I think England are using this odi series for some development and fitness really. the first one was disappointing batting. the second was disappo8nting bowling. the third was 3 good scored not backed by anyone else but good bowling. it'll be interesting to see how they prioritise the forms this year
here we go. day night tests in NZ. England aggressive declare and take 3 wickets. 325/9 plays 37/3 now. Again we see the same kind of story. Crawley fails again.14 balls faced. We see two quick high scoring innnings, a slightly more sedate 42 from pop but the rest are out fairly quickly and scoring fairly quick in doing so. 5.6 and over scoring suggests it was Bazball but a bit of a loosener effort. Anderson gets 2 and robinson gets 1.
not a good day. englands fine start has not lead to much. basically roles reversed. No lead form first innings to talk about and now England face the night time conditions. This will be crucial
Decent knock from blundell to get things more even. You’d feel a lead of anything around 300 should be enough. Effectively 98-2 in this second innings. Wouldn’t surprise me if England went hard and tried to get a lead of 350 and then declare with 10-15 overs under the lights tomorrow to try get another 2/3 wickets before close of play.
We got by the night part with more or less only a little damage. Lets face it, getting 20 odd out of crawley is as much as we should hope for. If we get a good shot at tomorrow n the day then exactly what you'd said makes sense but we will have to give them a big shout at winning, tomorrow is only day 3. giving NZ one night session to survive and then a full other day to get 300 on its face wuld not be enough. so yes I would say full on bazzball in the morning at 6 an over times about 50 overs would be a nearly 400 lead. if we have the men to score 6 an over for 50 overs Having two night sessions at NZ to win the game gives us a fair chance
368 lead. 2 wickets left and they are in their tuxedos having dinner. would you declare or send them to hack at the ball for as long as possible (which won't be long) I just do not think 368 is enough unless we bowl well.
nz tamely surrender. no 5 for for broad. 4 wickets for Anderson though. damage all done during sessions under lights. England navigated for 2 wickets lost on day 2 and massively exploited the other sessions with the ball
Wonder if Broad would get more credit if Anderson wasn’t as good? Or is it one of those where they’ve pushed each other on (similar to Ronaldo and messi). Pure stats, can’t argue with broad being up there. Ashes should be fun with australia not looking as dominant and England in top form playing a different brand of cricket.
Broad has had a massively long and impressive career despite his early days (smashed for six 6s in ODI) 160 tests is massively long but i do wonder if he simply didn't compliment Anderson most of all. bowling to left handers and not many runs) but he has 571 wickets and thats more than glen McGrath. Mcgrath was at 124 tests and 563 at average if 21 odd. Broad's average at 27 is competitive. But he has had a lot more tests so.... who knows. Anderson is anderson. He's not a demon bowler, he's a swing bowler who can make the ball go either way at will. Thats not broad is it. Broad is a big tall lad with medium fast seam bowling thats quite streaky. Esp coming at left handers. His height is massive imo as its bounce that helps him. In fairness the best way to look at it is this; who has he seen off as alternative bowlers to himself and anderson? Finn, Stokes, flintoff, Woakes, wood, jones, archer, bresnan. TBH its no real contest and england's bowling make up has long since been these two players plus 1 second line seam and one spinner plus allrounders. we've seen many a spinner i nthe single slow and many a 3rd option man before robinson Right now its stokes and robinson plus leach.
seems rain stopped play. england 315/3 from 21/3 (pope, crawly and ducket out early) Brooks massive score and root century. books sored 184 off 169 balls including 24 4s and 5 6s. that is frankly OUTRAGEOUS. its a decent position from a bad one. its on target for a winning score but only on target now.