On again on Thursday, 12pm AEST start
Have the kiwis run out of huff and puff?
Aussies lead the series 2-1, Could clinch it here
Yes.
No one in the top order has the class to consistently build lengthy innings against an accurate attack without throwing their wickets away. I mean, if you look at the top order they all have some distinctive ways of getting out that seem to be not easily exploited by teams 4-9, but very easily exploited by teams like Australia.
* For instance, Ingram's lack of footwork and playing from the crease and bat angle leave him horribly exposed for one angling in towards the stumps. He's a bowled and LBW candidate.
* Broom early on can get too closed off and plays around his front pad. Big LBW candidate.
* Franklin is a stylist who keeps finding the field who eventually squares up to the ball going across him for an edge to the keeper.
* Taylor likes the ball coming on at the start of his innings and heave-ho's across the line when he isn't entirely comfortable.
* Guptill looks probably the most polished but he too isn't going on with it once he's started to get in. He's a great striker of the ball, some of the straight hits in Auckland were ferocious but he then gets out to a ball back of a length on off stump from Watson that is really doing nothing.
Taylor is very capable of batting New Zealand into very strong positions, and for the ability he has he really needs to end up as a batsman who averages close to 50 in test cricket for New Zealand to set up well. Guptill definitely has a lot of ability, but I dare say he needs to spend a season in county cricket averaging 60 and learning to bat long innings on different pitches.
