It was fun while it lasted I suppose. The first two ODIs had us believe that this wasn't going to be a terrible one sided series. After a bit of Chappell Hadlee fun, things kinda just went back to normal.
The kiwis really went all out on the collapse this time. It wasn't a spectacular Pakistani capitulation. It was more of a long, drawn out 'bleeding-slowly-to-death' type situation. I hadn't seen them fall over like that for a while now. It was nice to know they still could.
It wasn't the result of great bowling either. The pitch had state highway written all over it. It was just awful batting. Plain and simple.
I guess there is the possibility that they planned the collapse. The faster the top order gets out, the more time there is for the real batters in the team like Daryl Tuffey and Shane Bond to get themselves in and play a good innings.
In their defence, this strategy has worked many times before. But I guess yesterday, it just wasn't meant to be.
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Say Goodnight and Go
5 hours ago
I'm all for batting at 7.14 runs per over for the first 20 overs in one-dayers, if, and tis a sizeable if, your team can do that without most of them blowing a gasket and getting out. NZ find it difficult enough setting totals without aiming for 456 off 50 overs. What were they thinking? That they are allowed 15 wickets?Obviously that they are all 80% better than they really are. Generally, the only way we would set a total of 300 is if they crawl to 110/1 off 25, up it a little for the next 15, to about 210/4 off 40, and then get to around 300, maybe with a wicket left, off the full 50. Guns blazing at the start? Keep that to 20/20 where even a team of Seasame St muppets would struggle to lose 10 wickets.
ReplyDeleteGlory or Death approach, and there weren't no glory. Sucks.
Dmc