Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland

@KiwiPie said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

@MN5 said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

I don't know KW from a bar of soap but I can 100% guarantee that milestone will be in his sights.

From everything I know about him, he is remarkably unconcerned about personal milestones - otherwise he'd have a lot more ODI centuries.

Interesting. Bit of a contrast to our other ATG Paddles. He was stats obsessed.

I remember reading when he played against Sri Lanka him and Jeff Crowe were in the middle of a big partnership. Apparently someone let them know that whoever got the next hundred would score the hundredth ton for NZ. Given Hadlee had broken every single bowling record under the sun at that point ( and continued to do so ) one would think he'd do the magnanimous thing and let Crowe get it. Not Hadlee, he accelerated his scoring rate and got there ahead of him ! poor old Jeff Crowe, always in his brothers shadow had to make do with scoring century number 101 !

Back to KW, I hope he doesn't have an end of career slump like Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting and Dravid. Those guys all went on too long.

@MN5 said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

eight tests coming up vs Ireland, England and Australia. So potentially 16 innings to get 539 runs and join a very elite list, only 15 guys on there.

There are two tests against India at home in November as well (also part of the WTC)!

Looks like the team will be even more inexperienced than before.

Any Irish ferner cricket fans out there ?

I think I already know the answer.

Disappointing that the returning quick bowlers aren't playing.

We're batting first.

@Bovidae said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

Disappointing that the returning quick bowlers aren't playing.

We're batting first.

Taking Ireland lightly ?

I can't believe none of Henry, Jamieson or O'Rourke are playing.

Bowling line up should still do the job but very journeymanish in comparison.

Is this going to be worth watching?

I'm guessing from my BBC alert less than 4 minutes after kick off... the answer is no.

Irish eyes will be smiling getting the NZ captain out second ball.

17/1

@MN5

I'll have a go on at this but it's a bit of a long story. Basically the team was elevated to Test status following quite reasonable performances in the 50-over World Cups in 2007, 2011 and 2015. That team was a bit of a relative golden generation for Irish cricket with the likes of Joyce, Morgan, the O'Briens, Rankin, Porterfield and Stirling all coming through at around the same time in what is a minority sport here.

However, as mentioned up thread, this is only Ireland's 12th test since their first one in 2018. There seems to be quite serious challenges regarding funding and this has impacted the fixture list quite a bit. For a few years there was a domestic three-day interprovincial championship but that hasn't been contested since 2019, raising the question of how can Ireland expect to produce test players with no domestic first class cricket? A lot of the 2007 to 2015 era team were able to develop this experience in English county cricket but that option is mainly off the table at the moment as Irish players are now considered to be 'overseas' and so less attractive to English counties. Another little flurry of players did emerge just after the Covid years in Little, the Tectors and Tucker - possibly the last ones to benefit from having had a domestic multi-day competition to play in. In more recent years many of the debutants and development squad members have been Irish-qualified players originally from overseas.

In response to the question posed elsewhere concerning why this is a four-day game? Again, I wouldn't be surprised if it's as simple as that it's because they are less expensive to host than five-day games.

@Beige-XI said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

how can Ireland expect to produce test players with no domestic first class cricket?

this is key. I understand that was a critical element in Bangladesh getting regular test status.
*
Also NZ doing pretty well - Ravindra 120 odd and Blundell 128* as I type. Irish bowler adair looks good, tall, getting bounce

Blundell with a career extending knock at a much needed time. Ravindra sounded class too. Things looking slightly dicey there for awhile so good on both. Good support from our latest South African import too.

KW with a real "meh" score of 36, when he makes a start he almost always goes on. Most unusual.

Declaration after the first session maybe ? it's only a four day test after all.

I was a bit grumpy at the Black Caps when falling asleep at the lunch break, but Blundell and Ravindra did very well.

Agreed on declaration at lunch today, unless they gamble on only batting once

@Donsteppa said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

I was a bit grumpy at the Black Caps when falling asleep at the lunch break, but Blundell and Ravindra did very well.

Agreed on declaration at lunch today, unless they gamble on only batting once

Yeah they have to balance whether this "midweek" bowling attack can do the job as it's "only Ireland" or not......

You can forgive Conway for getting out to that catch. Terrible camerawork in these highlights though.

@Bovidae said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

You can forgive Conway for getting out to that catch.

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Nice looking ground.

So weird hearing cricket commentators with Irish accents.

......and yeah, hell of a catch.

Ravindra played some really lovely shots. Blundell did too to be fair.

In years to come Liam McCarthy can regale people over a Guiness or 20 that his first test wicket was that of Kane Williamson. That's pretty good shit really.

150 for Blundell, 50 for Foxcroft on debut. 386/5

"only" Ireland but these two and of course Ravindra dug NZ out of some shit.

Lunchtime declaration on the cards.

Going to script as Ireland are following on. Unlucky for Foxcroft to not get a century on debut.

@Bovidae said in Black Caps Test Tour to England & Ireland:

following on

I thought that was illegal?

What about Laxman?

The bowlers will implode under the workload ...