Shattered New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum put his team's disastrous opening day batting tumble down to a combination of poor batting and world class bowling.
Having won the toss, New Zealand were rolled for just 45, their third lowest total, in 19.2 overs, effectively handing the test to South Africa.
Only Kane Williamson made double figures as New Zealand hit rock bottom.
''We had high hopes coming into today that we'd start well and it's extremely disappointing and there's a very hurt bunch of boys at the moment," he said.
''To have put in a performance like we did today you look around our changing room and we know we've let down our fans back home, which hurts a lot."
McCullum may not realise it at the moment, but the last words of the first paragraph of his quote above nail the dilemma. The Black Caps are indeed a "hurt bunch of boys". Unfortunately, they are playing against a team of men; hardened test cricket veterans. And that's exactly how it panned out yesterday.
Take nothing away from South Africa of course. The bowling was as good as you'd ever want to see, and Vernon Philander's spell was simply superb. Perhaps he wants to emigrate and join the legion of South Africans in New Zealand.
2 comments:
Philanders bowling was as good as I have ever seen and the NZ batsmen never had a chance with the support he got from Steyn and Morkel.
Until we get opening batsmen who know where their off stump is and who don't play across the line we will continue to struggle.
But on this occasion all credit to the bowlers.
I laughed when Mac the Knife started his media comments with 'Clearly we didn't want it as much as ....'. Oh.
Then proceeded to the most stunningly self-evident burble of all time - putting their result down to "a combination of poor batting and world class bowling." Really Mac? Really? Whoulda thunk it...
The epic fails were the captaincy though - Mac ignored Graeme Smith's public remarks that 'any team batting first would struggle'. Smith is honest; he doesn't seem to indulge in spin, so Mac should have taken that at face value. Besides, there were the stats he could check for that ground.
And surely a skipper could rouse his lads to a better bowling and fielding effort? Yep, we're going to be down a few hundred runs, but let's at least give them a fight...
Ross must be alternately laughing and groaning.
Solution - hire recent retirees Ricky ponting and Mike Hussey as coach-captain-players. Inject a bit of spark, talent and grit into our lineup, so our younger lads can learn from Oz's finest. I'm not joking. We missed the chance when Steve Waugh retired.
Mad Marxist.
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