Monday, 29 January 2007

Ben on...so close, so very close

Australia 343/5, New Zealand 335/5. With a huge 678 runs scored, New Zealand got within 8 runs. So, so close.

Amazing effort by Oram (fastest 100 by a New Zealander) and McCullum – a partnership of 137 from 88 balls. Just to demonstrate how tough things got for them, the required run rate got as high as 78 in the last over. But contributions from the top order ensured they had a platform to attack from.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Goddamn! And here I was thinking it was a GREAT idea to go to bed when the players went off the field because of the rain. >_<

Mike said...

I missed the end because of the rain as well. Dammit! Still, as the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out - New Zealand scored almost as many runs in one innings as England has scored in its last three!

Anonymous said...

Great game although i passed out in bed after Macca was run out. A few negatives - the bowling was substandard and the fielding was awful. Once again, if your going to beat the Aussies you take every chance, even the 'half chances'. Ironically, our bowling until now has been our strong point. Just need to have both disciplines working together instead of doing one well and the other not so.
Oram's injury break seems to have fired him up. Always got the feeling he occassionally went through the motions. Now seems much more on the ball. Glad Vincent got another shot and proved hes capable of smashing the ball about. In an average scoring game (if the Aussies got 250odd), his knock would have been incredibly valuable.
Still not convinced on Fulton. Hes got shots but dont know about the tempremant. Taylor needs to check himself a little more - 90% of his dismissals are self made. He has the talent, the skill. Now he just needs experience.
Vettori was great and Patel was good. The rest were indifferent. OUr team looks MUCH better with Oram and Mills back and replace Patel with Bond for the next game and we're getting toward full strength.
Looking forward to tomorows game - time to really ram home our superiority over the English.