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My point was to have all our best players available… Southee & Boult being our best opening bowlers in all forms of the game & clealy the same can be said about McCullum as one of our very best batsmen in all forms, Pakistan have got it right by playing their best squad, also playing bloody musical chairs is ludicrous, using that system you’re always going to struggle for continuity & momentum & lets face it bowlers aren’t going to get too tired in this form of the game where they only bowl 10 overs each, as said, there’s no excuse whatsoever for sending those key players home early.
Got a real thrashing in this mornings ODI… on most occasions on their wickets you can’t afford to bowl consistently short, it was obvious after 4 0r 5 overs our bowlers needed to adjust their lengths, but were too dumb to read the situation, so kept getting smashed to all parts of the ground.
Whether we like it or not, the schedule for this season simply does not allow for players to appear in all matches. Sports science tells us that and is a bit more, er, scientific than just saying the players aren’t going to get tired.
If there’s a fault, it’s that the current ODI series is a bit pointless in the context of the World Cup build up.
The comparison with Pakistan supposedly playing their best squad isn’t relevant. They have fewer players who are in both Test and ODI teams and their schedule is different from ours.
If you were talking about playing rugby I’d agree… but with cricket being nowhere near as physical as that sport have to disagree, also in the ODI’S teams spend half the match sitting on their arses in the stands & NZ don’t play that many tests compared to Aussie, England, Pakistan, India & South Africa.
This ODI series is hardly pointless, say for argument sake we did manage to win the series it would give us a slight mental edge against them leading up to the WC & any edge you can get in any sport over a good team has to e a good thing.
It’s not about Pakistan using less players in tests or ODI’s, it’s about picking your best team for the form of the game you’re playing.
“NZ don’t play that many tests compared to Aussie, England, Pakistan, India & South Africa.”
In the rankings for Tests (which I assume is over a number of years) New Zealand (34) is 3rd behind England (39) and SL (35) in the number of tests played for points allocation period.
I agree too, about Boult and Southee. They played three tests and need a rest!! Fucken Bollocks! Sure stand them down for T20, but come CWC those two will be our front line attack if fit,
Test matches since last World Cup:
44 England
40 Australia
36 India
35 Sri Lanka
33 New Zealand
32 West Indies
31 Pakistan
29 South Africa
20 Bangladesh
14 ZimbabweI’m marking out the current ODI series as pointless because (a) it’s played in completely different conditions from the World Cup, and (b) we’re playing them again at home in a few weeks, which is more useful preparation.
Of course it’s not really pointless, but of the whole crowded schedule between now and the end of March, the current series is the most expendable.
Funny to see people lining up with their opinions about whether the players need a rest or not. The logic of ‘they’ve just played three Tests and need a rest’ is irrelevant. Nobody’s saying they’re too tired to play now, but it’s about keeping them fit across the whole summer, which means taking breaks. And this is not about opinions, it’s about modern sports science: the fitness and well-being of the players can easily be measured and the likelihood of them being injured predicted based on past results. It must be amusing for those working in sports science to listen to people saying they players shouldn’t be tired because they “sit on their arses half the day in the stand”.
You do realise Boult has played only 2 ODIs in the past 22 months?
Doesn’t matter that the WC is going to be played in different conditions, any match preparation under real pressure situations has to be taken advantage of.
You say yourself those players are not too tired, As for modern sports science some of it is absolute rubbish ! there’s no point whatsoever wrapping players up in cotton wool to try and keep them fit if they’re already fit and not tired etc, no logic in it, players can just as easy get a bad injury while practising.
The way cricket is played the fact is batting teams do spend a quite a bit of time sitting on their arses in the stands, maybe sports science can make it easier by supplying them with lazy-boy chairs ? only trouble is someone would have to wake a player up when it’s their turn to bat.
It turns out the whole tiredness/rest argument is irrelevant because in fact all of Boult, Southee, McCullum and Watling are playing in the Plunket Shield round starting tomorrow. So it’s about individual preparation for a Test series rather than tiredness.
Don’t really buy the preparation thing… only way that would work properly is by having all the main players back playing in the plunket Shield.
And you couldn’t imagine that different players might benefit from different preparation from one another?
Perhaps you could come up with another reason for why they’ve returned to New Zealand to play Plunket Shield instead of playing ODIs overseas.
Of course those players would get some benefit from the 4 day stuff, but like professional cricketers all round the world players are well use to changing quickly from one form of the game to the other, which is why most of our top players are still playing in the ODI series, it’s just a mindset attitude.
They haven’t played for about 2 weeks, so the only conclusion I can come to is they were sent home for a bit of a rest, which is a joke anyway.
Yet they’ll probably bowl as much in the Plunket Shield match as they would have in the ODI series.
Essentially what this boils down to is that you know better than they do how they should best prepare for the Test series.
Well, can only give my opinion & this is meant to be a sports forum… including questioning something that you don’t feel is right.
That now makes it 2-2… the way this series is going the final ODI match might end up being a draw.
5th ODI
Tonight – 11.50pm
Sky Sport 1.Milne has proven to be a huge weapon in our attack, was absolutely outstanding ! averaging 150k in his 1st 5. overs & again very accurate, could of easily had 3 or 4 wickets, went for only 38 out of a total of almost 300 runs.
We must have the two best swing bowlers in the world… in ‘ tests ‘ I’d like to see Milne open the bowling with one of them, giving us extreme pace at one end & swing at the other, then bring the other swing bowler on as 1st change.
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