New Zealand in Australia Nov-Dec 2008 Feb 2009

[deerkick]

Michael Slater swallowed a fly!!!

 

[Justcrazy]

Possibly but I keep thinking back to the Windies a few years back where they had 2 days to chase 400+ which is now the highest ever chase.

noooo...nz can't do that! WI had shiva...sarwan...and other boys where Kiwi have ODI batsmen in white clothing...i predict Aussie win here

MOM..Kat+itch
Jhonson will take 5-fer in next innings

 

[Mr.Cricket]

Happy with that session. Lead is 275 now and if we can get it closer to 300 we should be ok. The pitch is looking really good though , chasing 300 is not out of the question. Great knock from Katich so far and Mitch is a very decent bat for #10. He is looking very solid , hopefully we might see few big hits later.

How good is Vettori? Very underrated bowler IMO.

 

[angryangy]

At least the game looks like going through day 4 now.

 

[irottev]

Should have had a man back for the second time Johnson went for it. Vettori totally did him, woulda been an easy catch.

It won't go 4 days. We won't bat today out.

Our bowlers have had it. They tried their hearts out the last 2 and a half days and there's nothing left. Needed to hold those Katich catches. That's the defining moment in this test. Aussies would be all out by now with about 250 lead max.

 

[aussie_ben91]

LOL @ the Hayden retiring comments.

I've been hearing this for the last 5 years. He'll probably smash a 100 at the MCG again and then follow it up with another 2 or 3 hundreds like he always does and all of the speculation will go.
All of our batsman have failed to adjust to the Australian bounce so soon after coming back from Australia. I don't even think the likes of Ponting, Hayden, Watson, Haddin, etc have played a state game since coming back from India.

We'll probably be in the same position this time next year with Hayden.

 

[aussie1st]

Some of the batsmen really missed out here, if they stayed patient they could have been doing what Clark and Johnson are doing.

 

[Yogy]

Lead close to 320. Clark is irritating the NZ bowlers by his pinch hitting.

 

[irottev]

Well if our batsmen can't do that now then i'd drop the lot of them. Any other major batting side would chase this down. Aussies are lucky.

irottev added 6 Minutes and 11 Seconds later...

Fianlly it's over. We chased more runs on a worse pitch in Bangladesh but their bowlers were pretty average.

 

[aussie1st]

About time the storms came back and juiced up the pitch again

Also this is the time for Johnson to pick up wickets, in India he failed to take many if any in the 2nd inns. We need him now along with Lee and Clark.

 

[Yogy]

This is going to be a really tough run chase for the Kiwis. They need 327 to win this game and the problem is that they didn't even manage half the runs in the first innings. However, the positive for them is that there is a lot of time left in the match and the conditions are getting better for batting.

 

[Mr.Cricket]

Haha lovely batting from Clark. We added about 80 runs for the last 2 wickets , that gotta hurt. Pretty happy with 320 but the pitch looks good atm. If he have them about 5 down by stumps we should be able rip through the tail tomorrow. Need early wickets with the new ball . For kiwis to have any chance they need someone like McCullum or Taylor to make a ton.

Katich batted through the innings (131*). Well played sir.

 

[mattfb]

I don't see the problem with our top order failing when we bat to 11

Seriously, Johnson could score test centuries with a bit more batting practice and Clark could get 50's if he practiced moving his front foot and started off lower.

 

[khalek]

327 seems to be a tough target on this pitch. Actually chasing 300+ is always tough. NZ can only win if their openers get them off to a great start and one of them sticks at the crease till the end like Simon Katich has done.

 

[angryangy]

This is where some such as Kerry O'Keefe have argued that it was a bad idea to omit a good spinner. Mind you, I don't think Aus can afford 4 runs per over.