Five Things from SKY Stadium
0The IPL Fascination
Kyle Jamieson has not had a good series with the ball. From foot problems in Christchurch to conceding 26 runs off the last over in a low scoring game here. But from Mark Reason’s strange spray after the first match on all the commentary regarding his lack of form relates to his IPL contract.
Less than two months ago he took 11 wickets in a test match, and New Zealand went to the top of the test rankings.
A lot of comes down to jealousy; both of the player and of the absurd opulence of the IPL. And there seems to be an element of hand-rubbing about the whole thing.
In an unintended way, it is probably an example of how the IPL casts a permanent shadow over all cricket.
And do we really care about how the Royal Challengers Bangalore are traveling, and how wisely they spend their money?
Return of the Rock
We probably all knew it, but the last couple of days have been quite the reminder of how important Mitch Santner is in the New Zealand white ball set-up. On Wednesday New Zealand seriously lacked a second spinning option in a match where Ashton Agar took six wickets.
Tonight he came on early, took 1-16 off four overs and set the tone for the innings.
And all of this while battling with the side effects of that cold.
The Ray Hunt Shuffle
In the 1980s the then Otago coach developed a tactic of rotating his bowlers in the early overs of a 5o over game; ideally limiting their spells to two over maximum.
Tonight, Kane Williamson took that to another level. Early on there were two over spells from Sodhi and Santner early on, and another one from Boult towards the end, but otherwise it was a consistent revolving door. 17 bowling changes in total.
#Statchat
Over the last couple of weeks The White Ferns have played England in 3 ODIs and 2 T20s. In each of the five games the team batting second has won.
In that time the men’s team has played Australia in 4 T20s. In each of those games the side batting first has won.
High Noon
So we have a decider on Sunday with fans allowed. That is if people get up in time. On the back of absolutely no research whatsoever it would be a fair assumption that a T20 International has never started at noon before