I loved Stephen Fleming's comment when Oram came out that he was implying he just the guy for the job, when for the last 18 months, aside from the first 20/20, you could take a cross section of Jacob Oram's innings after 20 balls and he'd be on 5 or 6. He plays petite pedantic blocks and missed glides for yonks these days before he gets going. It's obviously hard to hit out from the go, but Oram's dismissal where he tried a sweep for a single when we need 15 an over sums up his batting of late... when he's available.
One of the few pleasing things to come out of this summer has been Martin Guptill, and probably also the fighting spirit of Grant Elliott. But there's a fair trade off in return for those whose game's seem to have gone backwards. McCullum's strike rate has dropped, Oram's timing is gone and his bowling through injuries seems spent, Southee loves to bowl half volleys on leg stump and isn't coming to grips with the line and length required of international cricket, Martin's pace dropped and when that happened the fact he like most New Zealand bowlers and unlike the Indian bowlers can only swing it one way made him cannon fodder, Taylor while at times impressive still throws his wicket away too often, Ryder despite some good starts is yet to get that first hundred that his talent suggests he should have by now, How started batting like Willie Watson, McIntosh impressive but worries me with that swivel pull hoick of his, Franklin too injury prone and when playing bowls either too short or too full, even Jeetan Patel seems to have lost confidence bowling.
I still think we have a reasonably bright mid-to-long term future, and feel far more confident with Andy Moles in control than John the prima-donna Bracewell, and to be fair we're probably not far away from being at least a decent ODI team again (But truthfully God only knows when we'll cut it at test level again), but our bowling is so cannon fodder and some of these players who have so much potential particularly Taylor, Ryder and McCullum now must accept their seniority in the team and perform more consistently and instead of performances that get New Zealand close for someone else to finish off, they need to be ruthless and control the entire innings. When Australia's at their peak, their top guys generally bat for long periods. Ours seem satisfied getting to 60.
