All Things Sport

I hadn’t picked my combine team. Sorry West Indies, I can only fit in 4 players!!! Gayle, Benn, Bravo, Roach.
Gayle, Katich, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Bravo, Haddin,Benn, Johnsone, Roach, Bollinger.

Day two, in both tests.
Australia 5/454 Dec. Still no 100 since the Ashes!!! 19 50’s now..who will be first!!!! Pakistan 4/109. The Yousof dissmissle could be the test key. Did he touch it. To me the hot spot wasn’t sure, so why didn’t he get the benefit of the doubt?? Pak. will have to get to the follow on, or they will struggle to survive.
South Africa 343. Smith 75, kallis 75. Swann 35-3-110-4. He continues to impress.
England 1/103 Strauss 54 off 67 balls. They have a great chance of building a good lead.
My player of day…Ponting, at last a captain declares to set up a test. Good on him.

Vincent is back!!!!! Oh you will all be shaking in your boots now. The Mighty Aucks are ready for you all.
I do feel for Kitchen though. But he just hasn’t been scoring runs. 2nd year blues eg Williamson. It seems to happen to alot of players. And Nethla.
I’m suprised Hughes is in squad ahead of Shaun Marsh, to replace Ponting if need be.
This could be the best Boxing Day test for many years.

Sorry I’m not blog every day, but damn eye!!!! The pressure was back up to 39, on Thurs. Its so frustrating, so difficult to do things. But hey I get there. Go back to Hosp. on Weds.
Aust. won the 3rd test by 35 runs, to beat WI 2-0. They did deserve to win, but oh how differant it could have been without injuries. Losing Edwards, Taylor and Chanderpaul did effect the Windies. I just hope in future they can get Roach, Edwards and Taylor on the field, in a major seris.
Aust. have weaknesses, but they never give up. They have found a new star in Bollinger. But Ponting is looking suspect to short pitch bowling. Pakistan should believe they have a chance. It could be a great seris.
England scraped in with a draw. The last two held on for 3.1 ov. I believe this will be a very close seris.
I know have Anderson and Oram watch!!!! Anderson 8-1-35-1, 52no. Oram 10-0-36-1, 14. A easy win to Anderson. Harry 6-0-25-2, 18no.
Finally..it so sucks how the Aussies get off lighter. Johnson starts the problem, Benn gets envolved, Haddin be’s a dick and Benn gets a 2 match ban. They get fines. Watson gives Gayle the worst send off I have ever seen and gets a fine. So the question has to be asked, is Broad racist or incompedent??

The first 4 rounds off the Plunket Shield, and now we have a break. What a shame, just when we have players getting good hard cricket regular they go and play ODI’s and 20/20.
Ingram, How, Merchant, Sinclair, Broom, Young, Anderson, Beard, Hini, Autridge, Arnel.

Wow what a exciting test match. But the rain gods won again. But we can take a pts win.
Pak 455, Guptill 13.2-2-32-3. NZ 0/90 Watling 60no. We needed 208, and with 23 ov left, needed another 118.
Still its a good result, but we do still have batting problems, and pressure must be on from Ingram and Broom.
India beat SL in a high scoring ODI game. India batted first,7/414 Sehwag 146. SL 8/411 Dilshan 160.
My team from NZ and Pakistan, Farhat, Butt, Yousuf, Taylor, Umar, Vettori, McCullum, Aamer, Bond, Asif, Kaniera. Ok, only 4 kiwis, but these are the best players. It still doesn’t stop me saying how even they are!!!!

Pak 4/347 Yousuf 89 Guptill 11-2-28-2!!!! A lead of 99 runs. What a great days play, Guptill shocking, Yousof class batting, Umar trying to get himself out, Taylor starting to drop slip catches (can he concentrate for long periods??), and Vettori captaincy. Oh what a day..test cricket at its best!!!!
Guptill now becomes a real ODI player, he can bowl 5 or 6 overs for 20 to 30 runs?? To go with his batting and fielding.
I believe the game WILL be a draw.Pak. don’t want to lose and we won’t risk a run chase. Yes then it will come down to Kaniera. He is the key.
More good Plunket performances, Raval 134, Broom 86no (how many more runs does he need??), Merchant 93 (a big future??), Anderson 11.3-4-22-5. Gosh he’s still only 19, could he be in the ODI squad?? (with Broom, instead of Oram. Oram HAS to prove he can still play).
My player of the day, is right out of left field. Bennett 16-6-39-4. They say he is the quickist around, but so many injuries. If he’s fit I would play him against Bangledesh.

I missed yesterday, as was at the Drags, at Meremere. Oh, it was heaven!!! The noise!!!! And a 6.50 rail!!!!
Well we lead by 120 after 3 days. Its hard to see a result, even with both shakey batting lineups. I still believe there is little between the two teams, just proving the differance Bond would make.
We made 470, Vettori 134, Tuffey 80no, McCullum 89. Kaniera 53-10-168-7.
Pak 0/128 Farhat 55no (hes been on field the whole test so far), Butt 66no.
Its a perfect batting wicket, more than likely the test will be a draw.
Good performances in the Plunket Shield, Bates 5/83, Raval 99no (hes very promising), Myburgh 102no, Woodcock 220no (another player who has always looked good eg Nicol, Todd etc.), Tugaga 103, and the work horse still bowling well, Mason 28-9-46-3. And Harry watch!!!! 16-9-19-0, 30no.
Its great to have the Shield on, and so many players to keep the test players on notice.
Player of the day, Vettori, but mention of Woodcock and Tuffey. Its great to see Tuffey back and we hope another 4 or 5 years left yet.

Pak won the toss and batted, scoring 223. They were 5/59, but lead by Farhat made a reasonable score after it have been a disaster. Farhat batted right thru to score 117no. O’Brien 4/35 and Tuffey 4/52 were again the pick of the bowlers.
NZ are 0/47 after 19ov. McTntosh 31no and Watling 13no. A solid start, lets hope they can go on with it.
Some stats, Test number 1940, Watling number 2586 and number 244 for NZ. Don’t you love cxricket stats!!!!