Day 3 prospects, New Zealand 350 all out. Eventual draw, England will win the series 2-0.

My thoughts then: well done NZ. You played magnificently.

England - shambles. I don't know what the coach does but I would sit the batsmen down and force them to watch the entire innings. Put them through the misery we had to go through.

And is it just me or did McCullum walk all over Cook as a captain? Which suggests NZ had done their homework beforehand and England hadn't bothered.

Do England have any preparation for these tours?

Well, not much you can say about that really.

We need to pull our collective fingers out and take the attack to NZ on day 3.

The lack of preparation excuse can only take you so far.

Rabbit, try wumming from a position of strength, not bent over on the end of a ramming.

Didn't get to see Finn bowl but was he any close to 100mph?

Whoa, just checked the score. They were in trouble when I went to bed last night but didnt see this coming.
Hats off to new Zealand

Fair play to NZ they have stuffed us today. Bowled pretty well on a pitch offering not a huge amount for them and look at the scorecard. Sure there will be the lack of practice excuse rolled out, which holds no water really, but NZ were the better team all day. England are up against it already. Funny how often we start tours badly when we're expected to win with ease.

Bearded reading the press this England setup is getting a pasting for taking NZ lightly. Apart from KP and Monty all the players were involved in the one dayers so they had decent match fitness, practice and acclimatisation to NZ. I think England thought this series was a walk over and got themselves a shock that might be hard to recover from. They need to bowl NZ out for 300 to have any chance to save the test.

Kash, personally i think saying a team takes another lightly is another excuse similar to the used and tried old excuse of lack of practice. We didn't take them lightly to my mind, they just blew us off the park on the first days play of the test. Many will say we took them lightly but these guys are pro sportsmen, they take every game seriously. Bad day at the office because NZ played so well.

England's problems lay with the poor shot selection by the top order, which exposed the rest of the side too soon. 8-11 scored as many runs, barring Trott, as the rest of the top order. Then that lack of confidence showed in the bowling. It's much harder to steam in and bowl well when you are defended such a small total.

i have been saying for ages not to take this series too lightly and that NZ would be no pushover in their own backyard and everyone else has been saying that its no problem. Well, i particularly dislike saying 'i told ya so' but there you go!!
This is either going to be a lucky draw if the weather kicks off again or it is going to be a huge loss now and we will have to fight hard to claw this series back. I do wish Goughie would stop once and engage his brain before gabbing on and on whlst commenting on Talk Sport about how we were going to win this one. Great bowler and obviously a Yorkshireman but he really does put his foot in it one too many times!!

I can't believe I stayed up all night to watch that $hit.

Compton - lack of concentration
Cook - Stupid shot
Pietersen - Good delivery but played around it
Bell - Very tame
Root - Should have left it
Prior - This one annoyed me the most. Had just hit 5 fours in two overs, and at 80-5 is in t20 mode. Defies belief. Went for one too many boundaries. Very poor shot. CONSOLIDATE. IT'S TEST CRICKET. Hit a four, then defend the next 5 balls.

Trott - wasted his hard work with a poor shot completely out of character.

Broad - Poor shot but was batting with tail so needed to attack.

Finn and Jimmy - did well. Highest partnership of innings

Dr, unfortunately Goughie sees himself as some football expert these days, and I for one can't take his opinions seriously anymore. Goughie get a grip.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

."England didn't respect the game," Vaughan says on Test Match Special. "They took the mickey out of Mr Cricket."

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I think most people now days take vaughan's opinion with a pinch of salt, as has been mentioned here a few times with some very stupid comments he's made in the past.

He's right in this case though isn't he Bearded?

He's right in this case though isn't he Bearded?

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No i don't think he is right at all, it's yet another excuse for a poor performance and trying not to compliment a team who out played us in all departments throughout the day. To say we didn't respect the game and took the mickey is a pretty stupid comment and the irony of it is, it's disrespectful to NZ in taking away what they did. Why is it every time we loose a game it's because we've not got enough practice or we took the oppo lightly. What happened to being out played, no shame in that, no excuses. And so far in this game we've been outplayed, happens to every team in the world in every sport from time to time.

Vaughan said that England went in over confident and if you look at it I think they did. Only one warm up match going in to a test series?

http://www.vitalcricket.com/article.asp?a=1043

"it's yet another excuse for a poor performance and trying not to compliment a team who out played us in all departments throughout the day..."
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I don't think its an excuse, its laying it on the line - we played very badly. I agree with TrueBlue's assessment of the England shots played we were lousy. We shouldn't disrespect NZ as you say and if you look carefully enough you will see i have always said that. However, all due consideration aside - did you expect us to be in this position given that, PLAYER FOR PLAYER, England are the better team?
The point being, this shouldn't have happened and they need a kick up the backside. Disagree with that??!

- did you expect us to be in this position given that, PLAYER FOR PLAYER, England are the better team?

.......

No i didn't, but in sport as we all know there are many occasions when a so called better team struggles against a so called lesser team, it happens to everyone sometimes.

.....................

The point being, this shouldn't have happened and they need a kick up the backside. Disagree with that??!

.......................

I don't disagree with that at all, the team does need that. Not because to my mind they took the game less than seriously, but because we played badly.

I think there's truth in both what bearded is saying and Vaughan. It's a mixture of both. Bearded you're spot on England were poor and NZ deserve credit. At the same time, Vaughan may have a point about, u only have to look at some of the wickets to prove that. Lets just conclude that because England weren't fully on the ball, they played poorly.

So they played poorly *****

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Cheers admin

the third day will be interesting..NZ collapse and its all to play for..

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