New Zealand in Sri Lanka Oct - Nov 2012/13

[CG123]

Apparently this is our worst Test run since the 1950s...

 

[Aalay]

herath must be in the picture when we're talking about the best spinners in the world now, his record's better than swann's over the last 2 years.

How is he doing overseas?

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

in asia he's averaging 22 to swann's 24 and outside asia he's averaging 36 to 39.

but I guess it depends if you want to count home and away differently given players have perhaps become familiar with conditions or just take it as how they do in favourable and unfavourable conditions. both clearly like asian conditions, perhaps herath's success shouldn't be counted as much because he is asian, but then perhaps swann's failure outside asia should count against him because he should be taking advantage of his home conditions more.

certainly for me he's entering the equation, even if ajmal is the clear front runner, and trying to quantify ability against how well they've done away/home/sub-continent/outside the sub continent etc etc does become a bit worthless if it's a straight up fact that herath is generally proving better at taking wickets.

 

[Chewie]

What did our guys eat for breakfast today! An awesome days play for us and this partnership is already one of the largest we've had.

Apparently it's:
The highest ever 3rd wicket partnership for anyone vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka
9th highest for any wicket
9th time since 2000 that we've had a 200run partnership
Less than 70 runs needed to reach the top 5 NZ partnerships ever

 

[CG123]

What did our guys eat for breakfast today! An awesome days play for us and this partnership is already one of the largest we've had.

Apparently it's:
The highest ever 3rd wicket partnership for anyone vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka
9th highest for any wicket
9th time since 2000 that we've had a 200run partnership
Less than 70 runs needed to reach the top 5 NZ partnerships ever

Also it's our 24th highest ever atm, and it's our highest in two and a half years.

Despite that, I can't get my head around how Astle's been picked to bat at seven, when he very rarely bats that high for Canterbury. If you look at our line-up then it's got to be the weakest five and below that we've ever had. Sure Flynn's in good form, but behind him we've got van Wyk who might nurdle it around a bit but he's never going to give the opposition a headache, followed by Astle who's got a FC average of 24, which is less than Doug Bracewell's excluding Tests (27), and look at his Test average of 12.

At least we've got four other specialist bowlers, so we won't need to bowl Astle if he gets carted around like South Africa have had to do with Tahir.

 

[ferg512]

It's hard for me to get too excited about this tbh, I'm sick of this happening. We play awful at the start of the series and then fight pretty well at the end of the series same thing as against Australia, West Indies and India. Where was this fight and application in the last test?

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Despite that, I can't get my head around how Astle's been picked to bat at seven, when he very rarely bats that high for Canterbury. If you look at our line-up then it's got to be the weakest five and below that we've ever had. Sure Flynn's in good form, but behind him we've got van Wyk who might nurdle it around a bit but he's never going to give the opposition a headache, followed by Astle who's got a FC average of 24, which is less than Doug Bracewell's excluding Tests (27), and look at his Test average of 12.

Astle has been batting much better than his bowling in the last few Plunket Shield matches, not sure whether thats good or not though tbh, I wouldn't have picked him. Still can't figure out for the life of me how Watling never got selected.

 

[Chewie]

I'm not worried about where Astle bats more than that he's even playing. He was an opener and I reckon he'd bat fine - as ferg said he's in decent batting form in the Plunket Shield so I don't think that's the problem. I thought the reports were that the pitch was more suited to pace, and last test Franklin actually bowled pretty decently. But yes I would have definitely had Watling playing if he was over there

 

[Chewie]

It's quite nice watching the cricket and we're actually doing well

Williamson is the youngest kiwi to get to 1000 runs

 

[Grasshopper]

It's quite nice watching the cricket and we're actually doing well

Williamson is the youngest kiwi to get to 1000 runs

That was a wonderful partnership between Taylor and Williamson.

Did Martin Guptill flip off his jandal and salute the camera with his toes just before lunch?

 

[Chewie]

Yea it was pretty awesome

I had left home by then so I'm not sure; basically as soon as I left, we lost three wickets >.>

 

[War]

NZ Fans how soon until Jesse Ryder is likely to come back into the national set-up?

 

[Chewie]

I think it's his decision when he wants to come back so whenever he feels ready

 

[ferg512]

I can't see him coming back for a while tbh, from what I've heard at this stage hes fine with just playing for Wellington.

This is becoming a really frustrating partnership, if we can't get a lead of 150 plus I am not going to back us especially given our history in the third innings.

 

[Anjula]

I can't see him coming back for a while tbh, from what I've heard at this stage hes fine with just playing for Wellington.

This is becoming a really frustrating partnership, if we can't get a lead of 150 plus I am not going to back us especially given our history in the third innings.

Worse is still to come
Herath and Kulasekara are better batsmans than Randiv
Eranga also got a First-Class 100 and he got a first class average over 25

For me, Williamson looks like a better bowler than Astle,
Williamson looks like a really good bowler

 

[CG123]

This is becoming a really frustrating partnership, if we can't get a lead of 150 plus I am not going to back us especially given our history in the third innings.

I can't say that I'm that surprised tbh, the same thing seems to happens every time we get ourselves into a winning position in the subcontinent. Remember in India a few years ago when Martin demolished India's top order, the two innings' have been exact parallels. Even the players doing the damage have been pretty much the same; Laxman and Samaraweera are very similar, while Harbhajan and Randiv are also very similar.

For me, Williamson looks like a better bowler than Astle,
Williamson looks like a really good bowler

Williamson pretty much plays as a bowling AR for his domestic team in T20 matches. He had the best economy rate last season for players to bowl 15+ overs.