New Zealand in England

[dave1991]

well were stil not in a great postion... although i would of taken this at 86/5
but batting looks so much easier now.... new zealand could post a decent score on this wicket over next couple of days.
so really we could do with hundred from ambrose and 200 from kp

 

[Sureshot]

KP did well, Ambrose is looking in good nick too. I don't think this is a glorious batting track (ie, Indian style), but I do think it's a 350-400 track, though the first hour and a bit was tough, swinging round roundabouts.

Bell, Colly and Cook have got to fire soon.

Ah, damn. Ambrose goes for 67. Good knock by the little man. Target 300. I fancy our bowlers on here.

 

[evertonfan]

Anderson as a nightwatchman for our number 9. Never thought i'd see something as odd as that before.

 

[Sureshot]

A very strange decision. However, Sidebottom does get 20s, they are plucking at straws but maybe he and Broad will put on 40 for the next wicket. We will only know tomorrow if this works out.

http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=43965

My summary on Day One's play.

 

[King Pietersen]

Jimmy and Broady are both going to make hundreds tommorow, then bowl New Zealand out for under 100......twice.

Good days play, shame I missed almost all of KP's innings, saw him reach his hundred though, I knew he'd come good eventually. He's fired in the 2 most important innings of this series and the last. He scored a vital hundred in New Zealand, and another today. Great to see him back on form, although he wasn't massively out of form. The less said about Bell and Collingwood the better though, awful awful performance. Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara should be in tbh.

 

[barmyarmy]

# Sack the coach, sack the coach, sack the coach #

Struggling to beat NZ at home isn't really the dominant England team we all envisaged...

 

[evertonfan]

I know. As much as I like to keep faith in my team, no one should be making New Zealand look this good. No one.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Oh imagine what life could have been like under Moody

Broads our most consistent batsmen always gets a start, thats for sure. He can be a proper all rounder for us, move him up to 6, tell freddy it's over and get an extra bowler in

 

[evertonfan]

Broad's a legend. We're gonna be buggered when he's used as a scapegoat and is dropped for the Safrica series to make way for Harmison or Hoggard.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Well we have the sexiest team in international cricket which is a good thing, probably representative of the fact out of he test playing nations the English are the sexiest people.

Drop Colly for Flintoff if he's ever fit, we don't need an extra batsmen when you have Broad at 8.

 

[evertonfan]

I was gonna suggest broad coming in higher than Ambrose up until today. I think Ambrose has proved he's a tough little nugget after today. But Broad's still a legend.

 

[RoboRocks]

This isn't good enough from the middle order. Cook, Bell and Collingwood all average over 40 in test cricket and they all be making runs really on a good batting pitch and against (with respect) not the greatest team in the world. Bopara, Shah and Wright will be pushing these guys now and there might actually be a chance for those three in the ODI's to get in.

Good to see Ambrose make some runs today after failures during the series. Its nice to get those demons off your back especially with the ODI's coming up.

I've been waiting to see Pietersen go back to his dominant best, in which he played Warne in 2005 and 2006, so those are good signs at least.

I do feel if England can get above 300 then NZ may struggle against our new ball attack with Sidebottom and Anderson, who'll get the ball to swing in those conditions. Broad has a little to prove with the ball after a quiet test series with the ball so far and he'll also need to get England up to 300 with the bat so England will want a contribution from him tomorrow.

 

[irottev]

No need to worry, it's a bowler's pitch this one. However, I hope it's not like the Trent Bridge Test last year which was definitely a 'win the toss win the game' pitch.

I wouldn't say there was a lot for the bowlers at all. It's just a dead pitch. I think bat first was the right call, England just batted so poorly.

We let them get away, typical. I saw that coming :/

 

[Stephen Bailey]

We let them get away, typical. I saw that coming :/

I reckon that might be a tad harsh on your boys. Apart Martin not showing up, the bowlers kept nagging away, never really allowing Pietersen or Ambrose to get away, as shown by their s/r (KP 51.56 and Ambrose 45.27). Ambrose was a lucky boy with a couple that went flying through the slips, but apart from that the only shot that actually went to hand I can think of was when How put down what would've been the catch of the series.

Pietersen and Ambrose played brilliantly, just hope the rest of the batting order can follow the example set by them. Having said that, their dismissals were somewhat typical to the way our batsmen generally got out.

The pitch certainly doesn't seem to favour Vettori with it being as slow as it is, meaning any turn he is getting is slow, allowing the batsmen to just pick him off for 1's and 2's.

 

[irottev]

I guess I was a bit harsh. Just annoying to see us get a side 80odd for 5 and then let them pile on another 200 for 2.