Who do we play before England?

[Mr Angry]

Pigeon insults Kiwis
By Robert Craddock
February 16, 2005
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,12264826-23212,00.html

GLENN McGrath yesterday nominated batting sensation Andrew Strauss as his Ashes target and immediately triggered outrage in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Herald playfully claimed the champion fast bowler's nomination of Strauss as his next target for a series that starts in July shows, yet again, that Australians just don't rate New Zealand as a threat.

The Australian squad leaves today for Auckland for a five-match one-day series and three Tests, and McGrath's focus on Strauss inflamed the Kiwis' notorious inferiority complex.

"It was intimidating enough when McGrath was naming his target, but this has got to be the ultimate insult - he hasn't even bothered," former NZ wicketkeeper Adam Parore said. "It's a new low-point in trans-Tasman relations."

The newspaper's senior cricket writer Richard Boock wrote: "Yesterday's oversight will be a galling one for the hosts, who will doubtlessly take the view that McGrath doesn't believe any of the New Zealand batsmen are a particular threat."

McGrath traditionally nominates a target before a series and his hit list includes Mike Atherton, Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

McGrath watched Strauss from close quarters during a short stint for English county Middlesex last year.

"Strauss has had a pretty decent start to his Test career so he's the guy that set them up for big scores recently," McGrath told Sydney radio.

Strauss has scored five centuries in his 12 Tests, including three in England's recent 2-1 series win in South Africa, and averages better than 56.
___________

Those pesky speed humps on the way to England.

 

[ozbash]

you,ll have to do better than that your angryness,
parore is a wimp and boock loves saying things that will sell his paper..

the aussies will be in re-building mode anyway, after we finished with them. :lol:

 

[The Colonel]

I don't know why they don't just let the Kiwis join the Pura and ING Cup series. It would save having to form one team to beat them.....

 

[Twizzle]

I dont know what Parore's winging about, after the lack of resistence put up by the Kiwi batsmen in thier recent test tour of Australia.

I suppose they do have to sell newspapers tho.

 

[JJ]

Unfortunately Twizzle - our test performances have been poor in recent times, not just against Australia - on form though, we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!! Should be more straightforward if we get a fair share of the umpiring decisions, if they persist in favouring Aust then the series will be close :shock:

 

[ozbash]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

 

[Twizzle]

oh yea


sure :^o

 

[Tupac Shakur]

Bring it on Kiwis, bring it on.

 

[gregstar]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

 

[JJ]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

 

[gregstar]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

your one win in the chappell-hadlee trophy was your first against aus since 2002 (7 matches) simple as that - you're second in icc rankings - behind australia - simple as that

 

[JJ]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

your one win in the chappell-hadlee trophy was your first against aus since 2002 (7 matches) simple as that - you're second in icc rankings - behind australia - simple as that

No drama with being 2nd - I could say that you're lucky you didn't have to play us much!

 

[The Colonel]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

your one win in the chappell-hadlee trophy was your first against aus since 2002 (7 matches) simple as that - you're second in icc rankings - behind australia - simple as that

No drama with being 2nd - I could say that you're lucky you didn't have to play us much!

If your record was better than 1 win since 2002...... ;-)

 

[wittyfan]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

your one win in the chappell-hadlee trophy was your first against aus since 2002 (7 matches) simple as that - you're second in icc rankings - behind australia - simple as that

No drama with being 2nd - I could say that you're lucky you didn't have to play us much!

No, NZ was too busy playing Bangladesh and USA.

 

[gregstar]

we are the best ODI side in the world, and about to reiterate it soon!!

oh yea brother,, oh yea.

new zealand V australia in ODI's

W26 L63

oh yeah baby you're the best alright! :lol:

check the last 12 months - we have the best win loss record of anyone - simple as that

your one win in the chappell-hadlee trophy was your first against aus since 2002 (7 matches) simple as that - you're second in icc rankings - behind australia - simple as that

No drama with being 2nd - I could say that you're lucky you didn't have to play us much!

you could say that - but i have no idea why you would want to add to your attrocious record against us

 

[JJ]

If your record was better than 1 win since 2002...... ;-)

Maybe the problem is the cricket team doesn't have enough Parramatta boys in it??

 

[gregstar]

If your record was better than 1 win since 2002...... ;-)

Maybe the problem is the cricket team doesn't have enough Parramatta boys in it??

i take it you've run out of ideas?

 

[JJ]

no need for new ideas - most recent series was 1-1. We are in good form - you looked ordinary. You can quote history if you like, it's irrelevant. Different teams - it's like saying because we were so much better than you in the late 80's that we should win now, or that because you were better in the first half of the century you should...

all that counts is what's happening now - we're going very well, matched you easily in Aust, you're playing worse now than you were then, and you're in our back garden now (and is we get half the umpiring decisions you got at home, the series will be one-sided).

My firm opinion is that this Australian side is coming to the end of the road - the best players are all over 30, well over in many cases. There are no obvious replacements (Hussey, Katich and Hopes?? his names appropriate, but you're kidding??). They sacked Lehmann out of panic, purely on the basis that he looked older than anyone else! He'd had a bad month or two, but had been one of your best players in the last 12 months. Katich is just a good first-class player, nothing more. And the other two are - well I dunno, what are they, an attempt at humour?

 

[gregstar]

You can quote history if you like, it's irrelevant

would you quote history if i said the wallabies are better? - bizarre statement jj

Different teams - it's like saying because we were so much better than you in the late 80's that we should win now

no i'm saying we're better because we are! - number one in "current" icc rankings & you've beaten us once since 2002 - hardly late 80's jj

all that counts is what's happening now

agreed - we've just won a series you lot have been playing local comp

you're playing worse now than you were then

and we still won a comp

(and is we get half the umpiring decisions you got at home, the series will be one-sided).

that old chestnut :roll:

 

[JJ]

You can quote history if you like, it's irrelevant

would you quote history if i said the wallabies are better? - bizarre statement jj

Different teams - it's like saying because we were so much better than you in the late 80's that we should win now

no i'm saying we're better because we are! - number one in "current" icc rankings & you've beaten us once since 2002 - hardly late 80's jj

all that counts is what's happening now

agreed - we've just won a series you lot have been playing local comp

you're playing worse now than you were then

and we still won a comp

(and is we get half the umpiring decisions you got at home, the series will be one-sided).

that old chestnut :roll:

If you were saying that the Wallabies are historically a better team then I would quote history. If you said they were a better team now, we could debate that - we shared the games last year, you beat us at the World Cup but we won the Beldisloe. I'd say it's about even.

I'm not arguing that we are the better team (at least I didn't mean to!) . I am saying we had the best win-loss record in the last year, we shared the Chappell-Hadlee trophy, we are a close 2nd in the rankings, you were ordinary against Pakistan, and this series is in NZ.

That adds up to me suggesting we have a very very good chance of winning the ODIs - it certainly doesn't suggest you are going to thrash us like many Australian posters here are suggesting (admittedly, some of them have IQs well below 100, so I should ignore thjose ones).

It will be a competitive series, and I reckon we'll win. You reckon you'll win. I'd say it's unlikely that the series will be 5-0 or even 4-1 either way. I'm picking NZ 3-2.