The build-up hits Seddon
20
There goes another one
There was something a bit retro about picking a New Zealand ODI side with Vettori batting at number 5. But, being a build-up match it was all about preserving the shape of the side in the absence of Williamson and Elliott. Keep Anderson at 6, and Ronchi at 7.
McCullum showed us why he will be used as an opener at the World Cup. He won’t be able to do this in every match, but scoring a century at that rate at the top of the innings sets a side up for victory. In theory anyway.
There was an element of the World XI at one end, and the Ilford XI at the other. When he reached his century the team score was 138. The last time McCullum scored an ODI century Nicol, Bates, Oram and Nethula were in the side.
From the perspective of this match alone that was a ball devouring dreadful innings from Taylor. Over reliant on the sweep, he never looked comfortable. In the context of the build-up to the World Cup that was an invaluable 69 balls out there in the middle, because he needs all the time he can get.
It is still too early to get officially concerned about Guptill, but the Eden Park match is looming as pretty important. It is when The Crowd Goes Wild stops air-brushing out his dismissals that worry level becomes official. Latham also missed out again at a time when there was no real scoreboard pressure was taking place.
Then the run outs began. Four of them; during a spell when New Zealand lost 6 wickets for 49. They talk about momentum in sport, but that was quite something.
The main thing about the Sri Lankan run chase was the reminder that they are genuine World Cup contenders waiting for the return of Malinga.
That head-to-head battle between the spinners got more confusing; Vettori started well but then got sloppy in part before returning good figures; N McCullum got taken to by Sangakkara.
The best of the quicks easily.was Henry, although the way Boult showed variety while not getting it to swing was encouraging.
Meanwhile, Milne got some experience at the top level under pressure.
So those MVP points then.
- Brendon McCullum. No argument.
- Matt Henry. He goes top again.
- Daniel Vettori got through his ten overs for 40. We’ve seen this before.
| Henry | 11 |
| Williamson | 9 |
| Ronchi | 7 |
| McClenaghan | 5 |
| Vettori | 5 |
| Taylor | 4 |
| Anderson | 3 |
| McCullum B | 3 |
| Boult | 2 |
| Milne | 2 |
| Latham | 1 |
| Southee | 1 |
| Guptill | 1 |
And the fact Henry wasnt named in the squad just gets more perplexing. Though admittedly we played today without Mills, Southee and Mitch…
Agree that Henry was a mite unlucky to miss WC squad. I would say though that figures of 8 overs for 70 runs out of an innings total of 202 vs Auckland and a terrible pasting of 8 overs, none for 88 vs CD in the Ford Trophy may have contributed to his undoing (albeit almost all the Cantab bowlers were put to the sword by George Worker and co. on that day).
And Worker by the way has been absolutely on fire since his profiled appearance on Sky’s Cricket Show.
LEG BREAK said :
From the perspective of this match alone that was a ball devouring dreadful innings from Taylor.
SIGNMAN said :
Taylors footwork is appalling & as said before he also squares up way too much instead of staying side on, Guppy’s footwork is poor as well, both need to get their feet moving a lot more to get to the pitch of the ball so they consistently tick the score over, Williamson’s an excellent example.
A nagging thought from the past few days: Can someone please explain why Matt Henry is playing the warm-ups against the Sri Lankans when he’s not actually in the WC team? Dumb, dumb, dumb… we should be rotating the bowlers that are in the 15-man squad. And another dumb, dumb , dumb thing: Ten warm-up games- the words ‘burn’ and ‘out’ mean anything to you, NZC?
Could the reason for Henry’s inclusion in the warm-ups in fact be because the NZC have created a rod for their backs by their schedule of ten pre-tournament matches for the Black Caps, which might be too arduous to cover with just who is already there. Thoughts, sportsfreaks…?
I guess the Henry inclusion shows the difference between how bowlers and batsmen are handled. Batsmen need all the time they can in the middle; bowlers need to be given the odd rest (Southee)
Interesting how even with two batsmen out, and less cover, no extra batsmen have been called in as cover.
Yeah Graeme, that’s a good point about Williamson and Elliott out and no cover called up. As a further aside, ten warm-up games reeks of profit over prep, hence the farcical situation of Henry being called in for these games. Should we somehow win the whole thing it looks as though it will be IN SPITE OF and not BECAUSE OF the build-up.
With that highly annoying buzzword ‘rotation’ being de rigueur in sports teams these days, you would really hope that the selectors are still going to settle on a fairly stable match-day twelve for the WC games. If we don’t, the Titanic will lurch inexorably further toward the iceberg- to my eyes anyway.
Paulthespotter said :
Could the reason for Henry’s inclusion in the warm-ups in fact be because the NZC have created a rod for their backs by their schedule of ten pre-tournament matches for the Black Caps
signman said :
Yeah, that would be part of it… also Mills injury was a groin strain, only just recovered from it, one of the worst injuries you can have, getting near the end of his career, only has to overstretch & could easily aggravate it again, would of had Henry ahead of Mills anyway, Vettori is another dicey selection in the squad.
Something has to be done about this personal sledging crap by some of the horse-scratchers from across the ditch, Ian Chappell complained about it, but one of the reporters said you use to sledge a fair bit when playing, he replied, only because hardly anyone did anything about it… it’s like a bully at school consistently intimidating someone, do nothing & they’ll keep doing it, but do something about it & they’ll back off, we play the horse-scratcher in some tests this year, don’t want to see our mob take a backward step against that sort of rubbish.
Good god, I’m here to acknowledge I’ve been a right royal goose egg- not been following the sports news closely enough lately. Now realise that the reason Matt Henry has been in the squad and playing recently was because of Kyle Mills’ injury. Will be more careful in future to check my facts! Sorry for wasting everyone’s time, bloody hell!!
hahaha, sounds like you’re having a warner moment mate… I said it was probably part of it, like you said the workload of playing all those ODI’s was part of it.
Top win by NZ, thought we were goneburgers at about 3 for 60… excellent fight back by our bowlers & batsmen, Williamson showed again how vital he is coming in at first drop.
Cheers signer. I reckon my good lady thinks I’m wrong about things most of the time anyhow, so about par for the course probably!
Your analysing is good spotter, just wish more than a handful posted on here.
On the Sheila’s, reckon the best way to keep them happy is to make them think they’re right on most occasions, but being blokes we know we’re the ones that are right most of the time. http://codex.wordpress.org/images/c/c0/icon_smile.gif
The reason others probably don’t bother is because no-one else can ever get a word in edgeways or to be more blunt, they could well be sick to death of this current duopoly!!
What ? thought you were past that Warner moment… how does no-one else get a word in edgeways, didn’t realise we we’re living Russia, there’s never being a lot of posters on the site anyway, don’t know about you but I joyed this site to mainly debate sport in terms of analysing it in a bit of depth, the pics & stats are part of it but quite honestly there’s too much of it, anyway that’s my opinion.
Was just being a bit tongue-in-cheek there. Mate the truth is that without people with opinions like your good self, sites such as these would probably die a slow death, so keep it coming!!
Reckon on any forum sometimes members say something that has a double meaning to it, probably the best way to clarify things when needed is to add a tongue-in-cheek smiley so you know exactly what they mean & of course I should do the same as well.
A smiley face just ain’t me I’m afraid signer… take at face value closer to the mark…
Did I say face value? I meant ‘with a grain of salt’. Aaagh, I’m done with idioms.
Paulthespotter said :
A smiley face just ain’t me I’m afraid signer… take at face value closer to the mark…
signman said :
Not a fan of dorky symbols either spotter… but for the sake of a dorky symbol at times could of avoided a fair bit of stuffing about & talked about sport instead.