New Zealand in England 2013

England are absolutely awful to watch at the moment, impossibly slow run rate leading to a collapse circa the 200 run mark. If you're going to bat so pathetically slowly you should at least get a safe 350+ score.

At the moment we bat like the lowest ranked team in the world trying to defend a 1-0 series lead in the final game against the top team. Show far too much respect and it always backfires when its left to the tail enders to try and pick up the run rate and get a respectable score, as it always is.

Prediction for the rest of the game: England all out for around 220, New Zealand bat to 400+ with ease (as England get smashed all the shop making their terrible run rate look even worse). Game saved for England by rain with England 161-7 on day 5.
 
We have been distinctively average since the home series against South Africa, aside from 3 (of the 4) test matches in India.

It's been a peculiar period for English Cricket post number 1 ranking, and i'm not sure where we are at right now. It's going to be a surreal Ashes series, with two batting line ups attempting to prove themselves.
 
Wish I was home watching this!

Jimmy Anderson with the new ball in England, one of the best sights in cricket.
 
Why the feck do the New Zealand batsman make run scoring look so much easier than our mob.
 
We've been outplayed by New Zealand in pretty much every test game so far.
 
shaggy said:
We've been outplayed by New Zealand in pretty much every test game so far.
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We're a really over-rated side imo.

The problems with the batting are obvious and I already touched on them, but its the bowling that worries me these days.

You have Swann and Anderson who are two of the best around and then Broad and Finn who aren't. I used to really like Finn when he first burst onto the scene but now he's doing everything that I hate of Stuart Broad, banging it in and playing brainless cricket.

I'd honestly drop Stuart Broad right now and give Bresnan a bowl, and I'm not a big fan of Bresnan, Broad's a very talented cricketer and can bowl very good spells but too often for me he's just not on the money, needs a kick up the backside.

I reckon we're probably gonna lose both Ashes' series, and I hardly see it as a shock result either.
 
Definitely won't be a shock. We seem to be about as bad as each other at the moment. English media will say we'll cruise it though thinking it's still 2010 and then be shocked when it's inevitably really close or we collapse on the first day.
 
Possibly the worst review in the history of the game from McCullum.

Should have criticised the England bowling attack before the game started, they've decided to bowl well today.
 
anderson is some bowler when it's doing a bit.
 
Good test match this, nice to see a bowlers game for once.

Cook saving up his runs for the Ashes ;)
 
Is Compton doing enough to keep his place ahead of Root and Bairstow when KP comes back?
 
Root's such a quality talent, wasted batting lower than 4 in my opinion.
 
England have already got a match winning score IMO.
 
Yeah i think we'll still win it fairly 'comfortably', a shame Root couldn't get his first hundred done and dusted.

I'm joining the hype. Looks the part to me, and will get alot better.
 
I'll throw my lot in with the Root hype as well.

He looks an absolute player, hopefully he can get a ton this series and be ready to punish the Aussies.
 
I joined the hype when I saw him play against India in India.
 
Kept assuming form would come back but England have been average for some time now I think it's time for changes, Compton has failed to impress me despite his 2 hundreds in NZ so I would like to see Joe Root open with cook to build a long term partnership. I would also like to see Jos Buttler maybe enter the test scene I know his ODI record isn't that great but feel he is coming in down the order having to smash every ball, if given the chance in test think he could choose his shots more and he has some mad skills with the bat.
 
Widnes said:
Kept assuming form would come back but England have been average for some time now I think it's time for changes, Compton has failed to impress me despite his 2 hundreds in NZ so I would like to see Joe Root open with cook to build a long term partnership. I would also like to see Jos Buttler maybe enter the test scene I know his ODI record isn't that great but feel he is coming in down the order having to smash every ball, if given the chance in test think he could choose his shots more and he has some mad skills with the bat.
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The batting talent is there however England seem to be going through a badspell. Buttler is not the answer, only averages 32 in first class cricket. There are people above him in the pecking order like James Taylor who is a great prospect. I don't think it's time for changes at all, how can you start dropping people who score 2 hundreds in the last 2 games after a bad game. Back to the mad chopping and changing which made England a laughing stock before.
 
Should be a cracker of a day today, just been in the library all morning so i could be finished in time to watch it.
Hoping England can set 270+
 
And with Bell's dismissal that should be the game won for New Zealand (unless Broad, Swann, and Anderson can put on an unlikely stand). Virtually nothing for the bowlers to work with on the current score - a few bad overs and your staring down the barrell, with the amount of big hitters in New Zealand's side unless they bowl them out very quickly then they're going to be facing defeat very quickly. Really had to be aiming for at least 300 and they've failed miserably once again with yet another(!) collapse.

For all of the good work Flowers has done since he came in, the collapses every single innings are really getting ridiculous now, every single match there's about 4 or 5 wickets in a row go for single figures. Of course one way to at least break this up would be if we could actually find someone who is in someway competent to come in at 5th because the average there since Collingwood (who was hardly great either) retired must be struggling to get above double figures.
 
JulesWinnfield said:
And with Bell's dismissal that's the game won for New Zealand. Virtually nothing for the bowlers to work with here, with the amount of big hitters in New Zealand's side unless they bowl them out very quickly then they're going to be facing defeat very quickly. Really had to be aiming for at least 300 and they've failed miserably once again with yet another(!) collapse.

For all of the good work Flowers has done since he came in, the collapses every single innings are really getting ridiculous now, every single match there's about 4 or 5 wickets in a row go for single figures. Of course one way to at least break this up would be if we could actually find someone who is in someway competent to come in at 5th because the average there since Collingwood (who was hardly great either) retired must be struggling to get above double figures.
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You're being very pessimistic IMO.

I think England've already got a very good score. Chasing 230 plus in 4th innings is not easy at any pitch.
 
The pitch hasn't really changed much bar the outfield getting a bit quicker. Anderson will put in a good show, I reckon.
 
All Swann really has to do is build a wall and let Broad play the shots, another 20-30 runs and I think we probably have it sealed.
 
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