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Beasley Hutton wrote: Is it too late to ask NZ for Luke Ronchi back I wonder?
Willing to do a straight swap for Haddin & we will even throw in a flock of merino's to sweeten the deal!!

BH Ronchi is useless no point swapping another hit and miss with Haddin...Haddin is safe coming in at 7\8....I reckon Smith has consigned George to losing his captaincy place...can't have the likes of Watson,Bailey and Maxwell all 0 or 50 run players in one side....Bailey is in terrible form and needs to go...as for White surely someone like Silk or Klinger is in red hot form at present and deserve a go....good to see a few back up bowlers getting a run reckon Behrendorf should get a go especially in the dead rubber v India next game....nothing to lose TBH

Silk should have been blooded to see what he can do at the top level - a very impressive young man. Behrendorf will be ok in the next year or 2. NSW will promise him a baggy green along with his baggy blue if he moves over there. He's a deeply religious young man, so hopefully he has loyalty to WA - the state that gave him the chance.

Freezin wrote:

Beasley Hutton wrote: Is it too late to ask NZ for Luke Ronchi back I wonder?
Willing to do a straight swap for Haddin & we will even throw in a flock of merino's to sweeten the deal!!

BH Ronchi is useless no point swapping another hit and miss with Haddin...Haddin is safe coming in at 7\8....I reckon Smith has consigned George to losing his captaincy place...can't have the likes of Watson,Bailey and Maxwell all 0 or 50 run players in one side....Bailey is in terrible form and needs to go...as for White surely someone like Silk or Klinger is in red hot form at present and deserve a go....good to see a few back up bowlers getting a run reckon Behrendorf should get a go especially in the dead rubber v India next game....nothing to lose TBH

170 off 99 balls is useless then?..... Wonder what qualifies as useful in the Shakey Isles?. Reckon they might be trying to fly under the radar for the WC, one of the top 4 at least......

Mikeh......dont be fooled like everyone here in NZ is by these results.....Sri Lankas attack is pop gun at best.....the NZ grounds are postage stamp size.......great to see them get some wins but realistically when was the last time they played against a quality attack like Aust SA Or Eng.......for pace and swing?......

Sri Lanka have won only one game on their NZ tour so far......they are a complete dispirited rabble at present.....similar to what Eng were in 2013 summer.......as for Luke.....yep great knock for sure but Ronchi aint no world beater....against the likes of Johnson, Starc, Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Anderson and Broad he will be found out technically in a few balls.....the kiwis I worry about are Williamson, Anderson and Boult.....other than that the rest are filling their boots against 3rd rate attacks.....yeah Luke is useless .....good knock though!

Freeze I hear what you are saying about NZ's side and the lack of quality opponents of late but they play all of their WC games right up to the semi final (assuming the make it that far) at home on these postage stamp grounds including a match vs Australia at Eden Park. They are a ten times better side at home on their slow low wickets and I would add McCullum, Taylor & Southee to your players to watch out for. I reckon they are shoe ins to make the semi final stage at the least.

On another note someone a few months back was trying to tell all and sundry on here that world cricket was dead in the water. I did shoot them down at the time but I thought I might revisit that comment as I have been watching the cricket from Australia, NZ & SA over the Summer and there have been sold out games in all 3 countries for all forms of the game & last night at the Adelaide Oval broke the ground record for attendance ...so much for the game of cricket apparently dying!!

BH..... I see NZ don't even move out NZ till the semi finals(if they make it).....even Aust plays them in Auckland.......everything is geared up for them to make the semi's minimum....as much as folk are saying Aust will be under the pressure playing at home, ditto for NZ......don't get me wrong they are right in form and playing beautifully.....though Sri Lanka look so disinterested it's not funny.....

there are gonna be some terrible pastings for the minnows playing over here in NZ especially.....really do think McCullum, if on song, could easily hit 200 against the likes of Scotland, Afghanistan etc.....Hagley Park Oval is tiny....ditto Dunedins Uni ground.....

wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Eng rolls Aust first up or Sri Lanka rolls NZ first up on Valentines day......Southee complements Boult well but Boult is their main strike bowler...hope Aust take note if Boult cleans up Aust in the WC, that Behrendorf is just as good as Boult IMO, just sadly hasn't been given the chance yet.....Ashes roughy hopefully!

Taylors and McCullums technique will be exposed by Anderson and Broad I reckon....makes runs against the shite teams but not so many v the good bowlers......McCullum has had a fantastic 12 - 18 mths but once again who against?.....WI, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.....Warner on the other hand has been equally as good but has scored his runs against Eng, SA, India and Pakistan.....Smith ditto as well......

Big loss to the Aussies if Faulkner is out of the tournament. Depending on the severity of the injury and the fact that the tournament is 6 weeks in duration, the selectors may be inclined to keep Faulkner in the squad in the hope that he might be right by mid march which is the business end of the tournament. If Faulkner is ruled out I would favour a specialist bowler such as Coulter - Nile or Richardson to come into the squad rather than another all rounder like Henriques.

As for the first game vs England, Watson for Faulkner will probably be the only change from the tri series final team. This means that Starc, Johnson and Hazlewood would be the specialist bowlers and Watson, Marsh and Maxwell would bowl the other 20 overs between them. The other alternative would be to bring in Cummins and drop Bailey although that does leave us a little short of specialist batsmen.

Not a bad start to the WC so far by NZ & my bowler to watch out for Tim Southee freeze!

naagh BH they have well n truly peaked.....8 days before their next game v OZ will definitley derail any momentum they have built up......definitiely playing out of the skins tho, but hey Eng were ordinary v Australia last week and terrible v NZ yesterday.....would love a NZ v Oz final....get McCullum and Williamson early and they will unravel batting wise.....but hey they playing some red hot cricket at present and deserve all the success they are reaping at present