Sorry to lower the tone, but the rumbing bellies and the performance by NZ in Sri Lanka has been rather dismal.
Random questions:
- Why did the NZ team manager not check water & kitchen hygiene standards? Even if he had to have large water bottles for each team member each day, and order them to eat only at the hotel. It’s a risk touring sides need to prepare for – even Warney took cans of baked beans to India
- Why did we take only 2 pace bowlers? Oh, that’s right, to fit in the ‘all-rounder’ Oram. All-round feeble effort, that was; 5 overs bowled in each innings!!#@! Ditch him, and get a real pace bowler. Mark Gillespie, say. Or even Tim Southee, if Bond is not ready.
- Why are we still putting all the inexperienced batsmen at the top of the order? Pepper-pot them with experienced heads; that includes Ryder opening and moving Vettori down the order a bit – if he is scoring a big chunk of the runs, he should bat higher (assuming he can cope with the pace bowlers when they are still fresh?).
- Why haven’t the selectors looked at bringing in the gen X batsmen who could give stability and more runs? Guys like Harris, Astle, McMillan and Sinclair (who must really have bristled at Reece Young being taken as spare keeper-batsmen; Sinclair used to keep for CD quite well).
- How many times does McCullum have to prove he hasn’t the brains for the vice-captaincy? Defending for a draw on the last day, he is the final batsman to fall – run out?@#! Did he really think he was going to get the 200 more runs needed by himself? Check the final overs in the ball-by-ball commentary, and you see he actually succumbed to the pressure of not scoring. Mental fragility like that is not grounds to be vice-skipper. Give it to Patel – he shows balls and brains, and bowls well enough to be a regular pick. Better yet, bring an old head like Chris Harris back, and hand him the task – he led Canterbury with finesse; or dare we mention CD captain Skippy again…
Bouquets:
- Vettori – for his batting and bowling. Patel bowled okay too.
- Martin and O’Brien for doing a fair job of the quick bowling, and supporting better batsmen.
- Sri Lanka – for a fine all round performance. Well judged captaincy. They deserve the No2 ICC ranking they are chasing.
Tags: Black Caps, cricket, NZ, Sri Lanka
