Australia v New Zealand preview.

[Gough]

After a quite frankly shitful pair of Tests against Pakistan we enter this series with high hopes of some good tight cricket. Having beaten England at home the Kiwis will have confidence coming over here and appear to have a settled and well balanced team with a number of players ranked in the ICC top ten despite injury clouds hanging over Boult and de Grandhomme who are in the squad but no certainties to play in Perth. It's difficult to read much into our performances against Pakistan, certainly a number of players scored runs but I'd expect the New Zealand bowling bowling to be a class above the Pakistanis. Travis Head would be the batsman most under pressure going into the series, his 25 in Brisbane was let down by a terrible dismissal and through no fault of his own he played no part in the Adelaide. Our bowling attack looks to be steady and settled and while Neser is in the squad you'd imagine changes would only be brought about through injury or pitch conditions. Australia will enter the series favourites but unlike the last time they were here, New Zealand have a good lead in to the series and could surprise.

 

[Doss]

A lot of the Kiwis' chances hinge on Boult I think. He is such a skilful bowler and they are a much lesser bowling unit without him.

I'm going to say 2-1 to us; I think the Kiwis will be flat in Perth, especially with Boult perhaps not being fit by then, will bounce back hard in Melbourne and square it up, and then we will win in Sydney. Should be a good series.

I'm 31 and yet it's the first time in my life the Kiwis have played a Test in Melbourne or Sydney, pretty hard to believe.

 

[Crankitup]

A lot of the Kiwis' chances hinge on Boult I think. He is such a skilful bowler and they are a much lesser bowling unit without him.

I'm going to say 2-1 to us; I think the Kiwis will be flat in Perth, especially with Boult perhaps not being fit by then, will bounce back hard in Melbourne and square it up, and then we will win in Sydney. Should be a good series.

I'm 31 and yet it's the first time in my life the Kiwis have played a Test in Melbourne or Sydney, pretty hard to believe.

Perth, Adelaide, Hobart & Brisbane only since you were born.

 

[grumbleguts]

A lot of the Kiwis' chances hinge on Boult I think. He is such a skilful bowler and they are a much lesser bowling unit without him.

I'm going to say 2-1 to us; I think the Kiwis will be flat in Perth, especially with Boult perhaps not being fit by then, will bounce back hard in Melbourne and square it up, and then we will win in Sydney. Should be a good series.

I'm 31 and yet it's the first time in my life the Kiwis have played a Test in Melbourne or Sydney, pretty hard to believe.

We don't often play the minnows in the big centres.

 

[Doss]

We don't often play the minnows in the big centres.

No, but on the last tour for example, they shared the summer with the West Indies and yet WI were the ones who got Melbourne and Sydney (granted, the Kiwis did get Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth while WI got Hobart for their third Test).

Part of it is also that NZ have often liked to have their own Test or one dayer back home on Boxing Day, which is fair enough. Just seems a little amazing to me that I've seen England and India live on Boxing Day six times now, South Africa four times, West Indies three times, Pakistan twice and even Sri Lanka once (the 2012 demolition job), yet never New Zealand. Good time for the duck to be broken though, with them being a strong team and all.

I actually went over to Adelaide to see their day/night Test four years ago and that was a great contest - if not for a particularly dodgy decision denying them Lyon's wicket in the first innings, they'd probably have beaten us and drawn that series 1-1.

 

[JackOutback]

Looking forward to this, will be there with my boy on day 1.

 

[Westend]

Looking forward to this, will be there with my boy on day 1.

Yup its going to be hot 40 the first two days forecast so far

thinking of going day three

 

[Drunkcat]

I hate Kiwis so I just hope we win they always play better when they play us

 

[Westend]

NZ have been struggling with there opening pair.... Latham going okay but Raval is struggling

Hopefully we can crack the opening pair and get williamson in early against the new ball......get him and its job half done

 

[Not Important]

A lot of the Kiwis' chances hinge on Boult I think. He is such a skilful bowler and they are a much lesser bowling unit without him.

I'm going to say 2-1 to us; I think the Kiwis will be flat in Perth, especially with Boult perhaps not being fit by then, will bounce back hard in Melbourne and square it up, and then we will win in Sydney. Should be a good series.

I'm 31 and yet it's the first time in my life the Kiwis have played a Test in Melbourne or Sydney, pretty hard to believe.

it's their batters who concern me more. some genuine talent and depth there

 

[JackOutback]

Yup its going to be hot 40 the first two days forecast so far

thinking of going day three

Sh!t, hadn’t looked that far ahead

Going for the second and third sessions (after school), will just have to stay in the shade.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Really looking forward to this test series. Australia has never really given NZ their due in Test cricket as they haven't played at the SCG since 1985-86 and MCG since 1987-88. The Kiwis deserve to be on the big stage of the MCG Boxing Day test and New Year's Test at the SCG. I wrote this on the Port board after the 1st test v Pakis.

Jim Maxwell on the radio on the weekend asked Dizzy Gillespie, how many games does he think NZ have played at the SCG. My immediate thought was 3, 1973-74, 1980-81, 1985-86. Dizzy said 5. The answer is 2. In 1980-81 summer was the Kiwis played 3 tests, then that was followed by the Indians 3 test, so the Indians got the MCG and SCG tests, so it was the other 2 tours the Kiwis played at the SCG.

The Kiwis get sent to Hobart and Adelaide which is similar to their pitches, but also to Gabba and Perth which are very different to their pitches.

Below is a list of Kiwi Wins and draws at different grounds in Oz, listed with a W or D, rest are Oz wins.

Played 31 tests, Oz won 17, NZ won 3, Draw 11. 1980-81 Melb had 2 tests as did SCG in 1985-86 so both NZ and India got to play those respective grounds in those 2 summers. Hobart's first test was 1989-90 v Sri Lanka.

1985-86 was a bloody great performance by Kiwis to win 2 tests at the Gabba and WACA and the series as Oz won the middle test at the SCG. Yes Oz was weakened by having 16 guys go on the rebel tour of South Africa, but to win at the Gabba and WACA was a big effort.

Thanks to Richard Hadlee taking 15 wickets and 11 wickets respectively, with some good rather than great bowling support from Chatfield and Bracewell keeping it tight rather than dominate bowling, but also strong batting by Martin Crowe and also the top 3 of Edgar, Wright and Reid.

But the cupboard has been bare for the Kiwis since then with only one other win in Hobart in 2011-12 by 7 runs when Oz were chasing 240.

They were bloody competitive and a bit unlucky not to win a test in 2001-2 but had 3 draws. Oz were the dominant world team, won 16 in row, then the heroics of VVS Laxman in Kolkata and Harbhajan Singh's bowling saw them win the last 2 tests, then Oz won 4-1 in England and only lost in Headingley because Gilchrist filling in for Waugh, made a generous declaration and Butcher batted out of his skin for 170 odd not out.

So going into 2001-02 series, Oz had won 20 and lost 3 of their previous 23 tests. Stephen Fleming captained brilliantly that series.

This should be as a competitive a series as 2001-02 and 1985-86 were.

Gabba. 80-81, 85-86 W, 87-88, 93-94, 97-98, 01-02 D, 04-05, 08-09, 11-12, 15-16 = 10 tests
WACA. 80-81, 85-86 W, 89-90 D, 93-94 D, 97-98, 01-02 D, 15-16 D,.................... = 7 tests
Hobart 93-94, 97-98 D, 01-02 D, 11-12 W, .......................................................... = 4 tests
AO..... 73-74, 87-88 D, 04-05, 08-09, 15-16 .......................................................... = 5 tests
MCG... 73-74, 80-81 D, 87-88 D, ......................................................................... = 3 tests
SCG... 73-74 D, 85-86, ........................................................................................ = 2 tests

Was a bit surprised by so many draws at the WACA so looked them up.
1989-90 Greatbatch batted for a day and half to force a draw after Kiwis followed on. A one off test.
1993-94 Flat deck, 24 wickets and 1300 runs
2001-02 Kiwis almost won, set Oz 440 to win, Oz were 7/381, Gilchrist saved the day with 83 not out.
2015-16 Flat deck, Oz 9/559 Warner 253, NZ 624 Taylor made 290, Oz 7/385, NZ 2/104.

 

[Plugger35]

No, but on the last tour for example, they shared the summer with the West Indies and yet WI were the ones who got Melbourne and Sydney (granted, the Kiwis did get Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth while WI got Hobart for their third Test).

Part of it is also that NZ have often liked to have their own Test or one dayer back home on Boxing Day, which is fair enough. Just seems a little amazing to me that I've seen England and India live on Boxing Day six times now, South Africa four times, West Indies three times, Pakistan twice and even Sri Lanka once (the 2012 demolition job), yet never New Zealand. Good time for the duck to be broken though, with them being a strong team and all.

I actually went over to Adelaide to see their day/night Test four years ago and that was a great contest - if not for a particularly dodgy decision denying them Lyon's wicket in the first innings, they'd probably have beaten us and drawn that series 1-1.

I can remember the last Boxing Day test NZ played in back in 1987, Hadlee took 5 wickets in the 2nd innings and it looked like they were going to win the test and level the series one all but Mike Whitney who was a bunny managed to see out the last few overs along with McDermott to secure a draw.

NZ didn't play a Sydney test in that series, the other two tests were played in Brisbane and Adelaide prior to the Boxing Day test.

During the 90s NZ didn't have a strong enough test team to deserve the prime tests in Melbourne and Sydney but in the last couple of decades they have arguably had a stronger test team than the likes of the West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka who have been given those tests.

It's well overdue that NZ are finally getting top billing again for the no.1 test series here, Australia will be odds on favourites to win the series but I'm confident that they can at least put up a better fight than some of the other test teams that have featured in the no.1 test series here. They aren't without a chance of winning it either, it's the most experienced and well equipped NZ test team to arrive in Australia since 1985/86 when they won their first test series here.

Yup its going to be hot 40 the first two days forecast so far

thinking of going day three

It's probably going to be hot for the rest of the test as well, going to be tough work for the bowlers, at least it's a D/N test so they won't be bowling in the heat all day.

It's going to be especially tough for the NZ players who are less used to playing in that kind of heat than the Australian players and will be my one of my excuses if we lose this test.

NZ have been struggling with there opening pair.... Latham going okay but Raval is struggling

Hopefully we can crack the opening pair and get williamson in early against the new ball......get him and its job half done

Not that happy that they are sticking with Raval as one of our openers, he has been woefully out of form and even in form he is still sub par, he will be cannon fodder for the Aussie quicks.

The problem for NZ is there is a lack of good openers to replace him. Hamish Rutherford would probably be the next best option who got found out at test level too after a promising start to his test career but I still would have given him another shot, he can at least be more damaging than Raval who at best will scrape his way to an ugly 20 or 30 odd while Rutherford is capable of scoring 50s or 100s if he gets going.

 

[workhorse]

Apart from Raval and Mitchell (only played one test so a bit of an unknown) New Zealand’s batting lineup is absolutely rock solid, with Williamson the obvious star.

Should be a ripper series. Hopefully Boult plays, he’ll be a handful under lights.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Yup its going to be hot 40 the first two days forecast so far

thinking of going day three

Forecasts this far out are probably not highly reliable, but I'm glad I'm not going this year.

 

[View from the nosebleed]

Play has been suspended at the MCG in the Shield game today due to the pitch being unsafe!!!!

Could be interesting to see how this pans out. You'd assume this wouldn't be being played on the test pitch but rather one of the outside wickets, but hopefully the curator doesn't over-correct produce a road again. He's hoping the wicket has some life in it early to give the Bowxing day crowd/viewers some entertainment

 

[MJG14]

The umpires for the series have been announced, New Zealand fans may be unimpressed with one name!

1st Test: Nigel Llong and Aleem Dar (Marais Erasmus 3rd)
2nd Test: Marais Erasmus and Nigel Llong (Aleem Dar 3rd)
3rd Test: Aleem Dar and Marais Erasmus (Nigel Llong 3rd)

 

[Westend]

Play has been suspended at the MCG in the Shield game today due to the pitch being unsafe!!!!

Could be interesting to see how this pans out. You'd assume this wouldn't be being played on the test pitch but rather one of the outside wickets, but hopefully the curator doesn't over-correct produce a road again. He's hoping the wicket has some life in it early to give the Bowxing day crowd/viewers some entertainment

Yeah just saw the highlights ......rearing off a good length.... nasty bounce S marsh copped a rip snorter !!!

Not good for the G....hope they get it right for boxing day....

Siddle bowling like big Joel Garner back in the day

 

[Jez1974]

Yup its going to be hot 40 the first two days forecast so far

thinking of going day three

Could be finished by then!!

 

[Jez1974]

Nigel Llong was the 3rd umpire that cost us a win in the D/N Adelaide test where he somehow couldn't see the obvious edge off Lyon's bat.

Us Black Caps supporters have Llong memories, that campaigner better give us some controversial decisions our way in this series to make up for it,

More concerned about aleem

 

[Doss]

Us Black Caps supporters have Llong memories...

Hope you haven’t been saving that one up for too long mate.

 

[Cold Sober]

You can always fall back on Aleem Dar,

 

[Cold Sober]

Crowd sizes will be interesting.
Will they give the 200 kiwi supporters their own area or let them mingle.

 

[ROOTA#6]

The kiwis haven’t played Boxing Day for that period of time because they have been playing at home. They like South Africa have preferred to play home tests during their actual home cricket season

 

[Mockcockpit]

It's interesting how the narrative around the 2001/2 series is that Kiwis were unlucky not to win the series when the reality is that 2 days of rain in Brisbane and 2 and a half days in Hobart stopped them from getting thrashed out of sight.