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Cricket 38: Ashes Openers Crash and Burns


Philokles

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Denly was out to a snorter of a delivery, but Stokes should never have been playing at that wide ball to chop it on, and Pope has just had a brain fade with a slow full toss. England have really gifted wickets to NZ when they could least afford to. Curran can bat a bit but there's a lot to do.

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Well done, great win by NZ.

It was really well bowled by Wagner on the last day. Boult was out, and Santner didn't pick up much on a fifth day pitch, so Wagner's 5 wicket haul in the second half of the innings really did the damage. New Zealand really are a solid side and England overseas are just...a bit meh.

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7 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

 Wagner padding his stats by cleaning up the tail, again.

That's a bit harsh. I haven't seen the highlights yet but he got the wickets of Denly, Pope and Buttler and Archer, at least looking at the scorecard, was doing ok and had reached 30 before Wagner picked up his wicket. It's really only Broad who was a gimme wicket.

A bit of a low note to finish for New Zealand cricket after a good test on most fronts with Archer apparently being subjected to racist abuse by a fan after he was dismissed. It's not great to see that at all in cricket and it's a bit more of a shock to see it at such a small apparently family orientated venue.

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Well, at least it was "only" a spectator. Not much can be done to keep racist arseholes out of cricket crowds until they are identified. I hope CCTV / TV can identify the person and they can be banned from attending future games. But the way I initially heard a headline it sounded like it might have been an accusation of some racist on field sledging, which would have been unconscionable. So I was relieved when a more detailed report said it was a spectator. Disappointing it happened, but NZ is only slightly (maybe) less racist than other white majority countries, so not really surprising. And unfortunately this incident isn't going to suddenly make racist NZers change.

 

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Yeah, Pakistan bowled well at first but Azhar has gone to defensive fields too soon. No point going to a defensive field when a side is only 1 wicket down on the first day of a Test, considering his bowlers were doing a decent job. It is a much better bowling attack than last match though with Abbas and Shaheen.

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Amir retired from test cricket a little while ago.

Pakistan were destined for failure in this series I’m afraid. Not much you can do with Warner in this kind of form and on these pitches - we’ve seen it all before.

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12 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Where is Amir at? Also why is Abbas in this team? he looks so average. Does he have a ton of wicket or something?

This must be the weakest Pakistan bowling attack I've ever seen....

edit: Shaheen is a total disaster on the field. Fuckin hilarious!

Abbas looks average because he's only medium pace, bowling around 125kph.

However, in his defence he does have a very good Test record - 66 wickets in 14 matches at a microscopic average of 18.86 and economy rate of 2.46.

He's kind of like a Pakistani version of Vernon Philander. No pace, but good control, nibbles the ball around a bit. We haven't seen the best of him in this match, but in the UAE in two Tests against Australia he took 17 wickets.

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New Zealand grinding England's attack down again with unspectacular but solid batting.

I can't wait for this Pakistan test "series" to be over. New Zealand vs Australia will be a cracker of a series in December/January. New Zealand are a very, very good team and I think they have a legitimate chance at beating, or at least severely testing Australia at home.

It's not just that they've got two world-class performers in Williamson (batting) and Boult (bowling). They have a solid backup cast too. In the batting there's the experience of Ross Taylor, plus Latham and Nicholls have been doing some heavy lifting lately. Watling is probably one of the best batting wicketkeepers going around in Test cricket, especially after his recent double ton. And the bowling behind Boult has a lot of variety - the bounce of Matt Henry, lefty Wagner, experienced Southee and maybe the sheer pace of Lockie Ferguson will get a look-in too. The only gap in the side is the lack of a frontline spinner, as Santner isn't quite there yet.

I really like this NZ side (possibly still a result of the World Cup robbing) and @Paxter will be pleased to know I'll be cheering for an Aussie defeat in the upcoming Trans-Tasman series!

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