England in New Zealand

[Skater]

I thought England kept it quite tight in the early overs, they let it slip slightly, but it was brilliant to see them taking good catches instead of dropping the easy ones too. A good start tonight and we can get ourselves on top. We are a batsman short though.

 

[Manly]

I guess I should expect it from a cricket-dedicated forum but it does surprise me how much analysis goes on about the day's play.

It makes brilliant reading, don't get me wrong, but when I see cricket (rarely, as I don't have SS) I go and enjoy the atmosphere and wait for the 4's and Wickets and don't say to my mate "He should bowl a bit fuller because the pitch hasn't got much bounce in it."
Presume I haven't got a "cricket brain".

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Can I remind people not to post running commentary on matches, posts will be deleted.

I think Sir your intention is towards me.
But neither of my post was only about running commentary.How can i forget to mention J How's 92 or Cook's catch?.
Ok I'll take care of that.Sorry for trouble..

@England:I think first session will be very important for both the team.England need to wrap up the remaining inning very Fast..if Vettori get set on the pitch then it'll be good scoring for NZ with Taylor is not a bad hitter of the Ball.
Its conformed that Bell got hair-line Fracture and he won't be available for rest of the series..So England already playing with one blow.

 

[Leicester Fox]

England are rubbish. Get over it. I can and it's about time you lot did too but when we go behind Zimbabwe in the world rankings you'll all come crawling back. If you don't like my opinions that much add me to your ignore list. KP I was positive about Cook too. I like them because there young so they have a valid excuse . I used to be positive but having stayed up all night to watch the Pakistan tour, the ashes, a lot of Sri Lanka, then you put in the world cup where most of our players seemed to be on one long ****-up quite frankly I don't really like them very much anymore. I'm never going to be postive about us again until I see us win a test match from a position where it seems like we've lost it, which hardly looks likely given this sides track record now does it. I'm pessimistic about us but we need someone pessimistic because are fans are beyond optimistic, there deluded in thinking we're even in the same class as India, South Africa and Australia. We'll get our arses spanked by the Saffas in the summer.

Oh and if I'm wrong then I'll be happy because we win so I couldn't care less if everything i say about us being crap is rubbish.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Presume I haven't got a "cricket brain".

..Ya Ben I also don't have good cricketing sense like others here..But I keep posting about cricket....By that way we can learn a bit..

England are rubbish. Get over it. I can and it's about time you lot did too but when we go behind Zimbabwe in the world rankings you'll all come crawling back. If you don't like my opinions that much add me to your ignore list. KP I was positive about Cook too. I like them because there young so they have a valid excuse . I used to be positive but having stayed up all night to watch the Pakistan tour, the ashes, a lot of Sri Lanka, then you put in the world cup where most of our players seemed to be on one long ****-up quite frankly I don't really like them very much anymore. I'm never going to be postive about us again until I see us win a test match from a position where it seems like we've lost it, which hardly looks likely given this sides track record now does it. I'm pessimistic about us but we need someone pessimistic because are fans are beyond optimistic, there deluded in thinking we're even in the same class as India, South Africa and Australia. We'll get our arses spanked by the Saffas in the summer.

Oh and if I'm wrong then I'll be happy because we win so I couldn't care less if everything i say about us being crap is rubbish.

Nice post bro..England as a cricket team not that bad...
I can't miss out any England match although by my time its from 12:30 to 7:00 am...I watched whole match yesterday night..And got warning at part time job that I sleep during work..Lol..

 

[thesweepmaster]

Hold on a second! England are still the 3rd best in the world at test cricket. England are a maturing side with such great quality players like; Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Hoggard and Panesar. We are the up and coming team.

Orginally posted by Leicester Fox
I'm pessimistic about us but we need someone pessimistic because are fans are beyond optimistic, there deluded in thinking we're even in the same class as India, South Africa and Australia. We'll get our arses spanked by the Saffas in the summer.

Hang on brush up on your rankings and recent performances. South Africa are at the moment the 5th best team in the world Lower than England.
Also South Africa were very lucky to beat Bangladesh in the first test after being behind on runs after the first inning.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Hold on a second! England are still the 3rd best in the world at test cricket. England are a maturing side with such great quality players like; Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Hoggard and Panesar. We are the up and coming team.

Hang on brush up on your rankings and recent performances. South Africa are at the moment the 5th best team in the world Lower than England.
Also South Africa were very lucky to beat Bangladesh in the first test after being behind on runs after the first inning.

Strauss is not a great quality player, Bell is a good test match batsmen but no any better, he's still got a lon way to go yet.

If we're so wonderful how did we not manage to win a single test in Australia? How did we turn out an abysmal batting perfomance in Sri Lanka and how did we put in our worst ever ODI performance in this series.

Rankings don't tell the whole story, South Africa have got a fantastic bowling line up and there batting has the likes of Smith (dick) and Kallis. No side is perfect and the difference with South Africa is they fought back from a potentially losing position whereas in recent times I don't remember England doing that. I barely remember them winning

 

[thesweepmaster]

Orginally posted by Leicester Fox
If we're so wonderful how did we not manage to win a single test in Australia? How did we turn out an abysmal batting perfomance in Sri Lanka and how did we put in our worst ever ODI performance in this series.

Ok, I can understand your points of view when you look at these performances. But honest do you believe that we can beat New Zealand?
Also I've never said that we were wonderful because even I know there are problems in the side but I'm still adament that we can be world beaters by 2010.

 

[Skater]

I think on this forum the England fans are pretty realistic. We are not a great side, but we certainly aren't crap. This ODI series just gone was far from our worst ever. Losing 5-0 at home to Sri Lanka fits that description.

 

[Leicester Fox]

The series wasn't our worst ever but the performance in the second (iirc) was definitely the worst I've ever seen and there's a lot of competition.

I think we'll win the series but I think it will be a lot closer than are fans are making out.

 

[thesweepmaster]

Orginally posted by Leicester Fox
I think we'll win the series but I think it will be a lot closer than are fans are making out.

I also believe that it will be a close series and obviously England to win. I suggest though that maybe you should watch this series so you can see England win at least 1 test match.

 

[King Pietersen]

Basing a whole series on 1 poor result. We're a very young and inexperienced ODi side, we were bound to slip up once against the Worlds 3rd best One Day team. I hate over optimism, but a pessimistic attitude is far more annoying. We're not a bad side by any stretch of the imagination. Moores has only been in charge for 3 Test series, and although we were dissapointing in Sri Lanka, a very good Test side on home soil.

We have a very good Test team, and a team that is just lacking in confidence. Players like Pietersen, Cook, Vaughan, Hoggard, Bell and Collingwood are up there with the best players in the world in my eyes. If our team could get on a run, get Freddie back firing and start playing the cricket we're used to seeing we can easily be Number 1; especially with Australia set to lose Gilly, Hayden, Ponting, Hussey, Clark, etc in the next 4-5 years or so. England are one of the best young sides in the world, and if given a chance and not just written off at every occassion will start to perform with the best of them. We're far from a crap side.

Also, concerning this series, NZ's top order looks very fragile, i don't think Taylor's a test match player, even though he did play well yesterday. Also, the likes of Bell, Sinclair, How and Oram don't seem like the most consistent of performers with the bat, something which will probably catch them out when matched to England's proven performers in Bell, Vaughan, Pietersen, Strauss, Cook, Collingwood and the young talent in Ambrose. If England don't win this Test Series convincingly i'll be very surprised, we're a far better test side than New Zealand, especially with Ryder out. I can actually see us wrapping up a 3-0 win and moving back to #2 in the rankings.

 

[barmyarmy]

Time for my first post on this series... (seeing as how I don't give a damn about one day cricket)
Great to be hearing TMS again although Boycott is still polluting my ears with his one-eyed, which way is the wind blowing, brand of crap.
I think England should be winning this series 3-0 but history shows that NZ is a tough place to tour - last time we thought it would be easy and we drew 1-1. On paper I think we're a far better side but mentally we need to get on top of NZ and not let them come at us. This game so far has been a decent performance on what seems to be a nothing-pitch but we need to keep the bowling consistency and get them for under 350. My main concern is that England tend to perform better on bowlers wickets as they seem to get themselves out too much on batsman's wickets. We're quite capable of letting them get 400 and then collapsing to 150ao.
We need to show aggression, attitude and put NZ in their place; we don't look a confident unit for me atm and NZ will definitely exploit that.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Freddie will never come back. Pessimism>optimism as far as sport goes. Makes winning more fun an losing less bad.

I never based a whole series on one result, what I meant was we put in our worst ever performance, in one match during the series as I've already said.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

I must agree with you that time is not good for England..But We have to keep up..They are not playing so bad as far as test cricket is concerned..
Some brief records:

Year Matches Win Lost Draw
2003 13 7 3 3

2004 13 11 0 2
So england have not lost a single test match in whole calender year.Out of 2 Draw one was due to Rain.

2005 13 05 4 4
And in that year they have beat Aussis and won Ashes.

2006 14 05 6 3
In this year aussis crashed them by 5-0.

2007 11 03 3 5


So In short England is just struggling from past two years..But they still have solid looking players like KP,Bell,Colly..They have one of the most promising opener of nower days Cook..
I think We just need to Back up and hope England will regain the form..And perform like they were in 2004/05,when they have won 6 test series in row by beating WI twice,NZ,SAF,Bangladesh and Aussis..