1st Semi Final - New Zealand v South Africa (24th March)

[wellAlbidarned]

Ended up discussing this over the water cooler. The consensus is that Corey should have kept walking and not thought about returning to the field.

nah, **** that. If you're a batsman playing a key innings in a WC semi-final and someone tells you there's a chance you're not out you stay on the ****ing field.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

Even if we lose the final, as a Kiwi sports fan this is at least equal to an All Blacks RWC win to me. Primarily because it's never been done before by us, but also because it's not as expected. The last time I expected the All Blacks to lose a game was 1998. I didn't expect the BCs to win this semifinal. So already it's a great moment.

Also because I'm more emotionally invested in cricket than rugby. If we win the final it will be by some margin the greatest moment of my career as a sports fan. Like Baz said, geez it would be good to win it.

 

[Hurricane]

A longer post since I am on the train.
In big games your big name players need to stand up. Baz stood up and said follow me. His inning was the ultimate team knock. Once he got to 50 he probably could have taken the foot off the accelerator and got a higher individual score but that is not his role in the team. He is not really supposed to see it through until the end. His job is to get us off to a flyer.
Yesterday on the train home I got chatting about the game with a colleague. I remarked 12(8) isn't going to cut it today. He needs to get the score through to 50 and that is what he did.
Going into the final we have an extra two day's rest. That will be key as boult appeared to tire towards the end of his first spell from all the bowling he has been doing. I have other thoughts but will wait for the final thread.

 

[Hurricane]

nah, **** that. If you're a batsman playing a key innings in a WC semi-final and someone tells you there's a chance you're not out you stay on the ****ing field.

Dwta

It is one thing not to walk in a test match when you know you have hit it. But this is a dire rule. You would change your tune if it happens to us in the final.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Dwta

It is one thing not to walk in a test match when you know you have hit it. But this is a dire rule. You would change your tune if it happens to us in the final.

It's a stupid rule and spidercam sucks, but why blame Corey for it? Any and every batsman would stay.

 

[Hurricane]

It's a stupid rule and spidercam sucks, but why blame Corey for it? Any and every batsman would stay.

I am not going to do a Richard and take on the whole forum but I will say that it would have been shameful if Corey had walked back out to bat. And if we had gone on to win then firstly it would have been a hollow victory and secondly we would definitely lose the final as we would be feeling guilty (unless we have no morals) and because it would have been so controversial that the team's preparation would not be focused.
You can't win a final unless your head is in the right space and winning like that would have messed with us.

 

[jcas0167]

That sounds completely baseless to me. No reason to believe that.

South Africa have had informal quotas, particularly at domestic level. So if the selection made no sense in terms of form/fitness that might be one explanation. We'll probably never know.

There is a quota for four players of colour in South Africa’s national and domestic teams. The Proteas had five coloured players during the first Test against Australia in Brisbane and is likely to have four in Adelaide, sans JP Duminy. There have been calls to push Thami Tsolekile, the only black African in South Africa’s 16-man squad, to replace Duminy and take over the wicket-keeper’s gloves from AB de Villiers.

Mickey Arthur: South Africa?s quota system is irrelevant and not a major issue - Latest Cricket News, Articles & Videos at CricketCountry.com

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Dwta

It is one thing not to walk in a test match when you know you have hit it. But this is a dire rule. You would change your tune if it happens to us in the final.

I agree it's a stupid rule, but it shouldn't be up to a batsman in a key game to make a point about it.

 

[zorax]

Yea shouldn't have been a dead ball if it hit the wire. Minor deflection, just makes it harder to catch.

If it was on its way for a six, hit the camera, deflected, and caught tho...

Also Philander over Abbott seemed silly, but tbf the **** bowled pretty ****ing well. He was not the reason SA lost. None of the players are.

 

[Contra]

Yea shouldn't have been a dead ball if it hit the wire. Minor deflection, just makes it harder to catch.

If it was on its way for a six, hit the camera, deflected, and caught tho...

Also Philander over Abbott seemed silly, but tbf the **** bowled pretty ****ing well. He was not the reason SA lost. None of the players are.

Maybe Abott could have bowled better considering he's consistently been taking wickets the whole tournament? Philander in ODI's is overrated anyways.

 

[NZTailender]

Fairfax media in Australia

 

[otagoman]

imagine if that last shot grazed the wire on its way for 6 and was called back as a dead ball

 

[Flem274*]

a few final thoughts

-elliott has delivered in semis before. got us through to the champions trophy final in 2009 iirc. also in the JAMODI series against aus in 2008 he brought us home in a chase and lead a near miss with a ton.

- below is an image of baz batting whenever we look like we're going to lose/be sad (300, UAE knock, last night etc)

 

[Athlai]

After the rain break.

AB looked mortal after the break, didn't really matter since Miller had decided he was an angry God at the other end. I think Southee and Anderson didn't bowl as poorly as Miller made them look. Southee's last over in particular was a fine display of death bowling. But he did give up a few pies in his spell that were dealt with, and Miller dealt with the good balls just as easily.

I don't think the Saffa bowlers were all that poor up front either. McCullum was just middling everything. That said they did not bowl brilliantly either, they were rattled and began bowling defensively far too soon.

I think Williamson got a bit unlucky and that was a turning point of the match. At that point I think we had our noses ahead but after Williamson fell South Africa were on top.

Guptill after a few iffy moments early on against the pace bowlers and Tahir started to really look the goods when Taylor joined him. That partnership began to take the game away from South Africa and I believe we were in the lead again when Taylor sold Guptill down the river. After that Taylor got out to a fairly nothing ball and South Africa were again on top.

And then what can I say? Elliott and Anderson built one of the great World Cup partnerships, and the biggest thing was that South Africa by no means just handed those runs to them. Philander, Morkel and Tahir all saved their best for the post Taylor period of play. Philander was getting it to move a bit off the pitch and my stomach was in absolute knots.

And they just kept going and going and going. Pushing us in the lead, and then giving us a fairly comfortable position (which happened frequently throughout the game due to the start Baz gave us).

And then all of a sudden we had left it too late. We were behind, and we couldn't buy a boundary from a revitalised Steyn and a brutal Morkel.

I didn't want to move, didn't want to talk and I couldn't believe it when Vettori hit that four in the last over.

When Elliott hit that six? I'm not sure if I've ever been so proud to be a NZ cricket fan.

 

[Hurricane]

After the rain break.

AB looked mortal after the break, didn't really matter since Miller had decided he was an angry God at the other end. I think Southee and Anderson didn't bowl as poorly as Miller made them look. Southee's last over in particular was a fine display of death bowling. But he did give up a few pies in his spell that were dealt with, and Miller dealt with the good balls just as easily.

I don't think the Saffa bowlers were all that poor up front either. McCullum was just middling everything. That said they did not bowl brilliantly either, they were rattled and began bowling defensively far too soon.

I think Williamson got a bit unlucky and that was a turning point of the match. At that point I think we had our noses ahead but after Williamson fell South Africa were on top.

Guptill after a few iffy moments early on against the pace bowlers and Tahir started to really look the goods when Taylor joined him. That partnership began to take the game away from South Africa and I believe we were in the lead again when Taylor sold Guptill down the river. After that Taylor got out to a fairly nothing ball and South Africa were again on top.

And then what can I say? Elliott and Anderson built one of the great World Cup partnerships, and the biggest thing was that South Africa by no means just handed those runs to them. Philander, Morkel and Tahir all saved their best for the post Taylor period of play. Philander was getting it to move a bit off the pitch and my stomach was in absolute knots.

And they just kept going and going and going. Pushing us in the lead, and then giving us a fairly comfortable position (which happened frequently throughout the game due to the start Baz gave us).

And then all of a sudden we had left it too late. We were behind, and we couldn't buy a boundary from a revitalised Steyn and a brutal Morkel.

I didn't want to move, didn't want to talk and I couldn't believe it when Vettori hit that four in the last over.

When Elliott hit that six? I'm not sure if I've ever been so proud to be a NZ cricket fan.

The post I wanted to make.

 

[Howsie]

I don't think I can add too much more to what has been said already except soak this week in boys. All of us here are obvs massive NZ cricket fans. Enjoy the week. We don't always agree (understatement) but this community really is the best I've come across.

 

[Greenlite]

a few final thoughts

-elliott has delivered in semis before. got us through to the champions trophy final in 2009 iirc. also in the JAMODI series against aus in 2008 he brought us home in a chase and lead a near miss with a ton.

- below is an image of baz batting whenever we look like we're going to lose/be sad (300, UAE knock, last night etc)

Edit: oh look even the uniforms are the same colors, Captain New Zealand in blue (ANZ) and Loki in green

 

[Greenlite]

I don't think I can add too much more to what has been said already except soak this week in boys. All of us here are obvs massive NZ cricket fans. Enjoy the week. We don't always agree (understatement) but this community really is the best I've come across.

[/QUOTE]

 

[viriya]

Yea shouldn't have been a dead ball if it hit the wire. Minor deflection, just makes it harder to catch.

If it was on its way for a six, hit the camera, deflected, and caught tho...

Also Philander over Abbott seemed silly, but tbf the **** bowled pretty ****ing well. He was not the reason SA lost. None of the players are.

Abbott would almost certainly have bowled better than Philander based in current form and made a 10-15 run difference and claimed a wicket or two. I knew SL were ****ed when they picked him for the quarters, the non-selection for the semis after that made no ****ing sense whatsoever.

 

[hendrix]

Philander averages **** all against NZ, and is a superb Test bowler and Guptill sucks against Test bowling.

He actually bowled better than Steyn and had a superb spell in the middle.

I wouldve selected Abbott before the match but I doubt it would've effected the result.