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Mate, that's why it's so vital to have a coach & selectors that have good nous in any sport... my Canes rugby team is in a similar position, we have a crap coach who selected players in our squad that don't deserve to be there, so better players have missed out.

Having the final at home Craig would've been good, but Blues making the final is the main thing though... thanks for info mate, will definitely be checking out the final, go the Blues ! :thumbsu:
Our Wgtn team was a bit lacklustre this year, as you say Craig we probably need some new players.
 
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Signman said:
View attachment 1187
Tour of England

Four Day Match :
NZ v SOMERSET
Tue 25th May {County Ground Taunton} - 11am {8pm AUS-T}

1st Test :
NZ v ENGLAND
Wed 2nd June {Lords} - 11am {8pm AUS-T}

2nd Test
NZ v ENGLAND
Thu 10th June {Edgbaston} - 11am {8pm AUS-T}
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www.nzc.nz

Ravindra and Duffy included in 20-strong Test squad for England

Wellington Firebirds 21-year-old all-rounder Rachin Ravindra and Otago Volts swing-bowler Jacob Duffy have earned their maiden call-ups to the BLACKCAPS Test squad for the upcoming tour of England
www.nzc.nz www.nzc.nz
Wellington Firebirds 21-year-old all-rounder Rachin Ravindra picked for England tour.

Big thrill for the kid Pete. Has a decent FC average @39 but his bowling needs work only 22 wickets from 26 matches. All rounder may be stretching things a way. Santner gets the nod again and no Sodhi. Is Patel all round status. Surely you can call Santner one. Doug Bracewell.. now there is a blast from the past. Recall a good while back he skittled the Baggy Greens to win a Test. He must be at veteran stage now. Where are your promising quicks.. surely Southee must be nearing retirement.
 
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Thanks for posting the squad Craig :thumbsu:

Rapt for our bloke Ravindra mate, he can be a very effective spin bowler, but tends to be a bit erratic in that area... reckon when he can bowl more accurately consistently he'll be a good all-rounder, no Patel isn't an all-rounder.
Glad that Duffy was selected, the bloke is a very quick pace bowler - Jamieson & him are both 26 so they should be in the test squad for a pretty long time, Matt Henry has a piss poor test bowling average of 51, ludicrous that they keep selecting him... Bracewell isn't too old he's 30.
Another poor selection is Santner as a test spin bowler when he doesn't spin the bloody ball, ridiculous that Sodhi didn't take his spot.

Thought it was very strange that Stead said Ferguson was still recovering from injury so wasn't picked, he didn't show any signs at all of his injury in the 20/20's, would've been very handy to have Ferguson in the squad... sounds like verbal diarrhea from Stead, he clearly wants to save him for the 2020 WC.
 
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No worries on squad Pete. Ferguson is being saved for the WC no doubt. Not a bad thing.. as always handy to have an express man in this format as Riley Meredith and Wes Agar have shown for us. Meant to write Santner IS NOT an all rounder. As you say he barely spins the ball much like Steve O'Keefe who played for the Blues for yonks.. called him Mr No Breaks.

Our sheilas make it 24 on the trot. We did have a few anxious moments.. but that is what I expect when playing any Kiwi cricket side Pete.
 
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NSW Blues v Western Australia at Bankstown Oval, Sunday April 11, 9.30am AEST. In case your interested Pete. This will be telecast and live streamed mate.

NSW squad: Kurtis Patterson (c), Sean Abbott, Oliver Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Liam Hatcher, Josh Hazlewood, Daniel Hughes, Nick Larkin, Nathan Lyon, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Mitchell Starc


WA squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Green, Liam Guthrie, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, David Moody, Lance Morris, Josh Philippe, D’Arcy Short, Ashton Turner, Sam Whiteman

Our dumb selectors. Nick Larkin has been dumped from the Blues red ball side but he remains in our white ball one. We have far better white ballers in Premier Cricket champing at the bit for a state crack and yet they pick this dud. They also continue to pick the under firing Starc. Hazlewood will finally have a ball in his hand. Stay injury free Josh we need you for the Shield final on Thursday.
 
Very interested in watching the match Craig, didn't realize the Blues were in the ODI Final as well, Blues are going really well this year mate - thanks for the teams & details :thumbsu: ... my rugby team the Canes is also playing today in just over an hours time, so will flick between both them, great to see Hazelwood back, yeah want him to be fit for the Shield Final.
Starc has underperformed for ages.
 
Mate, do you think the Blues can defend 251 ? excellent 100 by Edwards ...you might need a couple of early wickets, then really pressure them.
 
Signman said:
Congrats Craig 🥳🥳 ...you won the final very comfortably mate.
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A good win but the Shield final is the big one Pete. Whip those ignorant, bias QLanders. White ball is Edwards game..hasnt the technique for red ball.

Canes win? My Dragons did.. four on the trot.. our best start to the season for several years.
 
Yeah, the Shield takes priority Craig - hope you give the QLanders a thrashng mate... do you think they'll replace Edwards with another player that is better suited to red ball cricket ?

Great start by the Dragons... Canes lost a close one recently & we've had one of our worst starts ever, only won one from six.
 
Edwards has been included but guessing only on standby Pete. Selectors get all excited when blokes score white ball hundreds tho. Total nongs.. the two formats are as similar as sun and snow. I have underlined my Top 6. Keeper Baxter Holt on standby for Nevill.
They should also have sacked Starc..7 matches 15 @40 is hardly even state standard let alone Test.. His semi final return was a most unimpressive 0-89.

NSW squad: Sean Abbott, Harry Conway, Trent Copeland, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Josh Hazlewood, Lachlan Hearne, Baxter Holt, Daniel Hughes, Nathan Lyon, Peter Nevill, Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Mitchell Starc.
 
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Absolutely Craig - your mindset has to be a lot different in red ball cricket & your defense has to be really solid as well... like your top 6 mate, but coaches & selectors don't tend to select all the right players, which unfortunately happens too much.
 
In reply to your Rugby post Pete.
Believe me mate League has its problems too. Yes 1 point for the droppie in League. That is sensible but it is used way too often to decide a drawn match in extra time for what the wizz bosses call a Golden Point. We used to play draws with a point going to each side until some wakko decided to bring in this joke rule. So now instead of going for the try to win the game the droppie is seen as the easier solution. Under the great Dragons era of dominance the game was played with a no tackle rule. The law actually had to be changed to stop the Dragons by introducing a limited 8 tackle rule after which the ball was turned over to the opposition. These days we use a six tackle rule which means forwards dominate four or five of those followed by a kick to gain field position from the sixth tackle. The poor old three quarter is often starved of the ball. The other joke is the game's powerbrokers removed the old fashioned scrum.. replacing it with the half putting the ball in the second row and consigning the old style hooker to a ball running dummy half. Go figure mate.
 
Signman said:
like your top 6 mate,
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Only problem with this being a final is the Blues lack experience. Three of those blokes, Sangha, Hearne and Gilkes are 20-21 years. Whereas most of the QLD Bulls Top 7 have played Test cricket with the rest.. seasoned state pros. I can see the likes of the older Neser and Wildermuth troubling our greenhorn bats with their accurate seam while their rookies Bartlett and Doggett will not hold back. The Blues tho have the return of Hazlewood but no Cummins is a big blow to our chances..
 
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baggygreen man said:
Only problem with this being a final is the Blues lack experience. Three of those blokes, Sangha, Hearne and Gilkes are 20-21 years. Whereas most of the QLD Bulls Top 7 have played Test cricket with the rest.. seasoned state pros. I can see the likes of the older Neser and Wildermuth troubling our greenhorn bats with their accurate seam while their rookies Bartlett and Doggett will not hold back. The Blues tho have the return of Hazlewood but no Cummins is a big blow to our chances..
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Yeah, makes it harder for ya mate having 3 young fellas playing in your 11, that where it's going to be so important for the Blues experienced players to try help the young blokes out as much as possible to give them that real confidence in their abilities which is so important in sport.
Was good to see Hazlewood get through the ODI Final without any injury problems, Cummins must be injured ?
 
baggygreen man said:
In reply to your Rugby post Pete.
Believe me mate League has its problems too. Yes 1 point for the droppie in League. That is sensible but it is used way too often to decide a drawn match in extra time for what the wizz bosses call a Golden Point. We used to play draws with a point going to each side until some wakko decided to bring in this joke rule. So now instead of going for the try to win the game the droppie is seen as the easier solution. Under the great Dragons era of dominance the game was played with a no tackle rule. The law actually had to be changed to stop the Dragons by introducing a limited 8 tackle rule after which the ball was turned over to the opposition. These days we use a six tackle rule which means forwards dominate four or five of those followed by a kick to gain field position from the sixth tackle. The poor old three quarter is often starved of the ball. The other joke is the game's powerbrokers removed the old fashioned scrum.. replacing it with the half putting the ball in the second row and consigning the old style hooker to a ball running dummy half. Go figure mate.
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Yeah, League has some problems as well Craig - That's right mate a scrum in League is only used to restart the game, it should be used as a platform to attack from.
The tackle rule is a tricky one in League, but I reckon you need a restricted tackle rule in the game, maybe go back to a limited 8 tackle rule... it's much easier for the players to retain the ball in League because the tackler or tacklers can't compete for the ball on the deck like you can in rugby, as long as you hold onto the ball you allowed to get up off the ground & play it back or if you held in a tackle play it back.
rugby is flooded with that many stupid rules it's ruining the game, as you say there's too much stop/start stuff, but the ball is competed for in every area in the game.

The UK rugby teams will often go for a droppie only a few minutes into regular time just to get 3 point lead, even though there might be about 75 minutes to go, find that very bloody negative, NZ Provincial & Super Rugby teams & ABs play in a very positive manner compared to them... if a droppie was worth 1 point reckon it would force the UK teams to try & score more tries instead.

Mate, NZ rugby used the Golden Point system for the first time ever last year, so we are very new to it... I'd much rather have a winner at the end taking maximum points out of a match rather than two teams sharing a few points, reckon that old draw system gives the teams & their supporters a hollow feeling at the end of a match, you didn't lose but you didn't win either.
Maybe instead of using the Golden Point system in League or Rugby make it that the only way a team can win in extra time is by scoring a try only & if no one scores a try at the end of extra time the winner can be decided by which one of them spends the most minutes inside the oppositions 22 or 20 metre line, therefore the winner played good positive League or rugby.
 
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Craig, no way was Hughes out 10 minutes before lunch... you were robbed of a wicket, was clear for all to see that the bowler had no part of his heel behind the line.
Was a poor leave by the young fella Gilkes to have his sticks knocked over... you even see the more experienced batsmen going out that way far too much... if any delivery looks like it might threaten the stumps you need to get in behind it & use soft hands.

Thought the wicket was pretty difficult to bat on with that bit of movement off the pitch... reckon the Blues have done a pretty good job so far, with the sun out should be easier to bat on after lunch.

The ground surroundings remind me of the Basin.
 
Hi Pete. Missed the first session as Marc and I were pruning the front lawn
trees. Who won the toss. You getting the FOX CRICKET telecast? Will take a look at that Hughes dismissal. I have my doubts over whether Gilkes has the patience for red ball cricket. He certainly should never have been thrown into the opening role only because he has opened in white ball cricket. When will our selectors grow a brain. Will answer the rugby post later mate.
 
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Signman said:
Maybe instead of using the Golden Point system in League or Rugby make it that the only way a team can win in extra time is by scoring a try only
& if no one scores a try at the end of extra time the winner can be decided by which one of them spends the most minutes inside the oppositions 22 or 20 metre line, therefore the winner played good positive League or rugby.
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A try instead of a droppie is something we fans have pushed for in League Pete. What a pity the game's administrators do not share our wishes. Yes all of above or the team that made most metres.
 
Yeah, scoring a try etc is a much better idea for League & rugby Craig... a droppie or a place kick at goal to win the game just ruins the situation.
 
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