Group B (Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe) - 9th Match Zimbabwe v NZ

[-D-S-B-]

Anyway, Ryder looked in brilliant form today, people think he's a slogger for some weird reason, when actual fact is he is much better at firstclass/ test match cricket.
He played a poor shot to get out, but he really did play a crucial innings after Baz got a duck.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

Malinga done himself in, that run out chance (and chance is putting it a bit mildly) blew it for sri lanka.

 

[irottev]

Great game to start the tournament. Was really close and nail biting.

Well done NZ! Good performance.

N McCullum rightfully MotM. Ryder was excellent too and all the bowlers did their bit.

irottev added 3 Minutes and 42 Seconds later...

ha McCullum fails again, possibly the most over-rated limited overs cricketer in history.

At least his innings was better than Dilshan's (Both were major fail btw). Pretty sad when you score 0 and play a better innings than someone who scores 3. Dilshan is the most over-rated player IMO. He wasted 19 balls. His innings IMO cost Sri Lanka the game.

McCullum hit a brilliant hundred against Australia in his previous IT20 game and yet he fails the very next innings and all of a sudden he sucks? LOL!

 

[King Pietersen]

Don't get why McCullum gets so much abuse tbh. He has a very good T20i record, scored a century in his last game against the Aussies and when he gets going is as destructive a batsman as anyone. I love watching the bloke bat, and have mentioned a few times that his 170 for Otago in a State Cup Final is one of the best OD innings I've ever seen.

 

[irottev]

McCullum's scores in his last 15 innings:
56*, 69*, 18, 57, 10, 12, 10, 9, 49, 19, 47, 56*, 2, 116*, 0

and the 2 innings before that (so in his latest 17 he scored 59 and 61)

Pretty good player to be honest.

Some people rate him pretty highly, but he's not wrongfully rated highly. He's a very good player. He's in my top 10 T20 batters in the world, that's for sure.

 

[pcfan123]

McCullum hit a brilliant hundred against Australia in his previous IT20 game and yet he fails the very next innings and all of a sudden he sucks? LOL!

Ive always said he sucks and is a fluke player. That 100 against Aus was far from brilliant, so many edges going for sixes and that retarded shot

anyways rant over

 

[irottev]

Ive always said he sucks and is a fluke player. That 100 against Aus was far from brilliant, so many edges going for sixes and that retarded shot

anyways rant over

Did you even see it? He might have edged 1 six, I don't remember any others and when you score a hundred in T20 and are going for it you can expect to get the odd boundary in streaky fashion. He played all those ramp shots. They're not edges.

 

[King Pietersen]

That innings against Australia was brilliant. Was not a fluke innings by any means. You need much more than fluke to score 987 T20i runs at 36.55 with a strike rate of 133.2. Think you're under-rating McCullum hugely tbh Mark.

 

[pcfan123]

@ irrotev
I did see it and half of the ramp shots were pure luck. Lets just agree to disagree, I know arguing anything against NZ with you is going to be like Hughes with TumTum.

hMarka added 1 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

That innings against Australia was brilliant. Was not a fluke innings by any means. You need much more than fluke to score 987 T20i runs at 36.55 with a strike rate of 133.2. Think you're under-rating McCullum hugely tbh Mark.

Talk to me at the end of the tournament then. He might beat up on people in meaningless Twenty20 exhibitions but he chokes like a South African in any big game.

 

[irottev]

Ok then, we'll see how he goes. If you want to argue Taylor is over-rated i'll agree with that? His innings today was typical and did not impress me. Sides have him worked out, he needs to stop playing that slog shot.

If you want to argue McCullum is I have to disagree and I don't believe it's the biased me talking, his T20 record is consistent. Those ramps weren't luck. He's obviously been practicing them. He was seeing the ball good that day obviously. How many did he hit in the innings? He hit about 5 or 6 of them and from my knowledge he middled every single one of them. That doesn't indicate luck, that indicates good execution

 

[pcfan123]

Time will tell, Im not worried. I bet he hits Zimbabwe all around the park, typical now that NZ has beaten the big team he will "succeed"

Guarantee you he will not be in the top 10 batsman of this tournament.

 

[Howsie]

Brillant first up game really, it had everything. I thought Jayawardene's knock was one of the best I've ever seen in Int20/20 cricket, was pure class.

Really good to get the first up win, especially considering bar Jesse Ryder none of our other batsmen got going. It was great seeing the big man back though, missed him so much over the past six months. It didn't even seem like he'd been away.

 

[irottev]

Time will tell, Im not worried. I bet he hits Zimbabwe all around the park, typical now that NZ has beaten the big team he will "succeed"

Yeah, because when he hit that hundred against Australia it wasn't against a big team. :S

 

[pcfan123]

was no world cup, just a meaningless exhibition at the end of a Test/ODI series

 

[CG123]

A great way for us to start the tournament off.
Only watched our batting due to the time zone difference.
Ryder looked in great touch when hitting big, but I'm not a fan of power players like him trying to work it behind the wicket.
Plenty of our batsmen got starts, so we need someone to go on if we're going to push on over 150 on these slow pitches.
Great game from Nathan McCullum, he's a very underrated T20 player. One of the top fielders in the world, a very good lower order batsmen, and a top one-day bowler.
That should see us into the next round, but I'm pretty sure Zimbabwe will be a test as they have knocked over two top eight sides in the warm-ups.