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Loading ...I watched the first session on TV. And watched a bit of yesterdays play. I meen we gotta watch somthing inbetween Ashes tests.
Lessons to be learned
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-December Leave a comment on this post
Another day of tremendous Test cricket in New Zealand went by almost unwatched today, although to be fair, Christchurch’s weather forecast was predicting rain, hail, the doom of the world and the like. As it turned out, the day was fine and the cricket was even better.
New Zealand started the day looking to overtake Sri Lanka’s modest first innings of 154, and made serene progress untill Sri Lanka’s bowlers engineered a collapse, slumping from 2 for 106 to 6 for 113. I sure hope some English players were watching as Daniel Vettori and Stephen Fleming then applied a bandage to the innings and displayed a masterclass of damage control.
Fleming was slow, slow but sure, and put away the rare loose balls that Murali provided, while Vettori was his usual scratchy but inventive self. It of course helped that these two possess some real cricket nous. And they were right up against it because not only was Murali bowling with his usual menace, but Lasith Malinga was bowling with fire and aggression. After the lunch break, he gave Fleming one of the more searching examinations of his technique that I have seen for a while. It was great to watch.
Once Sri Lanka had finally winkled out Fleming, Vettori changed his role to that of a random hitter, and brought up a well deserved half-century.
But New Zealand’s lead was only 52 and that didn’t look like enough as Sri Lanka made steady progress to 44 for 1. Then that man again, Shane Bond, stepped up, and ripped out the Sri Lankan middle order. They lost four wickets for two runs at one stage. As it stands now, Sri Lanka hang by a thread at 8 for 125, with only Kumar Sangakkara holding things together.
Test cricket is so much better to watch when the conditions favour the bowlers rather then the batsmen.
Tags: damage-control, daniel-vettori, kumar-sangakarra, lasith-malinga, muttiah-muralithiran, new-zealand, shane-bond, sri-lanka, stephen-fleming |
4 Responses to “Lessons to be learned”
December 8th, 2006 at 10.45 am
December 8th, 2006 at 11.27 am
kumesh sangakkara?
December 8th, 2006 at 11.18 pm
Vettori is an underrated batsman, sides have continually underestimated both his hitting power, and his stickability at the crease. In a home series against Australia a few seasons ago he was actually near the top of the batting averages, helped of course by a few nice not outs. It would be interesting to compare 1997-2002 and 2002 onwards in terms of his batting average in both forms of the game because I wouldn’t be surprised if he emerges as one of our most consistent batsmen. A genuine allrounder for sure.
December 9th, 2006 at 1.31 am
I’m watching as well which means we double the actual attendance in Christchurch. How much is a ticket??? Check out McCullum running out Murali who was going to celebrate Sangakkara 100. And Cumming caught off a noball 3 times this test match. Go buy a bloody lottery ticket.
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