MadAsHell

Agree that Broad could be an option, although making bowlers captain doesn't seem to be the done thing. Think Vettori or Pollock were the last ones?Think they need to get Morgan into the XI now, given he's a good chance to eventually get the gig. Buttler coming in for Prior's a given, especiallg given Craig Keiswetter broke his eye socket recently who would have been the best replacement IMO. Daniel Briggs the left arm spinner should come in for Ali who's not quite a bowler, not quite a batsman. And the angry irish fast bowler Boyd Rankin should also come in for Plunkett to give them a bit of x factor with his pace and bounce. XI for the 3rd Test should be: A. Cook* S. Robson I. Bell G. Ballance J. Root E. Morgan +J. Buttler S. Broad D. Briggs J. Anderson B. Rankin Stokes to be 12th man.

Poor old england can't take a trick at the moment. Cook copping it from all angles, Prior pulling out of the squad for surgery. Stokes, their shinning light from the ashes currently averaging 0.00 with the bat after three innings, Anderson facing suspension, still no specialist spinner. Oh and even better, the man most likely to be their next captain can't get a gig in the long form of the game! Wouldn't know where to start with england myself, they're a few cans short of a 6 pack. Think they should stick with Cook as captain for now while the series is still alive, given they backed him into it.

Haha, oh I love schadenfreude. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of blokes. Serves them right for their arrogance at their 3-0 victory last year when they thought all was still well despite the fact the series was much closer then the score line suggested. Cook's a great player, but he's far to conservative to be captain. They'd be better off bringing in someone like Morgan to bat in the middle order and be captain. He may not have the best first class record, but they need someone with some direction and positivity at the helm, let Cook worry about his batting.

How's this for an upcoming summer of cricket! http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/hectic-home-international-cricket-season-20140623-zsidi.html And South Africa, India & England all out here, the three top drawing nations you can get, and to think this is all followed by the World Cup also is just making for an epic summer of cricket. First international of the summer a T20 v RSA on November 5 in Adelaide and the final international is the ODI World Cup final in Melbourne on March 29. FIve months worth thankyou very much! A couple of things caught my eye. No Perth Test is a shame, would rathered ditch Brisbane myself, no ODI's outside the World Cup being played in Adelaide and Australia not playing any in Brisbane all made for curious reading.

Shifter Shehan mentioned on TAC Futuer Stars yesterday that Stretch impressed across half back in that game and that he expects him to get drafted.

I reckon we may end up in 13th position giving us Pick 6, then I think Picks 25 & 43 (roughly). Pick 6 I'm really keen on Jake Lever out of the Calder Cannons. 192cm Key position defender. Think a Sam Fisher meets Jarred Rivers type, great disposal and provides a fair bit of run to. Probably needs to add another 10kg but at TAC level he holds his own in 1 on 1 battles no problem. He would give us another tall defender coming through with Dunn, Frawley & Garland all bring there for the best part of 8 years plus now. Pick 25 I'd love Jake's Calder Cannons team mate Touk Miller despite his terrible first name. He reminds me of Ben McGlynn actually, but with the pace of Prestia or Kent. Great burst of speed and he gets in and under and he's also very effective inside the forward 50 making him an ideal small forward (at 177cm) in his first few seasons. Pick 43 Billy Stretch (Father/Son) Thankyou very much, and the young midfielder/forward will go along way to helping us with our lack of speed on the outside. If we do commit to him, it may sway Viney/Taylor/Roos's decision on whether or not to offer Blease another contract or not?

Something that I'm following started on Monday which is the World Cup qualifying tournament for the final two spots available after Ireland & Afghanistan previously secured their births. Ten teams are competing in this contest which runs for about 3 weeks I think it is in New Zealand, which will see some pretty competative cricket being played. The format is two groups of 5. You play everyone in your group, and the top three teams go through to the super 6's where you play the other groups top 3. After which the teams are ranked from 1-6 from the five games they've played against eachother with the top two teams gaining entry to the World Cup and also playing against eachother in the final for position of seeding. There were some interesting results Day 1 by the way! Netherlands v Uganda Probably the tournament favourites kicked off proceedings against one of the outsiders Uganda. The African nation won the toss and elected to bat and got off to a great start with openning with pair Mukasa & Mutyagaba putting the favourites on the back foot by scoring at a good click at putting on over 50 for the openning partnership. Uganda's momentum was halted hower in the 17th over when Mukasa was hit on the pads in front for 44 with the score on 76 to the part time off spin of former Western Australian Warriors batsman Michael Swart. This wicket proved to be the turning point of the match, as Uganda who put on 76 for the first wicket, only added a further 76 for the remaining 9. Dutch left arm orthodox spinner Michael Rippon proving to be the chief destroyer capturing 4 wickets as Uganda were all out for 152 in 46.1 overs. The Netherlands run chase was never in any real serious doubt. Myburgh made a brisk 22 off only 12 deliveries and fell with the score on 27, but a 35 run partnership for the 2nd wicket and 85 run stand for the 3rd with half centuries to wicket keeper batsman Barresi and skipper Borren and the Netherlands keeping their run rate at over 5 an over saw them never challenged. Uganda 152 (46.1 overs) R. Mukasa 44 M. Rippon 4/15 (10) A. Mutyagaba 36 M. Swart 2/28 (10) L. Sematimba 15 M. Bukhari 2/30 (9) Netherlands 3/155 (30.1 overs) W. Barresi 61* D. Arinaitwe 1/26 (6) P. Borren 50 C. Waiswa 1/27 (6) S. Myburgh 22 F. Ochimi 1/34 (5) Nepal v United Arab Emirates An even money contest was expected in the match between the ever improving Nepal and the under achieving UAE, who have only ever made one previous world cup despite the money and facilities at hand that other associate nations would die for. Nepal won the toss and elected to field which looked to be a master stroke when Amjad Ali was run out for a duck in the first over leaving the UAE at 1/1. Despite the early set back, the UAE skipper Khurram Khan coming in at number 3 decided that attack was the best form of defence as he played a run a ball innings before being adjudged lbw for 21 leaving UAE at 2/42 in the 8th over. And when openning batsman Salman Faris was dismissed for a more patient 35 when the score was on 81 after 17 overs the game was right in the ballance. UAE batsman Shaiman Anwar & S Patil turned this tight contest into one way traffick however with a breath taking 145 run partnership which saw Anwar bring up the first century of the tournament at better then a run a ball. When he was finally dismissed for 109, the UAE were sitting at 4/226 with more then 10 overs up their sleeve. Patil carried on his merry way with support from the middle to lower order which saw the UAE reach 8/297 after their 50 overs, a target that was always going to be a tough ask for Nepal on a wicket that was offering a bit of movement to the quicks, a known weakness of Nepal. As expected Nepal found the going tough against the new ball in their run chase and by the time Malla was dismissed for 4, they found themselves 5/53 after 18 overs and out of the contest. To Nepal's credit their middle to lower order worked hard to nearly bat out the full 50 overs thanks to a half century from Vesawkar who was well supported by Bhandari & Gauchan, but on the first ball of the 49th over Nepal were put out of their missery as UAE claimed a 102 run victory which will make other countries take notice for the rest of this tournament. United Arab Emirates 8/297 S. Anwar 109 B. Regmi 3/43 (10) S. Patil 74 J. Mukhiya 2/58 (8) S. Faris 35 S. Gauchan 1/42 (10) Nepal 195 (48.1 overs) S. Vesawkar 54 K. Shazad 3/46 (10) S. Gauchan 37* K. Khan 2/19 (5) B. Bhandari 37 A. Guruge 2/25 (7) Kenya v Papua New Guinea The 2003 World Cup semi finalist Kenya were up against PNG, a country who have never made it this far in the World Cup qualifying process, so many would think this would be a walk in the park for Kenya, however Papua New Guinea who's three most recent coaches have been Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel & Stuart Law were always confident this was a winable game for them. PNG won the toss and elected to field first and they gave themselves every opportunity of an upset win by not allowing Kenya to ever get away from them by continuing to take wickets throughout whenever the Kenyan's looked to put their foot down. Kenyan batsman Collins Obuya made an impressive century and some late order hitting from Odoyo made sure Kenya would post a competative score of 9/249. But with only one partnership of over 50 through the innings and one of under 10, neither side was able to claim being completely on top of the contest. PNG quick Haoda was impressive with his sharpness claiming 4 wickets. Things looked to change however when PNG openning batsman Ura was dismissed 4th ball of the run chase before PNG had put a run on the board and Kenya by how much? was the though of many at that point in time. However openning batsman Siaka and number three Vala had read a different script and turned the game on it's head with 154 run partnership for the second wicket at close to seven an over. Siaka was the main aggresor who made 103 off only 83 deliveries with 11 boundaries and four sixes. When Siaka was dismissed Kenya would have given themselves a chance of running through the rest of the PNG line up, however Vala simply took up the aggresors role which also saw him bring up a ton and he was well supported by skipper Amini as Papua New Guinea cruised to an 8 wicket victory with 43 deliveries remaining turning the competition on it's head in the openning round. Kenya 9/249 C. Obuya 106 R. Haoda 4/50 (9) T. Odoyo 42 P. Raho 2/47 (10) M. Ouma 24 M. Dai 1/19 (5) Papua New Guinea 2/250 (42.5 overs) A. Vala 105* N. Odhiambo 1/43 (10) L. Siaka 103 S. Ngoche 1/49 (8.5) C. Amini 28* Hong Kong v Scotland The close one of the openning round was out at Queenstown where Hong Kong and Scotland were to do battle. On paper Scotland were the favourites, however a string of poor results and internal issues have been haunting Scotland for some time, which saw a Australia/Darren Lehmann style situation in which Scotlands coach was sacked only weeks ago and Paul Collingwood appointed, which Scotland were no doubt hoping would have a similar effect to the one Lehmann's had with the Aussies. Scotland won the toss and elected to field and had Hong Kong at 1/5 in the third over, however consecutive fifty run partnerships that openner Irfan Ahmed was involved in was setting a solid platform for Hong Kong. However the fall of Hong Kong's third wicket triggered a mid innings collapse of 3/31 in 5.1 overs to leave Hong Kong at 5/159 after 37.4 overs, no doubt leaving Scotland hopeful of wrapping the innings up for 200-220. Hong Kong's middle order had other ideas however as B. Hayat & Tanwir Afzal put on the innings best partnership of 67 runs off only 58 balls which then left Aizaz Khan to get in on the act with Afzal. At the end of Hong Kong's 50 overs a score of 7/263 was on the board which would require an impressive chase by Scotland in order to avoid an early upset loss. The run chase got off to a rocky start for Scotland when skipper Coetzer was dismissed in the fourth over and a steady loss of wickets for Scotland just when partnerships were building saw them slump to 4/71 after 16 overs and in serious trouble. Number 4 batsman P. Mommsen & number 6 R. Taylor went about rebuilding the innings for Scotland with Mommsen taking the more cautious approach and Taylor looking to play his shots. However as the partnership reached 50, Taylor looked to play one aggresive shot to many and lost his wicket. Mommsen looked to try and rescue the innings again but was having trouble finding willing partners and when Scottish bowler Sharif was dismissed for 9, it looked like Hong Kong would waltz to victory with Scotland at 8/172, needing 92 from 71 deliveries with only two wickets in hand. Enter Scottish spinner R. Haq who may have mistaken this One Day Match with a Test Match at the rate he was scoring, however he was staying in which allowed Mommsen who was still at the crease to finally tee off and launch one final assault for Scotland. Mommsen & Haq put on over 50 for the 9th wicket which was Scotlands best for the innings and saw Mommsen bring up his century, however almost immediatley after he did this Haq's defensive reign came to an end when he was dismissed for 14 leaving Scotland needing 40 runs off 19 balls for the last wicket. Number 11 I. Wardlaw did what he needed to do and scored a single off every delivery he faced allowing Mommsen to continue his one man show. However unfortunatly for Scottish fans, Mommsen chasing another big shot was caught in the deep for 118 off the bowling of N. Ahmed who claimed his fourth wicket allowing Hong Kong to capture a tense 17 run victory. Hong Kong 7/263 I. Ahmed 75 I. Wardlaw 3/57 (10) T. Afzal 42 M. Machan 2/37 (8) M. Chapman 36 R. Haq 1/45 (10) Scotland 246 (48.4 overs) P. Mommsen 118 N. Ahmed 4/37 (9.4) M. Machan 34 H. Amjad 3/53 (9) R. Taylor 28 A. Khan 1/33 (6) On Wednesday round two gets underway with Namibia playing their first match against the tournament favourites Netherlands and Canada who have made the last three world cups play against the impressive UAE who have not made it to a World Cup since 1996. Papua New Guinea have a chance to build on their impressive early win taking on the poorly performed Uganda on Thursday while Nepal & Scotland will both be desperate for a win in their clash. Hong Kong & Kenya have the byes this round. Standings so far. GROUP A United Arab Emirates Hong Kong Canada Scotland Nepal GROUP B Netherland Papua New Guinea Namibia Kenya Uganda

http://www.espncricinfo.com/new-zealand-v-west-indies-2013-14/content/current/story/701827.html Given this latest news I want Ryder re-instated into my XI!

Your not wrong TU, I think we saw our bowlers looking tired for the first time this series in the afternoon session. That coupled with probably a little bit nervous as to what they know is ahead... I expect McDermott would of had a good word to them overnight and hopefully we'll see a much improved performance today. Only 13 overs till the new ball also, so that will be telling. I'd open with Harris & Johnsons, even if just for two overs each and then rest them before the new ball and let Lyon and possibly Watson go to work on them with the old ball for the next 9 overs. If England were to chase down 504 (86 runs more then the current world record for a 4th innings chase) then they deserve to win. But I'm not to nervous yet. If Stokes & Prior add another 100 runs without a wicket going down, then I'll start to feel a little concerned, but it's extremely unlikely to occur.

We're only 50 runs away from setting them a world record run chase, so fair to say things are looking pretty good given the way England have been batting. I reckon they might just bat normal for the first hour and then throw the bat for 20-30 minutes and set them something around the 450 mark for victory. Give themselves the best part of 5 sessions to bowl England out. But they may bat longer, who knows??? You wonder what England can do for the remainder of the series, especially if Broad can't ake any further part? It's a long, long way back for the right now....

It's difficult to always say at the WACA. Last year South Africa were bowled out for 225, yet went onto win the match by about 400 runs. The WACA of recent times seems to be at it's best to bowl on Day 2 and then flatens out a bit until the cracks open up on the last day. I'm happy with our score at stumps, given we've got 4 wickets in hand and their bowlers have looked tired since lunch. If we can get to 400, which is looking good then we're unlikely to loose this match unless England pull one out of nowhere! Great performances by Smith with good support from Haddin & Johnson and a valuable contribution from Warner at the top also, As TU says, there's some serious question marks on our batting. Watson & Bailey I believe are our two biggest issues followed by Rogers given his age. The other concern is the two leading run getters in the Shiled are Marcus North & Cameron White, no spring chickens, so it's not as if we've got anyone currently banging down the door!

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....