Improved New Zealand level series

 Vettori will be pleased with the win today.

What we’ve seen from this New Zealand squad over the past few weeks is not cricket being played by the 3rd best ODI side in the world. It’s been fairly lightweight cricket from a side mourning the retirement of Stephen Fleming. Today’s performance was a lot better. The batting collapsed a little, but England didn’t keep the pressure on and those runs they leaked at the end were the runs that won New Zealand the end.

McCullum is quite clearly now the centre piece of the New Zealand batting, he’s surrounded by fairly average test players who are waiting for their chance and who are continually labelled of having a “promising future”. What we saw today from Elliot was an innings that New Zealand have been wanting someone to play for a long time. An innings of substance and class. 56 from 102 balls in a ODI might not read that impressively but in terms of keeping the innings together and in hindsight it was a match winning one.

England bowled tight, with the exception of Anderson, who’s poor series continues despite his three wickets. Broad bowled tight and it’s key the selectors keep the faith with him. Swann impressed again, as did Tremlett and Collingwood. Wright was a tad expensive but bowled fairly well.

The England batting was atrocious. Nobody really applied themselves or anchored the innings. It was a match set up for an Ian Bell type of innings but he failed, as did Wright and Pietersen. The quick wickets of Shah and Ambrose was the melting point for England. Swann played some nice shots but by then the game was lost.

One man who should and will take immense credit from this win is Daniel Vettori. He knew that his side was robbed in the second test but instead of continues sly going on about it he realised the best answer was to win. He’s lead his side well as a captain and with individual performances. It’s not easy being captain of a side as poor as New Zealand have often been on this tour. He seems to be the same sort of captain of his old skipper Stephen Fleming. Laid back but seems fairly firm. We saw quite a lot of communication between him and his vice McCullum today, which was good to see.

It was obvious this series following the first two matches wasn’t going to be a boring one. What we’ve seen has been intense high class cricket. New Zealand played awfully in the first ODI, they were robbed in the second and in this third it was England’s batting that was awful.

 

Twenty20 Round Up

Lancashire vs Yorkshire

Last night was the return of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, remember the name? Flintoff has been in and out of international and county cricket for some time now with a string of injuries with his ankle and his side. Yesterday was a miserable match for him, not only did he get a duck, which would of been bad enough, but Lancashire losing by four runs to Yorkshire wouldn’t of helped the cause.

Flintoff is still not fit enough to bowl but did take an awesome diving catch on the outfield. At the moment I can’t see where Flintoff will fit in this England side. With Swann now playing in the ODI’s as an all-rounder and the batting of Collingwood and Bell slightly getting better Flintoff’s return might hold some worries for the selectors.

Australia vs West Indies

The West Indies have played some of their best cricket they’ve played in the past few years on this tour. This Twenty20 victory, despite the overs being reduced to 11 per side, will be one which give them immense confidence. They dominated the match chasing the Australians 97 for 3. They finished up with 102 for 3 with 11 balls to spare.

It was a good, clean, professional performance from a side that didn’t hold any of those assets this time last year. The West Indies are a side that is improving. Australia did play a few inexperienced players but so did the West Indies.