England in New Zealand

[karnog]

:laugh : :rtfl

Uhhh people crack me up.

And by the way Matt Prior wasn't trying to be Gilchrist! I love Prior, I think this is the perfect example of why England aren't a good team. They drop players left right and center, dogging them. Prior did drop a few against SL, but surely some practice and extra application could fix that, and I thought he showed some guts with the bat, good player for me.

To be honest i reckon a keeper in a national side should be the best keeper in the country. Batting is secondary. But then i guess its outdated as i was a Read fan in the last Ashes. Prior bats well but they made the right decision to go back to county cause his level of keeping is not at international standards. Maintaining his batting form and pushing himself to international standards of keeping can turn him into an awesome player.

If he were in the squad then it should've been only as a batter and possibly a back-up keeper. Meh England are a decent test team with a lot of potential in my opinion especially their batting with Cook, Bell, Pieterson, Collingwood, Vaughan and possibly Strauss for this series. They got poor management which is causing all the problems. Anderson was the perfect case of the management's incompetence. His first match from a back injury where he needed to change his action is an Ashes test in Australia. I mean come on. They then don't play their best spinner Monty, kept going on with Jones, Flintoff as captain who has enough on his belt as not only their strike bowler but their important middle order batsman.... it goes on and it isn't only the Ashes.

 

[lancashire666]

been reading in the paper a couple of days ago collingwood saying how great he thinks harmy is and that he will bowl really well in new zealand, it sounded like he thinks harmy will be in the team for the first test

 

[Sureshot]

Flintoff isn't and never has been our opening bowler.

 

[karnog]

^^My bad. I meant strike bowler. I'll fix it. Are you sure Flintoff hasn't opened in ODIs?

 

[lancashire666]

ive seen him open with the ball in a one day game for Lancashire but thats about it

 

[irottev]

I got my tickets for the Twenty/20 and ODI today

Can't wait for the Twenty/20 especially. Never seen one. Hopefully it's a packed house. Being against England and being the first Twenty/20 i'm thinking it should be. I don't wanna see B grade players like Hopkins in the side though. We should also be favorites.

 

[lancashire666]

forgive my ignorance of this but does new zealand have a domestic T20 compatition?

 

[Leicester Fox]

The T20 will be good, given Englands recent big improvement in ODI's beating India and Sri Lanka I think it could actually play a part in how the series goes for us. If we win it we could get confidence and give them a challenge in the ODI's. So is Bond playing or not because Strauss has to get 100 if he doesn't

 

[lancashire666]

bond is defo out as far as i have heard

 

[King Pietersen]

Cook
Mustard
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Shah
Bopara
Swann
Broad
Anderson
Sidebottom

That should be the side for the odi's imo. Mustard looked a really good prospect in the SL series, and gives us what we need at the top of the order alongside Cook. KP needs to have a good tour, he was dissapointing on the whole in SL. I feel that this could be the series for Jimmy Anderson, if he could take loads of wickets in the odi series i think he should be a shoe in for the test series, massive fan of the lad.

 

[evertonfan]

Is Franklin fit for the Test series? Sorry, i've really lost touch with cricket lately.

If he is fit then Strauss is really going to struggle.

 

[Jos?Pedro]

forgive my ignorance of this but does new zealand have a domestic T20 compatition?

Yeah we do, it's still fairly new though, not as established as the English competition. It started yesterday with Northern Districts beating Wellington by seven wickets. Strauss scored 28. There's a lot of twenty20 matches this weekend. I'm going to two, one of which is Otago vs Auckland (today), last season's one-day & twenty20 finalists

 

[JamesyJames3]

I can't helpp but agree with Strauss' comments as of late about New Zealands bowling attack. Without Bond I see nothing to fear. Vettori is quality obviously, but more effective in one-dayers than tests.

 

[Jos?Pedro]

Sorry to go on a bit of rant here, but...

I'm getting sick of all the fuss about Bond. When Bond is in the side we are refered to as 'New Zealand'. When he is not in the squad we are refered to as 'New Zealand without Bond'. He is barely in the team anyway. It should be that when he isn't in the team we are refered to as 'New Zealand' & when he is in the team we would be 'New Zealand with the added bonus of Bond'. He barely ever plays with us anyway :

I hate all the arrogance of the English thinking they can clean us up if we don't have Bond. He is not the only reason we have test status you know. It also doesn't make England look too good. They are basically saying they can handle the team, but one man could change their fortunes.

Could I also mention that we didn't have Bond last time England came here and we did alright.

All of this Bond crap is a bit of an insult to Chris Martin, who has established himself as a decent test bowler.

 

[evertonfan]

I have to agree with José here. I don't like the way some of our fans think we are going to steamroll New Zealand in this tour, especially after the shambles we produced against Sri Lanka. I do think England will go on to the win the Test series, but some of our fans seem to think we don't even have to turn up to beat New Zealand.