New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka, 2009

[Crew of Black]

Well it's a given that Watling will be playing international cricket, especially going by the fact our best batsman during the Emerging Players tournament usually finds themselves in the national side during the next year.

With McIntosh we may get lucky, and get the "Good Tim" for this tour and watch him somehow dominate the Sri Lankan attack and smacks a huge double century and a few fifties in the series, though we'll still have to deal with the eventual bad side in a later test series, when he starts getting out cheaply again.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

APPARENTLY, and this is not set in stone, but the no.1 ranking may be up for the taking if sri lanka win this 2-0.

Yep, sri lanka would be the first team that would topple australia after the rankings were introduced. bet no one would have predicted that. (if it is indeed true, however, it could very much mean it's up for grabs when sri lanka tour india)

 

[leftarmlegspin]

There's an article on Cricinfo that says if Australia do not win the remaining two Tests in the Ashes, South Africa will take No.1 spot.

Regarding Mendis, he will certainly play. As Howsie said, Pakistan play him so well. It helps that they've seen a lot of him - more than any other side. They faced him in the Asia Cup in June 08, in two Test matches in Pakistan in Feb 09, twice in the World Twenty20 (he didn't take a single wicket in those two matches either), and then for another two Test matches in Sri Lanka.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

There's an article on Cricinfo that says if Australia do not win the remaining two Tests in the Ashes, South Africa will take No.1 spot.

yes, as of right now south africa are two points behind australia and 3 points ahead of sri lanka. I think the hypothesis was that a 2-0 series win against new zealand would maybe take them over south africa.

StinkyBoHoon added 5 Minutes and 11 Seconds later...

actually I had a look and no they probably won't, I think, from the amount of game SLs rating is weighted on it looks like it's the results over a two year span. That would mean the result against New Zealand would likely be replacing the one against south africa in 2006 which they won 2-0. so i think they will only stick on the same points. ah, oh well.

 

[kumara1234]

It's a shame that SL not playing enough test matches. At least we should play three match series more regularly.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

everyone always talks about sri lanka's spinners but perhaps NZ should worry about the pace attack.

Kulasekera finally looks up to test pace and worryingly for batsmen he's retained his control of swing,. Thushara seems a bit rough but was getting pretty quick and accurate when in a rythm. Malinga, if he gets fit has one of the most horrible bouncers in the game, given you can't spot when it's coming due to his action, he's not a natural wicket taker given he'll never really swing it, but fits in well with the other two as an aggressive option to rough batsmen up.

Then there's Mathews providing good support. This guy could potentially be massive. He was deemed good enough to open in the twenty20s and his wickets came at a good strike rate and average against pakistan (and these were spinners tracks) equally exciting is his batting, he averages 54 in domestic cricket in sri lanka. To put this in perspective, jayawardene averages 51, sangakkara 46, samaraweera 47, no one else in the national team has a FC average over 40. in short, it's a hideous country to bat in and he's simply piliing on the runs. Is anyone going to strongly object if I mention the name Kallis?

 

[Howsie]

everyone always talks about sri lanka's spinners but perhaps NZ should worry about the pace attack.

Kulasekera finally looks up to test pace and worryingly for batsmen he's retained his control of swing,. Thushara seems a bit rough but was getting pretty quick and accurate when in a rythm. Malinga, if he gets fit has one of the most horrible bouncers in the game, given you can't spot when it's coming due to his action, he's not a natural wicket taker given he'll never really swing it, but fits in well with the other two as an aggressive option to rough batsmen up.

Then there's Mathews providing good support. This guy could potentially be massive. He was deemed good enough to open in the twenty20s and his wickets came at a good strike rate and average against pakistan (and these were spinners tracks) equally exciting is his batting, he averages 54 in domestic cricket in sri lanka. To put this in perspective, jayawardene averages 51, sangakkara 46, samaraweera 47, no one else in the national team has a FC average over 40. in short, it's a hideous country to bat in and he's simply piliing on the runs. Is anyone going to strongly object if I mention the name Kallis?

I rate Mathews very highly, I think he'll go on to be a very fine batsmen. But he isn't going to be the next Kallis. From what I've seen of his bowling it just isn't quick enough, he tops out at around 130K. He should make sure he keeps his batting as his highest priority.

 

[Ari]

Finally some cricket action for us tonight. I hope they go with Tuffey to give him a chance of breaking into the test side.

 

[irottev]

Well they'll probably do 12/13/14 a side or something. Tuffey was our best domestic bowler. He has to play surely.

 

[Howsie]

Looking forward to this tour finally getting underway tonight, hopefully our batsmen put forward a decent total when they get their chance.

 

[Howsie]

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat. The playing XI's haven't been posted yet though.

 

[Ari]

I hope they don't just post the score at the end of the day, would like some form of updates atleast.

 

[irottev]

It's updating. Tower has been a bit expensive but got the first wicket and now Martin gets one so good opening bowling signs. I don;t expect there'll be much in the pitch for seamers, SL isn;t renowned for it really.

No stuff, too tuff.

 

[Howsie]

Tuffey and Martin have both picked up early wickets, although Tuffey has been a little expensive. I'm guessing O'Brien is a shoe in for the 1st test and it's a shoot out between these two.

Howsie added 1 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...

It's updating. Tower has been a bit expensive but got the first wicket and now Martin gets one so good opening bowling signs. I don;t expect there'll be much in the pitch for seamers, SL isn;t renowned for it really.

No stuff, too tuff.

The Pakistan-Sri Lanka series had something for the quick bowlers, it was moving around quite abit.

 

[irottev]

We'll see how they go, but I wish we could drop Oram, it's just the other bowlers can't bat well enough and we'd have a long tail. I don't mind this XI. I wonder why O'Brien isn't playing, maybe it's because he was playing county and feels in good enough match fitness. Maybe he'll get the next one.

Oram better play well...