Journey To The Top - A New Zealand Story...

[boonz101]

Hey guys, I've lurked around this forum for a while reading other peoples various stories for many years and have finally decided to create my own story.

I will be coaching New Zealand in all three formats trying to really push the nation to the top of all formats. I hope you guys enjoy it

[boonz101]

Looking at the schedule ahead, it looks like a perfect year to impress.

SCHEDULE

New Zealand in England
- Two Tests
- Five ODIs
- One T20

New Zealand in South Africa
- Two T20s
- Three ODIs

New Zealand in Zimbabwe
- Two Tests
- Three ODIs
- Two T20s

New Zealand in Australia
- Three Tests

Pakistan in New Zealand
- Two Tests
- Three ODIs
- Two T20's

T20 World Cup



As you can see, we will almost always be away from home in this season. We are playing Nine Tests during this season which will probably our Primary focus, we will be building up Kane Williamson for the captains role for when Brendon McCullum eventually retires.

I look forward to the opportunity to take our aggressive breed of limited over cricket into the longer game.

Along with this, a very important aspect of this season is the T20 world cup at the end of the season. We a targeting a win in this cup believing that this is a realistic goal.

Anyway - On to England!!!

[Rumblah]

Count me in, best of luck bud.

[GrahamB]

Will follow with interest.

[Chris Child]

Looking forward to following your progress.

[boonz101]

Thanks for the support guys!

BREAKING NEWS


The NZC Board has announced the 18 man test squad to go to England.
Squad is as follows:

BATSMEN
- D Brownlie
- M Guptill
- B McCullum(c)
- H Rutherford
- R Taylor
- K Williamson(vc)

WICKET KEEPERS
- T Latham
- B Watling

ALL ROUNDERS
- C Anderson
- D Bracewell
- M Craig
- C Munro

BOWLERS
- T Boult
- J Duffy
- M Henry
- I Sodhi
- T Southee
- N Wagner


There are two players who have never played a test in this squad, both being fast bowlers: Duffy and Henry. They will both be playing in the first three day warm up game of the series against Somerset as we try to find a stable third seamer spot to accompany Boult and Southee

Mark Craig is expected to take the role as the main spinner of the series over Sodhi as Craigs average is far superior. Both spinners will be tried in the warm up games, one for each, as we confirm the spinner spot to replace the irreplaceable Daniel Vettori

The openers are likely to be Guptill with someone else. At the moment I am leading towards Latham since his average in his young test career is a healthy number but the two three day games before the first test will help us confirm the combination.

The middle order is going to be very powerful, boasting names such as Williamson, Taylor, McCullum and the extremely solid Watling down the order with the gloves. Colin Munro is personally one of my favourite players, and will be important if there is a big injury in the side. Anderson is likely to start in the first test match since Neesham is out with a back injury for the entire England tour.

- - -

Our first match of the series is a three day match against Somerset...

[boonz101]

Team Line up for our three day match against Somerset was a largely experimental squad with Williamson as stand-in captain.




We bowled first and it took a while to get the ball rolling with our first few wickets. Their opening partnership was consistent and steady, but once we broke that we were able to get wickets at a consistent rate, with Henry taking a 4 for. Although the overall bowling performance could have been better for that innings, I wasn't too disappointed. Unfortunately our batsmen failed to get past starts with only Latham making it into the 40's, that is until Munro stepped up. He played a marvellous innings which finally ended at 155 when Lewis Gregory had him trapped LBW. He was helped at the crease with a very stable boulder like BJ Watling who scored 61 runs of 176 balls. We eventually declared at 387 with just less than a day to bowl them out. Frustratingly, our bowling at the start once again failed to take off with their opening partnership proving too momentum changing for us to win the match. After they were six wickets down after 90 overs, we drew.






Overall, our bowling performance (especially in the second innings) and our top/middle order batting could have been a lot better. We will travel to Worcester for our next practice game.

BATTING MOTM
- Colin Munro: Outstanding innings which will challenge Corey Anderson for a starting spot in the first test.

BOWLING MOTM
- Matt Henry: For his 4 wicket haul.

OTHER SMALL HIGHLIGHTS:
- Colin Munro took a wicket in the second Somerset innings, he can bowl as well!!!
- Latham's 40 in the first innings, chanceless and solid.
- Watling's resistance.