Day Three
I woke this morning to a lot of noise outside. It was either raining very heavily, a tidal wave was coming, or there was a gale coming through. It was the later and that meant a tough day at the office for me. I bowl into the wind, that’s one of the jobs I have made my own. It is something I have prided myself on and if you’ve read a lot of my blogs you’ll know this; if you haven’t; when I was starting out for Wellington I picked the worst job in the team and I made myself good at it. There’s always a vacancy for the worst job in the work force. Doing that job has meant tough days at the office, but it does mean that I’m at the office, and I really do like my office!

I was 2 not out overnight and was looking forward to sticking around with the bat as long as possible. I’ve made a goal for myself every time I go out to bat to face 50 balls. If I do that the partnership should be up around the 50-run mark; even if I’ve only scored 10. Batting with Bondy was going to be fun, we were going to take every run on offer, and I knew he was pretty keen on hitting a couple of big balls! I was pretty happy too that Asif and Gul were not at full pace; they looked pretty tired from the day before.

I nicked a four and got a cover drive away off Gul. I was premeditating a little with that ball. I was guessing it was going to be full, and if it was, I was going to hit it as hard as I could. I had the wind behind me so if I didn’t quite get it, if it was in the air, it should still, hopefully, carry over the straight fielders. It was too wide to hit straight, so I just flung the bat at it, and it came off ok; sweet.

My first bowling spell was eight overs before lunch and then three straight after. Eleven overs of the first 14 to be bowled into that wind that day. It was hard work, and I was going well. I felt good, my rhythm good and my speeds were right up there. I felt like I was really doing my job, I was keeping the runs down so we could attack from the other end, and I was also making life tough for the batters that were in. The ‘into-the-wind’ role is often measured by how many wickets are taken at the other end, and in my first spell there was three; I was Read more...

Iain O'Brien PAK vs NZ Akmal, Blogs.CMDN.com, Bond, Chris Martin, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Flynn, Gul, Guptill, McIntosh, Taylor

There are things New Zealand can do to beat South Africa’s Proteas other than pray for invasions by dogs or raindrops - although I note that last time I checked it was thunderstorms and lightning, very, very frightening over there.

Here’s a quick 10 to consider - feel free to chip away with your own…

* See if we can arrange to play somewhere other than Centurion. Too late for this of course but it would be nice as the Africans have beaten us there all three times we’ve played. Let’s at least pray we have packed our economy rates in our coffins as we’ve conceded 314 and 324 in front of the grassy embankments of the ground formerly known as SuperSport Park.

* Eradicate legside addict and compulsive puller Graeme ‘Le Muppet’ Smith early. Might be worth putting 5 bucks on him to be dismissed bowled too: he is 4th on the all-time list of most likely to get out in that fashion (27% of all his ODI dismissals).

* Not succumb to the skiddy pace of the man who looks like Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Dale Steyn. We shouldn’t either - his only return against us in ODIs is 2/50 from 9 overs although he did snare both openers that day back in December 2007.

* Whoooooh big ol’ Jesse Ryder to make his debut against South Africa in one-dayers with an innings to remember, punctuated with limited running between the wickets, cheeky grins, crashing drives, Kluseneresque slogs, and a memorable bandanna.

* Put pressure on AB de Villers - he is the South Africans’ banker in terms of runs. He Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy, New Zealand AB de Villers, Blogs.CMDN.com, Bond, Broom, Butler, Centurion, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dale Steyn, Elliott, Graeme Smith, Guptill, Jesse Ryder, McCullum, Mills, New Zealand, Oram, Ryder, Shaun Pollock, South Africa, SuperSport Park, Taylor, Vettori, Wanderers

GOOD

Daniel Vettori: Batting and bowling, and becoming a genuine all-rounder with Kapil Dev’s 400/4000 mark next on the list. Clearly at home with the captaincy blazer given his return of 74 wickets and 1232 runs in 21 matches in charge, but he can’t keep doing it all himself. There must be temptation aplenty to send him north up the batting order ahead of McCullum and even Oram - but his comments in the aftermath of the 2-0 series loss make it pretty clear that will not be happening.

Rangana Herath: 82 overs, 20 maidens, 209 runs, 8 wickets. This portly left-armer was predicted to be a threat, yet the Sri Lankan selectors overlooked him for their XI in the first test. Small mercies.

Samaraweera: He might not be an opener but he is bloody good: 159, 20, 143 and 25.

Iain O’Brien’s testicular fortitude: He is an unfashionable cricketer but he has some ticker. His 75-ball, 69-run, 20-over vigil with the captain was a terrific effort that put several batsmen above him to varying degrees of shame - he was out in the middle for longer than McIntosh, Guptill, Taylor, McCullum and Patel.

The “penetration”: The bowling struggled to make inroads into the powerful Sri Lankan batting order - only O’Brien and Vettori took wickets in all four Lankan innings. The inability to dislodge can be demonstrated by the scores at which Sri Lanka lost their 4th wicket: 300, 205, 295 and 301.

Chris Martin’s willow-waving: 4 bats, 2 runs, 25 balls, and an average of infinity. Read more…

Administrator SL vs NZ Blogs.CMDN.com, Chris Martin, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Vettori, Danny Morrison, Guptill, Iain O'Brien, Kyle Mills, Mark Richardson, McCullum, McIntosh, Muralitharan, Patel, Rangana Herath, Ryder, Samaraweera, Taylor

If I could place my order for anything in the second test against Sri Lanka starting today, it would be preceded by an entree of 5-wicket bags, but the main course would have to be a smorgasbord of batting partnerships and high scores.

I’m not thoroughly obsessed with winning but if New Zealand can consistently score 450-plus that should stop us losing matches, even if the Ws do not begin to belch forth in the result column.

In the past 12 months of Test cricket, the record of Kiwi batting partnerships is dire. Only eight times have our pairings made it past 100 and then only one passed the 200-run threshold (Taylor & Ryder’s 271 in 60 overs vs India at Napier).

It is Big Ol’ Jesse Ryder who stands out as our player most likely to feature in a decent partnership - of the eight returning a century or more, he features in five of them: Taylor, Vettori, McIntosh, McCullum and Franklin are there twice, and Daniel Flynn put on 118 with Timmy Mac against the West Indies at the Fruit Bowl.

Another indictment on the top order is that the bulk of our best partnerships are clustered around the 4th, 5th and, disappointingly, the 7th wicket. None of the top six collaborations have been from “the top” of the batting order with our best opening partnership a paltry 55 (the two discards How and Redmond vs Bangladesh at Chittagong), for the 2nd wicket the Flynn-McIntosh effort above was the best, while the highest for the third wicket is an even more Read more…

Administrator CMDN.com Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Flynn, Dilshan, Franklin, Jayawardene, McCullum, McIntosh, New Zealand, Redmond, Samaraweera, Sri Lanka, Taylor, Vettori, Warnapura