England in New Zealand

[MUFC1987]

Looks overcast and it's very windy, so that should be promising for when we have a bowl.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Broad gets a wicket, impressed me this morning. This one could well finish on day 4 but NZ's lower order will probably be too strong for that.

edit- and another, bowls Fleming, top of off, could well have killed of the kiwis chances there. Great bowling

 

[Themer]

Broad won't step up, he's not good enough for test matches

Lol thankfully hes proven you wrong and got 2 quick ones that partnership was quite frustrating especially considering Bell played so poorly

 

[Leicester Fox]

I was just cursing him into bowling well Anyway first of all you can hardly criticise me for being too negative about Broad! Anyway he's not had the running on the wicket problem that my post was about.

 

[PhilD123]

Broad won't step up, he's not good enough for test matches

Joe, is that you?

Surely even we've got to win this from here, especially with Fleming gone. A good spell from Broad and those two wickets were massive, after the partnership that was starting to frustrate between Bell and Fleming.

 

[irottev]

We were out of it before the innings started to be honest. I wanted to see Fleming get a hundred, but unfortunately Sinclair came in and broke his concentration by almost running him out.

I look forward to Sinclair being dropped. He's hopeless.

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

I'll tell you how good he is now. Best ODI keeper in the world and one of the best glovemen in any form of the game. Infact, Sangakkara doesn't play tests AND keep, so perhaps he is the best test keeper-batsman too. He's one of our only world class players, so please stop undermining us.

 

[Jit]

dam fleming is gone good bowling from broad dam

 

[MUFC1987]

I'll tell you how good he is now. Best ODI keeper in the world and one of the best glovemen in any form of the game. Infact, Sangakkara doesn't play tests AND keep, so perhaps he is the best test keeper-batsman too. He's one of our only world class players, so please stop undermining us.

Watch out folks, Stat Attack time.

http://www.lgiccrankings.com/test/batting/rankings.php

I make that Akmal (32), MS Dhoni (42) and Mark Boucher (44) all ahead of Brendan McCullum at number 47 and I wouldn't say that McCullum was much better than those 3 with the gloves would you? So no, he's not the best Test Keeper Batsman at this moment in time. I was kind enough to now include Gilchrist as well in that.

Now, ODIs, Dhoni and Sangakarra are both miles ahead of him with the bat, and again his Wicketkeeping ability is not good enough to outweigh that. I didn't include Gilchrist in this one either.

McCullum's a decent player, but best in the World? Not a snowball in hells chance.

I can agree with Vettori being the best ODI bowler in the World though, if you want to make a truce.

 

[irottev]

Rankings don't mean crap, are you honestly saying Akmal is the best batsman keeper? You're joking?

I did forget about Dhoni. I'll accept that.

Go look at McCullum's average, strike rate and stats since opening the innings in South Africa. Argue with me then.

You guys should sack ambrose, dropped a few catches and missed 2 stumpings today. Hahaha.

 

[cheese]

Excuse me for thinking that this thread lately turning into a McCullum bashing thread.

I sure hope he gets his century and win the test match with vettori on 100 not out to shut people up.

Do remember that our batting really starts from Oram down according to recent form. Vettori will be hard to get out and McCullum is set, so I don't think they will prod around silly. They'll bash their way to that total like they are chasing Hadlee series ODI totals and win this.

 

[jordox]

McCullum is good, don't knock him.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Well England might wrap up the remaining things in tomorrow 1st session..Sidebottom and Broad bowled well today.1-1 will make series more interesting and decider will be huge for both Side..
After Oram wicket I think 196 is like "Himalayas" for NZ now..

@Regarding to McCullum,Whoever knows cricket Can't deny hes one of the Best wicket keeper around..
And Akmal at 32,Can anyone remind me Akmal's big Knock against good team Except India..

 

[Adarsh]

My Indian loyalty apart, I actually think Dhoni's the best wicket-keeper batsman at the moment in cricket. He's been very very safe with the gloves. I don't think he's dropped one for a long time, and his stumpings are great too. As for his batting, his ODI batting is brilliant now, and his Test performances aren't bad...though they can improve.

 

[King Pietersen]

Dhoni's the best current keeper around tbh, Gilly was streets ahead, but as he's now retired Dhoni's leading the way. Bouchers a better keeper than McCullum aswell, he's a massively under-rated keeper. 406 catches in 111 tests is an awesome return for him. McCullums current batting form is over-rated aswell, only averaging 26 in the past year, pretty much the same as Boucher, who in my view is the better keeper. McCullum's good but he's massively over-rated i feel, all the commentators seem to be talking about is McCullum being in the form of his life, an average of 26 is hardly impressive now is it. He may be performing well in ODi's, with an average of 44, but he's over-rated in tests. Dhoni's streets ahead, averaging 40 in tests, he wasn't great in Australia, but he was superb in England, and in India. Dhoni's the best keeper in the world for me.

We should wrap this game up quite easily tbh, I can see McCullum throwing his wicket away cheaply and that just leaves Mills, Gillespie and the free wicket. If we fail to win this game, it will have to go down as one of the worst defeats ever, NZ aren't good enough to chase 430 on the 4th and 5th days of any pitch, and if it wasn't for the missed chances from Ambrose and the drop from Pietersen they'd probably be close to all out by now anyway. I'll be incredibly dissapointed if we fail to win this game.

 

[manee]

I'll tell you how good he is now. Best ODI keeper in the world and one of the best glovemen in any form of the game. Infact, Sangakkara doesn't play tests AND keep, so perhaps he is the best test keeper-batsman too.

I think that it could be argued that Dhoni is the best gloveman in the world. He is very safe behind the stumps and adapted brilliantly in England in alien conditions to him.