Sri Lanka tour of New Zealand

[evertonfan]

But even if you didn't have Sky, you must surely hae heard of his impact? I'd say the only out and out fast bowler who is better than him at the moment is probably Ntini. The fact that the team he plays best against is Australia is testament to his awesome talent.

 

[Octavius]

i think its pretty unanymous, Bond is world class and man, i wouldnt even consider Harmison even close to Bond, Akhtar yes, Lee, sometimes, Ntini yes, he is in my opinion amongst the best 4 bowlers in the world (fast)

pity our middle order is so inconsistent tho :P

bring on Ross Taylor already (bah i remember being like this when Sinclair was playing first class cricket many years ago, then the y finally brought him in and he hit 214 on debut)

my NZ team;

Cumming
Papps (when hes well again)
Sinclair
Fleming
Taylor
Styris
Oram
McCullum
Vettori
Mills
Bond

Martin/Astle as 12th and 13th men.

 

[aussie1st]

Astle and Oram should have contributed a bit more than they did, as always Vettori is there to save the Kiwis. Jayasuriya ran out early what a waste of a wicket.

i think its pretty unanymous, Bond is world class and man, i wouldnt even consider Harmison even close to Bond, Akhtar yes, Lee, sometimes, Ntini yes, he is in my opinion amongst the best 4 bowlers in the world (fast)

pity our middle order is so inconsistent tho :P

bring on Ross Taylor already (bah i remember being like this when Sinclair was playing first class cricket many years ago, then the y finally brought him in and he hit 214 on debut)

my NZ team;

Cumming
Papps (when hes well again)
Sinclair
Fleming
Taylor
Styris
Oram
McCullum
Vettori
Mills
Bond

Martin/Astle as 12th and 13th men.

No faith in Astle anymore? Pretty good side none the less, Taylor is a must hes such a talent.

 

[Octavius]

honestly i never like dropping class and Astle is definitely that, but i also feel there comes a time when new players who are showing such huge potential should be given their time. I feel this for Phil Jaques in Australia as well and Hussey a few years ago.

I certainly would retain Astle close to the starting 11 especially with Styris having injuries, ideally we could look at pushing Sinclair to opener but i relly feel he is best at 3.

that wy we could keep Astle, but he has been very inconsistent lately.

and isnt Bond just the man! Sri Lanka are at sea against him.

 

[aussie1st]

True it's always tough when you have to drop a class player, Australia have had to do it a few times and will have to do it soon. Guess the Kiwis will need to start thinking about bringing in the next generation soon.

Bond even has 2 run outs! Geez SL can't run good against him and are in all sorts against his bowling. Probably the best fast bowler going around, definitely miles better than Lee cause he Bond swings it drastically early on both ways.

SL 82/7 not looking good at all for them, will be an extremely easy chase and this game could be over in the 3rd day!

 

[irottev]

The two bowling performances in both innings from Bond have been absolutly fantastic. I am glad to have seen all of them. He will get a 5 for tomorrow, well with Malinga and Murili as 2 of the remaining three he should.

Our bowling today was overall pretty damn fantastic. There were a few bad balls, but thats fair enough. Our fielding this whole test has been impressive. Two of Bonds difficult dropped catches and the 4 unnecessary overthrows which went against Bond aside. Catching was great and run outs, great work.

According to Fleming and a lot of people, it isn't the pitch, It's just poor batting from both sides, but Sri Lanka, they are batting shocking. NZ at least have a chance to polish off the score with ease. We need Sangakara out asap to get rid of any risk of us being rolled. SL didn't help their cause from unnecessary runouts when they were looking good and building a partnership. Credit to the NZ fielding effort.

For the SL batters, once you get past captain Jaywardene at 4, the rest of the batting is inexperianced and weak. Vettori saved us, but SL don't bat so deep and don't have that experiance down the order. Bond was too good for the SL top order.

And in my opinion, Ntini is not a better bowler then Bond. He is definatly up there in the top lot, but I would have Bond at number 1. Bond has the best averages and strikerates in both forms of the game out of anyone playing. Simple as that. Once his game amounts increase it will look more convincing, but I have seen him bowl, his average isn't going to rise a lot.

He's a match winner. In this test he has caused 9 wickets to fall. 7 from bowling and 2 run outs.

Murili bowled well, I thought we played him alright at first until Cumming was bowled, then things started to go bad apart from Fleming who is one of the best players of Murili or any spin for that matter in the world. Even Vettori had a lot of LBW shouts againt him. Good innings by him.

The weather people got today totally wrong, it was meant to rain. Not one drop fell on Jade Stadium. Tomorrow had a worse forecast so it may be off. Sunday though should be fine and this test shouldn't take longer then 2 sessions max to get finished.

I expected this to go to the 5th day easily.

 

[Dare]

question for the NZ suporters, how old was Bond when he made his debut, seems to be a good bowler to have only played 14 tests and hes 31 already.

 

[aussie1st]

question for the NZ suporters, how old was Bond when he made his debut, seems to be a good bowler to have only played 14 tests and hes 31 already.

Cricinfo can answer that, made his debut in 2001 so he would have been 26, hes had a ton on injuries since his debut hence the number of test hes played.

 

[evertonfan]

A Sangakkara 100 looks to be a dead cert here; Should be enough runs on the board for to give Sri Lanka a fighting chance of bowling New Zealand out. My money's on the Kiwi's though.

 

[Pak_cricketer]

You never know when Murli will go berserk and get 6-7 Wickets...

Edit: They lost another wicket

 

[irottev]

These two partnerships are very annoying. I think Vettori needs to be brought on.
You just feel that the bowlers including Bond arn't getting it right this morning. probably a bit stiff.

Maybe Vettori needs to be given the ball. Oram also.

There is absolutly nothing in this pitch, Sangakara has proven it. It's been shockijng batting. NZ should have no problems polishing off the total. Even though Murili may get some wickets along the way.

LOL Murili run out. Hillarious. After his first run he left his crease to congratute and McCullum took the bails off. How could Muili do that? Surely it wasn't on purpose. Why would you take the first run and straight away just wander out of your crease like that? Dear oh dear. Could cost SL some runs and every single one of them will count for something with Murili to bowl all day from one end, without doubt.

 

[Dare]

wow what a cheap runout of Murali, great innings from Sangakkara, gives the Sri Lankans a chance.

 

[aussie1st]

These two partnerships are very annoying. I think Vettori needs to be brought on.
You just feel that the bowlers including Bond arn't getting it right this morning. probably a bit stiff.

Maybe Vettori needs to be given the ball. Oram also.

There is absolutly nothing in this pitch, Sangakara has proven it. It's been shockijng batting. NZ should have no problems polishing off the total. Even though Murili may get some wickets along the way.

LOL Murili run out. Hillarious. After his first run he left his crease to congratute and McCullum took the bails off. How could Muili do that? Surely it wasn't on purpose. Why would you take the first run and straight away just wander out of your crease like that? Dear oh dear. Could cost SL some runs and every single one of them will count for something with Murili to bowl all day from one end, without doubt.

Lol I've gotta watch the sports news tonight and catch a highlight of it
NZ 66/3 bit of wobbles just then with 2 fairly new guys at the crease, it does seem that run out could have cost SL the game.

 

[irottev]

Some people are questioning it and asking whether it was in the spirit of the game etc.

Ridiculous. The ball wasn't dead. He left his crease and was run-out. Attempting the run or not it doesn't matter.

Fleming made a good point at the post-match presentation. If the throw had of been wild, they would of happly taken an overthrow and Murili was already half was down the pitch.

Basicly to those who didn;t see it. First ball of Bonds over, Fleming smartly has the field back to give Sangakara a single to reach his hundred so that he can have 5 balls at Murili. Of course Sangakara took the run. Then once the run had been completed and before the ball had even left Chris Martins hand, Murili left his crease to congratulate Sangakara and when the ball came in McCullum whipped off the bails, appealed and the finger went up.

The umpire even gentured to Murili to get back, he didn't.

I find it ridiculous that a lot is being made of it. How can a player expect to leave his crease like that when the return throw hasn't even left the fielders hand. He deserved it.



Fantastic win to us. Our bowling and batting was just by far superior. Murili was the only factor and SL should only have needed him to bowl a few overs. NZ didn't even need Vettori, the pacemen took the SL batting apart. Vaas also bowled well, but Malinga was poor. Especially today. They also lack a 4th seam option like we have. I can't believe SL left out Dilshan, surely he is a better batsman then Silva or Kapugedera.

It was funny how Cumming was caught off no-balls 3 times in the match. The commentators were saying he had 5 innings lol.

Bond rightfully Man of the Match. 7 wickets and 2 run outs in a winning effort. Now we can look to the Basin for a 2-0 victory hopefully. I want to see our side take these opportunities to go up the test rankings.

 

[mattfb]

Cumming caught twice off no-balls, a bit of luck there!