#WillHaveToGiveItBack
Time for NZ to put the Aussies away!
I think Australia will be favourites in Melbourne on Australian soil.
Looking forward to a cracker game.
I have to apologise to the people of India. When I turned on, they were 56/0 and looking good for the chase. When I had to go to work they were 95/3 and on the way down. Usually it’s England I jinx by watching, but apparently the curse is transferrable. Sorry India.
Bat-300-win is back, aided by some good pressure bowling from the Aussie quicks when India just needed to keep it steady. These days, a side can reckon to double their score in the last third of the innings - but not if they’ve already lost wickets.
So, on to the final and Boult v Starc II
My initial assessment was that Aust had been clinical.
Then I thunk about it a bit more.
Gave away and extra over in wides. Bowled 2 no balls to top order batsmen. Dropped 3 catches (ok Watto’s “drop” is very harsh, but hell it’s Watto). Might not even have reviewed the catch off Rahane if it had been up to the captain.
They were in cruise mode for 350 and lost their way when wickets fell.
But they have demolished a previously undefeated side by strangling a much vaunted batting line up that has never had any problem getting 300
I thought the critical psychological moment was when Kohli dropped Johnson.
Mo then took the score from gettable to a big chase, and he bowls so much better after scoring runs. Kohli puts down a sitter and starts to think that maybe he isn’t God’s gift to cricket.
Kiwis can win it but they are going to need Plan A to work with bat and ball.
Australia can win it with Plan B and Plan C.
I think New Zealand need to win the toss, bat first and bat big to win. I can’t see the Aussie batsmen failing as they did in Auckland, and it feels like New Zealand already used up their ‘dramatic chase to victory’ in the semi final. Aussie looked incredibly strong last night, I’d put them at 75-25% favourites right now.
I think you are pretty spot on. However, I do see chinks in Australia and I think NZ batted in a different dimension against SA. I don’t think SA bowled very well, but Australia may do the same.
One interesting point- Johnson is the third fastest of the Australian bowlers behind Starc and Hazlewood.
He was supposed to be the cutting edge.
It’s the two best bowling attack in the tournament up against each other. Also rather brittle batting lineups. So, one sides bowlers has to win the match before their batsmen lose it.:eek:
As it is, earlier in the thread you spoke about 6 SF defeats. I can assure you, I would take a SF exist to losing a World Cup Final, there is nothing worse.
I just realised, the answer to all these questions I posed at the start was “yes”.
On what basis would you make that incredulous statement? Compared to whom?
With the singular exception of the Pool game at Eden Park, NZ and Aus have both chased whatever was required and done it with wickets in hand. When they set totals it’s been 342, 417, 376, 328 (Aus) and 331, 290, 299, 393 (NZ) So demonstrably the two best and most reliable batting line-ups in the tournament.
The Eden Park game.
For NZ the matches against BD and RSA, in both they lost wickets at crucial times.
For Aus: Both QF and SF, in the QF they had a lucky escape when Watson was dropped, otherwise they would have been abiut 75/4. In the SF, they started losing regular wickets in the later overs and needed Johnsons counter attack to get to 300 plus.
Both sides have shown vulnerability to good bowling.
Not for the first time, I will disagree with you. Australia have tremendous batting depth and losing wickets in later overs is what is going to happen when you are chasing quick runs.
When you have Johnson and Vettori- both who have scored Test centuries- coming in well down the order, it seems to me both sides have some quality in their batting.
NZ showed against SA they have a lot of depth as well- goes beyond McCullum.
The two best teams meet in the final and obviously though I hope Australia win tomorrow, I wish our Kiwi friends on the board good luck.
All sides, in this tournament, in the past and in the future are vulnerable to good bowling. That’s the definition of good bowling.
“Martin Crowe has described the final as a battle between brothers, but at present it feels like these are siblings who have wrecked each other’s cars, quarreled over inheritance, and left unflattering remarks on the intelligence of each other’s children on Facebook.”
And I always thought he and Jeff got on pretty well…
One more reason to hope for a New Zealand win - Crowe is dying of cancer, and for New Zealand to win the Cup would be a fine send off for our greatest batsman.
NZ wish granted - bat first
McCullum lucky to get as many as 0.
I wanted to back him to get 0 but no such market.
That would be the one reason I would be supporting NZ. I personally think Glenn Turner was as good but that doesn’t really matter.
Been a great bowling start from Australia. Wonder what turned Starc into a superman when he was little more than a fringe player at the start of the season.
Also if Josh Hazlewood wants to say “Fuck me!” he should try and avoid having the cameras on him at the time.
And a second wicket falls…
This is looking good for those of us that backed Vettori to be top New Zealand bat @ $61.