MadAsHell

Well it's all over inside three days in New Zealand New Zealand 441 R. Taylor 129 BJ. Watling 65 T. Best 4/110 (21) S. Gabriel 2/86 (25.1) West Indies 193 M. Samuels 60 K. Edwards 55 T. Boult 6/40 (15) C. Anderson 2/20 (7) West Indies 2nd Innings 175 K. Powell 36 K. Edwards 35 T. Boult 4/40 (12.5) T. Southee 3/24 (11) 10 wickets for the match for Boult and New Zealand win by an innings and 73 runs. Time for big changes in WI cricket, time to throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak and really look at turning things around which may require saying goodbye to some older statesmen in order to find their next best field of players coming through.

Great result for us to be batting. Big score of 400+ and they're right under the pump! Meanwhile in New Zealand at Tea on Day 3 New Zealand 441 R. Taylor 129 BJ. Watling 65 T. Best 4/110 (21) S. Gabriel 2/86 (25.1) West Indies 193 M. Samuels 60 K. Edwards 55 T. Boult 6/40 (15) C. Anderson 2/20 (7) West Indies 2nd Innings 5/135 K. Powell 36 K. Edwards 35 T. Southee 3/24 (11) T. Boult 1/30 (7) That match could be all over by stumps tonight the way it's going. Chanderpaul, Ramdin & Sammy the last hopes for the Windies with the bat, but can't see them pulling off another miracle the way they're going!

Lunch Day 3 New Zealand 441 R. Taylor 129 BJ. Watling 65 T. Best 4/110 (21) S. Gabriel 2/86 (25.1) West Indies 193 M. Samuels 60 K. Edwards 55 T. Boult 6/40 (15) C. Anderson 2/20 (7) West Indies 2nd Innings 0/45 K. Powell 23* K. Edwards 17* T. Boult 0/5 (2) T. Southee 0/5 (2) As I said earlier, a spectacular collapse from the Windies to loose 6/35 this morning and be all out for 193 and more then 200 behing on the 1st Innings. After the last test matc, I'm suprised McCullum enforced the follow on again. I thought he may have elected to bat and make 200 and possibly declare at stumps like Australia did again England. All I know is that if New Zealand can't win this test match then they'll never win one! And I reckon McCullum will be a little nervous that they haven't taken an ealry 2nd innings wicket yet.

Amazing morning in whcih West Indies lost 6/35 with Trent Boult finishing with six for, and taking 4 wickets in 6 balls, three of them bowled. Windies 248 runs behind and New Zealand are enforcing the follow on again. I hope for their sake they have better luck then the last two times they've done this against the Windies & England. Wonder if the Windies can get out of gaol again???

Stumps on a rain effected Day 2 New Zealand 441 R. Taylor 129 BJ. Watling 65 K. Williamson 45 T. Best 4/110 (21) S. Gabriel 2/86 (25.1) D. Sammy 2/92 (25) West Indies 4/158 K. Edwards 55 M. Samuels 50* K. Powell 21 C. Anderson 2/20 (7) T. Boult 1/25 (9) T. Southee 1/40 (9) Windies required another 84 runs to avoid the follow on and their two best batsmen Chanderpaul & Bravo are back in the sheds with only 10 runs between them. They'll require something big from Samuels and support from Deonarine, Ramdin & Sammy if they're to fight their way back into the game tomorrow. Best case scenario may be to avoid the follow on, get within 100 runs and then hope for a typical New Zealand 3rd innings collapse leaving them 250-300 for victory. Although with the Windies bowling line up there's a fat chance of them knocking over the Kiwis cheaply.

Lunch Day 2: New Zealand 441 R. Taylor 129 BJ. Watling 65 K. Williamson 45 T. Best 4/110 (21) S. Gabriel 2/86 (25.1) D. Sammy 2/92 (25) An amazing morning by New Zealand adding over 100 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. We saw Tino Best on a hat trick with the number 11 Trent Boult coming out to face the hat trick ball, only for Boult & Watling to then put on a 58 run stand for the final wicket. To add insult to injurt when Boult was on 3 (ended up 38*) and Watling 45, Boult was caught in the deep only for the fielder Tino Best to misjudge where the rope was a carry the ball over for 6. 50 odd runs later the final wicket finally came. As I've said sevral times, the Windies sent New Zealand in, and to have the Black caps make over 400 on this green pitch is nothing short of disaster for the West Indies. They really need to look at their bowling line up and how they're likely to take 20 wickets, becasue the crop they've taken into these first two tests is very under whelming. So Windies to come out and bat after lunch and fingers crossed they can make a good score to keep this match interesting!

Stumps Day 1: New Zealand 6/307 R. Taylor 129 K. Williamson 45 C. Anderson 38 T. Best 2/66 (14) N. Deonarine 1/39 (16) S. Gabriel 1/56 (18) What can you say. A horrible day for the Windies and the black caps well and truely in the box seat!

And now a 3rd chance on 125! This was a tough one hander chance, but that's still 3 in one day!

Think Mendis is still doing decent things in T20, but unsure where he is with his test match playing? They have a series coming up against Pakistan, so we may see him there? Taylor dropped for the 2nd time today, this time on 122 and a much simpler chance then when he was on 0. The wheels are falling off for the Windies...

Tea Day 1: New Zealand 3/186 R. Taylor 70* K. Williamson 45 B. McCullum 37* T. Best 2/47 (11) D. Sammy 1/63 (18) N. Deonarine 0/5 (2) Well disaster for the Windies winning the toss and bowling and the opposition being 3/186 at tea on a greentop. Ross Taylor dropped on 0 has hurt them, but they were very ordinary in that second session. The problem the Windies seem to have is their bowling is very ordinary. I understand both Roach & Rampaul are injured, but surely there are others out there better then Best & Gabriel. Fidel Edwards & Sheldon Cottrell for starters. Also Darren Sammy isn't a threatening enough bowler to be 1st change and his batting isn't good enough to be top 6, so it puts a question mark on his position as a whole?

Haha, not far off P-Man. Which is a shame, cause they've got the makings of a decent team New Zealand. Their quicks just need a bit more penetration, they have some talented batsmen around. Edit: Spelling

Lunch Day 1: New Zealand 2/79 R. Taylor 32* K. Williamson 21* H. Rutherford 11 D. Sammy 1/20 (8) T. Best 1/33 (6) S. Gabriel 0/6 (8) Pretty good session for the black caps considersing they've been sent in on a greentop. Fulton out LBW first ball but then overturned on review. Windies have dropped two catches including Taylor in single figures who they're still yet to dismiss this series. Horrible bolwing by Tino Best, I know Roach & Rampaul are injured, but how he gets a gig I don't know? They'd be better off going back to Fidel Edwards or with the raw Sheldon Cottrell in my opinion. If New Zealand can still be batting by stumps tonight you'd have to say the day's belonged to them!

For those of us champing at the bit for more cricket leading up to the 3rd test, the 2nd Test between New Zealand & West Indies starts in Wellington in the net 15 minutes or so. It appears the Windies have won the toss ona green top and are sending New Zealand in. Windies unchanged from the last test it appears and for New Zealand Kane Willimason returns from injury at the expense of Redmond. I'm suprised New Zealand didn't bring any fresh bowlers in given the bowled for 8.5 sessions straight in the last test. Was a great effort from the West Indies to save that match (help from the weather gods also I know). Two pretty even matched sides, so could be an interesting remainder of the series. On a further note to this match, I know it's a green top and that's why the Windies have ellected to bolw obviously. But given the amount of work the New Zealand bowlers had to do in the last test and they haven't made any changes, I wonder if Sammy's missed a trick here by not electing to bat and hope to catch the Kiwis a little flat?

My bowlers have done ok, I had Rhino Harris, Ravi Ashwin & Morne Morkel, but apart from that I've struggled. I had Cook & Sehwag openning, Cook's hit struggle street and Sehwag's finished. Younis Khan at 3 who's been ok and Angelo Mathews at 4 who's only just approaching test match since I selected him now! Colin Munro at 5 hasn't added to his 1 test, Matty Wade as the keeper at 6 lost his spot and Dwayne Bravo at 7 hasn't got back into the Windies team. I also had Abdul Rehman who hasn't played a test for some time! Fair to say my XI hasn't been far from England's level over the last two tests....

Australia surely to be unchanged for Perth. England I'm sure will rush Bresnan back, for Panesar, then just a question of whether they look to bolster their batting by bringing Ballance or Bairstow in for Stokes or pin their hopes on Prior's form turning around, bat Bresnan at 7 and bring in Finn or Rankin for a bit of pace x factor in Perth and having 5 bowlers. No easy answers for England, but their depth with both bat and ball is certainly starting to look a little thin.

Yeah I'm not a fan either, I'm missing the days of Benaud, Lawry, Chappeli and even Greig more then I thought I would. Why they didn't go hard for either Fleming or Blewett from Foxtel I have no idea. Both very good commentators, and Fleming is a crack up to go with it!

What a day of cricket yesterday, was absolutely unbelievable! Can't believe the turn around in Mitch Johnson's fortunes, 12 months ago I never wanted to see this guy in the whites again, now look at him! Aussies to bat for 45-50 minutes this morning and declare setting England somewhere close to 600 to win as Macca suggested. And with Perth coming up their batsmen must be frighteneted about what to expect from Mitch there! As for what changes England can make from here on to try anda salvage anything??? I'd expect Bresnan will be rushed back for Perth at the expense of Monty, Prior is in all sorts of bother and hasn't made decent runs in his last 9 tests, they may look to bring Bairstow in for him and Gary Ballance may also come in for Stokes to strengthen their batting. And as many have said, Bell should bat at three and Root should go back down the order to 5 or 6. This makes the 5th test match in a row we've had the better of England, despite the fact we lost at Durham. When we think about it, apart from the Lords test match it's amazing the turn around this team has had since Lehman came in.

Hard to see England turning this into a win, and even a draw suits us well with Perth coming up where it's fair to say the conditions will suit us much more then England and could see us heading to Melbourne 2-0 or even better yet with the series wrapped up 3-0! England's best bet is making 500 themselves. Hope to knock us over for about 150 and then chase down 220-250 on the last day, but that's a long shot, especially given they haven't made it to 400 as a batting unit for some time now, well before the last Ashes series. Aussies need a good disciplined day of bowling tomorrow. If we can have them say 7/350 at stumps tomorrow you'd take that on this wicket, And I reckon it will get tougher to bat days 4 & 5, thought there was just a little bit of inconsistent bounce late in the day today which I reckon will suit Harris & Siddle especially.

I know that I will likely get howled down for this, and potentially rightly so. But..... Should we look at resting our two most important quicks from the last test (Harris & Johnson) from the flat track that will await them in Adelaide and instead keep them up our sleeve for Perth? We could bring in a second spinner (Fawad Ahmed) so we'd have a leggie and an off spinenr and also bring in Faulkner to share the new ball with Siddle and give our batting some extra depth as a draw in Adelide would suit us just fine. Siddle & Faulkner share the new ball. Watto to bowl first change, but still cap him at no more then 10 overs a day, and then the specialist spinners of Lyon & Ahmed. We're not going to be able to bounce them out in Adelaide, so if we can play it smart there and hit them hard in Perth, that could then see us with a 2-0 lead heading into Boxing Day. Just something to consider I reckon. http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013-14/content/story/692679.html

True on both counts, however: McGrath's incident was comments involving his wife where it was common knowledge at the time she was battling cancer. Symonds was racial abuse, and we see the players in the AFL get a case of the sooks whenever it happens there. The Trott incident was widely unknown about his personal issues there. If it had of aleady been known then Warner would have crossed the line. As it wasn't, he hasn't IMO.

Wow! That's pretty big! Wonder who they'll send out to replace him? The all rounder Woakes, or will they go for another specialist batsman like Compton? I guess if Woakes replaces him, they can then play Pannesar as a 2nd spinner (bar the WACA of course). Bell to move up to 3 you'd think and Root to 5.

Haha, always have been keeping the faith Macca, but even I'll admit I wasn't expecting that result in the manner in which it came! Coming into this series I always thought the GABBA & WACA were the most vital tests for us as the conditions would obviously suit us much more then England, and being the 1st & 3rd tests give us an opportunity to grab the advantage. Adelaide & Sydney would probably suit England more and Melbourne should provide the most even wicket. They've only started the drop in pitches this year due to AFL moving in next year and yeah the wickets have been flat. Shield game going on there at the moment and 11 of the 21 wickets to fall so far have gone to spinners, so I wouldn't be suprised to see England bring Panesar in for Tremlett. Whether that means they look to bring Chris Woakes in as the all rounder & third seamer at the expense of Trott and get Bell to bat at 3 I don't know, but spin will play a big part in Adelaide. And you're right I've got concerns for our quicks also, really want them to be fresh to go for Perth, and the last thing we'd like to see is a repeat of what happened against South Africa in Adelaide last year. Lehman's said if everyone's 100% then they'll play, which is the right attitude to take, I just have concerns over it that's all. As P-Man said we may need to look to Smith and possibly Warner to bowl some overs in order to give our quicks a rest when able. Don't want to see Harris getting injured, Siddle & Johnson hitting the wall and us having to go into the WACA with Hilfenhaus, Faulkner and a debutant in Coulter-Nile as our 3 quicks like we did lat year with Johnson, Starc & Hastings! Edit: Furthermore to my comment about keeping the faith, this win has been coming, since the 2nd Test in England at Lords we've actually been the better of the two teams. We were well on track at Old Trafford to pegging the series back to 1-2 until rain ruined our chances on the last day when we had them at 3-30odd. We were the better team in the 4th test and were crusiing to vistory until a spectcular batting collapse saw the end of that. We should have won that no more then about 4 down the way we were going. And again rain robbed us at The Oval. The only reason England got as close as they did was because of Clarke's early declaration to try and force a result. We had a very healthy first innings lead there, and if rain hadn't been a factor, we no doubt would have batted normally in our 2nd dig and set them 400 odd to win. And this also now marks 6 consecutive test matches where England have failed to reach 400 against our bolwers in any innings. It's a great credit to them that against a team with the likes of Cook, Pietersen, Bell, Tott, Prior and co that we've bene able to keep them sub 400 over 6 test matches, where as we've reached 400+ now on three occasions. All of them since that Lords test. The signs are good people!

The Adelaide test is vital. It will be a slower wicket with less pace and bounce which will suit England. If we can just make sure we don't loose and get a draw, it'll mean we can head to Perth where we never loose to England due to the even faster and bouncier wicket and be heading for a 2-0 lead with two tests to go. If Adelaide's a good batting wicket we should just bat, bat, bat and bat and if a draw comes that is almost as good as a win for us heading into Perth with a 1-0 lead!

We'll have to agree to disagree on the forms of the game to play them in. Although I must say I think traditionally the selectors have thought more along my line of thinking. To win a test match you have to take 20 wickets, you can win a ODI or T20 only taking 3 or 4. It's bowlers like Stuart MacGill played so many tests but barely any ODI's (great strike rate/average but poor economy) and others spinners like Doherty play so many ODI's/T20's but barely any tests (great economy but poor strike rate/average). Lyon will play for now but he's not the answer long term and I think Fawad's closer to the answer then Lyon is. There's a reason all the top Australian sides over the years have had leggies instead of off spinners, it's what our conditions favour. With the exception of Trumble of course. Actually they do, you just have to go into them and do the stats manually yourself. I can tell you in the three Shield games each have played this summer Lyon's stats are. 10 wickets for 351 runs @ 35.10 off 142.1 overs. Economy rate of 2.47 with a strike rate of 85.3, so he's taken 14 and a half overs to take each wicket. Fawad Ahmed: 11 wickets for 333 runs @ 30.27 off 90 overs. Economy of 3.70 with a strike rate of 49.09, so just over 8 overs a wicket which is a very good strike rate. Edit: Spelling

Match figures of 4/99 off 33.5 overs in his last Shield match on a wicket in Hobart that traditionally does nothing for spinners is a far cry form impotent. My view on Fawad's Shield season so far is he's had one bad game and two decent games. I can see why some people would like to stick with Lyon, I myself will say that he's a safer option, but he's never going to win us a match on a wearing Day 5 pitch, Fawad has the potential to. He may go for more runs, but if that creates more wickets, more often then I'd take it every day of the week. I'd never play him in the shorter formats, but the long formats, yes every day. True, but as Fawad's never played a test you can only really compare them in the format that both have played.