Crucket

Though the weather is shite here in Wellington, it looks like it could be a cracker of a day in Napier. So we can now all get excited about the deciding test. And if we are to believe the pre-test reports, a result is far more likely than in previous years in Napier.

New Zealand of course are coming into this test from a 141-run loss. Which is quite discouraging compared the 32-run margin in the first test.

I don’t think it is quite as bad as that though. I went to the last day of the Basin test, knowing that a loss was inevitable, but hoping for a fourth-innings total that wasn’t embarrassing. I went in hoping audaciously that we might get 300. I had to quickly lower my expectations when Fulton and Elliot went early,  now merely hoping that we got the highest innings total of the test. I then lowered my expectations again when Taylor and McCullum fell close together, hoping now that we wouldn’t get both of the test’s two lowest innings. So I was pleasantly surprised with the final total of 263.

In the final analysis, we at least held our own in 3 of the 4 innings. We dismissed Pakistan fairly cheaply twice and got a decent 4th innings total. It was just that 2nd innings where things crapped out.