Cricket fred

[J Dory]

Bit of a pessimistic vibe going on here.

Does no-one think we can snatch a draw? Any tropical storms heading that way?

Looks like rain on and off for the next three days in Auckland so every chance.

[canta_brian]

Bit of a pessimistic vibe going on here.

Does no-one think we can snatch a draw? Any tropical storms heading that way?

Looks like rain on and off for the next three days in Auckland so every chance.

NZ should declare overnight

[fivepointer]

England's lowest Test totals
45 v Australia, Sydney, 1887
46 v West Indies, Port of Spain, 1994
51 v West Indies, Kingston, 2009
52 v Australia, The Oval, 1948
53 v Australia, Lord's, 1888
58 v New Zealand, Auckland, 2018

I'd forgotten about WI in 2009.

[Galfon]

They've hit the ground running..
just got the direction finder to fix.
There must be some foul-play we can think of..

[zer0]

Bit of a pessimistic vibe going on here.

Does no-one think we can snatch a draw? Any tropical storms heading that way?

There is unfortunately. Here's hoping for an early deceleration after Williamson gets his record 18th NZ test century. Although, given how things went yesterday, I'm a bit disappointed we didn't try something really crazy like declaring behind once the lights came on to see if Lovely Trenty could repeat the doasge in the evening.

[Banquo]

Naughtie Aussies- Smith has to resign shewerly?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43526870

[fivepointer]

Smith as the captain should never have agreed to this nonsense, or put a junior player in such a position.
All this little turd talked about was the "we" as a leadership group as if the blame should be spread around a number of individuals. Own it you spineless tosser. You are the captain, you called it, you accept total responsibility.

[Mellsblue]

As long as the Ashes is expunged from the record.......

[Big D]

Smith as the captain should never have agreed to this nonsense, or put a junior player in such a position.
All this little turd talked about was the "we" as a leadership group as if the blame should be spread around a number of individuals. Own it you spineless tosser. You are the captain, you called it, you accept total responsibility.

I agree.

Given the "leadership group" probably includes Warner he should resign too.

[Digby]

As with Atherton he can carry on if he wants for me. He'd take less flak if he stepped down, it's up to him if he's willing to listen to the chants everywhere Australia travel

[canta_brian]

They have form.

[Galfon]

Eng trying hard to eke out the match to the full 5 days by not losing all their wickets at the same time.Very sporting of NZ to get some batting practice first.
Cook went early.

[Galfon]

woo-hoo...
Eng. on the up...first innings total exceeded already,
great work by the coaching staff to get things back on track...real Baxter-the-wall response.

[Digby]

I suspect all the sides have tried it on. Getting upset at one of them for getting caught just seems a bit pointless

[Galfon]

Tapegate..(please no)..crass stupidity and arrogance.They'll get the works.

[Galfon]

Not what we needed JR...up against it now.

[belgarion]

Quote from Warner after SA Faf du Plessis was caught ball tampering & fined 100% of his match fee & given
3 penalty points during Hobart Test in 2016

"We hold our heads high and I'd be very disappointed if one of our team members did that.

"The rules are in place for a reason. If you're not going to use them why bother having them?

"If you're going to overstep the mark, be prepared to get fined and miss Test matches."

Also have you seen how the Aussies are bleating about the verbals they're getting from the SA fans
when all visiting players to Aus don't really complain about all the crap they get from the Aussie crowds.
In the words of 'Bomber' Harris they sowed the wind so now they can reap the whirlwind

Edit 26/3: Example of above Lehmann asking the Aussie crowd to send Broad home crying on 2012/13 Ashes Tour
now whinging like a baby cos the SA fans a giving it to his poor wickle boys

[J Dory]

Pretty sad to see the crowd at Eden park right now. 5th day of a test with NZ having a real shout. Tell me you're there Liz.

[canta_brian]

A career in politics awaits stuart broad. Fantastic double edged quote.

“I saw Steve Smith in his press conference said it was the first time they’ve tried it, which to me, seems really surprising why they’d change a method that’s been working,” he said. “Look at the Ashes series that we’ve just played. You look through virtually all of those Tests and they reverse swung the ball in conditions that you wouldn’t expect the ball to reverse, so I don’t understand why they’ve changed their method for this one game. There was no evidence that they were doing this in the Ashes series, from what I’ve seen.”

[Mellsblue]

It won’t win any journalism awards but this made me giggle:

[Lizard]

Pretty sad to see the crowd at Eden park right now. 5th day of a test with NZ having a real shout. Tell me you're there Liz.

I got up there about 6pm last night. Having taken half days off work Thursday and Friday it would have been tough to get there any earlier.

Bloody good result.

[Lizard]

So is Kane Williamson New Zealand's greatest test batsman yet?

The other contenders, I reckon, are McCullum, Stephen Fleming, Martin Crowe, Martin Donnelly and Stewie Dempster.

McCullum qualifies for the short list due to his record 302 highest score, and his 2nd place 6453 career runs. As remarkable as his ability was, an average of 38.64 is not world class so he's out.

Fleming makes the list as he has the most runs at 7172, 1856 more than Williamson. If Kane maintains his average, and NZC continue to arrange minimal tests, it should take him 4 or 5 years to top this mark i.e. by the age of 32 or 33. Fleming's claim must be discounted as an average of 40 and a 17% conversion rate of 50s into 100s isn't good enough. Kane averages 51 and his conversion rate is 41%

Crowe's 50 to 100 conversion rate was higher at 49%, as is his top score (299 v 242*) but he no longer has the most centuries (17 v 18). Personally I'd say Crowe played more attractively (a highly objective scale) but he never averaged more than 48, finishing on 45.36. This would undoubtedly have been higher had he been able to retire rather than battling on one leg, because this was still better than the next best, fully fit player.

Dempster (15 innings, av. 65.72, HS 136) and Donnelly (12 innings, av. 52.90, HS 206) are the only players to average higher than Williamson over 4 or more innings*. Both had limited careers due to the era in which they lived. Comparisons are difficult over such time spans but both were regarded as among the world's best in their time and forged excellent first class records in England.

Other names that should be mentioned are Glenn Turner and Ross Taylor. Although Turner had a huge impact on NZ cricket and was truly world class, I think his figures don't quite stack up as well, being comparable to those of Mark Richardson and Andrew Jones. Taylor is the easiest comparison, being a contemporary of Williamson, and he simply isn't as good.

For completeness, other than the players mentioned above:

• Wright has 18 more runs than Williamson but averaged 37.82.
  Bryan Young has a better high score (267*) but I think he would be the first to admit that this was not typical for him, being one of only 2 test tons.
  Matthew Sinclair has two double tons to Kane's one, but he is the epitome of unfulfilled promise.

Overall, I think for Williamson to secure his legacy, he needs to keep his average above 50 while overtaking Fleming's total. A few more 200+ scores including a triple ton would also help.


*Tom Blundell is currently on 68.00 after 3 innings, including 1 not out

[J Dory]

Pretty sad to see the crowd at Eden park right now. 5th day of a test with NZ having a real shout. Tell me you're there Liz.

I got up there about 6pm last night. Having taken half days off work Thursday and Friday it would have been tough to get there any earlier.

Bloody good result.

On ya.

[Digby]

Crowe would have imo faced stronger bowling units than Williamson, and from the outside Crowe had to carry the team more. Still Williamson is right up there with Kohli and Smith right now, Root will be amongst such number if he can address his failure to convert 50s into 100s

[Digby]

Word is England might make changes in the bowling department after the heavy defeat to NZ. It's a charmed life the batters lead.