All this talk of XIs!

Hello and welcome back to my blog

First an apology to my faithful readers for the lateness of this week's post, family frivolities kept me away from the Internet for several days - would have been at home in Bay 13 at the MCG to be honest. So today I find myself trying to avoid the Mark Richardson method (see his book) and ponder how the Black Caps might win (or win respect at least) in India over the next few weeks. In the spirit of picking XIs that seems to have overtaken Cricinfo of late (copied from my early blog entries I might add) here are some fun suggestions
The Squad is as follows:
Vettori, Arnel, Bennett, Guptil, Hopkins, McCullum, McIntosh, McKay, Martin, Patel, Ryder, Southee, Taylor, Watling and Williamson

The XI will likely be:
McIntosh and Watling to open (the description of 'get runs no matter how slow' picks these two quite naturally I'm afraid - enjoy these two while they're there because after this series it will likely be that time again where we 'blood' a new pair)
McCullum, Taylor, Ryder and Williamson (unless they're stupid enough to put in No-runs-against-Zimbabwe B/World 1000th XI-Guptil) should fill out the rest of the top-order.
Vettori fits into the counter-attacking Number Seven role (although he should move up if 4 wickets fall early)
Hopkins keeping at 8
Then bowlers will be Patel, Arnel and Martin

Now, in my opinion, the line up should be:
McIntosh, Watling, Taylor, Williamson, Ryder and Vettori as your top Six. McCullum should be given a slap or a bucket of water and told that he should be keeping and batting at 7 (where he has averaged 50 for the last 12 months or more) thus not wasting a spot with first-class rubbish like Hopkins (the same man who scored a century against ZIM B recently - revealing the 'quality' of that bowling line up)
The bowlers should include Southee, Arnel (who should know now that he will bowl a great deal) McKay/Bennett (for pace) and either Martin or Patel. Note that Patel, who went at 5+ an over in the recent A tour, should ONLY play if the pitch will definitely turn

Now for some fun:
The best chance for victory lies in the following selection:

1. Turner
2. Wright (just in case we need a century to draw a match - seriously look at his stats for drawn matches)
3. Crowe
4. Crowe
5. Crowe
6. Crowe
7. Hadlee (the one that gets runs)
8. Ian Smith
9. Vettori
10. Hadlee
11. Hadlee

(Note: these selections depend on the assumption that four Martin Crowes and four Richard Hadlees wouldn't kill each other)

Finally, to give some hope to the boys, almost no result could be as disappointing as the one likely to be produced by the following XIs
FIRST

1. Sutcliffe
2. Leggat
3. Poore
4. Reid
5. McGregor
6. Rabone (c)
7. Cave
8. MacGibbon
9. Colquhoun
10. Moir
11. Hayes

(see March 1955)

SECOND

1. T. Franklin
2. J. Morrison
3. M. Sinclair
4. J. Crowe
5. K. Rutherford
6. C. Harris (not to be confused with his twin who played ODI cricket with distinction)
7. V. Pollard
8. L. Germon (c)
9. G. Loveridge
10. C. Pringle
11. H. Davis

(Poor-men versions of better players all)

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now