New Zealand in England and Scotland

[brod]

The New Zealand tour starts today with a match vs an MCC XI, to be captained by Chris Cairns and will include former Kiwi batsman Nathan Astle.

Day 1 (rain stopped play)
New Zealand 1/107
AJ Redmond 35*
JAH Marshall 8*
JM How 46

[brod]

MCC vs New Zealand (reduced to 47 overs a side)
NO RESULT

New Zealand 7/239
AJ Redmond 72 (117 balls)
JM How 46 (56 balls)
PG Fulton 28 (39 balls)

MCC 2/44 (9 overs)
MR Gillespie 2/26 (5 overs)

[brod]

Aaron Redmond (28 year old)
Born in Australia before heading across the Tasman, Aaron Redmond transformed himself from a legspinner with Otago to a hard-working top-order batsman for Canterbury. His returns have been solid rather than spectacular, but coupled with New Zealand's poor results from their top order and a consistent 2007-08 season where he averaged 40, Redmond earned a call-up to the Test squad to tour England in 2008. Aaron will be hoping to avoid the dubious fate of his father, Rodney, who is part of the one-cap wonder club despite scoring 107 and 56 in his only Test after he couldn't adapt to wearing contact lenses and retired.
Batting averages
First Class 31.15 (19 fifties, 4 hundreds)
List A 23.68 (6 fifties, 2 hundreds)
Twenty20 14.55 (1 fifty)

Probably shows were New Zelands batting line up is

[brod]

New Zealand Touring Squad

D Vettori (captain)
B McCullum (vc) (wk)
G Elliott
D Flynn
P Fulton
M Gillespie
G Hopkins (wk)
J How
J Marshall
C Martin
M Mason
K Mills
I O'Brien
J Oram
J Patel
A Redmond
T Southee
R Taylor

[rod_rooster]

How Scott Styris is not even in that squad is just baffling. Sure he's not a superstar of world cricket but he's still as good if not better than anyone else they have.

[brod]

How Scott Styris is not even in that squad is just baffling. Sure he's not a superstar of world cricket but he's still as good if not better than anyone else they have.

Hes not in it because in Feb 08 he announced his retirement from test cricket, after a poor series vs South Africa last Nov saw him dropped for series vs Bangladesh.

[brod]

New Zealand One-Day Squad

D Vettori (cap)
B McCullum (vc)
D Flynn
M Gillespie
G Hopkins (wk)
J How
J Marshall
M Mason
K Mills
J Oram
J Patel
J Ryder
T Southee
S Styris
R Taylor

[rod_rooster]

How Scott Styris is not even in that squad is just baffling. Sure he's not a superstar of world cricket but he's still as good if not better than anyone else they have.

Hes not in it because in Feb 08 he announced his retirement from test cricket, after a poor series vs South Africa last Nov saw him dropped for series vs Bangladesh.

Well that makes sense then.

[brod]

Darrell Hair will make his return to top-level international umpiring in the second Test between England and New Zealand at Old Trafford on May 23.
It will be the first Test he has stood in since the 2006 match between England and Pakistan at The Oval. That became the first game in history to be forfeited after Pakistan refused to take the field following Hair's ruling that they had tampered with the ball.

[brod]

New Zealand vs Kent
First Class match

Stumps Day One

Kent 1/324
RWT Key 178*
JC Tredwell 123*
TG Southee 1/49

New Zealand still have a number of players in India who will arrive in England begining of May, but not a good start of your first-class tour to have Robert Key and a bloke with a first class ave of 21 smash you around

[brod]

New Zealand vs Kent
First Class Match

Stumps Day Two

Kent 1d/324
RWT Key 178*
JC Tredwell 123*
TG Southee 1/49
New Zealand 1/92
JM How 53*
JAH Marshall 20*
AJ Redmond 14

Kiwis wont get much out of this, only one more day to go

[brod]

New Zealand vs Kent
First Class Match

MATCH DRAWN
Day 3 washed out

Kent 1d/324
RWT Key 178*
JC Tredwell 123*
TG Southee 1/49
New Zealand 1/92
JM How 53*
JAH Marshall 20*
AJ Redmond 14

Great start for the Kiwis, first two matches washed out, only got two more tour matches before the First Test (15-19 May)
2-5/5 vs Essex
8-11/5 vs England Lions

[TrueRoo]

Brod,
Did you read this?

Cricket: Star leant on to stay
5:00AM Sunday April 27, 2008

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will be faced with another availability conundrum with the Indian Premier League keen to leverage the superstar status of Brendon McCullum.

The blazing batsman lent instant credibility to the money-soaked tournament by smashing 158 not out in the opening match for his Kolkata Knight Riders on April 18. The Herald on Sunday understands that phone calls have taken place between tournament co-founder Lalat Modi and NZC with view to keeping McCullum on for another two or three games. NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said the IPL was keen to maximise McCullum's talents but the May 1 arrival date in England had been agreed upon "and I think everybody was comfortable with that".

However with Kolkata now odds-on to make the semi-finals after winning their first two matches - they played Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram's Chennai Super Kings again late last night - an interesting scenario could take place.

The semi-finals and finals are scheduled to take place in Mumbai from May 30 to June 1. New Zealand have a scheduled extended break between the second and third tests from May 27 to June 5, with only a low-key three-day match against Northamptonshire scheduled in between.

That would give McCullum, whom the Knight Riders would be desperate to see back, time to fly to India and back again to join the squad in Nottingham before the final test.

It would again be an unpopular move with cricket purists but one Vaughan did not dismiss out of hand. "I'd leave it up to John [Bracewell] but it seems pretty unlikely," he said. "If it was between the tests and the one-day series perhaps, but I'd say it's pretty unlikely in this scenario," he said.

McCullum is now a bona fide star in the subcontinent. After his opening match heroics he was apparently taken aside by captain Sourav Ganguly and warned that his life would never be the same again.

New Zealand, shorn of the five IPL players, arrived in England on Friday to a lukewarm response. Cricinfo wrote: "Since time immemorial, the success of a touring side has had a direct correlation with the cohesiveness of the players... but on the face of it, this situation is as divisive as they come."

[brod]

Cheers, Roo I hadnt read that.
The whole idea could set a precident that to disrupt international teams that unlike the Aussie are able to pay their stars.

Dont like it at all..

[brod]

Andrew Flintoff could make his Test comeback as part of a four-man attack against New Zealand at Lord's on May 15, after England's captain, Michael Vaughan, told The Times that he was in favour of throwing his allrounder back into international cricket as a No. 7 batsman and out-and-out strike bowler.

Vaughan's preference is a significant change of tack from the last time the two played a Test together, back in 2005. That year, Flintoff was trusted as a top-six batsman and formed part of a five-man attack that proved instrumental in winning back the Ashes. In his absence, however, England have discovered through the efforts of Ryan Sidebottom and Monty Panesar in particular, that there is scope for winning Test matches with only four bowlers

[brod]

New Zealanders vs Essex
First-Class Match

STUMP DAY 1

New Zealanders 9/348
JAH Marshall 128
DR Flynn 39
AJ Redmond 35
IE O'Brien 31* (number 11)

[brod]

New Zealanders vs Essex
First Class Match

STUMPS DAY 3

New Zealanders 355
JAH Marshall 128
DR Flynn 39
IE O'Brien 31*
RN ten Doechate 6/57
Essex 258
RS Bopara 66
AJ Tudor 41
MJ Mason 4/65
IE O"Brien 3/46
KD Mills 2/40
New Zealanders 195
KD Mills 53*
BB McCullum 35
AJ Redmond 30
Essex 1/45

[brod]

New Zealanders vs Essex
First Class Match

New Zealanders won by 92 runs

New Zealanders 355 &195
Essex 258 & 200
MJ Mason 3/36
IE O'Brien 3/54
AJ Redmond 2/35
JDP Oram 1/23
KD Mills 1/37

[brod]

England Lions vs New Zealanders
First Class Match

STUMP DAY ONE

England Lions 280
LJ Wright 120
MA Carberry 41
JDP Oram 3/34
CS Martin 3/58
TG Southee 3/80
IE O'Brien 1/44

Hopefull second string English batsmen such as Key (24), Shah (3), Bopara (7), Prior (10) missed out on impressing before the naming of the Test side.

[brod]

England Lions vs New Zealanders
First Class Match

STUMPS DAY TWO

England Lions 280
New Zealanders 9/261
AJ Redmond 139*
BB McCullum 47 (43 balls) still thinks hes in India
JDP Oram 25
MJ Hoggard 3/41
CT Tremlett 3/58
G Onions 2/45