I wouldn't rule England out completely. Anderson has really been bowling well lately and could possibly rip through NZ's top order. Maybe it'll be Monty's day? Or Flintoff's? Two in the top four will have to contribute with half-centuries aswell.

 

[kodos]

They still got a way to go I suspect. Fleming firing, Vincent making 50+, and adding Bond and Styris back in. The way to beat them seems to be putting them in to bat first as they have always been a good chasing team.

The problem for NZ when they bat first is that they don't have the aggressive mind set from ball one, I didn't watch the game until the tennis finished, by then there were about 40 overs bowled, but I can tell that NZ attacked from ball one because their run rate was about 6 an over. If they can carry the aggression from 2nd innings to first than I expect them to make over 300 more often than not. Plus they have a pretty long batting lineup, up to 9 where even Mills can slog a few.

McGrath was very expensive but proved the difference with the one over where he bowled every ball yorkers and conceded only singles. This is probably where Aus. will miss him most and they do need to find a new death bowler, Bracken is very good at the death but other than that I don't see anyone else doing the job. Good effort by NZ though and showed what may have happened if Oram had played earlier in the series, he is just so devastating with the bat with those big clean sixes. Good support from McCullum as well, a real gutsy player and very good running between the wickets.

 

[puddleduck]

With the massively out of form Astle replaced by an aggressive player in Vincent, and McCullum back where he should stay down the order with Oram as well this New Zealand side looks far stronger with the bat. When you add in Styris still to come, it's a pretty good Odi side.

 

[Mars Maximus]

I can't believe Vincent was given out lbw! That umpire has made many bad mistakes lately, and even Simon Taufel at square leg should of overruled that bad decision. Surely he saw the ball hit the gloves and was no where near the pads? Meh

 

[irottev]

Well Bondy and Franko were rested. They should be fresh.

My XI

Vincent
Fleming
Fulton
Taylor
McMillan/Styris (Don't think he's over there for this match, but for Melbourne, may be wrong)
Oram
McCullum
Vettori
Franklin
Mills
Bond

I'd rotate Gillespie out and give him a break. I guess it all depends on how Mills is feeling after the match compared to him which to play. Or even whether to play Mason if they're both rooted.

 

[kodos]

Yeah that LBW was a shocker, even if it did hit the pad there was some doubt whether it pitched on off stump and Vincent rightfully so was very disappointed considering he was going along nicely. Asad Rauf has had a few shockers this ODI series and I don't understand why there are no other international umpires in this series, it's about time the ICC add probably another 3 more umpires to the elite panel.

I would rest Gillespie as well and save him for the next game against Australia, so far in this series he has performed better against Australia than England and has been the most unlucky bowler so far, couple of dropped catches yesterday and one at Sydney. The XI you selected irrotrev is very strong and barring no injuries will be the XI for NZ for the WC and can be serious contenders.

 

[obelisk]

Last I heard Styris wasn't going to be risked until the Chappel-Hadlee series?
And my XI is the same as irottev's for the next game

 

[sifter132]

Yeah that LBW was a shocker, even if it did hit the pad there was some doubt whether it pitched on off stump and Vincent rightfully so was very disappointed considering he was going along nicely. Asad Rauf has had a few shockers this ODI series and I don't understand why there are no other international umpires in this series, it's about time the ICC add probably another 3 more umpires to the elite panel.

Yeah, not a good call, but very easy to say with the benefit of slow mo and 4 different angles. Watching it live I thought it struck his pad in line with off, but I wouldn't have given it out since it was hard to tell how much it was spinning since it hit him just after the bounce. But I was proven wrong on both accounts by the replay - it didn't hit his pad first and it wasn't spinning much at all. Hence me not volunteering to be an umpire - but usually I'm pretty good I think. But in this case there was just too much doubt to give stuff like that.

The other thing to take into account is the way the mind of Asad Rauf was working. That paddle sweep was about the only shot Vincent was using to score off Clarke (who was bowling pretty tight), and umpires don't like batsmen constantly covering the line of the stumps and playing dinky sweeps (of course I have no real proof of this, just my impression) - so when a seemingly close call comes along, he had no problem pulling the trigger and rewarding the bowling of Clarke.

 

[harishankar]

Many of India's domestic umpires are better than Asad Rauf. How he got into the International panel is a mystery to me. His quality of decision making even in the India-SA test series was consistently below par.

 

[Mars Maximus]

See when Asad was just about to make the decision? His eyes looked over to Simon first, then made the decision. Maybe he said to himself "Well if Simon says it hit his pad, then I'll go along with that"

 

[ZexyZahid]

During the match I saw 343 runs had been scored against New Zealand as topic on cricinfo. It was a bit of shock, since I was thinking how did England score those runs, since I was thinking the match of New Zealand vs England would be yesterday. I clicked on the scorecard and saw Australia scored those runs. :

 

[aussie1st]

Thats his call to make shouldn't be looking Simon's way. It's a shame seeing so many shockers this series that could have changed the outcome of the game.S