New Zealand/India in Sri Lanka

Whinging has started.

Mark Richardson: Forget testing, he's a chucker

Dire from Mark Richardson.

Speed up his retirement?

I think I might not speak about this topic.  I get my head bitten off when I make an opinion on this site. I'll be neutral on this and say Murali is a great player.

True that. Full stop.

I don't really think there is much the Kiwis can do. They can maybe slightly modify plans to batsmen, but unless we can apply some pressure from both ends with our bowling, it's always going to be difficult to cause mistakes from their batsmen. Our batting, well its just largely inexperienced and is slowly maturing. There are a some good young players coming through in domestic cricket now and pushing for higher honours which can only be a good thing.

We have to bowl fuller to Dilshan though. Although we can be fairly certain the plan wasn't to bowl short to him, we have to pitch it up more. With his flashy stroke play and not always great footwork there's a good chance of edging it to the slips.

And how good is Prasanna Jayawardene. He just continues to prove he is the best specialist keeper in the business. His batting leaves a bit to be desired, but holds up an end alright.


Edited by NZ_Fast - 24 August 2009 at 4:52am

SL have a good top order, but their bottom half could be suspect to really tight bowling because it's not very prolific. You get through Dilshan, Sanga and Mahela and you've pretty much cleaned them up. Unfortunately those 3 are among the best in the world.

Originally posted by milkman You get through Dilshan, Sanga and Mahela and you've pretty much cleaned them up. Unfortunately those 3 are among the best in the world.

That's why I feel any team always has a chance against Sri Lanka, without someone like Vaas at the bottom of the order, you can't help but feel if you get rid of Sangakarra and Mahela (and now Dilshan) the rest will topple.

Originally posted by milkman SL have a good top order, but their bottom half could be suspect to really tight bowling because it's not very prolific. You get through Dilshan, Sanga and Mahela and you've pretty much cleaned them up. Unfortunately those 3 are among the best in the world.

Samaraweera says hi

Samaraweera says hi

No doubt he is a fantastic player, but from what I've seen he isn't a game changer like those aforementioned.


Edited by NZ_Fast - 24 August 2009 at 9:35am

He's an underused bowler too. Though I guess if Murali and Mendis/Herath aren't getting wickets, there is little point in bringing on a lesser spinner. 

Well good news from the Kiwi camp. Everyone is over the illness with the exception of Tuffey who started vomiting after a morning net session.
      Hopefully the players have managed to keep their nutrition up despite being sick and don't fall flat 3 days into the match.

Quite a bit of speculation about Tuffey coming into the team for this next test so hopefully his illness isn't bad.

In other news Vettori has officially been appointed a selector for the team. He and the coach more or less performed this role on tour anyway, he will now have a say all the time. There are concerns about this though. Firstly, its stressful enough being captain without hours of selector meetings. What happens if his own form falls away, and also what if some of his best mates within the team lose form. Perhaps the biggest problem I've seen mentioned is because he plays all but none FC domestic cricket here in NZ, how can he judge the quality of young players making their mark on the game of he's away touring so often.

NZ has limited talent as it is and then when it finds truly fantastic players they are injury prone. Dion Nash, then Geoff Allot and now Shane Bond. It's a hard job for NZ to compete when they can't play their best talent. There's no harm in trying Mills , NZ don't have a lot to lose really - they need to take risks , because either way they aren't expected to win.

Originally posted by NZ_Fast   Even in swinging conditions his deliveries are easily negated by batsmen.

  Blimey , that's reminds me of playing as a 13 year old  !

Pretty shambolic performance. Good start by the Kiwis but Samaraweera is a run machine at the moment. Vettori is bowling A LOT as well.
Congrats to Danny for taking his 300th wicket as well. He's been NZs best ever spinner and most prolific bowler since Hadlee.

Southee is a top young cricketer. He can really move the ball, but his pace is not up there and when the swing is gone he is fairly innocuous. Definitely a new ball bowler because of that movement. But he can improve for sure and he can bat down the order as well.
      NZ players are competitive and disciplined, but you can also sense a fair bit of apathy from them. It's almost like they know nobody expects them to win so when they do lose it doesn't really affect them much.