2006 Ashes

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Plunkett looks a real matchwinner, just needs a bit of polishing.

 

Yeah... maybe... with time. He concedes runs like billyho though. He needs to make his action repeatable and maintain a line. He's either bang on the button or too wide and getting smacked to the boundary. He's capable of bowling wicket taking balls though. He reminds of another Jimmy Anderson really, just a bit quicker.

Chrissy Tremlett is the best young bowler in the country though, he's just been very unlucky with injuries the last few years. He's got a great action though, that never changes and he's nearly 7 foot tall so gets incredible bounce. He's a great line and length bowler. He's like a mix of Harmison and Shaun Pollock. In a few years, he'll be our main guy I think. He just needs to stay clear of injuries and get plenty of cricket played.

 

Fascinating stuff though. Shows what a funny game cricket can be, and why the Cricket World Cup is anybody's to win. Everyone loves an underdog upset win.

 

Shane Bond himself started off quite expensive like Plunkett, until he nabbed Australian wickets with unplayable balls -and he never looked back. I see a big future for this guy, he's just that little bit more dangerous than Anderson because of the added pace. You guys have a pretty decent fast bowling stock: Plunkett, Anderson, Tremlett, Mahmood, Flintoff, Harmison, Simon Jones - NZ would kill to have any of those 140-150kph guys to have in their arsenal, most of them are still very young and only one or two of them have to come right.


Anyway NZ world cup squad named, Daryl Tuffey back in the mix. Should be interesting.

 

Wow, Australia got destroyed! Shane Bond tore them to shreds. That really is a massively one-sided scoreline.

Are they lulling everyone else into a false sense of security?

 

Thats exactly it Barmy

Though I really wasnt surprised that we only got a score of 148. With our 2 best fieldsman injured, our best batsman and wicket keeper are both resting and we lost one of our best pace bowlers. Its gone from bad to worse.

I reckon losing Symonds in that first game that we lost against England really shook the team as we lost on of the best all rounders we have seen for a while.

 

Sheesh. Australia were hopeless! Shows how much their much vaunted 'depth' is a bit of an illusion. Embarrassing stuff but great boost for NZ. Go the Black Caps!

 

Wow. Bond's strike rate is just bordering on ridiculous against Australia. Good to see Louie's purple patch continue (and long may it continue). Feel a bit sorry for Mike Hussey though, thrust into captaincy and he suddenly has this injury ravaged team to deal with. No Ponting, Gilchrist, Lee, Symonds, Clarke... that's a fairly impressive list to leave out!

 

Tait's flying out to replace Lee, hopefully his 160km/h reverse swinging yorkers can do something to rectify the situation. If Australia loose one more game to New Zealand we will loose 1st spot on the one day table for the first time since 2002. Hopefully we can rectify the situation.

 

Woah, I've never seen an Eden Park pitch play like that ever!!! Go the Black Caps, what a fantastic chase!

 

Go the Black Caps! I'm loving it.

England and New Zealand have shattered Australia's aura of invincibility and done a big favour for the other teams at the World Cup, who will now all believe that they can beat the World Champs as well.

What a game!

 

I didn't see the game, but that's a fantastic chase. Brilliant! Aussies are still red hot favourites with the bookies to the lift WC though.

I'll pretty surprised if I don't see NZ in at least the semi's. All the pieces are falling together at the right time. It's really wide open this WC.

[ February 18, 2007, 10:57: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

 

This is probably the tightest world cup ever. Sth Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, England, NZ, West Indies... Boy, all the top nations have a good chance, everyone's beatable!!!

 

All the crappy teams have come right just in time. This World Cup is anybody's to win!

 

I can't believe the game I watched last night. Hayden smashes 181 and Australia get 346-5. NZ reduced to 41-4. Craig McMillan then bludgeons 116 before Brendan McCullum and the tail bring NZ home to 350-9 with 3 balls left. Unbelievable. NZ beat Australia 3-0.

If I had bet money on any of the beforehand, I'd be rich now.

 

If someone was to say Matt Hayden was to get 181 in this game, I'd say we'd be pretty much dead and buried. Absolutely incredible comeback win. With McMillan batting out of his skin to win us the game nevertheless! Unreal.

[ February 21, 2007, 03:35: Message edited by: Tassadar ]

 

There's a few warm up games tomorrow for the world cup. There's:
Australia v England in St Vincents
India v West Indies in Jamaica
New Zealand v Sri Lanka in Barbados
Pakistan v South Africa in Trinidad
It will be interesting to see if they give any indication of form.

 

Do we need a World Cup thread then? NZ v England right now. Go the Black Caps. Go Ireland!

 

What were England doing with the bat? There's nothing wrong the pitch, that was just crap batting. Way below par score there. I don't think the Kiwi's will have any trouble chasing that down on this wicket.

 

Well played by the Black Caps!

But look at Pakistan and India collapsing to Ireland and Bangladesh. Fascinating stuff.