New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka, 2009

[Howsie]

McCullum's still worth keeping for his wicket keeping alone, which is why his form dip isn't a worry for me. Plus he's in the lower order. It's not his fault he keeps coming in when we're in trouble and the other side has their tails up.

Vettori still seems to preform with the bat though. McCullum's just not that good with the bat period. It's all well and good to smack a quick 50-60 in a limited overs match but you actually need a defensive technique to survive in test cricket, McCullum's is horrible. He angles most of his defensive strokes towards the slips, or he'll push really hard outside off-stump when defending against the quicks.

Since the England tour in the middle of 2008 he seems to have no idea how to play an innings, it probably didn't help he was pushed up and down the order mind you. Best bet for now would be getting him to open and just play his strokes, Australia did it with Watson, Sri Lanka have tried it with Dilshan and maybe it would work with McCullum.

1.Martin Guptill
2.Brendon McCullum (WK)
3.Peter Fulton
4.Ross Taylor
5.Jesse Ryder
6.Neil Broom
7.Another middle order batsmen
8.Daniel Vettori
9.Shane Bond
10.Iain O'Brien
11.Chris Martin

Face it, we need the extra batsmen. I wouldn't know who else to include though, maybe give Flynn a spell down at 6-7. We have much better middle order batsmen going around at the moment and McCullum wouldn't do any worse then the ones that have been tried. Jesse Ryder to provide 5-10 overs a day as the 5th bowler also.

 

[diaskasun]

Vettori still seems to preform with the bat though. McCullum's just not that good with the bat period. It's all well and good to smack a quick 50-60 in a limited overs match but you actually need a defensive technique to survive in test cricket, McCullum's is horrible. He angles most of his defensive strokes towards the slips, or he'll push really hard outside off-stump when defending against the quicks.

Since the England tour in the middle of 2008 he seems to have no idea how to play an innings, it probably didn't help he was pushed up and down the order mind you. Best bet for now would be getting him to open and just play his strokes, Australia did it with Watson, Sri Lanka have tried it with Dilshan and maybe it would work with McCullum.

1.Martin Guptill
2.Brendon McCullum (WK)
3.Peter Fulton
4.Ross Taylor
5.Jesse Ryder
6.Neil Broom
7.Another middle order batsmen
8.Daniel Vettori
9.Shane Bond
10.Iain O'Brien
11.Chris Martin

Face it, we need the extra batsmen. I wouldn't know who else to include though, maybe give Flynn a spell down at 6-7. We have much better middle order batsmen going around at the moment and McCullum wouldn't do any worse then the ones that have been tried. Jesse Ryder to provide 5-10 overs a day as the 5th bowler also.

i dont think playing a extra batsman is all that possitive mate

 

[Ari]

3.Peter Fulton

Lets not go back there.

 

[Howsie]

i dont think playing a extra batsman is all that possitive mate

What's the point of playing five bowlers?

We would have the three quicks + Vettori and Jesse Ryder seems to be a better bowler then Oram these day's anyway. We wouldn't be losing anything in the bowling. That team would probably compete a lot better then this current team.

 

[diaskasun]

you need 5 bowlers atlest, to be competitive in cricket.

 

[Howsie]

Lets not go back there.

Trust me I don't really want to see him either, but who else do we have. Flynn has to go back to domestic cricket and make some big runs.

you need 5 bowlers atlest, to be competitive in cricket.

You also need decent batsmen to be competitive in cricket.

 

[diaskasun]

Trust me I don't really want to see him either, but who else do we have. Flynn has to go back to domestic cricket and make some big runs.



You also need decent batsmen to be competitive in cricket.

not saying you dont need batsmen mate, but batsmen cant win matches for you bowlers can !!!!!

 

[charith]

McCullum's still worth keeping for his wicket keeping alone, which is why his form dip isn't a worry for me. Plus he's in the lower order. It's not his fault he keeps coming in when we're in trouble and the other side has their tails up.

Word. Its really not his responsibility and for that matter Vettoris to make the bulk of the runs for the team batting and 7 and 8. Thats what the top 6 is there for. What happened to Jamie How.. He was decent as an opener but did play around his front pad quite a bit.

 

[Ari]

What happened to Jamie How.. He was decent as an opener but did play around his front pad quite a bit.

How had a decent run in the side but just couldn't cut it at test level. Looking back though his replacements have done no better and if they don't start getting runs How might get another chance.

 

[charith]

Oh dear that was a waste of time without any fruition. I think even Sanga was getting a bit annoyed at the end.. Oh well he'll get another opportunity at the SSC over the next 5-6 years so shouldn't worry about it too much. Good nut from O'brien.

On a side note his wife is actually not too bad to look at. She was pretty gutted

 

[irottev]

Our bowlers are doing fine really. It's the batsmen who are the issue. They can't kick on and make big scores like Sangakkara, Samarawera and Jayawardene can. We can't bat in partnerships.

Plus with some runs on the board the bowlers can bowl how they'd like. It's easy for teams to bowl well when 400+ gets put on first innings. We've played catch-up all series, the toss for this game and the bad decision to field last game hasn't helped. We only have ourselves to blame for that though.

Fulton keeps scoring runs on A tours. He's talented but again, his technique is easy to exploit.

As for McCullum opening, it causes an issue since he's keeper. McCullum needs to work on his test form. For ODIs and T20's he's devastating, but it seems when he's playing a test he can't play his natural game. Even if we're 100-5 like usual i'd support him just having a blast around. It's when he plays best.

 

[Howsie]

Guptill 28 of 28. Usually about the time he gets out isn't it.

Does anyone think Prasad's action is very similar to Butler's?

 

[Howsie]

:laugh McIntosh. What the hell was that.

 

[irottev]

Another brilliant Guptill 20. sigh.

 

[Howsie]

Guptill. It's probably the reason he has a FC average of 28.