Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series

[kevshat]

England host New Zealand in a 3 match test series which begins on Thursday. We are expected to win easily but that wasn't how it panned out in NZ 2 months ago so will we be more convincing on home soil?

England 888">1.25 365">1.25 1.25 1.65 1.26 Betfred">1.22 1.3 1.25 1.25 Boylesports">1.25 1.25 1.25 1.2 1.33 Paddy Power">1.25 1.25 1.22 1.25 1.25 1.25 Victor Chandler">1.25 William Hill">1.28 1.27 Betfair">1.3 Draw 888">5 365">5.5 5 2.75 5.7 Betfred">5.5 4.5 5 5 Boylesports">6 5 4.5 5.5 5 Paddy Power">5 5 5.5 5.5 5 5 Victor Chandler">4.5 William Hill">4 6 Betfair">6.4 New Zealand 888 Sport">11 365">11 10 6.5 11 Betfred">11 8 10 11 Boylesports">12 11 11 10 10 Paddy Power">10 11 10 11 10 9 Victor Chandler">10 William Hill">11 12 Betfair">12.5

Best price percentage: 84.3%, bookies only: 85.7%

May 2008

Thu 15 - Mon 19 11:00 local, 10:00 GMT	1st Test - England v New Zealand Lord's, London
Fri 23 - Tue 27 11:00 local, 10:00 GMT	2nd Test - England v New Zealand Old Trafford, Manchester

June 2008
Thu 5 - Mon 9 11:00 local, 10:00 GMT	3rd Test - England v New Zealand Trent Bridge, Nottingham

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series I'll return to this thread with a few thoughts and bets in the next couple of days.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Not often I even contemplate the draw but Lord's pitch should be a belter. 4 of last 4 tests drawn here, an unusual ground stat nowadays. Can't see either of the spinners closing the deal in later stages. Vettori averages 2 wkts a match here in 2 outings and Monty 3 wkts a match in 4. This could be a very hard slog for both bowling sides. Series - Broad looks a decent shout to go over the runs spread of 85-95. Has a test ave of 23 and expect him to get a maiden 50 in the series. Problem is the competition in the bowling ranks. Will want him to play all 3. 1 pt BUY Broad runs @ 95 Redmond, the kiwi opener, seems in decent touch. Untested at this level but looks the right stuff. 165-180 is a fair shout for series runs, but I'll tickle over. Unknown quantity notwithstanding. 0.5 pts BUY Redmond runs @ 185

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series * Buy Redmond runs @ 180 (not 185) * Will leave the Lord's match result alone for the moment. If Kiwis are going to make a fist of it, much may depend on all-round Oram. He took 5 wkts in his last, recent test against England and has a 50 to his name on his one Lord's appearance. Big-hearted cricketer I'm happy to back here. 1st test 0.5pts BUY Oram performance @ 106

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series quite like the draw, normally get a few runs at Lords, hopefully both teams can score 400+ each and with a bit of rain forecast.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Just one bet for me for the series. 10pts R.Sidebottom's Series Wickets - Over 13.5 4/5 Bet365 Ryan Sidebottom took 24 wickets in the series in New Zealand in March and looks set for another decent series here. He's being playing county cricket so he's got some overs and wickets under his belt and I can't see him not taking wickets here. He's England's player of the year which will give him further confidence and needing to average less than 2.5 wickets per innings the Nottinghamshire paceman looks a good thing to take 14 wickets.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series 3 for the test to begin with. 10pts S.Broad's Performance Pts 85&Over 4/5 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. Stuart Broad looks like he could be the answer to England's number 8 problem. He bats pretty well down the order and he's a top notch bowler too. In order to cover this total we need Broad to take 5 wickets but at the very least over two innings he'll score 5 runs so 4 wickets will be enough to cover this total. Broad could well score more than 5 runs so he may not even need 4 wickets. He's been in great form with the bat and the ball for Nottinghamshire and I think he'll cover 85pts here. 10pts R.Taylor to beat J.How (1st Inns Only) 5/6 Blue Square In the two matches Ross Taylor and Jamie How have played on this tour, Taylor has beaten How in both 1st innings. In truth Taylor hasn't done much on tour yet which I put down to coming back to 1st class cricket having played twenty20 cricket. How's done fairly well and he's a batsman I rate but up against Sidebottom and Anderson with the new ball on the slope at Lords How could struggle a bit more. Ross Taylor showed his quality in New Zealand and coming in at 4 he may well face Collingwood and Broad. Overall I think Taylor is the better batsman and I think he'll beat How 1st time around. 3pts ew D.Vettori Top New Zealand Batsman 14/1 Coral (1/5 123) (1st Inns Only) Daniel Vettori is too good a batsman to be double figures in any match least of all a test match at a notorious ground when most of his teammates haven't played here. In truth this is a poor batting lineup for New Zealand. It's certainly not as strong as the one which New Zealand fielded 2 months ago. Vettori was among the top scorers in that series and with the likes of McCullum - as hit and miss as they come - coming in at 5, Vettori even batting 8 may not have much to beat. Inexperience runs through this Kiwi batting lineup and Vettori may well need to perform a rescue act. Even if he doesn't he averages well over 40 in test cricket in the last 18 months so he can clearly bat and I'll take a chance on the Black Caps captain top scoring here.

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series if the Kiwi's can get anything around 300, i think they've had a result.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series That was a decent enough innings for me, Sidebottom got 4 of the 14 wickets I need him to get, Broad is almost halfway to his performance, Taylor beat How and Vettori was 2nd at a double figure price. Looking good thus far :ok

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series :clap Good picking there, Kev 5.00am Sat from the Met office There is a moderate risk of a severe event affecting southern England during the first half of Saturday. There is a potential for heavy rain, sometimes thundery, to give accumulations of around 25 mm locally. Yet BBC and CNN prefer occasional showers. This webcam is 5 mins from Lord's. http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/#

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Cheers Pie :ok. Broad's wicket today brought his performance in so all 3 bets came in for this test. +21.7 for the test match for me and it looks like everyone else made some cash too so a good test match all round :clap:clap.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series + 31 on only bet at Lord's. I think Kiwis rather shaded that match, if you take losing an important toss into consideration. England to win at OT, but at 11/8 will not be on it. I take Broad to go well. Predict a 50 from him in this series, and it could well be here. Extra bounce here will suit his bowling (height) and think he just gets better by the game. OT test debut. 365 have only bumped him up 3 perf points on his Lord's quote. 36pts Broad perf 88+ @ 5/6 3pts Broad MoM @ 14-1 Sideshow has one test go at OT, against Windies last summer. Bowled 27 wicketless overs in the 2nd innings. 3 wickets in match. Blew hot and cold at Lord's and happy (ish) to oppose him here. 12 pts Sidebottom perf -118 @ 5/6 I'd play Tremlett for Anderson here, but doubt if they will.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series * 8/11 * England, I meant. Likely result, but not worth piling in to.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series England unchanged. With Hampshire playing their last 2 FP group games this weekend I'm not too disappointed :lol.

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series I'll take the draw again for the 2nd test @ a fair 7/2 with skybet, really dont think England are that much better than NZ, both teams evenly matched. Plus maybe a bit more rain forecast.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series I'm going with 4 initially here. I'm sticking with a couple of players from the 1st test and adding a couple of others. 10pts S.Broad's Performance Pts 88&Over 5/6 Bet365 Points are scored as follows: 1pt per run, 10pts per catch & 20pts per wicket. Stuart Broad covered his performance in the 1st test despite England only batting once and bad weather restricting England to 16 New Zealand wickets. Broad bowled well at Lords and this Old Trafford track should suit him down to the ground. It has pace and bounce and bowling from the height he does he could cause some carnage. Pace and bounce doesn't faze him when batting either and when this match finishes I expect Broad to have contributed 88pts at least. 10pts A.Redmond's Match Runs 58&Over 5/6 Bet365 Aaron Redmond didn't have the best of test matches at Lords with 0 and 17 as his contributions but I'm prepared to let him have that one as Lords isn't an easy place to bat with the slope and England bowled at him in decent conditions. Old Trafford has no slope and the wicket is usually pretty flat so I think he'll score a few here. The Rose Bowl is a bit similar to Old Trafford albeit not as quick and Redmond scored 146 and 64 in the match with the England Lions there. The extra pace here shouldn't be too bad for him as England's opening duo go for swing more than pace so I think 58 runs is within his range. 10pts M.Vaughan to score 50 in 1st Inns 11/8 Ladbrokes After a bit of a scratchy start at Lords in the 1st test, England's captain looked in excellent touch and scored a well deserved century so he'll arrive at Old Trafford where he has a decent record, full of confidence. He averages over 52 at this ground which includes that majestic 166 in the Ashes test here 3 years ago. Vaughan loves pace and bounce and against a hardworking but invariably pretty weak bowling attack in international terms he should well make a few more here assuming he gets in. He played all the bowlers well at Lords and I fancy Vaughan to notch at least 50 here. 3pts ew D.Vettori Top New Zealand Batsman 14/1 Coral (1st Inns Only) (1/5 1,2,3) I backed Vettori all through the winter and he didn't let me down and I backed him at Lords last week and he returned a profit there as well. As I said last week Vettori can be classed as a genuine batsman these days. In fact since 2006 he averages almost 50 with the bat in test cricket which is unbelievable given he bats at number 8. His peers could well struggle with the pacey wicket here and if that happens Vettori will be in with a chance of top scoring. If they don't struggle he's shown before he can still outscore them and continues to merit each way support.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series First session day 2 coming. Very windy, sunny. NZ to kick on. 2.5 pts BUY runs first session at 88. (Spin) big problems if Taylor goes early.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Funny game. Two daft run outs in the morning to get Kyle Mills in who plays with great ease. 120 first session for + 80 pts. Second session quoted at 88-92. Problems with the over here with 10 mins between innings, Flynn coming in with a runner, and 10, Jack for NZ hopeless. But sun still shines and wind tricky for bowlers. New ball 1 over in. Fly off the bat! I'd say 40 in first 40 mins after lunch :ok. 1 pt BUY second session at 92

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Some really daft and poor cricket today. No Anderson 1st up this morning, Vettori's run out are just two. Weird day. Great call on the session runs Pie :ok

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series +9 on runs second session yesterday. England are getting a hard press, quite rightly, for being bloody ordinary in all departments. Some individual issues are starting to emerge. One of them (I imagine) is KP ego because when he sees a youngster like Taylor batting the way he did yesterday, he sees a new dollar benchmark IPL. Similarly McCullum at Lords. I can see his agent telling KP how to bat today - Sunday - rather than Moores or Vaughan. The zeitgeist is changing. Which is interesting. England probably have their eye on the draw already. Tuesday looks a weather washout. I expect KP to be caught early mid-off, mid-on or c & b. I'll be selling 1st session runs if posted around 85. An hour to go before start.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series 1.5 pts SELL 1st session runs at 90. Need KP out and Bell and Collingwood fo faff around, worried about their place if England lose.

[Sharpe1ne]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series It's blowing a feckin gale up here in Lancs so you might have your wish.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series 1 run an over so far, 3 down ;) Broad just in. 2pts BUY Broad runs at 18

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series 1.5pts BUY 1st sessions runs at 55. Taking profit. Oram off the field. O'Brien and Vettori can't go all session. And Broad is in.

[Pie-chucker]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series + 52.5 on session runs + 24 Broad runs This morning. Simply backing the diffidence and incompetence of England. Kev, you watch County cricket. Please fill in the gaps for next test Strauss Cook Vaughan A. Decent Batsman KP (at 5, back to home Ashes slot and sod it if he moans) A. Decent Batsman Broad Rashid (is he ready?) Best keeper in the land Sideshow Someone Quick (presuming no Flintoff) What use is Collingwood (just for instance) when he bowls one over, has crook shoulder, can't bat this season, confidence shot?) :wall with England; :D with punts

[WoodyTHFC]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series England once again fail to perform against opponents held as much inferior. The interesting thing to me is what the selectors will do now especially with regard to the batsmen. The batsmen almost seem to have some sort set in stone place that they cannot be dropped or even when they are dropped, they get straight back into the team by not doing anything (Strauss.) They always seem to just do enough and stay in the team, never anything more than that and that has been the story really since the Ashes 2005. The selectors showed a very strong stance to get rid of Hoggard in what was one of his only bad matches in years against New Zealand. However in terms of the batsman, dare one would say they almost have life membership. It does not matter how many bad games they have, they maintain there place and then as soon as some pressure builds, they score some runs only to go back into a slump once again. Also the top three of Strauss, Cook and Vaughan is too negative atm and almost batting just for their position. Take Strauss, he now looks like a batsman playing purely for himself, taking half if not all the attacking shots out of his game to try and ensure he just plays an anchor role and simply not get out. The problem is that Cook and even Vaughan, at least until he gets to at least 50, do something similar. One batsman playing the anchor role is fine if they go on and get 100s but in atm it looks like three are trying to do that and they are not even going on and making their starts count. That is where Tresco is badly missed at the top of the order.

[Charlie Wong]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series Strauss is batting well to be fair in this test, on a spinner friendly pitch. 76-1 at the close, 218 runs to win, England were 4.1 at the start of the chase and are now 1.99 to win the test. If they bat sensibly, particulary in the morning session, keeping wickets in hand, then its on. Oram is struggling, one bowler down, playing Vettori well will be the key.Bet NZ wish 12th man, Jeetan Patel was allowed to bowl.

[kevshat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series

Strauss is batting well to be fair in this test' date=' on a spinner friendly pitch.[/quote'] Yeah I thought it was weird going on a rant about Strauss when he's played well in this match and could easily end it with 2 half centuries and only 2 tests ago made his highest ever test score. There's absolutely nothing wrong with our top 3 that's for certain, especially when they line up like they have in this series with Strauss opening and Vaughan at 3. The problems lie between number 4 and 7. Ian Bell is aesthetically pleasing but he's not scoring runs at the minute and he tends not to score them when England are in trouble. Collingwood has never been completely convincing as a test cricketer and I'm with Pie, if he's not going to bowl 10-12 overs an innings he's of little worth to us at present. We also shouldn't think KP is infallible either. Since the India series last year he has only gone past 50 once in 14 innings. To fill in the gaps as asked in Pie's team, well the best county number 4 is obviously Ramprakash. It's a different debate entirely on whether he should/shouldn't play which for the record I'm in the should camp but it's obvious he won't play for England again. So who are the alternatives? Well form and consistency wise Robert Key is churning out runs and is worth another go, Owais Shah can play that role or there's Michael Yardy. All would be fair replacements. If we want a youngster then James Hildreth is a talent down at Somerset. If we assume Flintoff isn't fit then another option for the number 6 role is Ravi Bopara. Sure he had a bad time of it in Sri Lanka but has he had any worse a time than Collingwood and Bell are having? Not for me I have to say and he's churning out runs by the absolute bucket load for Essex at the minute. However if we are going for a batsman only and don't care if he bowls then along with those above, there's still a chance Matt Prior can play just as a batsman. He's in form for Sussex. I'd go with Bopara though as he gives you the Collingwood back up options. Keeper: For me there's absolutely no debate. Chris Read should be England's wicket keeper bar nobody. We can try every keeper in the country if we have to but the fact is he is the best wicket keeper we've got and if our batsmen performed and with Broad in the side too then Read can average 25 without a problem and that would be enough. And as for the pace bowling option well Harmison looks to have been discarded so the out and out pace options in county cricket at the minute are Tremlett and Mahmood. Tremlett's bowling well for us currently and didn't do too badly against India last summer and Mahmood takes wickets. Fair do's he's expensive but he takes wickets and it's not like Anderson is watertight at the minute either. Rashid. I've got to admit I've not seen too much of him this season although I did see him at The Oval earlier in the week. For me, he's not quite ready yet and he's in danger of being decent at both batting and bowling but not exceptional at either. I'd want him to be bowling overs rather than batting 6 for Yorkshire because I think that's a place too high for him. It also has to be said Headingley isn't the best place for a spinner either but if we are taking 2 spinners to India this winter then sure he'd be fine as the 2nd option. I'm happy with Monty as a spinner though. For me he's the best day to day spin bowler we've got as a wicket taking option. Swann would be next best though at the minute I think. A few youngsters to keep tabs on are Joe Denly with the bat. An exceptional talent for Kent who is improving every time I see him, Luke Wright who continues to improve with bat and ball and could easily play as a number 7 for us in time, Steven Davies will go on to be the best keeper in the country, in a year or two, I'm sure of that and Steven Finn is a Glenn McGrath type bowler who in a couple of years could well be an England regular. He's only 19 so time is on his side. I'd be quite happy for England to lineup for the time being as follows: Strauss Cook Vaughan Ramprakash (Yardy, Key, Hildreth, Shah etc etc) KP Bopara Read Broad Sidebottom Tremlett/Mahmood Monty

[TheRat]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series I mean I think maybe give Hildreth a go at some point. Clearly a telent and I just thng getting the like of Ramprakash back in is a backwards step, depite his amazing form

[meatman]

Re: Cricket: England vs New Zealand Test Series

Ian Bell is aesthetically pleasing but he's not scoring runs at the minute and he tends not to score them when England are in trouble. Collingwood has never been completely convincing as a test cricketer and I'm with Pie, if he's not going to bowl 10-12 overs an innings he's of little worth to us at present.

Yeh these 2 are seriously worrying IMO. Ramprakash - well he's old but he should probably play. At the end of the day it would be a step backwards, but if this was ashes summer then I'd be very tempted to play him. At the end of the day the pinncale for us is to beat the aussies and generally all our 'long term plans' revolve around building towards an ashes summer. When we play against them we need our very best current XI, and Ramps would be inclused in that IMO at the moment But Ramps probably wont play again so I'd say bring back Robert Key. Keeper - yeh Ambrose looks fairly shyte to me now and I think he'll be found out at this level. I always used to say we need someone who can score some runs but the likes of Jones and Ambrose havent scored enough. Prior could score runs but was useless at keeping, the other 2 not much better either. Read should probably come back now. Big day for those under pressure coming up, it wouldn't surprise me if they delivered at the very last moment again and managed to save themselves.............