New Zealand in England

[Leicester Fox]

boooooooooooo

No doubt Moores will change the entire bowling line up after this game and refuse to change the batting becaue I'm sure they'll come good soon enough....

 

[Stephen Bailey]

Pathetic, absolutely pathetic. Oh well, atleast the F1 will be worth watching today.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Awesome by Broad

Why are our fans singing living on a prayer?

great play by Jim to get Broad the strike back there

Leicester Fox added 4 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

End of the innings. Basicallly it's a Sidebottom new ball amazing performance or it's over. Need 10 wickets by the end of tea.

 

[mattfb]

Fantastic batting by Broad, gave England a bit of hope but I cant see them chasing down anything more then 300-350 so New Zealand only need to get around 200.

 

[King Pietersen]

Awful. Worst session of cricket i've ever seen from an England team, until Broad's cameo at the end. Pietersen was lucky to survive as long as he did, and the less said about Bell, Collingwood and Ambrose the better. I think this performance should be the final nail in the coffin for the middle order, unless they do something magnificent in the 2nd innings, which i seriously doubt.

Wright should come in for Collingwood
Bopara/Key for Bell
Foster/Mustard/Davies/Prior for Ambrose.

Bell's been awful for a while, and only hits runs in test cricket when there's no pressure. Collingwood doesn't even look capable of sticking around even more, and has been in awful form for England and Durham this year. Wright hit a hundred for the Lions and is the future of England batting for me, he's fantastic technically, and will take the attack to the bowlers, he also bowls abit. Bopara or Key should come in also, both have been electric on the county circuit, especially Ravi Bopara this season. We just need to make some changes, the team looks stale, we've stopped making big runs, and now depend even more on Strauss, Cook, Vaughan and Pietersen. The big change in the team is that Strauss is the most profitable run scorer in the last 5 matches, how easily cricket can turn.

Awful from England. Even Sidebottom bowled crap in the 2 overs he had, he's bowled far too wide in the 2 matches so far. This is rubbish, not looking forward to the South Africa series. Dale Steyn's going to absoloutely maul our batting order.

 

[PhilD123]

That was absolutely pathetic. Why is it always England that have these collapses? They have ten times more than every other country around the world. You just wonder why there is a stark contrast between the attitude and end product of England's batting compared to New Zealand's.

Something has got to change, they seem to be forgetting the cricket that they played on the winning run in 04/05, ok, some of the players have moved on, but it's not that different a team. The mindset seems to have changed unfortunately. Can anyone imagine Pietersen playing an innings like he did on the first and last days of the Ashes now?

Having said that, all credit to New Zealand, they've played fantastically and deserve to win the test. Two great catches from McCullum. And nice work from Broad at the end, to salvage something from the innings.

 

[Vcassano]

As much as I hate to suggest axing players on the basis of a single performance (Although of course it is more than just one), it has to be done. Bell and Collingwood should be the ones to go. Treat them like Strauss was - except only let them back in when they sparkle in domestic cricket.

As for replacements, well Key is averaging just under 50 and has international experience as well as being one of the best in the world at facing pace bowling, making him an excellent proposition for the South African series. Matt Prior is the highest scorer in First Class cricket and reluctantly I'd be willing to have him back, although I hate the continual change of keepers. In fact Read's also been doing fantastically well. Like Prior, Bopara's also already scored over 500 runs so is a good proposition but again like Prior it is possibly too soon for him to return. Luke Wright is doing well this season but he needs to improve his consistency in First Class cricket as his averages are still way below par. Definitely one for the future.

While Key would be my first choice, David Sales is my second. He averages around 40 but that's hurt by his poor start to his career. In reality he averages around 50. Here are his stats for the last three country seasons as well as hundereds/fifties. This season he is also doing brilliantly while it should be noted he is a big scorer - one of the few Englishmen around nowadays to have scored a 300.

2005 - 47.86 3/6
2006 - 48 2/5
2007 - 55.36, 3/7

 

[ZexyZahid]

Highest runchase achieved at Old Trafford is 231-3. And that in 73 Test matches. New Zealand has now a lead of 238 runs and it's very likely that New Zealand will win this match with still two days to be played.

 

[angryangy]

How's the weather?

 

[PhilD123]

Quite cloudy now. Not as good as yesterday. Lancs have actually got a webcam.

http://www.apraze.com/lancs/lccc.htm

 

[Leicester Fox]

Heavy rain for tuesday apparently and a bit tomorrow so hoping we can restrict them enough today so that we get through tomorrow and see if we can be saved.

 

[Vcassano]

If we skittle them for less than a 300 lead we do have a chance. We made 200 when failing so a hundred more isn't too unrealistic I guess. It won't happen, of course but logically it is possible. Plus if we skittle them now we will have some momentum to help.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Two wickets for Panesar in the over. There is a bit of fightback going on.

 

[Will_NA]

Vettory will basically open the bowling now. The only reason he doesn't have at eats 100 more wickets is because he doesn't spin the ball that much. Imagine he could bowl a ripper as well his sliders.

 

[Adarsh]

He spins it as much as most finger spinners going around.