New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka, 2009

[StinkyBoHoon]

Never saw Dilshans innings but you sound like you're describing Ross Taylor's batting everytime he's scored over 20.

did hear he got out to a bad ball though. bit stupid when you're in the 90s and under no pressure at all.

 

[Howsie]

It wasn't really a bad ball, he just chopped it on.

I was reading O'Brien's blog and it explains why we bowled first:

Start was delayed till 11.30 and we got first opportunity to bowl first on it after Dan won another toss. It had been mentioned that he wanted to lose the toss as we really weren?t sure what to do first. The pitch felt a little tacky after being under the covers, but how long would that last; we weren?t sure but Dan decided to have first use of it. And it paid off straight away

So as irrotev has been saying Vettori didn't trust our top order, that's what I'm getting out of that anyway.

 

[irottev]

We can't keep protecting them though. Most (all-other probably) sides will bat and guts out the first half hour to hour, whatever. Sri Lanka said they would have. I swear Australia, England, South Africa, India, etc would all have batted first. Especially after Pakistan did it. I could kind of under stand them doing it, but with their game as recent evidence to us we should have learned. Same thing happened there and then they were destroyed in the 4th innings (which is what'll happen to us most likely)

And yes, Taylor has played a few loose innings somewhat like Dilshan's. But he usually doesn't come out very first ball and play a risky drive on the up. He's much more responsible. It's only when he starts trying to slog over mid-wicket that he looks ugly. His shots down the ground and through the covers are always lovely. His recent hundreds have been very responsible.

 

[Ari]

I really think we were in a no win situation no matter what we did. With the early movement there was we probably would of lost McIntosh, Guptill and Flynn within the first 15 overs and maybe Taylor or Ryder before lunch.

All of us here would of still been having a rant but for different reasons.

Hopefully we can strike early tomorrow and expose Sri Lanka's long tail I wouldn't rule us out of bowling them out for just over 400 if we can do that. At least we can bat when the pitch will be at its best.

 

[Howsie]

I really think we were in a no win situation no matter what we did. With the early movement there was we probably would of lost McIntosh, Guptill and Flynn within the first 15 overs and maybe Taylor or Ryder before lunch.

All of us here would of still been having a rant but for different reasons.

Hopefully we can strike early tomorrow and expose Sri Lanka's long tail I wouldn't rule us out of bowling them out for just over 400 if we can do that. At least we can bat when the pitch will be at its best.

Pretty much what happened in the 1st test against India.

But yeah I agree, if we can get a early wicket I think we could get back into this game. If we are batting an hour after lunch the game could well be back on.

 

[charith]

He was loose early on. I don't consider it a good innings. For 80% of it it was, but still, on another day he could have been gone very early on. If he'd have edged one of those early cocky drives he'd played straight after SL were 2 down he'd be being ridiculed right now instead. It's a very fine line. It's all very well playing aggressive, but you don't get any extra points for it. He needed to tone it down and play more sensibly. He ruined a chance to get a hundred with the poor shot he played..

Agree somewhat. Like i said getting out poking and prodding against the swinging ball and being 60\4 at lunch or attacking like your used to and being 110\2.. He was given a license and it paid off. I think they came out generally with a plan to attack. Sangakkara got out to an attacking shot after he had already hit 2 boundaries. That was a bit irresponsible was easily a chance for the 20th test century.

Worrying thing for NZ was out of the 3 wickets only 1 was actually taken by the bowlers. Other 2 were just freebies. There was something in it everytime Martin bowled he just hit a good line and lenght for the pitch and got movement and reverse too at the end of the day. I thought O'Brien was generally too short. Would be interesting to see how Thushara and Kulasekara go. Kulasekara is a swing bowler and Thushara should get more pace and bounce.

I reckon with the weather in mind we should declare around 400-450 if we dont get bowled out

 

[irottev]

Definately. It came off and paid off for SL. He's put them in a strong position, but it won't come off every time and is risky. Props though, just needed to change the gear down and settle into a long(er) innings. He's now put O'Brien off which really hurts us having only 2 front line seamers.

 

[Howsie]

Rain again. Don't really know if that's good news for us at this stage. Would hate for our batsmen (McIntosh really) to have to bat with cloud cover, but it's probably going to be like this for the rest of the match.

 

[diaskasun]

trust me mate its good news for you guys, this will eat up time and stops the wicket from cracking, looks like rain gods are in your side for sure

 

[Howsie]

trust me mate its good news for you guys, this will eat up time and stops the wicket from cracking, looks like rain gods are in your side for sure

Not really. If there is quite a lot of time lost today Sri Lanka would only need to make another 50-100 more and declare, the pressure would be right back on us. I don't really want the rain at this point tbh.

 

[diaskasun]

Not really. If there is quite a lot of time lost today Sri Lanka would only need to make another 50-100 more and declare, the pressure would be right back on us. I don't really want the rain at this point tbh.

well its not just rain today, i think we would loss time every day... today its raining in colombo as well mate

 

[irottev]

I want rain. I wanna get out of this hole.

 

[diaskasun]

I want rain. I wanna get out of this hole.

come on,,, dont go for easy way out, show some fight

 

[Howsie]

I want rain. I wanna get out of this hole.

It's hardly a hole.

 

[nikhil_99]

It seems there wil be no play for the 1st session ...