Disgrace

The Black Caps loss to England this morning is the worst performance I have ever seen from a NZ team. They got themselves through a brilliant Ross Taylor innings with help from Mills and How into a great position. Vettori bowled beautifully to knock England over. A team with a lead of 170 or so should never be lose on a turning track. To capitulate as they did in the second innings was a disgrace. It was a stunning performance. The performances of Taylor, Oram and McCullum is not appropriate for that level. Taylor can be forgiven. The others needed to bat with some test sense. They only needed to bat sensibly as they did in the first innings and they would have batted England out of the game.

Having said that, they should have been able to bowl England out on that track. I am a great fan of Vettori but he failed. Mills, Oram, O'Brien and Martin should have locked up one end and Dan should have bowled England out on a turning pitch with variable bounce. It is a long time since he bowled a team out to win a test and this was his chance.

So all in all, they failed and they failed badly. Looking back, the recent test series in NZ was lost in a similar way as we turned around excellent positions and capitulated. It is a total disgrace!

All in all, it was the greatest embarressment in recent years. England are not a great side, but we are worse. There needs to be a serious culture change in this team!

Black Caps

What a great start to the season for the Black Caps. We have come to the end of an era and it is not looking good. Hammered by South Africa and more of the same in Australia. Our top order is dismal! Embarrassing. A lack of technique is palpable. We need to go for experience. And what are they doing to Matthew Sinclair. Put him in and leave him in and watch him flourish. It is time for Vincent to give it away, he is not there. We are terribly vulnerable at present, weak. The loss of Fleming, MacMillen, Cairns and others is really noticeable. To me the only world class players are Bond who is out again and Oram who is class. McCallum is class with the gloves and has his moment with the bat. But, we need to desperately find a top order that can get us through to 150-200/3 to give ourselves a chance. Is is time for Bracers to go? Perhaps. But then, he does not have a lot to work with.