Wednesday, 26 May 2004
Failure against England
A tired, average performance. The side let down by their middle order and disappointing bowling on the final day. Two tests, two almost identical losses.
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A place for me to indulge my passion for New Zealand cricket, post those stories that don't make the back pages of the morning paper and discuss cricket with my friends.
3 comments:
I meant more of a mental exhaustion than physical exhaustion. Fleming, Styris, McMillan, Tuffey and Vettori looked *flat* to me. It was a long summer of cricket for those five and perhaps the break between our summer and the England tour was too short.
I heard on the radio that Bond's back injury has resurfaced and that he is out for the second test and possibly (probably) out for the tour. Michael Mason is the stand-by, but I fervantly hope he is left on the sidelines and a speedster like Butler is bought into the squad.
This was an intiguing match; the advantage, such as it was, swung so many times. Which just made the final result that much more disappointing. I followed the last couple of sessions, where the pendulum had definitely swung England's way, and it was pretty dismal. The only light was Styris' ability to bamboozle Strauss.
How about a little history lesson to keep some perspective.
NZ in England, 1999. First test, England win by 7 wickets, largely due to NZs failure to bat, and Andrew Caddick's 2nd innings 5-32. Tudor left on 99not out. 2nd test at Lords - NZ win by 9 wickets. 3rd test at Old Trafford - draw. 4th test at the Oval - NZ win by 83 runs.
England in NZ, 2002. First test, England win by about 80 runs. The only respectability given to New Zealand's score was a mind-boggling 222 by Nathan Astle. 2nd test at Wellington - draw. 3rd test in Auckland - NZ win, with at attack consisting of Tuffey, Astle, Vettori, Chris Drum and Andre Adams.
Someone with too much spare time could do an interesting analysis of NZ's propensity to lose 1st matches on tour - I suspect it to be high. Sod these arguments about the middle order being broken or the bowlers not being fast enough - our players are never focused for the intensity of test match cricket on time.
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