Well somehow the country seemed to actually be behind the Black Caps a week ago, a confidence I have not seen, in print or in public, in years and that extraordinary feet was only matched by how quickly that expectation and goodwill was blown away (if not on day one, certainly by day four) and this time by our own incompetence. Ian Chappell mused, during one of the batting collapses, that Daniel Vettori must be so sick of having to rescue the batting after 10 years of this stuff. I quietly wondered if Vettori was out there warning Brownlie (who on my first inspection, appears to have quite good technique and temperament) that he better get used to doing the same thing. If that is true, the trend should continue up the order: Brownlie warns Ryder, who warns Taylor, who warns Williamson, etc then everyone will bat properly after one of the openers is out (wishful thinking?) as opposed to the top 5 getting out before 6 & 7 knuckle down. Chappell is right though, this constant state of panic that our batting finds itself in has long warn out its welcome and I think Mark Richardson did well to illuminate why
This week, in the papers and on Sky Sport, Richardson (seldom my favourite commentator or writer) has attacked the often employed line 'we're just playing our natural game' as lazy and detrimental to the test team. What that line usually means is that the players are just playing overly aggressive cricket and not taking the time to get set in the middle before they play their attacking strokes. Richardson claims it is lazy, irresponsible and costs the team in every test match and he is right. It is simply not good enough for each batsman to bat with an attitude of 'I can play my strokes because if I fail, the other boys will pick up the slack' because they all seem to be batting in this fashion and next minute (not 'nek minute') we are 4-17.
Richardson's answer to this problem intrigues me: he says that the aggressive/positive intent does not need to be removed but transferred from attacking strokes to a kind of attacking defense. This means that instead of taking pride and joy from hitting the fast bowler to the boundary the batsmen learn to take pride and joy from defending confidently and leaving confidently - that can be just as big of a statement of intent than a well timed stroke (which you can do later). It is a method purely for test cricket and I think the team could do worse than listen to Richardson on this occasion.
The pity really is that the team actually bowled and fielded quite well (except for the missed chances off Clarke, duly punished) and if the team had really tried to set a total of 200 for Australia to chase (i.e. made 300 on Day 4 instead of 150) then I think we could well have won. There were plenty of signs that indicated this Australian side is actually not good enough to endure 5 days of intense cricket. The bowlers look tired in their second spell, their young batsmen are just as susceptible to probing bowling as we are and the conditions didn't favour either side over the other. It will not take too much for an even contest in Hobart today if New Zealand can sort out their childish batting attitudes. As a final word I will say that that change must happen with Ross Taylor first. I lambasted Sehwag in my early posts for poor batting as a captain and I will offer Taylor no quarter here, those two dismissals were the worst pair I have seen from a captain and a friend of mine in Christchurch is right to question whether he is up to the captaincy if he is going to bat like that. I think his leadership in the field was really encouraging actually and I am willingly to wait and see how his batting goes in this match but a batting captain must lead from the front at least some of the time (forgetting Mike Brearley)
Speaking of Sehwag, last night the Indian destroyer-of-bowling-figures made 219* in an ODI and I must say I'm disappointed that the high score record is in his hands rather than the master of that form of cricket, Tendulkar. More about that next week perhaps - enjoy the test in Hobart!
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
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