Blackcaps

[brown fox]

Slow scoring,2 down and digging in. 😏$6 for a draw looking pretty good now

[brown fox]

Draw down to $4.15 already (definitely not my bet to cause that)

[Hesi]

It is NZ 404 tests vs SA 37 tests, it's a no contest.

NZ should score 500 runs the easily bowl SA out twice, now that the early over kerfuffle has settled down

[Hesi]

Great article on how a SA 'D' cricket team ended up coming to NZ

Mark Reason: Why South Africa’s cricket tour against Black Caps is a ‘fiasco’

Mark Reason

January 24, 2024, • 05:00am

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Kagiso Rabada of South Africa (C) is congratulated by team mates after dismissing Tim Southee of New Zealand in a test in Christchurch in 2022.

OPINION: There won’t be riots on the street. The police won’t be pelted. New Zealand families won’t fight amongst themselves. But 43 years on from the infamous Springboks tour, another team from South Africa has arrived in this country to desecrate the sporting landscape.

Almost unnoticed, a South Africa cricket team has slunk through airport security and is preparing for a two test series against New Zealand. I call them ‘a’ South Africa cricket team because they are absolutely and insignificantly an indefinite article.

They are a shadow team. They are a bunch of players cobbled together from the ones who are not deemed vital to the commercial success of South Africa’s T20 league. One of them now lives in Washington state, having not played a test match since 2019 when he set a record for the most sixes conceded in a series.

The South Africa squad is captained by Neil Brand, a 27-year-old who moved to Taunton a few years ago in the hope of qualifying for England. He didn’t come close to making it. Brand averages under 40 in first class cricket. It is hard to even call him ‘a Brand ambassador’ because after this fiasco, South Africa scarcely has a brand left.

 

How did this wretched state of affairs come about, you may wonder. The simple answer is a mix of greed and incompetence. Even coach Shukri Conrad said there had been “a cock-up.” Conrad is being kind. There have been multiple cock-ups.

Former CEO Thabang Moroe was fired in 2020. An independent investigation charged him with “acts of serious misconduct." Moroe was alleged to have misused funds, alienated the players and lost sponsorship deals. Moroe was one of several who were sacked from their positions. South Africa cricket’s finances were left in a shambles.

This meant that the tawdrily named Betway SA20 league became crucial to South Africa’s financial recovery. Unfortunately the administrators were so short-sighted that they could not plan far enough ahead in order to avoid a clash with the New Zealand test series which was already locked in.

South Africa did plead with New Zealand to shift the dates and had hoped for some reciprocal generosity of spirit as they had toured New Zealand during the Covid pandemic. But New Zealand said no for the simple reason that Australia is the next cricket team into the country after South Africa and Australia is a financial windfall.

 

South Africa’s response to the mess was to send a team of nobodies. They are one of the best test bowling countries in the world, but there will be no Kagiso Rabada (ranked number three in the world behind Ravi Ashwin and Pat Cummins), Anrich Nortje, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen or Lungi Ngidi. Players like Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis - both long departed for the T20 coin - and Rassie van der Dussen won’t be strapping on their pads.

And as the evening shadows lengthen on these abandoned careers, the silhouette of a great batsman walks sadly through the graveyard. It is the image of the great Barry Richards, one of the greatest batters to have ever walked the planet. You can see the tears splashing onto the dry veldt as Richards contemplates what might have been.

Richards played four test matches in which he averaged over 70. Those matches were against Australia. South Africa were then thrown out of test cricket. Only fleetingly did Richards get to show not what might have been, but what would have been. He was that good.

Richards once played at the WACA, one of the fastest pitches in cricket, on a surface so hard that the boot stud wouldn’t penetrate. Western Australia had Dennis Lillee, Graham McKenzie and Tony Lock in the attack. At the end of the day Richards was 325 not out. When Lillee bowled the last ball of the day, Richards came down the wicket, smacked the ball back past the moustachioed one and kept walking until he reached the pavilion.

Barry Richards, a brilliant batter whose stature is being trampled on in current politics in cricket, writes Mark Reason.
He was unmatched as an opener, even by the great Gordon Greenidge with whom he opened for Hampshire. When he got another taste of ‘test’ cricket in the Kerry Packer circus, Richards averaged 79.14 for the world XI in the ‘Supertests.’ Don Bradman’s all time XI contains only four non Australians - Sachin Tendulkar, Garfield Sobers, Alec Bedser and Barry Richards.

Bradman said; “It is not sufficient to keep the ball out of the stumps and not give a catch. There is a need to attack, take the initiative from the bowlers and set up conditions for the batsmen to follow." Maybe they should call it “Bradball.” But that was Richards. He could take the game away from you in a session.

The same could be said for the South Africa cricket board. They can take the game away from you in a session. One moment we had test cricket. The next moment they are trampling on the memory of Richards and casting the ashes of test cricket to the four winds.

It has also placed New Zealand in an invidious position. If they win against ‘South Africa’ for the first time, it will be deemed a hollow victory. And if they lose or draw the two test series, then they will be mocked.

So far the ICC, the body that is supposed to govern for the good of the game, has done nothing. It has been left to the MCC, the former guardians of cricket, to organise a summit in July to discuss the state of the game. One wonders what the ICC, once called “the cuckoo in the nest” when it was headquartered at Lords, is actually there for.

Some of us smiled at the divine justice when the first match of the Betway S20 was abandoned without a ball being bowled. But there is a deeper issue here and it is called the World Test Championship. It was brought in with the best of intentions, but it may be suffering from the laws of unintended consequences.

There are more test series now than ever before in order for all countries to play each other within the cycle. But with so many T20 competitions around the world, the tests are having to be crammed into too small a time box. That is part of the reason why South Africa made such a mess of their scheduling.

ICC chairman Greg Barclay, right, presents England captain Jos Buttler with the trophy after his side’s World T20 championship final win over Pakistan in 2022.
PHOTOSPORT

Greg Barclay, the current chair of the ICC, once said that the pull on New Zealand players from all the leagues around the world was “becoming a bit more of an issue.” It is now almost the only issue. Jimmy Neesham, for example, is one of those currently taking the South Africa coin and Trent Boult has become a peripheral figure.

Unless the ICC is prepared to allocate from its funds a minimum wage for test matches, then the greatest form of the game will wither. And when I say ICC, the ‘I’ really stands for “Indian” rather than “International” ‒ because although Barclay is the chairman, the real power lies with the finance committee which is dominated by India.

The chairman, the secretary and one of the four board members of the finance committee are all Indian. Money is power in cricket and right now India has most of the power. The future of test cricket is in their hands. Are they willing to redistribute some of their own enormous profits from the gateway drug that is T20, in order to help world cricket sustain the purest form of the game?

There is sort of a climate change analogy going on here ‒ immediate self interest versus the future common good. Is India big enough to forget the past and help South Africa and others walk toward a better future. Let us pray.

* Correction: The original version of this article referred to “the late, great Barry Richards”, who is still alive. Stuff regrets the error. Corrected at 9am on January 24

- Stuff

[Tonkatime]

20 hours ago, Hesi said:

It is NZ 404 tests vs SA 37 tests, it's a no contest.

NZ should score 500 runs the easily bowl SA out twice, now that the early over kerfuffle has settled down

I tend to agree, you’d think the only chance of a draw is if they pass the follow on or we don’t enforce it. 

[Globederby19]

Mark lives in the Wairarapa, and I have done some gasfitting for him on numerous occasions. A very nice chap to talk to, with a wealth of sporting knowledge.

[Hesi]

On 2/4/2024 at 3:57 PM, Hesi said:

It is NZ 404 tests vs SA 37 tests, it's a no contest.

NZ should score 500 runs the easily bowl SA out twice, now that the early over kerfuffle has settled down

511, not too far out, now watch SA crumble, twice

[brown fox]

How do you calculate the follow on score?

[Black Caviar]

Take 200 off our score.

[brown fox]

Looks like their batsmen are no better than their bowlers.Obviously not much depth in S.A. cricket

[Hesi]

I'm picking SA will be out about lunch tomorrow, still 350 runs away.  It will be discussed tonight between NZ Cricket and Tom Latham, that NZ do not enforce the follow on, bat till lunch on the 4th day with a lead of about 650 runs, with SA a day and 2 sessions to bat to get them, an impossible task of course.

Why will they do that, 2 reasons

1.  Financial, if the test goes into the 5th day, at least NZC will get more money, at the moment by enforcing the follow on, it is all over potentially by the end of tomorrow, a 3 day test!

2.  As a big 'fuck you' to SA cricket for the lack of respect in sending such a dog of a team.  The bastards can toil it out for a whole day, with no prospect of winning, and chasing 650 runs!

One more 'test' to endure, then it is Aus, with a full strength team!

Forecast is clear

[Maximus]

Max has departed the Crying Room (via The Secret Tunnel) and made a Top Secret visit to Bay Oval for some wonderful Test Cricket - an attempt to distract The Mustelidian Mind from his current Misery in PJ's Comp.

You just know it's not going to be your day when you're taking a casual stroll around said Oval late on Day 2, only to be met by the President of the Not-So-Secret PJ Fan Club.  Geez, PJ! Have you no shame, no mercy?

 

[Maximus]

41 minutes ago, Hesi said:

I'm picking SA will be out about lunch tomorrow, still 350 runs away.  It will be discussed tonight between NZ Cricket and Tom Latham, that NZ do not enforce the follow on, bat till lunch on the 4th day with a lead of about 650 runs, with SA a day and 2 sessions to bat to get them, an impossible task of course.

Why will they do that, 2 reasons

1.  Financial, if the test goes into the 5th day, at least NZC will get more money, at the moment by enforcing the follow on, it is all over potentially by the end of tomorrow, a 3 day test!

2.  As a big 'fuck you' to SA cricket for the lack of respect in sending such a dog of a team.  The bastards can toil it out for a whole day, with no prospect of winning, and chasing 650 runs!

One more 'test' to endure, then it is Aus, with a full strength team!

Forecast is clear

Don't think so Hesi...much simpler and more risk-free to show no mercy, beat em in three days, take the WTC points and move on.

As a complete aside, Mark Reason's lament on SA/Test Cricket is intriguing in typical Reason-ese...but his appalling indictment of Brand is uncalled-for - as Brand showed in the best possible way today with 6-fer in his first innings bowling in Tests. Not bad at all for a 'part-time' spinner bowling on Day 2 in a 500+ wicket. He is also demonstrating a good cricketing brain tactically with his field placings and leading by example. I doubt Mr Reason has the good grace to apologise.
Neither will we get an apology from the on-course announcer at Bay Oval who failed to acknowledge Brand's 5-fer when Henry was caught centimetres from the boundary. There was a cursory, begrudging acknowledgment from him (the announcer) as the players left the field at the end of the NZ innings.
He was  more interested in reminding us all of the 'brilliant Ravindra' 240 earlier in the day.
Poor form, NZC. Get your stuff sorted. It takes two sides to make a Test and Brand's performance was every bit as extraordinary as Ravindra's.

So there.

PS: Max will be there tomorrow as well, when this match is likely to end before the scheduled close of play on Day 3.

PPS: Why would NZC be discussing this overnight with Tom Latham, Hesi-meister? Do you think he is the captain or something?

MM
 

[mardigras]

37 minutes ago, Hesi said:

I'm picking SA will be out about lunch tomorrow, still 350 runs away.  It will be discussed tonight between NZ Cricket and Tom Latham, that NZ do not enforce the follow on, bat till lunch on the 4th day with a lead of about 650 runs, with SA a day and 2 sessions to bat to get them, an impossible task of course.

Why will they do that, 2 reasons

1.  Financial, if the test goes into the 5th day, at least NZC will get more money, at the moment by enforcing the follow on, it is all over potentially by the end of tomorrow, a 3 day test!

2.  As a big 'fuck you' to SA cricket for the lack of respect in sending such a dog of a team.  The bastards can toil it out for a whole day, with no prospect of winning, and chasing 650 runs!

One more 'test' to endure, then it is Aus, with a full strength team!

Forecast is clear

Sounds like an easy 20% profit for 3 days 'deposit'. Not bad.

[Hesi]

37 minutes ago, Maximus said:

Don't think so Hesi...much simpler and more risk-free to show no mercy, beat em in three days, take the WTC points and move on.

As a complete aside, Mark Reason's lament on SA/Test Cricket is intriguing in typical Reason-ese...but his appalling indictment of Brand is uncalled-for - as Brand showed in the best possible way today with 6-fer in his first innings bowling in Tests. Not bad at all for a 'part-time' spinner bowling on Day 2 in a 500+ wicket. He is also demonstrating a good cricketing brain tactically with his field placings and leading by example. I doubt Mr Reason has the good grace to apologise.
Neither will we get an apology from the on-course announcer at Bay Oval who failed to acknowledge Brand's 5-fer when Henry was caught centimetres from the boundary. There was a cursory, begrudging acknowledgment from him (the announcer) as the players left the field at the end of the NZ innings.
He was  more interested in reminding us all of the 'brilliant Ravindra' 240 earlier in the day.
Poor form, NZC. Get your stuff sorted. It takes two sides to make a Test and Brand's performance was every bit as extraordinary as Ravindra's.

So there.

PS: Max will be there tomorrow as well, when this match is likely to end before the scheduled close of play on Day 3.

PPS: Why would NZC be discussing this overnight with Tom Latham, Hesi-meister? Do you think he is the captain or something?

MM
 

Make that Tim Southee

SA deserve no favours, they have disrespected NZ cricket in a huge way by sending such a poor team.  Even Aus when they had disdain for us as a test playing country would at least slot in a few first stringers in their team.  SA have no one even resembling a first string test player.

This is a 'test' in name only

[Maximus]

34 minutes ago, Hesi said:

Make that Tim Southee

SA deserve no favours, they have disrespected NZ cricket in a huge way by sending such a poor team.  Even Aus when they had disdain for us as a test playing country would at least slot in a few first stringers in their team.  SA have no one even resembling a first string test player.

This is a 'test' in name only

so how did Neil Brand manage to get 6 wickets today if he's not good enough for Test cricket? Double-centurion Ravindra, in-form Mitchell and Philips among the victims...if he's got 1-100 and plenty you might have a point. IMO you are making sweeping statements on a subject you clearly struggling to understand. Didnt know who is captain of the Blackcaps but willing to speculate about what NZ Cricket will be doing behind the scenes to drag out a one-sided contest! (Including the risk of not enforcing the follow-on.)
 

MM

[Hesi]

18 hours ago, Maximus said:

so how did Neil Brand manage to get 6 wickets today if he's not good enough for Test cricket? Double-centurion Ravindra, in-form Mitchell and Philips among the victims...if he's got 1-100 and plenty you might have a point. IMO you are making sweeping statements on a subject you clearly struggling to understand. Didnt know who is captain of the Blackcaps but willing to speculate about what NZ Cricket will be doing behind the scenes to drag out a one-sided contest! (Including the risk of not enforcing the follow-on.)
 

MM

Oops, foot in mouth there Maxi.  It seems Hesi knows quite a bit more about cricket than you are giving him credit for. SA 162 runs (150 predicted) and follow on not enforced.

Of note, the 4 or 5 SA cricketers with test experience, scored almost all the runs.

Anyway, beside the point, regardless of how well any of the SA cricketers played, the NZ public wanted to see the full SA test team, and it is a superb team, and while you can't blame this group of players, NZ are going to well and truly rub SA cricket's nose in it for the way they have treated NZ cricket.

[Maximus]

fair enuf to a degree with your predictions but you also said NZ would:
 bat till lunch on the 4th day with a lead of about 650 runs

...ridiculous waste of time and energy that would have been.
Match would've been over after 3 days if they'd enforced the follow-on (IMO)

The only beneficiaries of the alternative were: Williamson (ton 31) and to a much lesser extent Conway, who applied himself long enough to work on a few technical issues, mostly to do with his footwork (or lack of it).
While this series is a sad indictment of the way things are as T2o Leagues smother real cricket. the Blackcaps must know they need to be much  much better in all departments if they are not going to be humiliated on their own turf by a very strong Australian outfit. 
Jamieson will be smashed all over the place unless he picks up his pace; the lion-hearted Wagner surely must come into the Test team.
What's the go with Mr T Boult?
MM

[Hesi]

Go easy, I missed by a session and 120 runs

Yes, they did not play well enough and Aus will potentially hammer them in the 2 tests, but anything could happen in the 3 T20 games

Trent Boult will not be playing, he is playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 league, and the UAE's International League T20.

[mardigras]

On 2/7/2024 at 9:55 PM, Hesi said:

Trent Boult will not be playing, he is playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 league, and the UAE's International League T20.

Boult is supposedly in the T20 squad - for the last two games.

[Hesi]

I see SA has lifted their game for the second test.

While test cricket has a degree of predictability about it, it also has a degree of fickleness.  The reason I held back on making any predictions this time 

[mardigras]

18 minutes ago, Hesi said:

I see SA has lifted their game for the second test.

While test cricket has a degree of predictability about it, it also has a degree of fickleness.  The reason I held back on making any predictions this time 

You might be hoping this substandard, disrespectful team doesn't win the second test.

On 2/5/2024 at 10:07 PM, Hesi said:

..they have disrespected NZ cricket in a huge way by sending such a poor team.  SA have no one even resembling a first string test player.

This is a 'test' in name only

If they do, imagine if they had sent a team of first stringers.

[Hesi]

It is still disrespectful to NZ cricket to send your C team when your A team was available, just not picked for self-inflicted financial reasons, regardless of how well they do.

The damage is done anyway after the first test walloping, any interest has evaporated, including player motivation.  Probably the reason for the poor performance.

They should pull it back over the next few days and win comfortably.

[Dancing Show]

It's always more difficult taking on a team that has nothing to lose than a team that has their cricket careers on the line and that you know well and can study.      The Protea hotchpotch, whilst not their top players are still at the level of many of our regional team players and they all, at times pull off a great bowl that gets our representative batsmen out, or play a beaut innings against our representative bowlers.   It's always going to happen.   To expect the NZ team to run over them 100 percent of the time is just not realistic.

[Maximus]

Observations from Max on the Test so far.
1 NZ has batted very poorly, after getting complacent around 140-3. The wicket is playing fair and offering sone assistance to the bowlers. We lacked the patience and discipline to grind out a lead. To their credit, the Proteas bowled and fielded well, but NZ's middle and lower order gave their wickets away quite meekly and cheaply.
2 In my view this is a classic case of a superior team dropping their standard to the level of the opposition.

3 I'm not convinced that Southee is the best Test captain available in that squad. Why on earth is he batting at #9 ? You just know he's going to have a slog across the line inside half a dozen deliveries, and probably get himself out. He's been doing this for years, wherever he bats in the lower order. Compare his approach with, say, Pat Cummins. I'd be inclined to replace Southee with Latham vs Australia. Not that I'm expecting the powers-that-be to agree with me. Southee's approach was shown up not just by Wagner, but by the debutant O'Rourke - calm, sensible, mature, patient and alert to the value of every first-innings run - even if he scored none of them (from 20 balls faced. Never looked like having a slog across the line, cos he was batting for his partner and his country.
4 I still think we'll win the Test  -not necessarily comfortably, but the sheer level of experience at that level within the Blackcaps should help them negate the 30+ lead and I expect the Proteas to be bowled out cheaply in their second dig. 

MM