England in New Zealand

[MUFC1987]

Why's it still not good enough? New Zealand have struggled badly, why does it matter if we don't score x amount of centuries? Surely if we have enough runs to win the game then it doesn't matter? People care too much about milestones.

 

[Leicester Fox]

because scoring runs is the only way the batsmen get back into form and is the only way we'll beat sides like India and Australia.

 

[King Pietersen]

But surely winning is enough to show they're getting back into form, we scored over 400 in the first innings, and have performed well enough 2nd innings to get a lead of over 400, the guys have done their job. How unlucky was KP though, he looked in immense touch once more, getting back to his old self coming down the pitch and swatting over the leg-side and following it up with a punchy and gorgeous straight drive and then to get out like that is amazingly unlucky. He's got to score a hundred in the final test match or have 2 series in a row with a hundred, he's looked in far better form this series though.

Jimmy won't be batting will he ? If he does, 100 for Monty ?

 

[wolf]

we scored over 400 in the first innings

No, we didn't.

No way we won't win this match now, although Jimmy's injury worrying.

 

[King Pietersen]

Lol, i seriously thought we scored over 400 considering we're so far ahead, oh well. It would take a major mess up for us to lose from here, be helpful if Jimmy could recover, its looking doubtful though. He should be a shoe in for the next test if fit though, he bowled beautifully in the 1st innings.

 

[Adarsh]

McCullum is an overrated wicketkeeper. He drops a lot, and makes good catches look great. He's got little footwork and just acrobatically dives onehanded all over the place. When they stick, he looks awesome, but he's very prone to dropping.

 

[Animator!]

He actually probably has some of the best footwork generally for a wicket keeper around the world. His ability taking down leg side both standing up and back is outstanding. He does drop simple catches, but that's probably more of a problem with his mind than his ability.

 

[MUFC1987]

Ian Smith was ripping the you know what out of him on day 2. Understandably as well, as he seems to always be moving down the leg side, no matter where the ball is.

 

[King Pietersen]

He actually probably has some of the best footwork generally for a wicket keeper around the world. His ability taking down leg side both standing up and back is outstanding. He does drop simple catches, but that's probably more of a problem with his mind than his ability.

The reason he's so good at taking balls down the leg-side is because his initial movement is to move his left foot towards the leg-side, something that has been picked up on by Ian Smith, one of the Kiwi commentators. This made me watch every ball from then on to see McCullum's footwork and he does it every time, no matter where the ball pitches he makes a movement to the leg-side. This, as Smith said forces the gap between WK and 1st slip increase making McCullum feel has has to make up space by diving. The initial movement towards the leg-side also puts all his weight onto the leg-side meaning he has to stretch to take the tough chances. So either it's a flaw that's developed recently, or you just haven't noticed it before and are false in your claims that he has the best footwork.

 

[cheese]

To be fair on McCullum, he's primarily there for his quick-fire batting rather than legendary glove skills like a Healy or a Smith.

His flaws with the gloves are more than made up for with his batting which is superb at the moment.

I'd rate any other countries' keeper ahead of him at the moment. Even Ambrose's keeping has been better than him despite his early career.

I can't remember how many times McCullum has saved us ODIs from shocking batting from top 5-6.

At the moment he's entering his purple patch in batting. I won't put scoring the fastest century ever in tests past him, taking over from Afridi in the 4th innings.

England will have to try really hard to get him out early, 'cause once he gets it going, I've seen it, it's probably ten times more entertaining than a Gilchrist century. His 170 in the State final is one of the most devastating innings I've ever seen.

 

[Animator!]

His only real problems with diving catches is that he goes for everything. He doesn't set himself an area in which to leave to Fleming he just goes which has caused problems.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Jimmys fine, he was diving apparently.

 

[irottev]

I disagree about McCullum and can assure everyone he is just having a bad series. All keepers have the odd drop/make the odd mistake. I don't think he's over-rated. Under-rated if anything. The English commentators were saying how much work he does before play. He works hard on his keeping. Not even the best can be expected to take everything.

I can understand English fans being critical about keepers though. They go through enough of them in the England team. Haha.

 

[MUFC1987]

When McCullum gets a test century against a decent side you can come back and tell us how great he is.

 

[cheese]

I'm hyping him up for today when we will probably be 50 for 6 and he comes in, scores a double century with vettori on the other end scoring the century, and we win with a session to spare on day 5.