England's Winter

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New Zealand

T20 Internationals

Friday November 1st - Christchurch
Sunday November 3rd - Wellington
Tuesday November 5th - Nelson
Friday November 8th - Napier
Sunday November 10th - Auckland

Squad
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) captain
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Tom Banton (Somerset)
Sam Billings (Kent)
Pat Brown (Worcestershire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Tom Curran (Surrey)
Joe Denly (Kent)
Lewis Gregory (Somerset)
Chris Jordan (Sussex)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Dawid Malan (Middlesex)
Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
James Vince (Hampshire)


Tests

Wednesday November 20th - Tauranga
Thursday November 28th - Hamilton

Squad
Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain
Jofra Archer (Sussex)
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire)
Rory Burns (Surrey)
Jos Buttler (Lancashire)
Zak Crawley (Kent)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Joe Denly (Kent)
Jack Leach (Somerset)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Matthew Parkinson (Lancashire)
Ollie Pope (Surrey)
Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)



South Africa

Tests

Thursday 26th December - Centurion
Friday January 3rd - Cape Town
Thursday January 16th - Port Elizabeth
Friday January 24th - Johannesburg

Squad
TBC


ODI
Tuesday 4th February - Cape Town
Friday 7th February - Durban
Sunday 9th February - Johannesburg

Squad
TBC



T20 Internationals

Wednesday 12th February - East London
Friday 14th February - Durban
Sunday 16th February - Centurion


Sri Lanka

March 7th - Warm up 1, Katunayake (3 day)
March 12th - Warm up 2, Colombo (3 day)
March 19th - 1st Test, Galle
March 27th - 2nd Test, Colombo

Duty281 wrote:Time to brace ourselves then...England are batting first.

Please don’t be five down at lunch, eh lads?

Already lasted about as long as Roy did for the entire Ashes...albeit with one ball short of 5 maidens in a row

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:NZ are indeed an excellent side Duty as you’ve pointed out many times - believe it’s only one loss in their past 15 tests at home. The odds on them to win the series are very long, especially as it seems the forecast for this first test seems ok

Have they beaten anyone really in that time? Bangladesh, Windies, Pakistan (only two), SL and England. They lost 1-0 to SA. Think if England play well they can win this series. NZ are a a solid side at home - play badly and they will beat you, but play well and they aren’t unbeatable.

Colin de Granhomme is getting some really good shape to Burns here. When he pitches full it looks dangerous and when he drops short he looks like Jonathan Trott did bowling. A strange mix!

Beautiful, cerebral, picturesque setting.

And a flat wicket in perfect batting conditions. Great toss to win. Book in for an extended stay if you’re a batsman!

Burns was a touch fortunate mind.

50 partnership up for Sibley and Burns. Good start in good batting conditions.

...and he gets Sibley

The only negative about NZ tours is that the majority of their commentators are really rather crap

Notable movement for best bowler in the world de Grandhomme.

Root never looked settled, scratching around and the crowd got on him a little to score. Burns not as good after lunch.

It’s been a hot day but a little bit of cloud hasn’t come into play now. Been a strong breeze all day.

Not sure I’ve ever watched sport (or anything) in a nicer place. Had great fun at lunch as we were allowed on the pitch. Also a big fan of Wagner shouting “f*ck” really loudly when he got hit for four

Kiwis should be looking at turning a slow day into a dominant one with 36 overs left and three wickets down. Especially as no one has really settled nicely against their bowling.

With the new ball a few overs old, Denly brings up 200 delightfully then edges behind next ball. Challenge for Pope now. 203/4.

Under-appreciated as he is, he’s played well today has Joe.

Pope off the mark first ball and we need two more for a Stokes 50.

Pope has started well and Big Bad Ben gets to a nice 50

The hero looks in great form

Seeing it like a beachball.

As I say that, he flashes at one that Taylor can only parry from the slips and to the boundary. Onto 67

Fell asleep at two down with TMS on. Woke up to heat the score was 176 for 6 ....familiar take...only turns out they'd switched to ABC and that was Pakistan.

Decent day for England, importantly the top 3 did their job in the way they were asked. It's the length of time at the crease more than the runs on the board that's the change.

Still a fair bit requires tomorrow from the two men in and the strong tail, expect the scoreboard to rattle on once Curran archer and Broad get in but Pope buttlerand Stokes need to delay that as long as possible and stay with them.
Less than 350 gives NZ a strong hand, England really should be looking at 400 as a minimum from here. It's a batters pitch

New Zealand will be disappointed in themselves. They barely threatened outside de Grandhomme, the spinner was loose and easy to play, and they let Pope get in very easily at the end of the day.

No one looked bad but Root. Sibley will he disappointed but did a patient opener’s job on the new ball. Denly was stoic as ever and didn’t look in much trouble until he went. Stoked suddenly looked ominously at ease. Burns did his usual style of giving uneasy moments and seeming to brush them off straightaway

I was half asleep at the time but heard talk Roots remodelled his action, ties into what was mentioned about Thorpe spending time with him in the nets. Did he really look out of sorts or was it just one of those days where an early ball had his name on it?
I dont think NZ can be overly disappointed in themselves they still have a decent shot at restricting England to a manageable total . Bowling them out cheaply would always be a tough ask on a flat pitch first up when they are batting well. I guess the disappointment for them would be they arent facing the usual basket case England of the past two years that collapses for them regardless of conditions.

Good start from the top three now the lower order needs to push on and turn this into a match winning total; there's nobody better to cash in on this than Stokes and hopefully Buttler retains his late Ashes form; Denly continues to defy expectations with more determination than actual talent.

Burns has a very deceptive technique, yes he plays and misses a lot but that is down to the fact he doesn't go chasing the ball, he plays the line of the ball and sticks to it which probably looks a bit risky but in fact isn't. There are players like Root for example who get more bat on ball but chase any movement which is a fine thing to do until your late on the shot and edge behind.

Yes overall that's obviously a good day, but does still give New Zealand a chance to fight back. Its hard to follow this tour given the times in UK, and I am not criticising the batting approach, but a succession of batsmen blocking Colin de Grandhomme's nagging medium pace is a spectacle probably best enjoyed whilst asleep!

VTR wrote:Yes overall that's obviously a good day, but does still give New Zealand a chance to fight back. Its hard to follow this tour given the times in UK, and I am not criticising the batting approach, but a succession of batsmen blocking Colin de Grandhomme's nagging medium pace is a spectacle probably best enjoyed whilst asleep!

From what I saw in the 1st session, he was definitely getting the most swing of any of the seamers...so I am presuming that continued throughout the day?

Good first day - as Soul says, a good opportunity now for the lower order to push on and get us to 400, which would obviously be a very handy first innings score. Don't think Sibley looked out of place at all, which is an instant upgrade on Roy, and Burns/Denly continue to grind out runs.
Haven't seen the highlights, but twitter tells me Pope looked busy, certainly if he/Stokes/Buttler can bat a session or two we'll see a lot higher scoring rate than what we did today!

You say that olly but Roy did get a 72 on debut and Jennings a century....
But yeah the Sibley Roy Denly trio looks as solid as anything England have had post Cook Strauss Trott who used to get roundly slated for putting pressure on the middle order by scoring too slowly ( this forum is old enough to check the posts!) All the current top 3 score at less than 3 an over in tests.
But it really is an upgrade, they bat long and arent afraid not to score. Sibley and Burns had a period that was one ball off 5 maidens, ended by Sibleys second scoring stroke, both boundaries. At that really shows just how disciplined he was in only choosing to put away the balls there to be hit rather than trying to widdle through singles or edging twos.
Given the context of Englands batting over recent times it's a huge and needed shift. Finding three bats who can knuckle down and stick around, lots of jokes on TMS about london busses.
The direction from silverwood was quite clear, stay in for time. That should make all three feel secure theyve delivered what was asked of them even if Sibley didn't get many runs on the board.
The expectation that we can have openers who average 40 plus scoring at 4 an over has long sailed. Having a top 3 who can all push their averages over 30 and see off the new ball between them consistently would be a massive step forward from where England have been.

Sounds like Dolph had a lovely day at the cricket...and not a bad day for England with everyone except Root doing OK. Might be a bit of an easy batting track though ? (Not seen a ball , just following on text at work)
I note England do seem to have taken their resolve to play "proper old fashioned Test Cricket " instead of Bayliss bish-bash quite seriously. In fact eyeing the scores a little after tea I was getting a "back to the sixties " feeling about the scoring rate
But Stokes - and actually Pope , who seems to have started quite fluently ? - gave the innings a bit of impetus later on ; so they are in a decent position , you'd think , for the later attack minded bats like Buttler and Curran to push on tomorrow. Four hundred a bit before tea would be nice ...
Of course a couple of early wickets could change that and we have seen that before so I am not counting chickens yet !

Denly seems to have played pretty soundly. But I am a little bemused by the way Root struggled to even get off the mark before falling cheaply anyway. Not worried at this stage but it does seem an uncharacteristic sort of show from him - hopefully he will fire in the second knock.

Will be interesting to see if England's bowlers can be a bit more incisive when it is their turn to bowl on this. I gather the weather is set fair ? But even so it might take some good bowling to force a result on the evidence of day one.

Decent start for England. They were actually patient for the most part! Slightly frustrating though that no one in the top three kicked on to a truly big score after all making starts. Sibley looked assured until getting a good ball. De Grandhomme was the most impressive Kiwi bowler, though overall I felt they all bowled a little too short and a little too wide for the most part.

Getting to 400+ and establishing scoreboard pressure on an uninspiring wicket is paramount for England. There again, two quick wickets in the opening hour tomorrow (tonight) will shift the balance dramatically back in the hosts’ favour.

It was a good first day for England but still pretty even. It's a good batting wicket and NZ have a strong top 6 - BBC have Watling down to bat at 7 but he usually comes in ahead of de Grandhomme I believe.

On a batting wicket such as this England need somebody to kick onto a hundred which takes them up to the 400 mark.

Brilliant catch from Taylor to deny Stokes a ton. Just pulls England back as they were starting to dominate.

And NZ have two in the first hour. Not a clever shot from his Holiness. Collapse time?

Collapse time? Yep.

Worst review in the history of the game after a good nut.

It’s all gone a bit England.

May as well when you have two reviews left I think?

Now Jofra gone. How he averages 28 in FC cricket I have no idea. Has looked clueless every time he has held a bat for England!

Only positives are it is more overcast today, so should be better for bowling. Which England will be doing fairly quickly now.

It's either been inspired captaincy from Kane to fire Southee up by not opening with him this morning, or madness to open with CDG! I think more the latter...

Now Buttler run out by a mile if he had hit!

Yeah, Jofra’s averaging under 7 with the bat so far in tests, a return better suited to a number 11 batsmen!

Buttler and Leach steadied the collapse - if they can steer us above 350 it’s at least a score on the board, albeit not as good as hoped before the days play. Few soft dismissals today, but that’s going to happen with the stroke makers down the order

352 now. Buttler caught by a man who was signing autographs as the bowler was running in. I agree with commentary, it’s unfair on the batsmen

Good move getting Curran on early when the ball is moving. He should do some damage in these conditions, with the breeze to work with.

Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

In a strong position here I think - pitch is beginning to go a bit up and down, certainly seems to be enough there for the bowlers if they put it in the right areas. 

Albeit Watling is a crucial wicket. He’s an annoying bugger to get out and can bat a long time

Leach should bat nine in this team. Has shown a lot of composure with the bat. Curran at 8 as a bit of a wild card is OK for now, sometimes he will come off. Agree with comments on Archer, looks about as good as Phil Tufnell with the bat so far, which is strange as he clearly has more ability than that.

For the match position its still looking good for England, a 75 run lead or thereabouts would be a very strong position

The Pope dismissal perfectly illustrated the point I was making about Burns, the ball moved away and he chased it, had he played the line of the ball he'd have been ok. I understand the need to score and it's the nature of some players but this reluctance to alter the way they play at all isn't conducive with test cricket.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

Possibly something to do with the quality of the spinners?
Or do you mean weird root himself bowled..it was 1 over

OK but not great day for England again it seems. Curran once again defies (my?) expectation, as with Denly not the greatest cricketer to don a cap but deserved his place and made it look like the right call so far. Ignore him giving his wicket away, hes in for his bowling.

Soul Requiem wrote:The Pope dismissal perfectly illustrated the point I was making about Burns, the ball moved away and he chased it, had he played the line of the ball he'd have been ok. I understand the need to score and it's the nature of some players but this reluctance to alter the way they play at all isn't conducive with test cricket.

Pope does average nigh on 60 in FC cricket to be fair. He’s not like a Vince or a Roy, who’s FC records suggested they needed to change something. Can’t imagine Pope averages what he does playing shots like that regularly, even in FC cricket - so hopefully it was just a rush of blood in his first Test back.

JDizzle wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:The Pope dismissal perfectly illustrated the point I was making about Burns, the ball moved away and he chased it, had he played the line of the ball he'd have been ok. I understand the need to score and it's the nature of some players but this reluctance to alter the way they play at all isn't conducive with test cricket.

Pope does average nigh on 60 in FC cricket to be fair. He’s not like a Vince or a Roy, who’s FC records suggested they needed to change something. Can’t imagine Pope averages what he does playing shots like that regularly, even in FC cricket - so hopefully it was just a rush of blood in his first Test back.

It's not the first time he's got out in that way, hopefully being young it's an easy fix but is something to keep an eye on.

Soul Requiem wrote:

JDizzle wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:The Pope dismissal perfectly illustrated the point I was making about Burns, the ball moved away and he chased it, had he played the line of the ball he'd have been ok. I understand the need to score and it's the nature of some players but this reluctance to alter the way they play at all isn't conducive with test cricket.

Pope does average nigh on 60 in FC cricket to be fair. He’s not like a Vince or a Roy, who’s FC records suggested they needed to change something. Can’t imagine Pope averages what he does playing shots like that regularly, even in FC cricket - so hopefully it was just a rush of blood in his first Test back.

It's not the first time he's got out in that way, hopefully being young it's an easy fix but is something to keep an eye on.

He's played 4 test innings, 3 of which batting in a position he'd never batted in before. How about we give the kid a chance...

How about we evaluate players based on the evidence in front of us.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

Interesting stat provided by the Beeb article - none of the last 101 test wickets for New Zealand at home have been taken by a spinner.

I didn’t realise it was only one Root over, but yes I heard that NZ stat on the sky coverage too. Having watched yesterday, I’m not surprised

LondonTiger wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

Interesting stat provided by the Beeb article - none of the last 101 test wickets for New Zealand at home have been taken by a spinner.

Santner is a decent limited overs bowler but doesn't actually spin the ball so not a great surprise.

Also turns out that Buttler possibly shouldn't have been given out because of an obscure sub clause in the rules about entering the field of play.

Soul Requiem wrote:How about we evaluate players based on the evidence in front of us.

To be fair to him, he’d been put in a position where I think he needed to be a guy being more proactive. The top three had been very stoic, Root had failed, Stokes could use a partner. It’s slightly different for the side now, I think that 6, especially in that game, was in a position to be playing. First day, he’d put away a lot that others had been allowing to go unpunished.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:How about we evaluate players based on the evidence in front of us.

To be fair to him, he’d been put in a position where I think he needed to be a guy being more proactive. The top three had been very stoic, Root had failed, Stokes could use a partner. It’s slightly different for the side now, I think that 6, especially in that game, was in a position to be playing. First day, he’d put away a lot that others had been allowing to go unpunished.

I don't disagree in theory but he's a young guy who has only just come into the side and Stokes had only just got out so a time of stability was required., the number six position isn't one where we're short of options.

Strong day for England; the wicket of Williamson towards the end puts the English in a commanding position. Should be looking to get at least a fifty run lead from here, added to the advantage of not having to bat last, too.

Soul Requiem wrote:How about we evaluate players based on the evidence in front of us.

Sure. He averages 60 in FC cricket! That is evidence enough he deserves a long run.

LondonTiger wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

Interesting stat provided by the Beeb article - none of the last 101 test wickets for New Zealand at home have been taken by a spinner.

Really does make you wonder why they bother to play one...Williamson can offer a few overs of spin if needed. Lockie Ferguson would offer so much more than Santner is with the ball

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

LondonTiger wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Curran gets the first and then gets the settled captain for 51 and New Zealand have finished 144/4 in the end.

Stokes and Leach with the others. Weird to see Root bowling a bit of spin considering how reluctant NZ were to use any first day (and rightly, it seemed)

Interesting stat provided by the Beeb article - none of the last 101 test wickets for New Zealand at home have been taken by a spinner.

Really does make you wonder why they bother to play one...Williamson can offer a few overs of spin if needed. Lockie Ferguson would offer so much more than Santner is with the ball

Worried about the tail I guess? But its a weak argument in favour Id agree. They usued to pick Ish Sodhi a lot who could bat a bit but rubbish as a bowler.

Found the stats on that ....its 607 (now 608) days since the home spinner wicket. That was Todd Astle. They've only bowled 85 overs of spin in that time though, much of it part timers.

Williamson hasn't taken a test wicket anywhere for nearly two years.