[btb]

Shengus Khan, on Feb 5 2008, 11:15, said:

Ron, I would be delighted if you could find the classic Mike Gatting clip where he was smashed right on the nose by a Windies fast (Malcolm Marshall perhaps?) and it blew his face apart.

I remember the press conference Gatting gave before flying home. One journo asked where did the ball hit? you just had to laugh.

PS - IIRC the ball went from Gatting's nose and hit the stumps - not that he'd have been playing on.

[kullibino]

Seemingly the bowler found a bit of bone in the baller afterwards. Awwwch!

[Fuctifano]

That was awful last night- what an unthreatening bowling attack NZ have, 6 medium to medium fast right armers.

Got my tickets for the ODI tomorrow though, should be a good day out.

[kullibino]

All NZ ever really produce (with the odd exception) and dobbly swing bowlers and bits a piecies alrounders.

England will pump them rotten in both the ODI and Tests.

Good to see Col. Mustard inthe runs though.

[xbl]

kullibino, on Feb 7 2008, 19:51, said:

England will pump them rotten in both the ODI and Tests.

The psychic has spoken!

[die hard doonhamer]

bloody hell england took a bit of a beating. they better do better than that in the first of the next ODI series against NZ.

[Fuctifano]

Synex, on Feb 8 2008, 08:47, said:

Got my tickets for the ODI tomorrow though, should be a good day out.

It was, although other than the regular clatter of wickets it was a pretty dull game. I think even if England had got 180 it might have been close. The highlights were England's suicidal running and Ryan Sidebottom's horrible face being shown on the big screen to universal disgust.

The Caketin's a horrible venue to watch cricket (although it is good for football, and presumably rugby)- it's only used because you can get more fans in than at the Basin. I'd guess there were about 16,000 there-disappointing in itself- yesterday in a 36,000 stadium, but the Basin only holds 11,000. The atmosphere even with a couple of thousand in the Basin is tremendous though, the acoustics make it sound like much much more, and I can't wait for the test match there next month.

Just doesn't look right having it in a stadium with no pavilion or proper scoreboard etc.

[xbl]

And thats 2-0!

[H_B]

Best part about this was that listening to the end of the first beasting, Arlo White and co decided that NZ winning that one was a good result for the neutral as it kept the series competitive and avoided England whitewashing them

Oh dear....

England are garbage.

[kullibino]

kullibino, on Feb 7 2008, 19:51, said:

All NZ ever really produce (with the odd exception) and dobbly swing bowlers and bits a piecies alrounders.

England will pump them rotten in both the ODI and Tests.

Good to see Col. Mustard inthe runs though.

Though not if they keep getting shat out for under 150 they won't. What a shower of useless spineless c**ts.

[xbl]

kullibino, on Feb 7 2008, 19:51, said:

England will pump them rotten in both the ODI and Tests.

I am unable to take this series seriously, every time I see the results, I automatically think of this thread! Can you predict more England wins, preferably across a range of sports!

[Mr. Brightside]

I do watch it when its on, mainly to watch england get beat though, Mon The Kiwi's

[guacamole]

That batting collapse yesterday was one of the most pathetic capitulations I have seen by an international team in any sport.

Stop laughing at the back.....

[Mr. Brightside]

guacamole, on Mar 9 2008, 23:04, said:

That batting collapse yesterday was one of the most pathetic capitulations I have seen by an international team in any sport.

Stop laughing at the back.....

Yeah it wasn't the best

I love it when Pieterson gets put out early for two reason, one is the fact that he is South African and the second is that he is so cocky, so to see him knock the ball onto his own wicket today was amusing

[Fuctifano]

England’s decline has been sharp since the 2005 Ashes. The bowling in particular has gone really awry; of that attack, Giles has retired, Jones as good as, Flintoff is now a permacrock and probably isn’t too far from jumping ship to the Indian Twenty20 leagues. Harmison shouldn’t even be getting a game for Durham 2nds never mind England. Only Hoggard has kept up any semblance of 2005 form, and he was honking last time out.

Fair play to Sidebottom who’s come and in done well, but Monty’s bowling has rapidly been found out at the top level- it’s one thing getting out-bowled by the freak that is Murali in Sri Lanka, but he’ll need to step up against Vettori and Patel in the remaining two matches.

For the next match, I would be surprised if Broad doesn’t come in for Harmison, the latter has zero confidence and was clearly being targeted by NZ. Broad coming in at #8 will shorten the tail a bit, which alleviates another problem England have had in the last 2 years.

NZ have a couple of selection issues as well- whether to bring in the in-form Grant Elliott (hit a century at the weekend) for his debut on his home ground replacing Mathew Sinclair; who was poor against Bangladesh and scored 12 runs in 2 innings vs England. The other one is whether 2 keep the 2 spinners or to bring in Gillespie for Patel, the Basin normally offers a bit for the seamers.

The pitch in Hamilton wasn’t overly spin friendly , more like England were choked by their inability to play spin, so I think Patel will keep his place regardless of the pitch (and bearing in mind its his home turf as well) but Sinclair, who doesn’t seem to be much of a team player, will go and Elliott will come in at 5.

Anyway, really looking forward to this one, not least as I’ve got my ticket for all 5 days and 3 days off work to go to it. Also in hospitality on the Sunday as well, tremendous.

[Fuctifano]

David Lloyd said hello to me yesterday- legend!

[Fuctifano]

That was great entertainment, my first Test match and I'd highly recommend it. The Basin is a fantastic place to watch cricket, the atmosphere is tremendous and it's great that it was full or very nearly full on all the first 4 days.

Had a prawn sandwich seat on day 3, right behind bowler's arm, and guys like Hadlee, Wright, and Collinge sitting in the seats just behind me. Day 4 was hospitality, great fun.

All down to the last match now- McLean Park in Napier is the other venue I've been to in NZ (was travelling through there when the Blackcaps were playing Bangladesh in an ODI), it has the reputation of being a featherbed, and the ground is a funny shape, more of a rectangle than an oval and the square boundaries are ridiculously short. I think I'd back a high-scoring draw at this stage.

[H_B]

Anyone been watching the IPL stuff on Setanta? Some brilliant stuff, including Gilchrist's 100 yesterday. Big crowds too.

This is going to be absolutely huge in a couple of years time. Will it end test match cricket though, with players choosing to snub their country and long tours to who knows where to earn 250K a time playing a couple of weeks in India?

[kullibino]

It's good for cricket but it's not sustainable.

For next year they need to reduce the number of games for a start. I'm also not convinced the money will stay as high as it has been this year.

It's a great way to try and get people who don't like cricket into it though. McCullum's dig's still the best I've seen so far.

[H_B]

kullibino, on Apr 28 2008, 19:10, said:

It's good for cricket but it's not sustainable.

I'm not so sure. The money swilling about in India these days is incredible, and when you think of how many people live there and how big cricket is over there, the potential is limitless.

I think the competitor league and the Allan Stanford stuff is likely to fall by the wayside in a couple of years, but i can see the IPL thing staying strong. I think there is another season in October or something?

I just worry about the impact it will have on test match cricket. England will have to allow their players to compete next season, which means you cant really organise a test series whilst it's on.

[die hard doonhamer]

England are looking to copy the IPL model, could be interesting. It is a good thing for cricket as a whole, but as has been said could have a bad effect on test cricket, the original and best form of the game. Love watching cricket in any form, but tests are the best viewing for me.

[kullibino]

H_B, on Apr 28 2008, 19:20, said:

I'm not so sure. The money swilling about in India these days is incredible, and when you think of how many people live there and how big cricket is over there, the potential is limitless.

I think the competitor league and the Allan Stanford stuff is likely to fall by the wayside in a couple of years, but i can see the IPL thing staying strong. I think there is another season in October or something?

I just worry about the impact it will have on test match cricket. England will have to allow their players to compete next season, which means you cant really organise a test series whilst it's on.

The problem is there's only so often you can watch guys muller some sweep slog over long on before it gets a bit tired.

I'm not saying it'll not last their 10 year contract, I just think other than a bit of extra cash in the top 5% players pockets.

Most of the people who watch/like test cricket aren't going to stop watching it purely because of Twenty20, and if anything it'll pick up more views/fans.

Problems will only arise if the ECB f**k up and try and give players some sort of ultimatum.

Essentially it's the same sort of scenario as the Packer circus and overall I think that benefited Test and world cricket.

As an average cricket fan I'll quite happily sit inthe pub and watch the Twenty20, but it gets a bit dull after a while and lacks most of what makes Test cricket what it is.

Time will tell I guess.

[kullibino]

Anyone see Graham Napier's knock last night?

158* off just 58 balls, and his last 50 came off 17.

[Shengus Khan]

kullibino, on Jun 25 2008, 11:35, said:

Anyone see Graham Napier's knock last night?

158* off just 58 balls, and his last 50 came off 17.

Yeah, I saw it. Pretty spectacular stuff eh? 16 sixes in total He was just 6 runs off Brendan McCullum's world record but faced 15 fewer balls.

5 or 6 years ago before 20/20 came about, a strike rate of 100.0 was a very decent scoring rate but it now looks very pedestrian in today's game. Can you imagine Geoff Boycott playing 20/20. He'd be not out at the end with 6

This post has been edited by Shengus Khan: 25 June 2008 - 10:42