1st Test: West Indies v New Zealand at Kingston Jun 8-12, 2014

[JJ]

Jimmy Neesham

Centuries in first two tests
Bill Ponsford (Australia) vs England, Sydney and Melbourne, 1924-5
Doug Walters (Australia) vs England, Brisbane and Melbourne, 1965-66
Alvin Kallicharran (West Indies) vs New Zealand, Georgetown and Port of Spain, 1972
Mohammad Azharuddin (India) vs England, Kolkata and Chennai, 1984-85
Greg Blewett (Australia) vs England, Adelaide and perth, 1994-95
Sourav Ganguly (India) vs England, Lord's and Notthingham, 1996
Rohit Sharma (India) vs West Indies, Kolkata and Mumbai, 2013
Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand) v India and West Indies, Wellington and Kingston, 2014

 

[vvvrulz]

Pretty ordinary WI bowling lineup.

All bar Shillingford coming from a 1+ year layoff from test cricket. Taylor hasn't played a test for 5 years, Benn for 4.

On paper Taylor, Roach, Benn and Shillingford isn't a bad bowling lineup.
But as you say all are severely undercooked, at least Tino Best keeps charging in.

Well done Neesham, the Black Caps are playing with a maturity almost never seen before.

 

[Timbo]

Taylor has played quite a bit of FC cricket recently and has been dominating at that.

Roach has barely had any, but he's been easily their best quick in 15 years so I get why they'd hurry him back in.

 

[JJ]

On paper Taylor, Roach, Benn and Shillingford isn't a bad bowling lineup.
But as you say all are severely undercooked, at least Tino Best keeps charging in.

Well done Neesham, the Black Caps are playing with a maturity almost never seen before.

Not in a long time - tbh I don't give a shit who the opposition are or whether they are at full strength, this is an away test series out of season for us, and I would love a string series...We've seldom had our best 11 on the field in the last 20 years for various reasons, so I empathise with the Windies, but on paper they have some good players

Windies 176/5

 

[Timbo]

Surely that's Fulton done and dusted.

 

[TheParraboy]

Chanderpaul semi-saves the WI ass by scoring 84no in the total of 262 all out

Kiwis have a 253 run lead with 8 wicket left - 2 days remain


Wouldn't surprise me if the kiwis get bowled out for 100-150, would probably be the best thing that batting on for too long. Set WI 400 odd to win with over 4 full session to play

Still expect NZ to win it just before or after tea on day 5 is my tip

 

[edabomb]

Surely that's Fulton done and dusted.

Hesson is a stubborn little bloke and has a lot of power in selections. If NZ manage to win this I'd say Fulton still has a 50% chance of being there. He hasn't performed any worse in this test than he did in his 7 or 8 prior.

 

[vvvrulz]

Nah Fulton is gone burger this time.

I can't help but think that the West Indies could pull off a comeback here.

Taylor/Roach/Shillingford/Benn are more than capable for blowing NZ away if they all hit form and with Gayle and Chanderpaul they could haul down 350.

That said NZ just need a solid session in the morning and they should at least have the draw secure.

 

[African Monkey]

Hesson is a stubborn little bloke and has a lot of power in selections. If NZ manage to win this I'd say Fulton still has a 50% chance of being there. He hasn't performed any worse in this test than he did in his 7 or 8 prior.

Agreed. He was given no hope of making this tour and yet still made it there. He must add something that we don't see.

 

[vvvrulz]

Agreed. He was given no hope of making this tour and yet still made it there. He must add something that we don't see.

Apparently he has been adding plenty in a leadership role and is basically a second captain to McCullum.

Of course that's nowhere near enough for him to stick around.

 

[JJ]

Windies 35/3

 

[Twizzle]

Windies 6/90

 

[JJ]

8 down now, pretty good toss to win, nonetheless, pretty good performance - and the debutant spinner going ok

 

[jamaman]

Windies still falling

 

[JJ]

Shillingford just got the fastest Windies test 50 ever, and the second fastest by anyone - naturally enough the fastest one was scored by the Immortal Kallis

 

[JJ]

Williamson finishes it in the last over of the day

 

[vvvrulz]

Great win New Zealand, as crap as the West Indies are this is a huge achievement.

So Fulton out and Rutherford in (although I'd prefer Guptill personally, I know I know...)
I'd like to see Wagner in for Sodhi and stick with Craig.
Neesham stays and his spot is for him to lose to Anderson, who just has to wait.

 

[African Monkey]

Still wouldn't suprise me to see Fulton playing in the next test. Hesson has stated in the past that he likes a left hand/right hand opening partnership so and as vvvrulz said, he must be adding quite a bit leadership wise.

 

[JJ]

Not sure whether we should conclude the Windies are awful in comparison to us, I think the toss had a huge effect on that game.

Hopefully Latham gets a few years now, whoever opens with him is questionable, I'd still go back to Flynn tbh, and while Fulton is a good bloke, that 2nd dismissal was atrocious

Neesham is just better than Anderson, I think...

 

[edabomb]

Neesham offers a bit more with the bat at test level for mine - I can't see him having too much of an impact with the ball. That said Anderson has had a lot of luck with the ball so far, not sure he offers that much more.

Neesham's test match batting average sitting at 99 :lol: