@Godder https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/cricket/risk-too-great-not-take-blundell Makes some sense on the keeping front - if he drops Virat Kohli on 0 whatever contribution the keeper might make with the bat is probably well and truly nullified. I agree on Ish - he seems more likely to take wickets than Astle and I'm not sure Astle is going to concede any less runs.

@KiwiPie said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @booboo said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @KiwiPie said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @Hooroo said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @KiwiPie said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @Rapido said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @Cyclops said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: @mariner4life said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III: good, been resting on his laurels, what's he done for us lately? Apart from the runs, the leadership, the holding together of our batting order in tough conditions, and the occasional spin bowling, what's Williamson ever done for us! Hes been pretty handy in the gully. He's made a great contribution to non-manicured beards. Big pressure on Will Young - weak opposition so everyone expects him to hit a 100 and this could be the only chance he gets for a while. Maybe this test won't go ahead after the Mosque shooting? Didn't find out about this until I saw this post and thought "a mosque shooting in Bangladesh?" I found out 9/11 on a Notts County forum in the morning following the action of cup game we were playing. There was a guy posting from New York and somehow said "so glad you're OK". Probably says a lot about me and my priorities of staying updated with events .... Genuine question: where do you live and how did you avoid it? Tauranga and I was head down at work .... didn't mean I didn't know until the moment I just posted! It was a couple of hours after it was news. Shows that everyone else at work was head down as well .... You're a true asset to your company!

Here comes Sachin!... Crazy to see how long John Wright was the amount the leading run scorers too.

@Cyclops said in NZ v Bangladesh Test #1: @KiwiPie said in NZ v Bangladesh Test #1: Top Batting Averages since the start of 2014 for players with over 30 tests http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=batting_average;qualmin1=30;qualval1=matches;spanmin1=1+jan+2014;spanval1=span;template=results;type=batting And in Henry Nicholls (who is just above Latham if you drop the qualifier to 20 tests) and the argument for this being our best batting line up ever looks pretty solid. no argument. I thought the fern settled that around January....even more compelling with Raval getting a ton...

@MN5 the allrounder rankings are a sham due to a desperate lack of genuine contenders.

I still reckon we should just play another seamer in NZ conditions. Surely Ferguson will take more wickets than any of those spinners as the 3rd or 4th bowler, probably even enough to make his lower batting average not matter.

@Gunner There is also a High Performance Centre / Academy by the entrance to Bay Oval. Not everyone keen on the beach though. Ross Taylor went to Hamilton...

By the way, Trevor came to Thailand every year for decades to play in the Chiang Mai sixes. You'd be hard pressed to find a nicer guy.

@KiwiPie Munro is a really weird one, because if his T20 record was his ODI record, he'd actually be a reasonable ODI batsman. Average of 33.6; strike rate of 162 - three hundreds and nine fifties from 49 innings. I'd take that over the untested Henry Nicholls opening.

Black Caps business as usual then - the perennial suspects are in the sick bay, and Blundell is the latest rabbit out of the hat.

@Chris-B cricket tournament in Thailand. Funny thing was he was late and people thought perhaps not coming. I was hungover to fuck at breakfast and couldn't talk hungover and sitting miles away from people. Big Gord arrives and sits at my table. Breakfast with a legend and couldn't actually speak. God I wished @jegga was there to take over!

I watched some of that game - mainly to see what Milne was bowling. He was bowling quick. The commentators said someone had timed the ball from release to the batsman and reckoned he was hitting 151 kmh. Don't know quite how accurate that assessment was, but he certainly was bowling quicker than anyone else I saw.

Parore's averages suffer because he was asked to spend time at first drop to accommodate specialist captain Lee Germon. He did flatter to deceive but at #6 in the order he averages 35. Still as a batsman/keeper he is below Watling and McCullum (although Baz only averages 34 as a keeper). @rotated Wadsworth died tragically young and your Dad isn't wrong - he was an easy player to like - particularly in the rather conservative 70's. He was a batsman first and then a keeper but only averaged 21 with the bat. He started off keeping inconsistently but became much more reliable towards the end of his career. He wouldn't seem so remarkable today but for the time - he'd come in and smash it around and then get out in some often bizarre way. He'd also pull off some superlative piece of keeping and then let through a bye. But he always seemed involved and looked as though he was having a great time. As I said a breath of fresh air and easy to be a favourite player but not a top drawer keeper

@booboo said in Cricket - NZ vs Sri Lanka: Firstly @Crazy-Horse Tough to be judged in retrospect but you just gots to wait for the fat chick to sing. Secondly, I gave up too. Twice. First, when I first turned it on and we were 85 for 5. Second when they were chasing at (about) 120 for 4 needing less than 8 rpo. Cricket is good huh? Even shits and giggles cricket. Random thunks: Son of Sledge went well huh? Up to 140 clicks too. Good batting, coupla wickets, good fielding. Worth perservering with. me likes Ish Santner and Ish bowling together is a good combo in T20, despite @MN5 's expert opinion Braces was good too Santner bowled ok. My criticism of him is mainly round his credentials in the longest form of the game.

@crazy-horse said in Cricket - NZ vs Pakistan: Raval is a shit house catcher. Every time I watch the Craps he seems to drop one. He started off in the slips before being banished to the outfield.

I've looked into some of it further. On the scheduling. I'm disappointed Plunket Shield is reduced to 8 rounds, but NZC this year have an NZ A tour away to UAE to play Pakistan and also have an incoming tour by India A. That is 5 extra FC games (plus plenty of whiteball games) for the fringe players. I'm not sure if one is a financial trade-off for the other. NZC contract the domestic player for 7 months. Whether they play 8 rounds or 10 rounds is fairly irrelevant, although there would be operational costs in hosting those 6 matches. I've looked at the rest of the domestic calendar. There are the same number of rounds of List A and T20, so no other comp has expanded at the expense of the other. So it can only be a financial rather than playing reason. On the financial side. The annual report is due out in a few weeks so probably not worth getting stuck into that yet. Looking at last years report they made a $10m loss and explained they have a squeeze for a few years until 2023 White said NZC faced a "challenging couple of years" but explained the loss was largely due to the International Cricket Council's new financial model. In the eight years till 2023, NZC's slice of ICC funding would increase from US$90m to US$128m but it was a case of less now, more later. I hope that a reduced Plunket Shield doesn't get institutionalised before the money starts coming back in.

@rotated said in 26 December 2019 at the MCG: The article mentions a 3 test series - fantastic - would that mean the New Year's Test in Sydney is on the table? Solid point! Last Sydney NY test I went to was Aus v SA and it was excellent.

@nzzp said in Cricket - Non NZ: I'm seriously looking at going to Netherlands Scotland next week in Amsterdam. Could be a really fun day out - any Ferners know anything about the ground, tickets, etc? Genuinely differnet cultural experience On current form, Scotland could cream the Dutchies. also, I really want to make a bad dad joke about the Netherlands having flat pitches

@rapido said in Hesson gooooooone!: Of the provincial coaches I would put forward Bruce Edgar. Mark O'Donnell would be another option. Auckland have won titles under him.

Did the Captain 'Drop Mike" after getting his ton?? That is quality and so un-England Cricket!