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With all due respect to Wagner who busts his gut and is a great trier for NZ but he couldnt carry Hadlee's bag to the ground as a bowler.
Hadlee is NZ's greatest bowler of all time with daylight to Boult or Bond in 2nd place!

as comprehensive as you'll see
and even though NZ did have injury issues this series here hasn't been one of their usual fighting efforts
Pattinson was good

Would be interesting to hear the Kiwis take on the series so far from over the ditch Freeze?

NZ's batting has been abysmal TBH. Their big guns haven't fired a shot and the only reason that they got beyond 200 today was that Blundell took the Aussie bowlers on and played an aggressive innings. The others have looked like rabbits in the spot light. The bowlers apart from Wagner have struggled although injuries have unsettled them as well.
From the Aussies point of view, great to see Travis Head convert one of those nice middle of the road scores into a ton and Paine getting a good 70 as well. Smith is going to be getting a lot of leg side bouncers in future games so he needs to go away and work on a technique to deal with these. He could start by looking at how Blundell handled some of these deliveries today.

Starc looked a bit sore and proppy towards the end of this test so he could be rested in Sydney in order to give Neser an opportunity.

Stand the Test wrote: Wagner as much a kiwi as me. Same as de grandholme.

Stick Watling in there too mate....but hey with a population of just over 4 million, can't blame them looking elsewhere for decent cricketers....saying that... thank fark Labuschagne is Australian eh?

BH....a lot of kiwis generally thought they could win this series, some have been complimentary of the Aussie bowlers....usual rubbish that Smith and Warner are cheats and shouldn't be playing....usual sheep bleating stuff...have to admire the spirit of their fans though....all dressed up with no party to go to, in their "steady the ship" sailor hats....watching their side get their arses kicked session in session out....can't fault their loyalty....on par with the Perth fans me thinks......LOL

Mikeh, interesting to hear JL take on Smith.....made 80 odd when Aust was 2/70 odd....got a brute of a bouncer.....came out in the 2nd dig with Aust 350+ plus ahead....and spooned it out to square leg....agree he needs to technically to fine tune a few things with the short ball stuff....but not all pitches are bouncy like the Aust pitches.....roll the wrists more.....or even hit the ball harder with intent....something Blundell did....some of those Blundell pull shots were rockets....Smith seems to get fancy and caresses them at times....but then again I can't bat for peanuts....as JL said, Smith is a freak and will work it out....

Stand the Test wrote: Wagner as much a kiwi as me. Same as de grandholme.

And Watling is originally from SA like Wagner, CDG is Zimbabwean I think.

What about all those "Englishmen" in the Pommy side of the last 20 or so years-
Stokes, Archer, Curran, Peiterson, Panasar, Caddick, Malcolm, DeFreitas, Lewis, Jennings, White, R.Smith, Hick, Lamb, Roy, Strauss, Pringle, Such, McCague, Joyce, Rankin, Morgan etc.

In fact it would be easier to name those Pommy cricketers that were actually born in England!

Interesting to see that Somerville has been bought in to the squad for the Sydney test. Could be horses for courses as he played a few seasons for NSW and I seem to remember he ripped through WA at the SCG in one shield game (Not very hard to do that mind you)
He may well get a game here in place of Santner, with Matt Henry coming in to replace Boult. I think NZ may well be more competitive in this game on a slower pitch.

mikeh wrote: Interesting to see that Somerville has been bought in to the squad for the Sydney test. Could be horses for courses as he played a few seasons for NSW and I seem to remember he ripped through WA at the SCG in one shield game (Not very hard to do that mind you)
He may well get a game here in place of Santner, with Matt Henry coming in to replace Boult. I think NZ may well be more competitive in this game on a slower pitch.

Horses for courses it looks like Mike for the NZ selectors as Somerville was known as an SCG specialist in his NSW days.
I agree that the SCG will suit the Kiwis more than Perth and Melbourne as it is more similar to their own decks across the ditch.

maybe this will be where NZ put up their customary stubborn fight - it's been very noticeably missing thus far
they will not like being whitewashed in a series they were big wraps in