New Zealand in England May - June 2013

[CG123]

What was up with England complaining about our pitches, when they produce this slow pretty dead thing themselves.

Could NZ beat Australia? Don't think so.

We bet them last time we played them.

 

[barmyarmy]

We bet them last time we played them.

Oh I know; I've reminded the Aussies about Hobart a few times.
Agree with you about the pitch.

 

[MUFC1987]

I don't think we were ever going to go flying off, considering how close we came to losing in New Zealand. The measured approach was always the most likely. I think the batsmen just haven't found that form yet. They all seemed to get starts, so I don't think it's a case of being unable to score, it's just a case of finding the form to get the runs flowing, which hopefully will happen second time around.

Good to see Finn kept in the side though. He seems to always be the one in the firing line, but he really is our future.

 

[Owzat]

What was up with England complaining about our pitches, when they produce this slow pretty dead thing themselves.

In fairness they were pointing out that they had to relay a lot because of the olympic events held there last summer.


Intriguing day's play, hard to say for sure who is on top. Very slow scoring rate, I think I counted 15 boundaries all day (from the scorecard, not counting them as they happened) Very poor shot from Compton, perhaps frustrated by the pitch and I hope he doesn't do that too often, but otherwise I don't think you can criticise the batsmen who got out too much.

I think England will be happy to reach 300, we might not know what a good score on this pitch is. Fair play to the kiwi bowlers, they stuck to the task and bowled well as much as England ground out their starts of which noone has made into half a big score yet. I wonder if the weather mightn't have the final say.

Is it a good pitch for making entertaining cricket? Not really. Needs to have more help for the bowlers and a quicker outfield so the scoring is faster, and you have to score runs before you get a good ball. That old batsman conundrum is the best, do you try and survive to accumulate runs, or play a few shots because you'll get a delivery sooner or later that you can do nothing about.

Sadly you don't get many pitches like that these days, TV want five day pitches and runs, runs, runs. I find nothing more boring than runfests, of course the fear is that nice pitches for bowlers will mean matches ending early and sport is a lot about the ???? these days.

 

[barmyarmy]

I thought it was only the outfield that was relaid, not the pitch.

 

[barmyarmy]

Score at even 3 rpo and 95 overs is nearly 300. 192/6 - really poor.

 

[Dutch]

I feel that England have bought this on themselves, not being expansive enough....do we have too many of the same type of players in the top six now?

 

[barmyarmy]

When Trott has the best S/R you're in trouble. When we hammered NZ last time they were over here it was by innings margins and scoring at nearly 4rpo.

 

[Dutch]

Where are the players who can grab the game by the scruff of the neck. We cannot rely on Prior to do that all the time. As we have seen......

 

[barmyarmy]

I've got a nasty feeling that NZ are going to demonstrate how.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

KP is the only batsman proper england have capable of counter-attacking. without him they do seem a bit stodgey and resort to ultra-defensive tactics when things are tough. prior getting out first ball didn't help though.

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this probably won't be a popular opinion but I would genuinely like to see NZ beat england and then england beat australia.

kiwis, king of the english summer.

 

[barmyarmy]

As long as we beat Aus I'm cool with that

 

[Skater]

Blimey, 46 runs in nearly a whole session. What is going on? They wouldn't stand for this at Headingley.

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

IMO, this is NZ's perfect chance to edge past Eng in this innings, can carry on the confidence by taking a good lead and hence confidence in days to come!!
I had utmost confidence in England's bowling A/R's tbh.

 

[Owzat]

I thought it was only the outfield that was relaid, not the pitch.

I was hesitant to try and quote what was said, but you may well be right. But if you watched the highlights the ball was not zipping to the boundary, hence the 15 fours and knock on low scoring rate - and good bowling not helping.

England are struggling, they'll have to bowl well and hope the kiwis don't dig in and make scores. It's disappointing quite a few of the top order got in and got out. I've had a theory for a while that England flourish when the pitch is good for batting, when they're made to work hard they struggle. (see UAE and kiwiland for examples)