New Zealand in South Africa - Dec - Jan 2012/13

[War]

Who knew this

Ye i knew that. For the majority of the 2000s era when pitches worldwide were flat, south african pitches was the only country that consistently produced bowler friendly tracks/solid cricket wickets.

 

[War]

New Zealand in South Africa 2012-13 : Ryan McLaren in for injured Wayne Parnell in SA T20 squad | Cricket News | South Africa v New Zealand | ESPN Cricinfo

McClaren should have been in from the start, dont understand why south africa still picks parnell these days.

 

[aussie1st]

Cricket | Aussie Luke set to blaze into Black Caps... | Stuff.co.nz

Not too surprised, I had a feeling Ronchi would dominate in the domestic comp. I don't know much about the other keepers but Ronchi is certainly worth picking, he was unlucky not to get more games for Aus.

 

[CG123]

Cricket | Aussie Luke set to blaze into Black Caps... | Stuff.co.nz

Not too surprised, I had a feeling Ronchi would dominate in the domestic comp. I don't know much about the other keepers but Ronchi is certainly worth picking, he was unlucky not to get more games for Aus.

Tbh he hasn't really been dominating. Before that match he'd passed 36 only once (and 17 only twice) in nine innings. There have been plenty of "New Zealanders" that have been doing better than him, although obviously as a keeper he's up there. McCullum should be keeping though, especially in the limited overs stuff.

 

[Chewie]

Southee's getting surgery on his thumb and isn't going I believe.

gg.

 

[spooony]

Police are searching the stadium non stop with sniffer dogs. Apparently they are looking for NZ's top order batsman that went missing before the game

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New Zealand in South Africa 2012-13 : Ryan McLaren in for injured Wayne Parnell in SA T20 squad | Cricket News | South Africa v New Zealand | ESPN Cricinfo

McClaren should have been in from the start, dont understand why south africa still picks parnell these days.

Because of reverse racism.....

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Ye i knew that. For the majority of the 2000s era when pitches worldwide were flat, south african pitches was the only country that consistently produced bowler friendly tracks/solid cricket wickets.

And is really paying off. Seems that bowler friendly conditions provide one with good batsman

 

[spooony]

Proteas beat the Black Craps in the 12th over. 8 wickets the margin of win in the first T20. Du Plessis 36* de Kock 28*...

Good debut for de Kock. If he can hold his booze and womanise with authority, he could well turn out to be a long term replacement for Bouch

 

[ferg512]

lol I thought it would be bad but not that bad.

What the hell is with McCullums post game comments btw, mentions the word aggressive about 5 times. How about you forget being aggressive and just play some good cricket. I honestly can't support this team anymore if he is going to continue as captain.

 

[CG123]

Seriously, what the kerpluck were NZC thinking?

Fulton and Anderson both average under 20 in our domestic T20 competition, so it's anyone's guess how they ended up getting picked as batsmen. Franklin's not an international number 4, no one can argue with that. Munro bats at 6/7 for us, although I actually think that he should be there, just not so high up on debut. Two years ago Neesham couldn't even get an Auckland contract, so he went down to Otago, and up until now he hasn't even been a regular for them. Sure he's promising player, but he's no where near international standard atm. Bracewell's just woeful at limited overs bowling, so I've got no idea why he was picked in the first place ahead of like Southee.

Nicol's not international quality, but I can understand him being picked on domestic form over the last couple of season. Maybe have Franklin and Munro at 5 and 6 respectively. Nathan McCullum's probably an 8 in international cricket, and we only need 4 bowlers anyway, when our whole team can bowl bar Fulton and McCullum. I've got no idea where Guptill is, he wasn't playing for Auckland last night either. Bowling wise I don't mind Hira and McClenaghan being there, and I'd probably chuck like Mills in there as well. At number seven I'd probably go with like a de Grandhomme. Sure he was found out last time against South Africa, but he's a mile ahead of Neesham. Therefore from what's available:

Guptill
Nicol/Watling
McCullum
Who knows without Taylor or Ryder there?
Franklin
Munro
de Grandhomme
McCullum
Mills
Hira
Bates/McClenaghan

Then again I might be just bias towards Aucklanders, but who wouldn't with such a great team.

 

[War]

Good debut for de Kock. If he can hold his booze and womanise with authority, he could well turn out to be a long term replacement for Bouch

Ye i've liked the look of him, since i saw him in this years under-19 world cup & the champions league. Hopefully he does live up to his potential, since it will make the push to select Tsokelie as back-up keeper look more crazy for reasons we both know.

Overall though looking at the S Africa team picked, they really should have a powerful t20 team just like their test team:

Levi/Davis
Du Plessis
De Kock
Duminy
De Villiers
Miller
A Morkel
Morris
Peterson
Steyn
M Morkel

Levi/Davis, Ingram/Behradin, McLaren/Kleinvelt, Van Der Merwe. Weise, De Lange, Vilas, Kuhn also in the background.

This is pretty lethal potentially, once players a picked on merit.

 

[Howsie]

At number seven I'd probably go with like a de Grandhomme. Sure he was found out last time against South Africa, but he's a mile ahead of Neesham.

Errr, no. Neesham's a proper all rounder, mid 130's with a little bit of away movement, with a ton of ability with the bat. He's raw, just like Anderson is, but the upside for both of them is massive. Both of them could easily be playing test cricket in 2/3 years batting at six or seven (or in Andeson's case even higher) and be a proper 5th bowling option with the ball.

de Grandhomme isn't and will never be that, his bowling is next to useless.

 

[CG123]

Errr, no. Neesham's a proper all rounder, mid 130's with a little bit of away movement, with a ton of ability with the bat. He's raw, just like Anderson is, but the upside for both of them is massive. Both of them could easily be playing test cricket in 2/3 years batting at six or seven (or in Andeson's case even higher) and be a proper 5th bowling option with the ball.

de Grandhomme isn't and will never be that, his bowling is next to useless.

What has Neesham ever done in domestic cricket? Nothing. Sure Anderson played that FC blinder earlier this season, but he hasn't done much since then, and he has an average of 16 in 18 T20 innings.

Sure it's worked at times with the likes of Vettori and Bracewell when they were picked, but in a country riddled with players not being able to step-up to the international level, hardly ever is it going to work picking players that have struggled to put up the numbers for their domestic team. I'm not saying that they're both not promising players, and I even wrote that they were above, but to take them over to the best team in the world to have a swing and roll their arm over a couple of times was imo a big mistake.

de Grandhomme is a T20 player, who is very hit and miss. I guess another question is what do we want out of our number seven? Do we want a bowling orientated player like we've got atm in McCullum, or do we want a batting orientated player like Anderson or de Grandhomme. I wouldn't mind having either of them at seven because they can both come out and hit the ball from ball one and they can both bowl a bit, but neither of them should really be batting any higher than that. Whether you don't like de Grandhomme's bowling or not, he's still got a better economy rate than Neesham across all three formats of the game.

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Tbh the problem comes from our top four though, and our current top four of Nicol, Fulton, McCullum, and Franklin is just not going to cut it in South Africa, so it doesn't really matter what we have below there.

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Also I do want us to win, so I do hope that they can prove me wrong and play some blinders next match.

 

[spooony]

Ye i've liked the look of him, since i saw him in this years under-19 world cup & the champions league. Hopefully he does live up to his potential, since it will make the push to select Tsokelie as back-up keeper look more crazy for reasons we both know.

Overall though looking at the S Africa team picked, they really should have a powerful t20 team just like their test team:

Levi/Davis
Du Plessis
De Kock
Duminy
De Villiers
Miller
A Morkel
Morris
Peterson
Steyn
M Morkel

Levi/Davis, Ingram/Behradin, McLaren/Kleinvelt, Van Der Merwe. Weise, De Lange, Vilas, Kuhn also in the background.

This is pretty lethal potentially, once players a picked on merit.

Levi needs to go fix his flaws I think. He has been exposed at International level he should be dropped.

 

[sifter132]

Real ball tearer of a match this morning . Kiwis chased down 165 with 4 needed off the last ball. Guptill hit the 4 which also bought up his 100 - does it get any better? (maybe a 6 to win i guess...). Big win for NZ, as they needed to show they'd be competitive.

 

[angryangy]

Levi needs to go fix his flaws I think. He has been exposed at International level he should be dropped.

He's been exposed in every innings except the one in which he hit 13 sixes. It's an amazing career.