Black Caps tour of India - 2026

another Mitch appreciation post....

Haven't heard of the first two guys, one of them long retired, the other plays for the USA against what I assume are pretty ordinary teams. Plus 22 and 33 matches respectively isn't a huge sample size.

The guy in third is a freak ( I still wish Viv Richards played in todays era, he would blitz every record under the sun )

Mitch sitting VERY pretty at 4th on this list. Extraordinary stuff. Getting huge scores against India in India is about as tough as it gets.

25-30 years ago there was generally a huge disparity between test and ODI records ( Border and S Waugh prime examples of this, 50 plus legends in tests, early 30s in the shorter form ) but limited overs has changed so much in that time.

Ryan ten Doeschate was a pretty handy player - had a decent world cup in about 2011 I think. Average definitely inflated by the standard of his competition. I think he would have been a very good player if he played for a test team, so playing minor associations just too easy for him.

Don't know the US guy.

@MN5 said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

An extraordinary average of 58.47.

which makes Kohli's record even more insane really. Mitch has his in 54 innings so you can almost guarantee it will fall off.

Kohli has a higher average off 299 innings. Extraordinary career.

Who makes our best ODI XI at the moment?
I honestly can’t keep up these days with the rotation/resting of players…

Ravindra
Mitchell
Santner
Henry

Probably the only guys who I can think will be locked in

@Gunner said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Who makes our best ODI XI at the moment?
I honestly can’t keep up these days with the rotation/resting of players…

Ravindra
Mitchell
Santner
Henry

Probably the only guys who I can think will be locked in

Glenn Phillips has to be there
his batting is good at the moment, has a bit of a golden arm and is one of if not our best fielder

i think Conway needs to be included too
Duffy?

Conway
Ravindra
*is KW playing ODI’s? Young? Chapman?
Mitchell
Phillips
*Hay/Latham?
Santner
*Foulkes/Smith/Bracewell?
Henry
Duffy
*O’Rourke/Jamieson?

Ive probably forgotten someone obvious.

@Gunner said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Conway
Ravindra
*KW playing ODI’s? Young? Chapman?
Mitchell
Phillips
*Hay/Latham?
Santner
*Foulkes/Smith/Bracewell?
Henry
Duffy
*O’Rourke/Jamieson?

Ive probably forgotten someone obvious.

Nicholls hasn't been "shit the bed" bad, he got a handy 62 in the first game.

The fact he isn't even mentioned shows NZ Cricket batting is in a good space.

Bowlers maybe less so but that's more to do with injuries and general fragility.

Duffy better at ODI level than Test Guns Jamieson and O'Rourke though, hes made a hell of a start to his career.

@MN5 said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

@Virgil said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Had a look, if he can score another 100 in his next ODI innings he will tie the record for quickest (least innings) to score 10 x ODI's 100s
The record is 55 held by SA's Quentin de Kock

More on Mitch......

An extraordinary average of 58.47.

Unlike other ODI champs of the past this is not padded out by loads of not outs, eight in 54 innings ( by comparison Michael Bevan averaged 53.58 with 67 not outs in 196 innings )

Also a strike rate of 95.72. This is amazing given he quite often is in that awkward rebuild stage ( it's the Black Caps remember, collapses are always imminent ) he's getting his runs consistently at pretty much a run a ball.

In one sense its a damn shame he's 35 this year but then he could have started early, been fucked around and been in and out of the side and become a forgotten "what if" like so many others. It seems he's taken a few years to work out his game and is benefitting at the highest level given his FC stats don't particularly stand out.

Let's keep enjoying his contributions while he keeps making them.

He grabbed his chance when it came and hasn't looked back

Clarke shows he's never fielded in cricket before.

Fucking twice. Clown show.

@Bones said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Clarke shows he's never fielded in cricket before.

Fucking shocking, twice in 3 balls, has turned singles into 4’s

Now 5 wides, just coz India weren’t already scoring fast enough.

Need wickets, FAST!

Let Mitch or Phillips bowl

Clarke now finding that a short pitched slow ball is probably not the answer.

Boom, brilliant strategy from Clarke.

Surely we're just playing rope a dope before the tournament? This is embarrassing.

Superb effort from Phillips. Go on Mitch...

One thing I don't understand is going out of your way to get a shit touch on a clearly very wide ball.

in better news.. Mitch officially Number 1 in ODI batting rankings.

Should be noted all 5 Indian batsmen in the top 11 played in the recent series.
highlights how well our bowlers did.

Without seeing a single ball in this match, the scorecard shows that Jamieson is not a T20i bowler.

@Bovidae Wide was the most economic bowler I think, but not by much.

In news that will surprise no one, Adam Milne ruled out of the T20 World Cup. Replaced my Big Kyle.

@Gunner said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

In news that will surprise no one, Adam Milne ruled out of the T20 World Cup. Replaced my Big Kyle.

One foodbill replaces another.

111/3 after 10. Rachin looking particularly dangerous today so far

Why Rachin

Urgh horrible gifted his wicket

I'm with Doully, why the fuck is Foulkes playing that terrible shot?

Haaa that was so wide it should have been 8 runs. Fucking dodgy ump

Fuck, don't fucking hit that! It's almost off the pitch!

Not sure if 208/6 enough especially after that start on a slow pitch but runs on the board

@bayimports said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Not sure if 208/6 enough especially after that start on a slow pitch but runs on the board

Bizarrely our run rate fell through the floor against spinners when the dew hit.

I don't think our spinners will be so lucky.

@Bones said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

@bayimports said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Not sure if 208/6 enough especially after that start on a slow pitch but runs on the board

Bizarrely our run rate fell through the floor against spinners when the dew hit.

I don't think our spinners will be so lucky.

We just couldn’t get a decent partnership to stick. Thought we would have been better against the spin with the dew but yeah we didn’t take advantage

Well that’s a paddling

@bayimports said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Well that’s a paddling

India can bat eh. Going to be hard to beat them in their conditions.

Given the ongoing similarities between Baseball and T20, I wonder if knockouts should be a best of 3 or 5 ... more eyeballs, reduce the randomness.

@nzzp said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

@bayimports said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

Well that’s a paddling

India can bat eh. Going to be hard to beat them in their conditions.

Given the ongoing similarities between Baseball and T20, I wonder if knockouts should be a best of 3 or 5 ... more eyeballs, reduce the randomness.

To be fair we can bat too, we really under achieved against their spinners in that match. If we did get a decent partnership going we would have been more competitive.
Strangely more confident playing a tournament in India with our squad than elsewhere. Host nation without a doubt though will be tough to beat but think we are better than most others in local conditions

@bayimports good post

But really how much world you need to post to be confident of beating this team at home. Or would be a lot

@nzzp said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

@bayimports good post

But really how much world you need to post to be confident of beating this team at home. Or would be a lot

Belted them 3 zip in tests, won the ODI series on their soil. T20 different beast I get it, but conditions aren’t the problem.

They’re currently our biatch in other formats as I remind my work colleagues every time I visit Bangalore , surprised my visa hasn’t been cancelled lol

Jamieson starts. May he prove me wrong and not get dispatched.
Chapman the win a wish selection yet again - may he also prove me wrong

@Sprinko 1 over for 17.

Not the worst figures. But when the best is 1 for 28 off two, you're royally fucked

Chapman is a good player. He's not the problem in this side. Indian cricket is focused on t20 and it's paying off big-time

@nzzp said in Black Caps tour of India - 2026:

@Sprinko 1 over for 17.

Not the worst figures. But when the best is 1 for 28 off two, you're royally fucked

Chapman is a good player. He's not the problem in this side. Indian cricket is focused on t20 and it's paying off big-time

Yup, T20 has been around for about 20 years now meaning there’s a generation of cricketers especially in India who are growing up purely playing that form of the game.
Some of their batting is unreal, 14 ball 50s, strike rates over 300..