Crucket

Black Caps go down to Sri Lanka by 200 runs, having owned nothing of this test beyond the first half hour. Bit of an embarrassing day to be a New Zealander, all things considered.

Andy Moles knows the test will be hard to save. He reckons application and discipline will be crucial. Personally, I would prescribe imodium and ginger beer. A bit of the good stuff would also help.

The test is at present out of New Zealand’s hands.  The lead, with the Sri Lankan second innings approaching 100 only 1 wicket down, is about 250. Sri Lanka could declare at any time and expect to win. It really doesn’t matter what New Zealand do. If they were to dismiss the last 9 batsmen for as many runs, all they have done is make Sangakkara’s decision about when to finish the innings for him. If they slow the Sri Lankan batsmen down to a crawl, they’ll just declare a bit later in the day, still leaving them plenty of time to take 10 New Zealand wickets (several of them apparently puking their guts out). Well okay, maybe factoring the weather in makes restricting the run rate worthwhile, but with Dilshan and Sangakkara at the crease, that’s going to be hard work.

I get very nervous watching a lead being built in the third innings. When the lead gets to 30 I start thinking “there’s a wicket’s worth of runs”. When the lead get up over 100 you really want to be able to see the end in sight somewhere. But when the lead starts at 150, each run pushes the target towards dangerous territory, and then beyond.  Each run is a little pain, a little pin prick.

The current test is being played at Galle International Cricket Stadium, which is here:

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Surrounded by sea. So if you are having trouble hearing Brian Waddle’s commentary over the background noise, it is probably the sea breeze and waves breaking against the stadium walls.

Now half way through the first test, with NZ about 100 runs short of the follow on target, 7 wickets in hand. Things not disastrous, touch wood.

Sri Lanka scoring 450 in the first innings certainly puts them ahead and well on the road to a victory.

This is disappointing for New Zealand, but I am getting the feeling that NZ is being judged quite harshly, due it would seem to the low expectations for the team. (If you want to see how low expectations are, check out the first picks in the Sportsfreak tipping competition. Of eight pundits, only one is not picking a whitewash to Sri Lanka. That one is me of course.)

Really, any decent team should score 450 every now and then. It’s not a ridiculously high total and similar scores have been scored at Galle in the last few years, 499/8 two years ago for example.

So what’s my point? Perhaps just that things are not as terrible as the doom-sayers are making out. We should still fancy our chances against Bangladesh later in the season.

With Pakistan’s thumping of Sri Lanka in the only 20-20, the Pakistani tour of Sri Lanka is now complete. So hopefully the Sri Lankan attentions will now turn to the New Zealanders. Check out these outlets.

There are three main English dailies in Sri Lanka. They are all wafer thin in print and pretty damn ugly online.

• Daily News: Sports
• Daily Mirror: Sports
• The Island: Sports

I seem to recall a preference for The Island myself when I was in Sri Lanka, but I don’t remember why.

The only decent cricket blog I know of out of Sri Lanka is Fly Slip, who have now noticed that New Zealand is touring and are already offering up a poll on the best excuses for NZ losing the test series.

I’ve come across a fairly weighty site about Sri Lankan cricket, Island Cricket. I don’t really know what it is; I suspect it might be one of the social networking sites, for SL cricket fans.

There are also a couple of forums for SL cricket fans, SLCricket and the Dilmah Cricket Network Forum – my own personal favourite brand for gumboot tea.

You have to love the Otago Daily Times and their eternal optimism. From any number of press-conference sound bites, they chose ‘NZ has talent to win’ from Vettori as their headline.

It’s nice to believe that Vettori has faith in his players, but the quote the ODT article uses is just an empty throw-away platitude. If the Black Caps are going to succeed in Sri Lanka, they are going to have to do it by hard graft and good strategy. I don’t want to run down the ability of our players, but except for a couple of exceptions, natural talent is not our greatest strength. (It is a fair point that lack of experience is one of our weaknesses though.)

In contrast, Sti Lanka is overflowing with naturals. Their batting line up is lead by the eminently talented Sangakarra, currently the number 1 batsmen in test cricket. With him will be Jayawardene, another fine, fine player. The series against Pakistan has also unearthed another natural talent, Angelo Mathews, who scored 191 runs in the test series and bowled a good few overs as well.

I’m not sure where he is injury-wise, but if Muralitharan plays he will of course be the greatest talent on the park. However, the latest bowling wonder in Sri Lanka has been Ajantha Mendis. He’s still finding his feet, but if he is going to break through against any team, it’s likely to be the Black Caps. He gave us a lot of trouble at the World 20-20, the results of which give him a 20-20 bowling average against NZ of 3.

Against this, New Zealand has potential top-20 talent in Taylor and Ryder, McCullum has a gift for the limited-over formats and Vettori carries much of the team’s talent. For the rest of the team though, while there is plenty of ability there in the likes of Guptill and O’Brien just as quick examples, match-winning talent is a bit short at present, if you can see the distinction I am making.

The facts are, Sri Lanka are a better team than us by a long way. If we are going to succeed in this tour, we are going to have to play very well.

The tour to Sri Lanka has already begun: SLC Dev XI 45/2, Tuffy and Martin a wicket each.

It’s been six years since we were last in Sri Lanka for a full tour (full being in this case two tests and a mini ODI triangular).

2003 was quite a successful tour for New Zealand. Both the tests ended in draws, but New Zealand had the better of both. In the first test in Colombo, we managed a first innings total of 515, with Fleming famously scoring 274 (though Sri Lanka then batted through to the 4th day, making a result impossible). In the second at Kandy, New Zealand barely outplayed Sri Lanka, and the biggest victory was forcing Sri Lanka onto the defence, allowing Fleming to crow a bit after the test.

In the triangular ODI series that followed, New Zealand lead the tight points table, then overcame Pakistan in the final.

After all the work I put into my schedule, the powers that be have gone and changed things. *Sigh*

The Black Caps were orignally scheduled to play 5 ODIs against Sri Lanka. Then news came through that India was going to pop over and join in, and a bonus triangular series was announced, slipping in just before the Champions Trophy. I had suspected there would be difficulty getting this extra tournament fitted in the schedule before the Champions Trophy, but nothing was said, and though the Trophy hasn’t yet been scheduled I just assumed that a window had been spotted and that time would be found. However, the original tour to Sri Lanka was scheduled to run until 19 Sept., while the Champions Trophy, though still not scheduled, is slated to start on the 24th. It’s pretty tight fitting in the 4 games of the mini triangular.

So, not surprisingly, the ODI leg of the Sri Lanka tour has been dropped, with the little triangular to take its place. An extra warm up before the tests has been added and the 2 20-20s will still be played, but have been bought forward to immediately following the tests.

I’ll update my schedule.

It’s a bit of a disappointment really. We are swapping 5 ODIs for only 2 or 3, depending on whether we make the final of the triangular. The extra test warm up is very nice and it will be a bit more interesting having a game or2 against India thrown in. However, giving up a decent ODI series for a pissant triangular is disappointing. I’m not too impressed with whatever deal was done here.

The squads for the tour of Sri Lanka have been announced.

First up is the test squad:

• Daniel Vettori (captain)
• Craig Cumming
• Grant Elliott
• Daniel Flynn
• Martin Guptill
• Chris Martin
• Brendon McCullum
• Tim McIntosh
• Iain O’Brien
• Jacob Oram
• Jeetan Patel
• Jesse Ryder
• Ross Taylor
• Daryl Tuffey
• Reece Young

I’ve marked three names in this list in red, the non-contracted players. I find it surprising that just a week after indicating their favourite players in the contracts list, the selectors change their minds and offer up a slightly different list. In this respect, Tuffey is an interesting choice, as he wins selection above the contracted players Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, James Franklin, Ian Butler and Brent Arnel. Reece Young also displaces the otherwise preferred back-up wicket keeper Gareth Hopkins, as well as Peter McGlashan (though McGlashan hasn’t yet figured in the test equation). In contrast, Craig Cumming only knocks one contracted batsman out, Neil Broom, who hasn’t been considered for test cricket anyway. Which poses the question as to whether the contracts list is weighted too much in favour of bowlers.

I don’t disagree with the selections too much however. I would have like to see Franklin in for Elliot. I would of course liked to have seen Shane Bond in the test squad, but it was definitely sensible to hold him back for this leg of the tour. I would also rate Tuffey above Mills and Southee, on current form. I don’t think I personally would have given Cumming a second look. However, I must admit to being pleased he has been given the chance to erase the memory of what must be one of the worst cameos earlier this year when he was called into the one-day squad to play one match, in which he scored 0 and dropped a catch, but also thereby missing the State Shield final, which his team Otago lost in his absence.

The ODI/20-20 squad brings in the following:

• Shane Bond
• Neil Broom
• Ian Butler
• Gareth Hopkins (ODIs only)/Peter McGlashan (Twenty20s only)
• Nathan McCullum
• Kyle Mills

With the following being dropped:

• Craig Cumming
• Daniel Flynn
• Chris Martin
• Tim McIntosh
• Iain O’Brien
• Daryl Tuffey
• Reece Young

So big differences between the test and limited over squads, with about half the squad changing.

One of the reasons such changes can be made is because NZ A is playing across the Palk Straight in Chennai, assuming it is confirmed. The NZ A squad includes most of the guys added for the limited over leg:

• Peter Fulton (captain)
• Brent Arnel
• Shane Bond
• Neil Broom
• Brendon Diamanti
• Gareth Hopkins
• Jamie How
• Peter McGlashan
• Nathan McCullum
• Kyle Mills
• Tarun Nethula
• Aaron Redmond
• Tim Southee
• BJ Watling
• Kane Williamson

In some ways this is actually a more interesting squad than the test squad. There are a couple of players there who I would like to stay in touch of the test squad, Peter Fulton and Jamie How, who I think are better than they have been. As well as the future of NZ cricket, Brent Arnel, Bradley-John Watling and Kane Williamson, or so we are to believe. And other exciting additions, Tarun Nethula and Shane Bond actually back playing for New Zealand.