New Zealand/India in Sri Lanka

Panesar had them in a tangle in 2006 too.

Looks like Dishan is going to open. 2nd spinner will be a tough call as well, and Herath might have to sit out, due to Mendis being a mystery to NZ. Sl will go with three seamers as Galle is going to give planty of lateral movement for faster bowlers.

Most likely team:
Paranavithana, Dilshan, Sangakkara (c), M. Jayawardane, Samaraweera, Mathews, P. Jayawardane (wk), Kulasekara, Thushara, Murali, Mendis

Mendis will be a champion bowler some day and he's shown glimpses of that already. He's still young and raw and I'd back him ahead of Herath (who hasn't done a lot wrong and still has 3 or 4 seasons left in him if he wants to continue - he's about 31 years of age). SL have the luxury of 3 excellent spinners (until Nov 2010 when Murali goes) and that's a fantastic luxury to have. Their pacers are coming good and haven't done a lot wrong lately and they shouldn't be easy to handle for the NZ batsmen by no means.
     NZ should play both spinners and they will be relatively effective I'm sure. It also looks like NZ will bat heavy at the bottom of the order and we'll probably see a lot of runs from the likes of Vettori and Patel, etc.

I like to see bowlers who stick to their way and that's what I like about Mendis.  He does things his way and I'd to see him continue that way.  Rarely do you find a bowler who bowls offies, back spinning leggies (stock ball), googlies.  Remember, Kumble is one of the straightest spinners the game has seen but he came out a top class bowler because of his stump accuracy which Mendis has as well.

Arg! Vettori is bowing to much. It's not really his sort of pitch. Unless he's going to give the ball a rip, he needs a pitch with plenty of bounce. O'Brien has his tail up, give the ball to Martin at the other end and use this little period.

     -   And of course, as soon as I said that, on comes Martin from Vettori's end.


Edited by NZ_Fast - 18 August 2009 at 12:26pm

Average boosting innings for the SL batsmen.

Ordinary performance by NZL, but credit to the Srilankans as well. Jayawardene is a class act, Dilshan has come a long way too. It was obvious that NZL's bowling will struggle, unfortunately even Vettori didn't dp too well. They don't have too many world class bowlers and looking at the likes of O'Brien, Martin etc... I think Mills is a much better bowler (World No.2 in ODI's!!!). They should have played Bond too, there is no point in playing him only in ODI's.

Kiwis need something special from the middle order, atleast a big ton from one of the players. I just can't see Kiwis outing done sri lanka real cheap in the 2nd innings

Well, Flynn looked good until he got out. He looked like he was concentrating so hard, and even between balls he didn't look like he was switching off. He isn't going to go well this series if he tries to concentrate the entire time, its just going to wear him out mentally and lead to mistakes.

Guptill, well hes such a natural timer of the ball, has his eye in from ball one, but he just needs to tone things down a little at the start.

Well, the inevitable happened, the kiwis collapse with a little help from the umpires. We've played Murali and Mendia quite well so far, obviously the hard work in the nets payed off. Hopefully O'Brien can hang around with Vettori for a while tomorrow and knock a few more runs off. Looks like its heading towards a draw at the moment. 

It's raining. This will be a draw.

Chris Martin looked OK IMO. But Tuffey definietly has a shout as he knows the conditions well. Patel has been disapointing. Top order looked OK, but Vettori needs to bat up the order.

O'Brien looked awful the whole game. I have to agree and say Tuffey must come into the team for the next test. Vettori, well we all know he could land the ball on a 5 cent coin for hours, but he has simply got to give the ball a good rip sometimes. You need to be able to adjust your game to the pitch, and everytime he just wheels out the same thing. Patel was very dissapointing. He's always the first person to flight it up with maximum revolutions on the ball; he bowled too flat in the first innings, but improved in the second. Orams bowling is always more of the holding type. Of course it didn't help he came down sick.

There is almost no chance of Bond coming into the team, he is just to much of a liability of he breaks down after 3 days.

The batsmen looked okay. McIntosh obviously still has his problems with the short ball, but at least he didn't get out to them this time round and showed some real application. Flynn needs to back his natural game more. I can't help but think because the public see him as bit of a fighter and a scrapper, he thinks has to play like that. He really is a bit of a dasher, based around solid technique. Guptill just doesn't have the nouse for test opening yet. Taylor, well, I just wish he would shelve that damn slog sweep when he is just as effective playing straight. Ryder=class. Oram got a shocker in the first innings and showed glimpses in the 2nd. McCullum, well he still seems unsure how to play in test cricket, it's so far a block-bash approach and it doesn't take a truck driver to figure out that approach isn't working. Vettori, well he just chugs along, rolls his eyes and sighs in dispair at the other batsmen and nurdles usefull runs.

All in all we played murali and mendis quite well so thats a huge postive. As long as we treat Kulasekara and Thushara will respect, and don't try anything stupid, there is no reason why they should be any real threat.

Hopefully the Kiwis recover from the sickness. I imagaine it's pretty hard to stay hydrated in that heat if you keep throwing up. The steelyness NZ started to show when Vettori first took over seems to have been lost a little. We need to regroup, recover and show the lankans what we can do.

At the end of the day the difference was Sri Lanka had 3 centuries. Our highest score was 69.


I almost forgot to mention the umpiring. In the end, both teams got some very average decisions. The umpiring quality was mediocre at very best. And while I'm not in the 'use every single piece of technology we have for every decision' camp, I do believe dismissals, like Oram's in the first innings, should be able to be appealed against (When do those new laws about referrals come in?).


Edited by NZ_Fast - 22 August 2009 at 12:19pm

Excellent. Before the NZ in Pakistan in New Zealand series.

It has been confirmed but only for test matches. They do come into effect in October and I thinkit is one of the best things to have happened in cricket.