NZ under GrahamB (story)

[6ry4nj]

7 runs - and 1 ball!? Potentially heartbreaking - but encouraging too! And you took more wickets than them.

If they're as good as I think they are, I'd let you count those as wins...

[GrahamB]

7 runs - and 1 ball!? Potentially heartbreaking - but encouraging too! And you took more wickets than them.

If they're as good as I think they are, I'd let you count those as wins...

Let's see if we can take an ODI off them.

[GrahamB]

1st ODI v South Africa

S.Murdoch (capt)
B.McCullum (wk)
H.Boam
N.Broom
S.Wells
A.Kitchen
D.Flynn
B.Hiini
B.Martin
B.Arnel
T.Nethula

We got wasted!
Reeling at 51/5 batting first, it was a small miracle that we got through to 230, courtesy mainly to a fine century from Flynn to celebrate his return to national honours.
Although we picked up an early wicket, Amla and Kallis bludgeoned our attack to reach the victory target in just the 40th over. Our spinners suffered in particular.

[GrahamB]

2nd ODI v South Africa

With darkened overhead conditions and a seamers pitch, this was unlikely to be a high scoring game. We dropped our two spinners to bring in Boult and Ellis.
Having had an inspiring pep talk, our bowlers put in an excellent performance to dismiss the South Africans for 193. Boult came back in a superb second spell to take three wickets in an over, effectively destroying the middle and lower order.
Our batsmen struggled just as badly against the highly rated South African bowling attack. However, although wickets fell regularly, we were able to keep the asking rate gettable. Hiini had done well to shield the tail and pick up valuable runs and with seven balls left, we needed just five to win. Unfortunately, he was trapped in front off the last ball of the penultimate over, trying to secure the strike.

[Chewie]

Great reading. Is Murdoch actually this good in real life?

Murdoch is a pretty good talent, but is reasonably new to the domestic scene. He's done well opening for Wellington though.

[Dutz]

Great read

[GrahamB]

3rd ODI v South Africa

Another pitch favouring seam, so our playing eleven remained the same as that in the previous ODI.
The visitors won the toss and chose to bat. Their top order players again bludgeoned our bowlers to rack up 279/5.
At 127/3 and key batsmen Murdoch and McCullum gone, it was up to the new lads to lead the charge. Neil Broom and Anaru Kitchen responded magnificently and we achieved victory in the final over.



South Africa take the ODI series 2-1 to with their 3-0 win in the T20s.
On now to three test matches to finish off the season.

[GrahamB]

Great read

Thanks.

[GrahamB]

1st Test v South Africa



SA have won the toss and will bat first.

[ab5ides1]

Murdoch is a pretty good talent, but is reasonably new to the domestic scene. He's done well opening for Wellington though.

I looked on cricinfo and saw that he is 27, but has played all (or least a majority) of his games for Wellington very recently. I also saw that he played for the NZ under-19s. What happened in between?

[GrahamB]

1st Test v South Africa

Well this is really embarrassing!
The South Africans had the best batting conditions and amassed a huge score. The pitch deteriorated quite quickly and two run outs plus a pathetic lbw decision (all happening when batting very defensively) didn't help our cause.
Quite simply, we need to do far better than this, even if the Proteas are a class outfit.

[cardassian]

Try bringing in guptil, in 2010 version he is my top batter (and top in the test ratings) also give vettori and southee a chance.

[GrahamB]

2nd Test v South Africa

Following the disastrous first test effort, there was clamour for change.
Brendon McCullum has performed wonderfully well in the shorter forms of the game, but isn't reliable enough as an opening batsman. He paid the price for his double failure, making way for Jeet Raval and Kruger Van Wyk.
Youngsters Harry Boam and Kane Williamson were also selection casualties, replaced by the Shanan Stewart, who'd performed solidly prior to picking up an injury.
The same bowling attack was retained.

The difference in the second test was the South African opening pair of Smith and Amla.
After we'd put together a reasonable first innings score, these two put on a mammoth double century opening stand. However, our bowlers did well to restrict the Proteas to a lead of roughly 100 after these two had been dismissed.
We lost both openers cheaply in our second innings and never really recovered from there. Sam Wells, Jesse Ryder and Shanan Stewart all fought bravely and we were able to set the visitors a victory target of 186.
Enter Smith and Amla for a second time though to dash our hopes of a draw or win.

[Chewie]

I looked on cricinfo and saw that he is 27, but has played all (or least a majority) of his games for Wellington very recently. I also saw that he played for the NZ under-19s. What happened in between?

I would guess that he went to university or something in between before deciding that he want to take up cricket as a career? Normally in NZ players start straight from school but recently I think there have been a few players that have started later. I don't know anything club players so I'm not sure what he was really doing before then.

[GrahamB]

The NZ side for the 3rd Test

A lot of thought went into the way forward from here. Stats and form were again scrutinised very carefully in selecting the playing eleven for the final test, hoping to find the right players to salvage some pride against the mighty South Africans.

With Jeet Raval and Brendon McCullum both failing to impress as opening partners for Murdoch, the focus went onto Martin Guptill. Guptill has had a solid season and his form has escalated of late. With his previous test match experience, he seems the logical choice to fill an opening spot.
Sam Wells, Tim Weston and Jesse Ryder have all stepped up to the mark and were pencilled in.
Likewise Kruger Van Wyk has done nothing wrong and holds onto the keeper's spot.
Three batsmen have been putting their hands up for a chance - Darren Broom, Ross Taylor and Daniel Flynn. However, the only batsmen I could really consider dropping for one of these was poor old Shanan Stewart. Stewart has been solid, but his form is not as hot as these three. After much deliberation, it was decided to replace Stewart with Flynn.

I then turned to our bowling attack. The problem that we have is that we haven't got many youngsters coming through. Most of our reliable performers are now in their thirties and are workhorses as opposed to exciting.
Trent Boult has been our best pace bowler and stays automatically.
Neil Harvey (25 years old) is a tad expensive, but has been a real wicket taker on the domestic scene. He did well in the second test and has been retained. I'll train him on accuracy.
Brent Arnel has not been taking nearly enough wickets for my liking. Trouble is that there are no other young bowlers coming into consideration. Southee seems the logical one to look at, but he's been averaging over 30 all season, not good enough for my liking. I've decided to go for the stopgap measure of Graeme Aldridge. He will replace Arnel as the workhorse in the attack, complementing Boult and Harvey.
Bruce Martin didn't perform as well as I'd liked on the turning wickets in the first two tests. I'm wary of bringing Nethula in against the South Africans, so Dan Vettori finally gets the call to come back in.

S.Murdoch (capt)
M.Guptill
S.Wells
T.Weston
J.Ryder
D.Flynn
K.Van Wyk (wk)
D.Vettori
N.Harvey
G.Aldridge
T.Boult