Could a point be deducted from Southee for heinous use of DRS? The commentators at one point said he had had 1 decision in 23 reviews overturned. This may have already been factored in under strategic errors (agree that some of the bowling plans today in particular didn’t seem to make much sense). However I won’t let a frustrating afternoon spoil what turned out to be a test home summer that included two all-time great victories and a hard grafted one. As a born in but left long ago Aucklander, I hope there’s a better solution that CMP.
Wowza, a rollercoaster ride of ratings from the man who brought you the rating of the ratings. The same score for Kuggeleijn and Nicholls?!? Only 7 for Southee given he took wickets at 26 and we don't win the England Test at the Basin without his knock? Fair play, his captaincy is fairly off, but he did his core role so well. And I'm not sure your No.7 averaging 13 should earn him a pass mark, even if he bowled *OK*. The Macewell experiment is holding us back from picking the best spinner in the country (Sodhi on evidence of Pakistan) and honestly, you'd back Ish to average more than 13 - in fact he averages 9 more than that. Pick Ravindra to open, let Conway bat 4, which then allows Nicholls his preferred No.5, real depth with Blundell at 7 and we might get 3-4 years out of Sodhi with a few sub-continent Test tours coming up.
The "plan" (more of an idea, from memory) a few years ago to establish a venue at Victoria Park always felt like a winner to me. Right off the CBD, near Ponsonby/Grey Lynn, walking distance to bars and restaurants, good public transport... where did that get to?
Agree about being too keen to use the short stuff. Wagner is (has been?) a freak in his ability to do it so accurately, but even the reasonable success of Tickner today doing it was only because the Sri Lankan top and middle order seemed to be in an overly generous mood and gifting their wickets. As for persisting with it and allowing the tail to bat for 2.5 hours! I know the pitch was very placid, but the Sri Lankans were playing for rain, so we really needed to make them play the ball. And it's ugly cricket - there was an old guy in the stand this morning two rows in front of me applauding vigorously whenever a wide (for height) was called. There seemed to be one standard for Jayasuriya's leg stump line in the first test, and another today. Different situations, but you can't tell me our leg stump line was any less negative than his.
Scott Kuggeleijn's selection rankles me in all sorts of ways.
Re tests in Auckland- what/where would be the best solution? Not really familiar with Auckland geography/demographics since leaving the north 20ish years ago....
Really good assessment Dylan, just a few points from me:
Henry’s test summer was outstanding. He’s learned how to bowl a test line and length (fourth stump and a little shorter) and yet he’s bowled some dynamite spells which we’re reminiscent of Hadlee or Vernon Philander. Every ball a grenade. The stats are good for the summer but still don’t do him justice.
6 is pretty generous to Tickner IMO. He showed his value in this test when we had four other bowlers doing their job and he was a handy fifth option with an older ball, but doesn’t look test quality to me. Perhaps our attack has a sameness about it with Henry, Southee & D Bracewell up front but I’m not sure Tickner is the answer.
On the openers I’d probably give another point or half point each. A dependable opening pair giving the team 50+ starts is very valuable. I’d stick with Conway there too.
A brave score on Nicholls, but one I wholeheartedly agree with. You can’t have a number 5 firing only once every 10 innings, it means we’re missing key runs way too often.
An really interesting summer and plenty to be positive about but I still think this is a team with a few big holes needing plugging and I’m not sure bossing SL at home should obscure that. However, I did like Southee’s captaincy on the whole despite not agreeing with his elevation, I think he led from the front and seemed to foster a happy team.
Could a point be deducted from Southee for heinous use of DRS? The commentators at one point said he had had 1 decision in 23 reviews overturned. This may have already been factored in under strategic errors (agree that some of the bowling plans today in particular didn’t seem to make much sense). However I won’t let a frustrating afternoon spoil what turned out to be a test home summer that included two all-time great victories and a hard grafted one. As a born in but left long ago Aucklander, I hope there’s a better solution that CMP.
Wowza, a rollercoaster ride of ratings from the man who brought you the rating of the ratings. The same score for Kuggeleijn and Nicholls?!? Only 7 for Southee given he took wickets at 26 and we don't win the England Test at the Basin without his knock? Fair play, his captaincy is fairly off, but he did his core role so well. And I'm not sure your No.7 averaging 13 should earn him a pass mark, even if he bowled *OK*. The Macewell experiment is holding us back from picking the best spinner in the country (Sodhi on evidence of Pakistan) and honestly, you'd back Ish to average more than 13 - in fact he averages 9 more than that. Pick Ravindra to open, let Conway bat 4, which then allows Nicholls his preferred No.5, real depth with Blundell at 7 and we might get 3-4 years out of Sodhi with a few sub-continent Test tours coming up.
The "plan" (more of an idea, from memory) a few years ago to establish a venue at Victoria Park always felt like a winner to me. Right off the CBD, near Ponsonby/Grey Lynn, walking distance to bars and restaurants, good public transport... where did that get to?
Agree about being too keen to use the short stuff. Wagner is (has been?) a freak in his ability to do it so accurately, but even the reasonable success of Tickner today doing it was only because the Sri Lankan top and middle order seemed to be in an overly generous mood and gifting their wickets. As for persisting with it and allowing the tail to bat for 2.5 hours! I know the pitch was very placid, but the Sri Lankans were playing for rain, so we really needed to make them play the ball. And it's ugly cricket - there was an old guy in the stand this morning two rows in front of me applauding vigorously whenever a wide (for height) was called. There seemed to be one standard for Jayasuriya's leg stump line in the first test, and another today. Different situations, but you can't tell me our leg stump line was any less negative than his.
Scott Kuggeleijn's selection rankles me in all sorts of ways.
Re tests in Auckland- what/where would be the best solution? Not really familiar with Auckland geography/demographics since leaving the north 20ish years ago....
Really good assessment Dylan, just a few points from me:
Henry’s test summer was outstanding. He’s learned how to bowl a test line and length (fourth stump and a little shorter) and yet he’s bowled some dynamite spells which we’re reminiscent of Hadlee or Vernon Philander. Every ball a grenade. The stats are good for the summer but still don’t do him justice.
6 is pretty generous to Tickner IMO. He showed his value in this test when we had four other bowlers doing their job and he was a handy fifth option with an older ball, but doesn’t look test quality to me. Perhaps our attack has a sameness about it with Henry, Southee & D Bracewell up front but I’m not sure Tickner is the answer.
On the openers I’d probably give another point or half point each. A dependable opening pair giving the team 50+ starts is very valuable. I’d stick with Conway there too.
A brave score on Nicholls, but one I wholeheartedly agree with. You can’t have a number 5 firing only once every 10 innings, it means we’re missing key runs way too often.
An really interesting summer and plenty to be positive about but I still think this is a team with a few big holes needing plugging and I’m not sure bossing SL at home should obscure that. However, I did like Southee’s captaincy on the whole despite not agreeing with his elevation, I think he led from the front and seemed to foster a happy team.
“Bonesaw GP” lol