England in New Zealand

[barmyarmy]

The pitch is a rubbish test wicket. It's this sort of wicket that is damaging test cricket badly. A wicket like the one we saw for the ODI match here would've produced a good contest between bat and ball.

I totally agree with that - we're seeing an awful lot of pitches like this recently too. Win the toss and it's hard to lose the match.

 

[BigCrickNan]

Harmison is bowling medium pace

 

[Leicester Fox]

don't worry lads, no matter how flat the wicket is we'll find a way to lose! We are sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. I'm dying for a bit of entertainment before bed but hte cricket on Mitchell and Web was better than this.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Harmison is bowling medium pace

lol ........... :laugh he needs to find his old pace back

 

[barmyarmy]

Vaughan you muppet! I'm getting fed up with him getting starts and not converting them. A batsman of his class should make 100 when he makes 50 and make 200 when he makes 100.
As it is he's never had a double tonne and his recent conversion rate for 50;100's is dreadful.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Vaughan you muppet! I'm getting fed up with him getting starts and not converting them. A batsman of his class should make 100 when he makes 50 and make 200 when he makes 100.
As it is he's never had a double tonne and his recent conversion rate for 50;100's is dreadful.

Calm down how many time Vaughan will save Englands middle order ?? time for others to perform . He is a great player, no doubt . Definately he shhould have scored 100+ but you cannot except everytime time for Kp to get that ton .

 

[Will_NA]

I still don't understand why Vaughan opened when he's a brilliant number 3.

Not only is this a flat pitch but it's not one to play shots freely therefore, even if a team wanted to push on and make a game of it, they couldn't.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

don't worry lads, no matter how flat the wicket is we'll find a way to lose! We are sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. I'm dying for a bit of entertainment before bed but hte cricket on Mitchell and Web was better than this.

Then go and watch it. Criticism is one thing, but your constant negative drivel is annoying me and a few other people.

I feel sorry for Steve Harmison. The media and fans just use him as a scapegoat and in a way it's his own fault due to how good he was. Some of you lot expect him to be the best bowler all the time, which is impossible. People need to get off of his back, it was that bashing of him that forced him out of the ODI team and surprise surprise, we didn't get any better after he left. If we're not careful we'll force our best bowler in the last decade out of the team again and be back to square one.

But yes, lets bring in another medium pacer and see how effective 3 in the team instead of 2 are.

The thing with Harmison is he has the talent to be the best around, but too often over the last couple of years he's looked like he'd rather be somewhere else than actually out there playing. Day one and two of this test are possibly the worst examples I've seen of it.

I think alot of the reason for him retiring from ODI's is he hates being away from home, rather than being driven away by constant criticism

Who would come in for him is an interesting question, but quite frankly, unless he atleast demonstrates he has some form of control over the cricket ball almost anyone would be a better pick.

 

[Will_NA]

Harmison has been horrible over the past 4 years but I don't want him to be dropped simply because of how good he is. He is far from past it and, unlike Mahmood, when he's bwoling fast he genuinely looks like he's troubling the batsman.

His biggest problem, as Stevie highlighted, is his inability to seem motivated.

 

[MUFC1987]

That's part of my point though, he can bowl well in a match and everyone just watches it and says 'Oh we expected that from him' yet when he does averagely even, he's the scapegoat. It must be hard for him when he knows he has to do extremely well or else get another tongue lashing. To me he's very much a confidence player, he needs to be told that he's doing well in my opinion. The pressure seems to be all on him which is unfair.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Well Disappointed from both the fellas Vaughn and Strauss...They had good start and No way you can't convert that to big 100 on that flat Pitch..The Pitch has made match more boring..I don't see any reason to give up from England point of view..KP is in the Middle and he should go for 100..You don't get that type of pitch more in test cricket.Use it..I wonder when Vettori was batting so comfortably but Now I think Even Broad would have made good score on this Pitch..

 

[vaibhav mehta]

don't worry lads, no matter how flat the wicket is we'll find a way to lose! We are sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. I'm dying for a bit of entertainment before bed but hte cricket on Mitchell and Web was better than this.

Ya Bell has found his way to get out..Anyway that was some quality ball from Mills...I don't think Its easy for England to get beaten here..KP and Colly are on the pitch so hope we won't see more drama at least on Day 3.

I have not seen this many times in test cricket"Any team ahead of their over rate at the time of tea.Well done NZ"..

 

[irottev]

It's funny seeing you English fans arguing lol.

I think the pitch isn't nearly as bad as you guys are saying it is, but any excuse aye.

I wouldn't say a draw is for certain yet. England have been losing wickets when partnerships are forming. England bowled terribly through Harmison, Panesar and Hoggard, that's what the problem was. And for once our batting stood up and played to it's ability. The tail won't be hard to dislodge with the chances Vettori and Patel seem to be making.

I don't know what you guys expect in a pitch. First two days are meant to be flat and in the last 3 it starts to become more difficult. Get over it. (I'm not saying it's a great pitch or not bad, but it's just the way it is. It's cricket)

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Well I won't say that pitch is so bad..But last test match was held here in 2004..After the year of 2003 there are 2 test matches played on this same Pitch and they both were draw..this is the 3rd test match here since 2003.
This is turning out to be Flat batting pitch which can't give you more results in tests..Check it out..

Matches after 2004 till now..

 

[Stephen Bailey]

It's funny seeing you English fans arguing lol.

I think the pitch isn't nearly as bad as you guys are saying it is, but any excuse aye.

I wouldn't say a draw is for certain yet. England have been losing wickets when partnerships are forming. England bowled terribly through Harmison, Panesar and Hoggard, that's what the problem was. And for once our batting stood up and played to it's ability. The tail won't be hard to dislodge with the chances Vettori and Patel seem to be making.

I don't know what you guys expect in a pitch. First two days are meant to be flat and in the last 3 it starts to become more difficult. Get over it.

Excuses? Meant to be flat? Are you serious? It's another distinctly average test match wicket. It's the sort of wicket we are seeing more and more in international cricket. Slow, no bounce, no real seam movement, no real spin. Sure, it looks like it might break up abit as it goes on, but it's still going to be slow, low, no real help for the bowlers. Getting this sort of pitch every now and then is fine, because it's good to have different types of pitch, but we're seeing it most of the time, everywhere in the world.

Now, as for excuses, I fail to see how we're using the pitch as an excuse. We bowled poorly overall, and we certainly haven't batted well enough. Yet again, batsman have got in and got out. Cook got out. Why Vaughan was playing for big turn when there had been no sign of any real turn at that point I don't know. Strauss failed to get in again after lunch, which Vettori made the most of. Bell got a good one, maybe he could've been abit more positive in movement, but it was a rather good ball! Pietersen was undone by a good bit of bowling. Perhaps he pushed abit hard at it, but it was a good bit of bowling, mainly because Vettori saw him coming and put abit more pace on it.

More on our batting. They either seem to be too aggressive, or very negative, like today. Most of them have batted long, but there hasn't really appeared to be any intent at all from our batsmen. There are shedloads of runs in this pitch for anyone who backs themselves. It should take an absolutely fantastic piece of bowling to get a wicket on this pitch.

After saying all that, I have to credit the New Zealand spinners. Yes, they've been allowed to bowl by our negative batting, but even so, they have bowled beautifully. Vettori's field settings have been pretty much spot on as well.