What A Fackin' Finish!!!

Palmers

With the pitch being a flat wicket supose he was worried England might have got in and got a good score, it s a short pitch......I can't slate MacCullam as thought he did a great job since taking over from captain....Loved his attacking play which defo put us under the cosh.

Credit go to both teams for a entertaing game of cricket

Jungle Bhoy

I actually thought the series was pretty dull, other than the last two days of the third test.

I agree with what you're saying about McCullum being worried England would knock those runs off, but, 400 plus is a tall order on any pitch and given the England were still around 165 behind at the close yesterday, it certainly suggests he could have declared slightly earlier and had more overs to bowl.

England never do it the easy way though do they? They were cruising to a draw with 4 overs left and then lose two wickets in an over. I can't believe Monty survived.

Overall though, I think England were fairly poor and NZ were better. I hope they climb the rankings because on the basis of that they are a decent team. Very impressed with Trent Boult

I still dont know why McCullum didnt enforce the follow on.

McCullum I am sure will look back and Learn from this maybe he thought Like I said England may have a better second Innings and thought if he got his team out of sight that his Bowlers would have been able to bowl us out.

And nearly did Trent Boult was first class thought he got his lines right, also Williams shown how its done with his bowling but couldn't help think McCullum got his fielding spot on, Cook could learn from this.

But Englands to players that saved this was Bell and Prior both were fantastic and showed they could handle the presure

Anyway that was a great advert for cricket this morning cracking finish to well a dull series

I still don't know what to make of that really. Some of you are applauding New Zealand's effort and perhaps rightly so in some regards but that is extremely deflating for the Kiwi's. Mainly as they made some bad tactical errors IMO and let England off the hook. Some of the decisions in the first session were bizarre. I can understand wanting to get to the new ball quickly but they meandered through to lunch without really mixing up their options and trying something different. It was Wagner I think who'd already shown he could get the ball reversing but they pinned everything on that new ball. It nearly paid off I suppose but for some poor slip catching, still feel once the spinners weren't getting much early in the day they should've changed things up a bit more.

Agree with Palmers about batting on far too long, a common trait amongst many captains recently. McCullum didn't want to declare when they did, he should've been braver for me. England were never going to chase 450+ down regardless of the short boundaries or the wicket. Even if England started quickly NZ could've set defensive fields and with a few wickets with the new ball, England would've shut up shop. Essentially it cost them time to get that last wicket and the match.

That to me isn't good cricket or captaincy. Easy for me to sit here and say of course but the simple fact that 400+ scores have been chased down a few times in over 130 years shows how incredibly difficult it is.

Finally, credit were it's due to the England batsmen. Particularly Bell and Prior. Showed a lot of grit out there but still some concerns in that England performance that will need ironing out before the summer.

The Galloping

To be fair to McCullum he has just taken over the captaincy and yes he made some bad decisions but also thought he got thinks right with his attacking fielding and what a gem Trent Boult is, thought his line was spot on.

I will give credit to NZ because the battering they took from SA before this test shows they had great spirit, I am just glad that Bell and Prior came through with a bit of lady luck, looking forward to the return test before the Ashes

Jungle_Bhoy,

Don't get me wrong he did make some good moves, especially first innings and as you allude to he's still learning. He looks to have knitted them together well and the players looked happy under him. All good signs but he and his team missed out on a golden opportunity going into the final day. Just felt he could've been a bit more inventive in the first session.

Haven't seen much of Boult admittedly but he does look a good find. His ability to get the ball moving into and away from the right handers yesterday was impressive at a decent pace. He bowled intelligently. They haven't produced a real strike bowler since Bond and whilst he doesn't have Bond's speed there's enough to suggest he could be a good strike bowler for the Kiwi's. it will be interesting to see him bowl over here.

The Galloping Major

Agree I am sure he will look back and think maybe he should have done things diffrently, that would have been a major scalp for him beating England

As for Tren Boult will be intresting to see him bowl over here with a diffrent ball. Great Escape for us but Cook needs to learn from this and find out why its taking us a test match or two to start playing.

Was suprised how bad we were in the first Innigs in the last test, yes it was great bowling from the NZ but the same time some wickets we lost was not good enough, Bell has made up for a poor series with his effort yesterday, our bowling yesterday when we didn't get early wickets we looked liked we just gave up, and broad throwing his toys out of the pram. I want to see allot better performance when they come to England

Anyway yesterday was a great advert for test cricket I know 20/20 and one day is exciting but so can test cricket and that was shown yesterday

Jungle_Bhoy,

It certainly would've been a major scalp, even if that wasn't the best England side you're likely to see.

Bell needed that knock and that dropped chance was just the slice of luck he needed. I've made a note a few times on here saying that he really needs to start contributing more runs as he's been pretty average since India a couple of summers ago. Hopefully this will give him a bit of confidence heading into NZ at home but a bad series there and he'll be looking over his shoulders. Got to praise him though for digging in for so long yesterday.

Surely now if not before the time has come to promote Prior up to 6 in the order. He should've been batting there in this Test IMO especially with the two rookies in the middle order but long term he needs to be getting in earlier for me. You might argue he's settled at 7 but I'm sure he'd enjoy batting a bit higher giving him more opportunities to score big.

But Englands to players that saved this was Bell and Prior both were fantastic and showed they could handle the presure.

Think you'll find without Broad's 2+ hours at the crease Prior and Bell's efforts would have been fruitless.

It's clear you don't like Broad, but respect is due to ALL 3 that did the business.....