Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series

[kevshat]

Having played out their 3 match twenty20 series, New Zealand and Pakistan now do battle in a two match test series which is all live on Sky although occasionally behind the red button. The series begins at 10pm Thursday night and should be ok given the closeness between the two sides in the rankings. Schedule:

Fri Jan 7 - Tue Jan 11 22:00 GMT (prev day) | 11:00 local 22:00 GMT -1d	1st Test - New Zealand v Pakistan Seddon Park, Hamilton	18 - 23° C Forecast Mostly Cloudy Click here for 10-day-Forecast
Sat Jan 15 - Wed Jan 19 22:00 GMT (prev day) | 11:00 local 22:00 GMT -1d	2nd Test - New Zealand v Pakistan Basin Reserve, Wellington	N/A

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series One outright bet for me so far. Might come back with one more but not sure yet. 2pts A.Ali Top Pakistan Series Batsman 5/1 Stan James As readers of previous Pakistan test threads will know, I really like what I've seen from this youngster. I think his technique is spot on for test cricket which is a massive advantage he has over many of his team mates. He plays seam and spin equally as well and isn't the worst against the moving ball. He's still quite early in his test career but he's played 3 of the world's top 4 in Australia, England and South Africa and has hit 5 50's in his 8 tests and averages a shade under 38. Conditions here will move about a bit but I don't see that as a worry. There's others in the side who won't like those conditions. Younis Khan and Misbah are both quality batsmen who have toured New Zealand before but Azhar is batting higher than those. Younis didn't play well in the twenty20's which might have affected his confidence and Misbah's 2 less than Azhar in the batting order over a maximum of 4 innings. A big part of test cricket batting is valuing your wicket and not giving it away cheaply. Azhar puts good value on his and I think 5/1 is a more than fair price for him to top score coming in at 3.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Another series I shall be paper trailing. One outright for me too. 6pts New Zealand to win the Series (Draw No Bet) @ 8/11 WillHill I've never been a fan of two-match test series, however these two teams find themselves in one and I am favouring the hosts here. The Pakistani team will be fairly inexperienced at test level and I think the conditions in New Zealand will be suited to favour the home side. NZ come into this series off the back of their convincing recent T20 win over Pakistan and will welcome back Brendon Mcculum into their side who needs no introducing. The events in Doha off the field should have no effect on proceedings here but I can't help but Pakistan will definitely have an eye on what the outcome of the Tribunal will be. If as expected, the result is negative, it just may have an impact on the Pakistani side, and it will play into New Zealands hands beautifully. Mature heads such as Taylor, Vettori, Mcculum, Franklin, Martin, Ryder fill their line up and If NZ win the first test here, which I think they will, no money will be lost and at 8/11, I'll take it on no problem.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series One for me ahead of the first test now. 5pts Umar Gul (Player Performance) - 92 & Over @ 5/6 Bet365 I was looking at previous Tests to be played at Seddon Park in recent years and it always seems to be the seamers that do fairly well on this track, most notably Mitchell Johnson picking up ten wickets here last year. Umar Gul is by far and away Pakistans best bowler and he should be capable of picking up four or five wickets in the match here. To bolster this bet, he is not completely useless with the bat and can pick up 20/30 runs in two innings, if he put his mind to it. He took 5 wickets in the Tour Match recently and with overcast conditions and Kiwi conditions favouring seam and swing bowling, I think he can clear 92 without too much of a stress.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series 4 for me in the opening test. 4pts New Zealand 1st Inns Lead 4/5 Blue Square I think this 4/5 is a big price here. Looking down this New Zealand top 6 and it's not actually that bad. McCullum and McIntosh went well in India and then Guptill, Taylor, Ryder and Williamson is a solid middle order with Vettori in at 7. Contrast that to Pakistan's top 7 and I don't think they have the quality to match it. Not in a test match anyway. There will be times where they put runs on the board but I think that's more likely to be in the sub continent than in NZ conditions. Most of this Kiwi batting lineup got a decent dig under their belts in the warm up match against Pakistan who struggled bigtime themselves with the bat, especially at the top of the order. I think New Zealand have a decent enough bowling attack too. Pakistan aren't bad in that area but the fact Asif and Amir are in Doha could be telling. Saeed Ajmal is also out of the country back in Pakistan after his father died so he's unlikely to play too. So that's 3 of Pakistan's successful attack over in England that are unavailable here. New Zealand went well in India, particularly with the bat and with that in mind I'll take the hosts to lead at half time. 4pts B.McCullum's 1st Inns Runs - Over 26.5 5/6 Paddy Power Brendon McCullum is in excellent form with the bat right now. He walloped a double ton in India as an opener and then built on that with a quickfire 200 in the warm up match against Pakistan last week. McCullum's batted at Seddon Park 10 times and has hit 4 50's and a ton in those innings at an average of 59.25 so this is a ground he clearly loves. The curator has said he expects this to be a decent batting wicket and that will be music to the ex-keeper's ears. He's in the form of his life at the minute so I'll take McCullum to cover a 26.5 target 1st time around. 3pts M.Hafeez's Performance Pts - 85&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. I quite like Mohammad Hafeez as a cricketer. He's no world beater but he's solid enough and although he'll play his shots at the top of the order when he needs to he can dig in and stick the blocker up. What I like about him here is not only has he every chance of covering this in two digs with the bat but with Saeed Ajmal likely to be unavailable for this match, he could well bowl a bit of his off spin which I think is a very underrated commodity. He's not the worst fielder in the world either so he'll field around the bat so there's the chance of bonus points with catches. I expect him to cover this with the bat though. He looked very good in the twenty20's and with two goes at 85 he should cover it but the added scoring potential with the ball and in the field means I'm happy to take this over. 3pts T.McIntosh (+0.5 runs) to beat T.Umar (1st Inns Only) 5/6 Ladbrokes Tim McIntosh isn't pleasing on the eye as an opening batsman and he won't score particularly quickly but he's gutsy and he'll dig in and he's hard to get out. Taufeeq hasn't played too much test cricket recently and that could go against him here. Taufeeq was out for one in the warm up match so he hasn't had much in the way of time in the middle to acclimatise to the conditions he'll face in New Zealand. McIntosh hit 51 in that warm up match so he's faced this Pakistan attack already recently and succeeded and I think he'll manage to get the better of his opening foe in the 1st innings of this match. To get 5/6 with the tie on our side is very nice so I'm happy to be on the gritty left hander.

[mj123#]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series pak should be rule the cricket world again.. cool match..[url=http://www.cricltv.com/]

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Jesus Christ New Zealand got blown away in that second innings. All out for 100 is atrocious. Fortunately for me Umar Gul walked that Player Performance bet and came out with 117 points which leaves me +4.15 from the 1st Test. Need NZ to dig deep and win the 2nd to spare my outright though. Unlucky on a couple of those Kev, that spot for the Mccullum runs was a great find though, he cleared that with comfort in both innings. Will be back with my 2nd test lines later on in the week.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series 10pts Rehman player performance 100pts or over @5/6 with b365 Think this looks a great bet on the face of it. Rehman is being used as Pakistan's primary spinner in this series so will definitely get a fair few overs with the ball. Not going to go too much into it - but New Zealand simply cannot play spin! He took 6 wickets in the first test, and scored 28 runs. He averages 18 in first class cricket and has hit 12 50's, so is clearly no mug with the bat. I reckon that he should cover this in wickets alone, but having the bonus of being handy with the bat also helps.

[Otter4]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series

10pts Rehman player performance 100pts or over @5/6 with b365 Think this looks a great bet on the face of it. Rehman is being used as Pakistan's primary spinner in this series so will definitely get a fair few overs with the ball. Not going to go too much into it - but New Zealand simply cannot play spin! He took 6 wickets in the first test, and scored 28 runs. He averages 18 in first class cricket and has hit 12 50's, so is clearly no mug with the bat. I reckon that he should cover this in wickets alone, but having the bonus of being handy with the bat also helps.

Not sure if you have already placed it, or indeed what a 10 point bet is, but the pitch report and weather suggest a faster wicket , ideally suited for the pacemen and especially swing bowlers. I agree Rehman looked great in the last match, but this wicket is going to be very different. Good luck, i have him on the outrights for top bowler, and have been feeling very happy but I dont feel so confident after reading the cricinfo preview.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Cheers for the heads up. Have read the previews as well as the player interviews, all suggesting that it is going to be better for the quicks. Still though, I feel that the total is too low for Rehman. Previous games here have still had plenty of wickets for the spinners. Also the fact that I just don't fancy the majority of NZ batsmen against spin. 3 wickets and 25 runs across 2 innings - not too much to ask hopefully!

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Where's the other 15pts coming from ;). It's a bit harsh to say NZ can't play spin too I think. You don't almost get a series draw in India if you can't play spin :ok. Unfortunate first test for me. Hoping to bounce back in this 2nd. We've got a couple of nice lines and prices for this match. 3pts Pakistan 1st Inns Lead 10/11 Blue Square Pakistan comprehensively won this market in the first test and I fancy them to follow it up here having watched that first match. Daniel Vettori and John Wright have bemoaned NZ's poor batting but I think the fact is that 2-3 important batsmen for them are way out of form. Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder are big batsmen for this side but they've looked bang out of form ever since Pakistan arrived in New Zealand. Tim McIntosh's failures could have cost him his place with James Franklin likely to come in. That will mean Martin Guptill goes up to open I would imagine. Brendon McCullum, a rare in form batsman for NZ always gets his runs via taking risks so it's not ideal for the Kiwis. Pakistan were much more solid with the bat and unlike New Zealand they bat all the way down which could be key for this bet. The likes of Younis and Azhar are too good to fail too often like they did in Hamilton. I'm just more confident with Pakistan's batting which isn't something I'll say too often however Misbah is slowly moulding this side into a hard to beat outfit. New Zealand's record on this ground is awful and I think Pakistan can take advantage of that and lead this match at half time. 4pts D.Vettori's Performance Pts - Under 120 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. I think this is a big line for the Kiwi captain to cover. In the first test he scored just 23pts so asking him to score 5 times as many here is a big ask. The wicket isn't meant to suit him here either. It's due to be a bit green with pace, bounce and sideways movement assisting the quicks as you would expect given NZ must win to level the series. In the first test it was quite noticeable that Pakistan were just playing Vettori out and making hay at the other end. Vettori is talked about as one of the better all rounders in world cricket and while I generally agree with that it's worth noting that in all international cricket in 2010, he only passed 50 with the bat twice. In his last 10 test innings Vettori has only passed 23 once so he's not in great form with the bat. He's been missing twenty20 matches recently too which says he may be carrying an injury. It was six tests ago that Vettori took more than 4 wickets in a match on this ground and with his form with the bat he's probably going to need at least that many so there's enough with seaming conditions and him struggling with the bat to take the unders here. 3pts U.Gul's Performance Pts - 102&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. Umar Gul scored 117pts in Hamilton via 5 wickets and 17 runs and that was on a pretty flat deck too. This one is meant to assist him a lot more and we saw in England how he can get the ball to talk despite not having the new ball. He'll have the new ball here and with McCullum playing with gay abandon there's always the chance of a cheap wicket. If all goes to plan the new ball with come along again when NZ's tail are in and that's good because Chris Martin is always a cheap wicket. We also saw in England that Umar Gul can hold a bat and use it pretty well. We've seen that in the twenty20's that proceeded this series too. I think there's enough for Gul to go at to get the required 102pts here. Now a couple of longer fancies. 2pts C.Martin Top New Zealand Bowler (1st Inns Only) 3/1 Stan James Chris Martin is a very good bowler in New Zealand conditions and it sounds like this wicket will suit him lovely with it assisting a bit of lateral movement. With the wicket green and grassy I would imagine Martin will lead the attack here. He'll take the new ball and with Southee and Arnel both relatively young in their test careers, the old timer will need to come to the party. James Franklin could also play but he's likely to be 2nd or 3rd change when he bowls. Arnel was the only one to beat Martin in Hamilton but that was a flat wicket. With assistance in the pitch, Martin's still a tough cookie to face and at 3/1 with Stan James who have Vettori as favourite for some reason, I'm happy to take Martin. 0.5pts ew T.Southee Top New Zealand Batsman (1st Inns Only) 33/1 Ladbrokes (1/5 1,2,3) The horse may well have already bolted here with Southee having joint top scored and then come 2nd in both innings of the 1st test. He's a guy who can hold the bat down the innings and has shown that a few times. None more so than when he tonked England all around Napier on our last tour out there. He can hit it big and I'd liken his batting credentials to someone like Mitchell Johnson albeit not quite as good. If he gets himself in though he can swing big and put up a score quickly. Even though he went well in the 1st test I'm happy to follow him again because this wicket is meant to be tougher to bat on. With a few of the top order out of form on a tough wicket there could easily be a scored to be made down the innings by being aggressive and taking the attack to the bowler. That's Southee's game so at 33/1 I'll have a small play to see if history repeats itself just one week on.

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Apologies, should obviously read 4 wickets and 20 odd runs! Got the points between a stumping and a wicket confused! As for the India series - no doubt that they done well to draw a couple of tests there. However, don't think you can blame that on the India spinners. 1st test 6 out of the 10 wickets fell to spin. 2nd test 10 out of the 18 NZ wickets fell to spin. 3rd test, 11 out of the 20 wickets went to the spinners. Even Suresh Raina (part-time spinner) picked up wickets in all 3 tests. I may be proven wrong, but I just don't fancy them at all against the spinners on the whole.

[PerryPFC]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Slightly off topic... But always enjoyable reading a debate between 2 people who know what they are talking about! Both valid arguments and using stats to back up your points, without reducing to abuse! Will be interesting to see the outcome!

[infamous]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series ^ Yeah always good to have a good debate/get different opinions on bets. Rehmann wins the PP bet by taking 5 wickets altogether, and scoring 5 runs in first innings. Profit of +8.3 units. Some great calls from Kev too with Pak first innings lead, Gul flying over the total, and Martin being joint top wicket taker in first innings. Unlucky with Vettori who had one of his best games in ages.

[Tyler]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Some nice shouts in here over the series. Was away over the weekend so didn't have any riding on the final test and thus finish -2.15 due to my outright nosediving. Well done to any winners.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: New Zealand vs Pakistan - Test Series Bit unlucky with a couple of bets in this series and it equates to a -4.94pt loss overall. Nothing drastic but hopefully I can do better in the ODI's.