Its Only Cricket

Filed under Eng in NZ 2008

Recently, former captain Nasser Hussain had tipped current England cricket team as 'soft'. I can't say I disagree with Nasser..

English cricket is failing to find batsmen who could stand on opposition's bowling & fire fours & sixes. much is expect off Bell, Bopara, Pietersen but none of them score at strikerate of over 150 runs/100balls like Sehwag of India, Gilchrist of Australia, Jayasuriya of Srilanka or Chris Gayle of West Indies do at top of batting order.

Cricket is very much a game of initiative, which current English team don't care too much about.

Now, Opposition is New Zealand. Another sweet cricket team with not many teeth to bite you. that said - Kiwi cricket is very technical & they fight untill the end. Series schedule is set as such that England & New Zealand first meet up in twin twenty twenty matches at Auckland and Christchurch on 5th and 7th February 2008. ODI series & then 3 test match series follows.

Meaning - on coming Tuesday and Thursday - both these relatively cold cricket teams would be burning crackers. a 3 hour real thriller fans should try instead of an unreal evening movie.

Start Time of this England vs New Zealand Twenty20 match is as much important. Note it now - 0600hrs in morning according to England, 1900hrs in evening according to home team New Zealand. this T20 match will be starting at 1130hrs in afternoon in India & 2200hrs at night the day before according to California (Big Apple aka Los Angeles) time.

Squads
New Zealand : Daniel Vettori(c), Brendon McCullum(wk), Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Paul Hitchcock and Chris Martin.
England : Paul Collingwood(c), Alaister Cook, Phil Mustard(wk), Owais Shah, Graeme Swann, Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, James Tredwell, Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad, Tim Ambrose(wk), James Anderson and Chris Tremlett.

Do you know? **Tim Southee, the right handed seam bowler selected by Kiwis is also an under-19 cricketer who would be leaving for U-19 world cup 2008 in malaysia starting in 15 days time, right after he represents New Zealand national cricket team in this two 20-20 matches against visiting England team.

England in New Zealand 2008 : Tour schedule

England vs New Zealand 2008 cricket series

Eng v NZ twin Twenty20s, on 5th & 7th feb 2008

Scorecard : Eng v NZ 1st T20 : 5th feb 2008

England ride on Dimitri, win 1st T20 vs NZ

Collingwood's day : odi series still alive