New Zealand v Australia, 2nd Test, Christchurch, 8-12 March, 2024

yep, and he'd have taken a single off that ball if that was all that was on offer. Quite right, too. A win is a win.

Series ratings:

Smith - 3 - F, poor, doesn't look like an opener's proverbial
Khawaja - 4 - F, really struggled with the moving ball
Labuschagne - 5 - P, purely for his T2 knock and fielding
Green - 6 - P, won the first Test for us, looked assured
Head - 3 - see Khawaja
Marsh - 5 - P, looked good here, brings positivity
Carey - 6 - P, rescued a poor series today, spectacular
Starc - 5 - a bare pass on his bowling and one innings
Cummins - 7 - bowled and batted like a captain
Lyon - 7 - bowled very well at times, two important knocks
Hazelwood - 7 - the best of the bowlers, decks helped him

maybe Lyon a 7.5 and Haze an 8? and Green a 6.5 to 7, considering his wickets.

lardbucket wrote:Series ratings:

Smith - 3 - F, poor, doesn't look like an opener's proverbial
Khawaja - 4 - F, really struggled with the moving ball
Labuschagne - 5 - P, purely for his T2 knock and fielding
Green - 6 - P, won the first Test for us, looked assured
Head - 3 - see Khawaja
Marsh - 5 - P, looked good here, brings positivity
Carey - 6 - P, rescued a poor series today, spectacular
Starc - 5 - a bare pass on his bowling and one innings
Cummins - 7 - bowled and batted like a captain
Lyon - 7 - bowled very well at times, two important knocks
Hazelwood - 7 - the best of the bowlers, decks helped him

Generous., esp to the bats. Only Green has a decent technique.

Ages before the Bannie tour and it will be interesting to see what they will do in the meantime.

An interesting stat:

There have been a mere 3 instances of Australia successfully chasing a target of 250-plus runs since 2008. During this period, Australia lost chasing 250-plus targets on 25 occasions, while another four ended in a draw. Johannesburg 2011 (310), Birmingham 2023 (281) and Christchurch 2024 (279) are those wins. Pat Cummins hit a boundary to close the chase in all three instances.

lardbucket wrote:Series ratings:

Smith - 3 - F, poor, doesn't look like an opener's proverbial
Khawaja - 4 - F, really struggled with the moving ball
Labuschagne - 5 - P, purely for his T2 knock and fielding
Green - 6 - P, won the first Test for us, looked assured
Head - 3 - see Khawaja
Marsh - 5 - P, looked good here, brings positivity
Carey - 6 - P, rescued a poor series today, spectacular
Starc - 5 - a bare pass on his bowling and one innings
Cummins - 7 - bowled and batted like a captain
Lyon - 7 - bowled very well at times, two important knocks
Hazelwood - 7 - the best of the bowlers, decks helped him

The problems with the moving ball have been a recurring problem whenever the attack has at least one decent bowler and the tracks aren't roads.

So does the poor form of Smith over the past few seasons tarnish the reputation of the putative best since Bradman?

skully wrote:No answer was the stern reply!!

I note that India and Aus have a clear lead over the field in the WTC table.

Not many Tests for a while.

bison got dropped just before head got out

Carey's LB looked plumber than Marsh's

Not sure the ball tracker is as good as the manufacturer wants us to believe

Matt Henry - one of the big improvers in recent test series:-

http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerSeries.asp?PlayerID=4257#bowl

Had a career bowling average of over 50 back in early 2021. Now it is down to 31 or is it 32? I think there might be a slight error with those stats.

http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerProgressBowl.asp?PlayerID=4257

WideWally wrote:Matt Henry - one of the big improvers in recent test series:-

http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerSeries.asp?PlayerID=4257#bowl

Had a career bowling average of over 50 back in early 2021. Now it is down to 31 or is it 32? I think there might be a slight error with those stats.

http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerProgressBowl.asp?PlayerID=4257

He was terrific all series.

embee wrote:Carey's LB looked plumber than Marsh's

Not sure the ball tracker is as good as the manufacturer wants us to believe

Marsh’s looked not out, Carey’s looked plumb … ball tracker said different.

I’m still not sure this is what DRS was started for! Happy for the howlers to be overturned, but there have been some strange ones, and the ‘umpires call’ phenomenon makes it possible - at least in theory - for an umpire to cause decisions to favour one team over the other on lbw calls.