England in New Zealand 2008 (Cricket)

[TrueYid]

Time for a new cricket thread I think.

England arrive in New Zealand next week - allot of games packed into two months of cricket (tour dates)

2 x 20Twenty's
5 x ODI's
3 x Tests

One Day Squad
Paul Collingwood (captain), Tim Ambrose, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Phil Mustard, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Chris Tremlett, Luke Wright

Test Squad
Michael Vaughan (captain), Tim Ambrose, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Phil Mustard, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann.


And of course there is the news the Graveney has been axed as England selector to discuss

 

[sharky_marky]

It's essential that we make progress on this tour and gain a better picture of the team that will carry us through to the Ashes next year. The keeper's picture is still cloudy and has to be sorted soon - If Ambrose doesn't cut the mustard (no pun intended ) then the best keeper in the country, James Foster, has to be given the gloves. A dropped catch can cost the team 200 runs, whereas a good batter keeper will average 35/40 - what is more important to the team, those extra few runs when batting or the ability to deny the opposition from scoring a huge total by taking some great catches behind the stumps??

Our batting will probably be vulnerable for the next few years, until we find some more gritty players. However, the bowling could be very good - if Harmison holds his form shown in Sri Lanka, Sidebottom and Hoggard keep on plugging away, and if superb young players like Broad and Rashid start to make the team. It was interesting to see that Panesar is going on the Lions tour and is up against Rashid - the selectors have already identified Rashid to compete with Monty for the spinners berth in the team IMO, and given Rashid's a proper batsman as well, watch that space.....

 

[SpursMadJames]

hope mascehrenhas does well
he can hit a long ball, not a bad bowler aswell
thank god prior is out, couldnt keep

 

[montylynch]

One bonus on this tour is that we don't have to face Shane Bond, who is a very good bowler. IMO NZ are a much weaker opposition without him.

Can't wait for the series to start in all honesty, two evenly matched teams and both should play good hard cricket, it should be a good series to watch.

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

One bonus on this tour is that we don't have to face Shane Bond, who is a very good bowler. IMO NZ are a much weaker opposition without him.

Can't wait for the series to start in all honesty, two evenly matched teams and both should play good hard cricket, it should be a good series to watch.

Correction, one average england team vs one complete and utter shite new zealand team. Bear in mind that not one single test involving nz has made it to the 5th day in the last 18 months.

Bond has only ever played 17 tests in the last 7 years so he isn't really a loss since he was never really there anyway, plus he's scum now anyway.

But the NZ batting is so shit right now its not funny.

 

[TrueYid]

Bell: England need to start winning
Cricinfo staff
January 29, 2008

England have arrived in New Zealand at the start of a two-month tour that culminates in a three-Test series in March, but already the squad is looking further afield. Ian Bell, one of the few survivors of the 2005 Ashes, believes that the squad must use this series as a springboard if they are to have a hope of overcoming Australia when they next tour in 2009.

England's Ashes triumph in 2005 was not a one-off victory, rather the pinnacle of a two-year rise through the rankings, in which time England won six Test series in a row. A similar timescale lies ahead of the team now, and Bell knows how important momentum will be to their chances of overcoming the Aussies.

"The major goal for me and the team is the 2009 Ashes and we've got a lot of big cricket on the way to that," he said. "When we won in 2005, we started to build up that momentum before then and got used to the habit of winning and, as we sit here now in New Zealand, we want to do that again.

England have an arduous schedule over the next 18 months, encompassing home and away series against New Zealand, a four-Test rubber against South Africa, followed by trips to India and the West Indies next winter. "It's important that England are winning matches now," said Bell. "Looking at the fixtures we've got coming up, this is one step towards trying to peak at the right time.

For the time being, however, it is England's one-day cricket that takes centre stage, with the first of two Twenty20 matches against New Zealand getting underway on February 5. Following their lengthy flight from Heathrow, England's new fitness coach, Marcus Church, put them through their paces in Christchurch ahead of a two-hour net.

Paul Collingwood, the captain, missed the majority of the session following a minor lower back spasm, but he is expected to be fit for the first warm-up match against Canterbury on Saturday.

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I am quite excited, I am thinking of flying over to NZ for a test, looking into prices now. I will keep you posted.

 

[TrueYid]

The importance of this tour is to find form, our top order need to start scoring 100's and big ones too on a consistent basis.. getting a ton once every series is not good enough, we need each of our top order to be getting big scores at least once every three innings.

 

[TrueYid]

Twenty20 tomorrow... All England batsmen have made runs in the 2 warm up games, and bowling aint been too bad either.

L. Wright hit 40no off 15 balls in the first warm up (I don't know much about him, if anyone has seen him play enlighten me) Cook made a good hundred too.

Daniel Vetori will be the danger man for NZ, but I think we can do em

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

Vetori's out of the 20/20

 

[TrueYid]

Well we won, convincingly despite the best efforts of Jacob Oram

 

[sharky_marky]

A great performance by our lads - we must be ruthless now, for once, and win the next one!! Sidebottom, Hoggard and Anderson should have a field day in New Zealand with their ability to swing the ball and given the poor state of the Kiwi batting line-up!

 

[TrueYid]

...and Oram is out for round 2

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

178 to win, 16/1, I think we'll lose.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Even better performance by England by the sound of things.

Why the blithery bollocks have we kept Dimi Masco on the sidelines for so long? I remember seeing him regularly in like 1999 and being convinced that he'd get a regular slot for England. Lovely player to have in the team.

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

Thats much better, nice in fact. Styris is out of form but Taylor's back in form.

To be fair we never take TwentyTwenty seriously anyway.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Whereas we play the 50-over game with all the talent and application of a dying rhododendron.

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

Only watched up until the rain stopped play during Englands innings when England were looking good. At that point I thought that the rain had saved us from losing.

Then I find later that we hammered you.

Ryder's looking a good choice considering its only second ODI

 

[The Apprentice]

Mustard is Ian Bell from 5 years ago. Get's in, looks in good nick, then throws away his wicket.

We can't bat for shit. Bopara is wank and Pietersen has lost all semblance of form. I though he used to be good?

10 wicket defeat is pretty embarrassing really.

 

[TrueYid]

What a game...

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

I was so gutted at the end.