New Zealand in England May - June 2013

[War]

Massive fan of Gilchrist, saw him bat in every innings of his 96 tests. But i don't believe he was best wicket-keeper batsman of all time.

Alan Knott would get that accolade for me.

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well, er, yeah but I didn't say he was rubbish... at all. just that he was hardly way out in front like he was because recently other wicket-keepers had been scoring big hundreds.

Well given that wicket-keepers don't score hundreds often, given how low they bat i'm not sure if Prior's lack of hundreds should be a tie-breaker.

Especially when you weigh that up against the fact that all those crucial 50s Prior made in situations when ENG would have been in a shaky position vs some good bowling attacks. No other keeper has consistently played so many key "get out of jail innings" in the last 2 years.

Prior is a very selfless player that just bats situations. Many times in the last year for example that 91 he made vs India in Ahemadad, he could have easily got to 100 then. But unlike most batsmen would be a bit circumspect in the 90s - he maintained his aggressive game & got out.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I feel like I'm now being super pedantic and irritating but this is the internet I suppose, but yeah, erm crucial doesn't mean that. It means decisive or critical to the outcome of something, a 50 in a losing cause objectively doesn't qualify as "crucial".

ste's point is fair enough, I just don't think it's that controversial to say a batsman that's scored a lot of 50s in losing causes isn't that far ahead of a batsman that's scored 100s to secure wins.

which is obviously all moot now anyway as I was giving him his due for this series saying it was a return to prominence, I can't help but think everyone is being a tad defensive about an imagined slight.

 

[Haarithan]

You say that as though Prior has a few Test hundreds in the sub-cont.

True, but Prior is more consistent and a much better 'away' player though.

Plus his record of averaging 40 over 13 tests in the sub-continent is just so much better than Dhoni averaging 29 over 28 tests outside the SC. (MP averages 49 in India btw)

 

[Cricketman]

Matt Prior's surely the 2nd greatest wicket-keeper/batsman ever behind Adam Gilchrist?

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Maybe that's a bit far fetched, and are the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Andy Flower considered wicket-keepers? I mean they started out as keepers and after a while they stopped keeping... always confusing this.

woah, no way. Not even the best for England. Alec Stewart is the man!

 

[Epic]

I guess I shouldn't be looking at this merely on statistics? Because if I did, I would be right.

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And I've always had this weird notion/bias that the players I see/get to see are greater than the ones I didn't see/won't get to see...

 

[CG123]

They should just add an extra Test onto the start of the tour, because no English Test players and no New Zealanders after Taylor got dropped are playing in the IPL anymore.

 

[War]

Ha ye that's true. But given its an Ashes summer, i don't think England would want to the burden of 3 tests to make it an 8 test home season. ENG have never hosted that many tests in home season before.

 

[CG123]

What are the pitches going to be like for the two Tests? With Wagner and Bracewell taking 15 wickets between them against Derby, I'm thinking that playing both of them along with Southee and Boult is very much a possibility.

 

[War]

Its May and as usual its should seam and swing around a lot - especially at Headingley.

 

[puddleduck]

English pitches are generally great for batting with decent carry. It's the weather that adds the movement.

 

[barmyarmy]

Anyone who wants to make a "New Zealand in England thread" feel free. Otherwise we could just rename this one...

 

[CG123]

Just poor batting from our middle to lower order, and our bowling was largely unpenetrating. Wagner should come back in for the first test based on this effort, so it should be out of Bracewell and Martin for our fourth bowler now.

 

[Sedition]

Roughly 24 hours left to sign up for the fantasy cricket game for the 1st test. Currently 13 registrations and if we can push it above 20, there will be another payout increase as outlined here.

Register here and good luck

 

[barmyarmy]

For all the talk of how poor Australia are I think the Ashes will be closer than we think. A runrate of 2 is dismal and the shots to get out have been very poor too. Could NZ beat Australia? Don't think so.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I think NZs bowling is alright these days, not really an awful weak link and I don't think I've seen NZ able to bench a player as promising as bracewell in a long time.

batting wise they're a long way behind england though, it's unlikely Fulton will find the same form here as he did at home. if this pitch really is quite tricky then I think england have a competitive score already (assuming 6 more wickets will yield at least 60 more runs).

australia much the same make-up, good, if raw, pace bowling attack and some rubbish batsmen.

prepare for all of that to come back to haunt me.