2020 New Zealand Black Caps Going Forward.

With two seemingly inept series (versus Australia and India)  our Blackcaps are struggling badly.  Question has to be Why?

Ok to be fair one of the biggest problems is something they can't change - Injuries.  But that is it, or is it?  Well the major reason that can be aligned to the results is the new Coaching staff.   I was always had a quiet admiration for Mike Hesson and the results since his retirement indicate he was a Quiet Assassinator.  Stead is not working for me (unless he manages to turn the results in the remaining matches versus India)

I don't totally agree with the Hit and Giggle Team.  I think we could go into a match with three Big Hitters at the top.

My suggested team for T20

Martin Guptill
George Worker (bowls slow left arm orthodox)
Colin Munro
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Colin de Grandhomme (A/R)
BJ Watling (see below)
Ajaz Patel
Tim Southee (one last chance)
Matt Henry
Jamieson/Fergusson

I picked BJ based on the recent T20's.  We desperately need someone in the middle order to feed the strike and noodle singles (run a ball).  The bigger hitters have free reign to play for the boundaries.  And if wickets fall around him he holds an end.  Also T20 bowlers will be frustrated with his prowess at the crease and will lose their rhythm.

Test Team -

Tom Latham
George Worker
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Henry Nichols
Colin de Grandhomme
BJ Watling
Todd Astle/William Somerville.
Neil Wagner
Lockie Ferguson/Tim Southee
Trent Boult.

Major question??  When will NZC revise the Coaching?

Seddon Park Tosses.

I have analysed the past 10 tests at Seddon Park.  The figures below speak for themselves.

Team	Year	Tosses Won By	Chose to	Game result
Bangladesh	Feb-10	Bangladesh	Field	Blackcaps
Australia	Mar-10	Australia	Bat	Australia
Pakistan	Jan-11	Pakistan	Field	Blackcaps
South Africa	Mar-12	South Africa	Field	South Africa
West Indies	Dec-13	New Zealand	Field	Blackcaps
Sri Lanka	Dec-15	New Zealand	Field	Blackcaps
Pakistan	Nov-16	Pakistan	Field	Blackcaps
South Africa	Mar-11	South Africa	Bat	Drawn
West Indies	Dec-17	West Indies	Field	Blackcaps
Bangladesh	Mar-19	New Zealand	Field	Blackcaps
England	Dec-19	England	Field	Drawn
Last 11 Test Matches		Tosses Won by Blackcaps
		3
		Choices - Bat
		2
		Choices Field
		8
		Matches Results wins by Blackcaps
		7

Seddon Park Tests preview 2019

Looks like the weather gods will come to play later this week for the 2nd Test versus England.

Click on Here for 2016 preview.

And click here for the Coin Tosses

25 tests at Seddon Park.  12 wins for Blackcaps, 6 Draws and 7 losses.  A majority of Blackcap wins have been in the last 10 tests only beaten once in that time.

England's form speaks for itself (not).  They have only played once at Seddon Park and were spanked by 189 runs.

Rock and roll!!

NZ Wicketkeepers Stats.

Wicketkeeper stats for our best 4.

Wicketkeeper	Matches	Centuries	Average	Catches	Stumpings	Matches      per Century	Catches      per Matches	Stumpings per matches
Ken Wadsworth	33	0	21.48	92	4	0.0	2.8	0.1
Ian Smith	63	2	25.56	168	8	31.5	2.7	0.1
Brendan McCullum	101	12	38.64	198	11	8.4	2.0	0.1
BJ Watling	61	6	37.3	209	7	10.2	3.4	0.1

Sri Lanka tour by Black Caps - Aug/Sep 2019.

Seems the tour of Sri Lanka by our Black Caps cricket team is a goer with nothing but  positive words coming out from the Island State.  New Zealand  tour from 14th August to September 6th with 2 tests and 3 T20's.

Not sure how competitive in tests Sri Lanka will be as they set their cricketing standard by ODI success.  I'm guessing they will be there for the T20's and a 2 match test series sweep by us in Red Ball cricket.
In the past 2 years Sri Lanka at home have won 2 from 8 tests (beat SA lost to England and India.)  A quick look at their other form and not too shabby!!

It is widely acknowledged that the Black Caps are up to the task in Whites.  A steady team and success are well and truly evident.  So with that  in mind who will be in the 1st XV to take on the Lankans?  My thoughts are as follow's:

Openers

Tom Latham
Jeet Raval
Henry Nicholls (Reserve)

3.

Kane Williamson
Henry Nicholls (Reserve)


4

Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls (Reserve)

5.

Henry Nicholls (If Reserve in Top Order - Will Young slots in)

6.   BJ Watling (Tom Latham reserve)

7.  Jimmy Neesham (or Colin de Grandhomme)

8. Spin - Mitchell Santner

9.  Depends on tracks. Taking Spin Ish Sodhi, favouring seam - Lockie Ferguson

10. Neil Wagner

11. Trent Boult

12.  Will Young (Middle/Top replacements)

13.  Colin de Grandhomme (Replacement All Rounder)

14.  Tim Southee (mainly in the team for seniority and leadership)

15.  Either Ish Sodhi  or Lockie Ferguson.

Hagley Oval - into the Big Wide Open.

Kia ora folks.  We are two days way from the start of the 3rd Test in Christchurch.  This will be the 7th Test to be played there.  And it is turning out being a great venue for test Cricket with 4 comprehensive wins and an equally comprehensive win to Australia, and with that Math, leaves a drawn  result with England.

Following are a breakdown of the results.

2014  versus Sri Lanka with a Win by 8 wickets.
2016  versus Australia  with a Loss by 7 wickets.
2016  versus Pakistan with a Win by 8 wickets.
2017  versus Bangladesh with a Win by 9 wickets.
2014  versus England with a Drawn match.
2014  versus Sri Lanka with a Win by 423 runs..

Be interesting to see who walks out on the field, a good opportunity to blood second tier players.

Ka kite ano.

Black Caps Top Order Batting Stats.

As CdG is the  (relative) newbie (25 innings) I have taken the batting stats of our Top and Middle Order in  their previous 28 innings s.  Of note, Ross is going through a lean patch, as is BJ. Maybe the recent success of our top  3 is shifting the balance for the middle and lower order.

Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nichols	BJ Watling	Colin de Grandhomme
1	55	8	0	1	83	29
74	36	27	0	24	8	37
53	55	4	17	30	32	32
6	2	61	36	0	21	14
1	27	13	4	13	18	0
9	13	42	0	26	25	4
0	16	53	32	53	1	0
80	33	104	11	4	23	57
177	52	2	37	98	23	105
16	36	130	102	12	18	58
68	80	2	40	118	49	22
41	88	1	60	7	15	29
10	42	176	77	7	49	72
8	84	1	15	0	1	45
6	4	43	93	67	50	0
50	3	102	16	13	34	3
37	5	0	107	5	29	0
22	17	22	20	145	24	14
22	7	37	2	10	31	20
26	46	63	3	13	85	26
0	31	28	2	28	19	49
83	2	30	19	55	10	1
13	45	89	0	53	59	71
161	0	139	82	77	1	76
22	43	91	0	162	27
50	6	2	22	126	77
176	74	48	50	50	46
264	136	200	27	1	31
1476	1038	1518	874	1198	889	764
56.77	38.44	60.72	34.96	52.09	37.04	34.73
Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nichols	BJ Watling	Colin de Grandhomme

Blackcaps versus Bangladesh at Seddon Park recap

Our Blackcaps have played two tests against Bangladesh at Seddon Park, in December 2001 and again in February 2010. Suffice to say we won both handsomely (2001 by an Innings and 52 runs, 2010 by 121  runs).

Notable stats from those tests

2001

Mark Richardson - 143
Craig McMillan  106
Shane Bond 4/47
Chris Cairns  7/53

2010

Martin Guptill  189
Brendon McCullum  185
Bowling stats shared, no stand outs.

So for Test Three there between the two teams?

Judging by this Bangladesh team it's going to be another whitewash.  We have batting potential right down to 7 and a very well balanced bowling attack.  I think the Deshies need a bit of luck with the toss but Kane has been on the money lately.  I think Kane will use his side and back himself to bat first and bat themselves into a great position.

Then again the sporting Gods can turn the tables.

Blackcaps at Arms - A wonderful Team

We don't need to dwell on this years triumphs, when we have a summer of cricket in 2019 to contend with.

First up a 5 match ODI series versus India.  Both sides are on a roll so should make for  a great and close series.  India are 2nd on ICC Rankings and Blackcaps are 3rd.

Matches are scheduled for the following:

1st ODI  23/1  at McLean Park
2nd ODI 26/1 at Bay Oval
3rd ODI 28/1 also at Bay Oval
4th ODI  31/1 at Seddon Park
5th ODI  3/2 at Westpac


Later in February Bangladesh play 3 ODI's and 3 tests.  I'm expecting big things now we have consistent performances and frankly I think Bangladesh will be lesser performed than Sri Lanka.

ODI's (Bangladesh are 7th on the rankings)

1st ODI  13/2 at McLean Park
2nd ODI  16/2  at Hagley Oval
3rd ODI  20/2  at University Oval

3 Tests

1st Test  28/2 at Seddon Park
2nd Test  8/3  at Basin Reserve
3rd Test  16/3 at Hagley Oval.

Mouth watering prospects.  Remember our top 5 batsmen are combined averages of each of their last 25 innings at 49.7 (Lowest is Raval on 40 and highest is Latham on 56.9)

The very very good stats from the Top Order current Blackcaps Team

Winners are grinners and the current BlackCap have forsaking Grins for very BIG Smiles.  Below is the uptodate analysis of the past 25 innings from each Top Order Batsman.  Aggregates, Averages, Not Outs and 100's.  Have also aggregated the runs scored and the average runs scored  Fair to so wonderful figures.

Updated figures after Latham and Nicholls runs fest.

Blackcaps Top Order Blog.		(NO are in Pink Background)		(Ducks in Green)
			100's in Bold and Italics
Innings	Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nicholls
1	0	55	61	9	30
2	80	36	13	0	0
3	177	55	42	32	13
4	16	2	53	11	26
5	68	27	104	37	53
6	41	15	2	102	4
7	10	32	130	40	98
8	8	52	2	60	12
9	6	36	1	77	118
10	50	30	130	15	7
11	37	80	2	93	0
12	22	88	1	16	67
13	22	42	176	207	13
14	26	84	1	20	5
15	0	5	43	2	145
16	83	17	54	13	0
17	13	7	102	2	13
18	0	46	22	19	28
19	22	31	0	0	55
20	50	2	68	82	0
21	4	45	37	0	77
22	10	0	28	22	1
23	264	42	30	50	126
24	10	6	89	27	50
25	176	74	48	40	162
Aggregate	1195	909	1239	976	1103
Average	56.90	37.88	53.87	46.48	50.14
100's Per Innings	8.33	25.00	5.00	8.33	6.25
Total Top Order Aggregate		5422
Top Five Order Innings Average		243	Runs per Innings in tolal scores.
Top Five Combined Batting Averages.		49.05

OLd figures. Blackcaps Top Order Blog.		(NO are in Pink Background)		(Ducks in Green)
Innings	Tom Latham	Jeet Raval	Kane Williamson	Ross Taylor	Henry Nicholls
1	0	55	61	9	30
2	80	36	13	0	0
3	177	55	42	32	13
4	16	2	53	11	26
5	68	27	104	37	53
6	41	15	2	102	4
7	10	32	130	40	98
8	8	52	2	60	12
9	6	36	1	77	118
10	50	30	130	15	7
11	37	80	2	93	0
12	22	88	1	16	67
13	22	42	176	207	13
14	26	84	1	20	5
15	0	5	43	2	145
16	83	17	54	13	0
17	13	7	102	2	13
18	0	46	22	19	28
19	22	31	0	0	55
20	50	2	68	82	0
21	4	45	37	0	77
22	10	0	28	22	1
23	264	42	30	50	126
24	10	6	89	27	50
25	124	74	48	40	64
Aggregate	1143	909	1239	976	1005
Average	54.43	37.88	53.87	46.48	45.68
Total Top Order Aggregate		5272
Top Five Order Innings Average		210.88
Top Five Combined Batting Averages.		47.67