Just got home. Missed the end because it was getting too cold. Pitch seemed good, outfield is nice. It's a good ground. More on that later.
First innings: The Auckland bowling was ok, but not really threatening looking at all. Sherlock who used to play for Canterbury had the ol mullet and headband. Was quite the character on the boundary. He bowled alright. He's not particularly fast but was good. Bates was slightly slower. He's much bigger. Bopara has an incredibly short run-up. Most spinners have a longer one. He starts a few steps behind the umpire. For his run-up he's actually reasonably quick. He got hammered around a bit though. Singh was the pick of the spinners and Styris was tidy.
Myburgh's innings was very impressive. VERY. The sooner this guy is eligible for the black caps the better. He put on good partnerships and held the ship together. Fulton was disappointing. He looked great out there and was doing it easy. You can see the dfferent in his confidence in domestic vs international. Sadly he played a horrible shot and was caught on the cover boundary in the 40's which seems to happen too often with him. Myburgh and Guptill who scored big didn't. They have great heads on their shoulders and played very mature innings. Macca smashing a 50 was great viewing. Auckland's fielding wasn't the best Guptill aside and I can't understand why Vincent doesn't play over Reece Young and Hopkins doesn't take the gloves. I thought Hopkins was in Black Caps back-up contention(not that I like him), if I were him I wouldn't be letting anyone take the gloves. I was just sad Vincent missed out.
Guptill in Auckland's innings was outstanding. Shoulda batted through, gutted he didn't but still was a sensational knock. Outshone Myburgh's and his was outstanding too. He looked in another class. Styris played well too once he got in. Bopara played ok in support without being outstanding individually. That partnership was very valuable though. Some bad news on Guptill though, he was batting with a runner just before I left. It looked like he injured his leg but i'm not sure it's anything too serious.
Now on Bennett. He looked to me like the fastest bowler of the day. Faster than Martin i'd say probably early to mid 140's. He's a big guy, very tall. He seems to have some aggression but it's just lines and lengths which must let him down. He probably should have bowled with the new ball because of his pace. I guess we have to hope he can develop and bowl more threatening lines and lengths. He was just too expensive. Disappointing Anderson is injured also because I badly wanted to see him. (Shoulder injury, should be out for 6-8 weeks I heard)
The ground is good, there were quite a few in, you're close to the action, the banks are nice. I hope they turn it into a test venue. They'll need a covered grandstand and some proper toilet facilities and a proper scoreboard. Some trees around the banks would be nice because currently there is absolutely no cover anywhere on the ground which is an issue. Everything else seemed in order. Good pitch, good outfield, good signscreens, good banks, close to the action.
Trent Boult and Tim Southee getting slapped around by a inconsistant lower-order batsmen, who would of thought that was possible :sarcasm Our bowling attack is pretty poor in the one day game tbh, both Arnel and Southee are very average one day bowlers (Expect much better from Boult however).
