Friday 3 August 2012

Mini-session analysis 2nd Test, WI NZ, Sabina Park, 2012

Here is the final mini-session analysis for the second test between West Indies and New Zealand at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica.

A mini-session is (normally) half a session, either between the start of the session and the drinks break or the drinks break and the end of the session. Occasionally a long session will have 3 mini-sessions where it will be broken up with 2 drinks breaks.

Mini-SessionScoreWinner
1-1aNew Zealand 35/2 off 12West Indies
1-1bNew Zealand 39/0 off 15New Zealand
1-2aNew Zealand 45/1 off 13New Zealand
1-2bNew Zealand 33/2 off 12West Indies
1-3aNew Zealand 22/1 off 13West Indies
1-3bNew Zealand 86/4 off 17.5West Indies
West Indies 11/0 off 5
2-1aWest Indies 32/2 off 13New Zealand
2-1bWest Indies 19/1 off 12New Zealand
2-2aWest Indies 43/2 off 13.1New Zealand
2-2bWest Indies 58/2 off 11.5West Indies
2-3aWest Indies 46/3 off 9.3New Zealand
2-3bNew Zealand 30/0 off 11New Zealand
2-3cNew Zealand 29/2 off 10West Indies
3-1aNew Zealand 25/2 off 15West Indies
3-1bNew Zealand 25/3 off 15West Indies
3-2aNew Zealand 45/3 off 14.2West Indies
3-2bWest Indies 56/2 off 12West Indies
3-3aWest Indies 26/0 off 12West Indies
3-3bWest Indies 53/2 off 19New Zealand
4-1aWest Indies 56/1 off 14West Indies
4-1bWest Indies 15/0 off 6.2West Indies

Final update here. West Indies win the mini-session count 13-8

Stumps, Day 1: West Indies lead the mini-session count 4-2

New Zealand has imploded on day 1, after a solid start from Taylor and Guptill. A third successive 50 from Guptill was this time brought to an end by an injury causing him to get run out. Guptill managed 7 successive 50's. Again the New Zealand bowlers came out and attacked, and looked effective. Again that should be a worrying sign.

The positive sign for New Zealand was the bowling of Trent Boult. He is now probably the most dangerous bowler that New Zealand has. With 2 left-armers in the side, (for only the 4th test match in New Zealand's history) Taylor has the option of having a left/right combination constantly in this test. That's something that batsmen will not be used to facing, and could work to New Zealand's advantage. However, the pitch was not a major factor in many of today's dismissals, and it is unlikely to come to New Zealand's rescue tomorrow.

Innings break, post tea, Day 2: New Zealand lead the mini-session count 6-5

New Zealand's bowlers have stepped up today. This wasn't calypso collapso, it was quality bowling: 6 of the wickets fell to batsmen trying to defend, and 2 fell to batsmen trying to hit a single to relieve the pressure.

Boult led the way removing the first two. Then some disciplined bowling from the rest of the bowlers managed to generally pick away the West Indian wickets before Bracewell went rabbit hunting at the end.

New Zealand have often struggled to clean up the tail of teams, but Bracewell has now done it a number of times. With Boult removing the batsmen and Bracewell removing the bowlers this could be a very good combination.

Marlon Samuels stood magnificent amongst the rubble. He scored more than half of his team's runs, and, other than one half chance early on, looked like he was batting on a different pitch. In the end he perished when hitting out, but his century was, In Brian Waddle's words "as good as you are likely to see."

Final drinks, Day 2: New Zealand lead the mini-session count 7-5

Two contrasting approaches to this innings. Guptill has looked to get after the bowling more than he has in the rest of this series: 24 of 32 and showing some real intent. Wattling however has been content to wait. He batted fantastically at Sabina Park in the second ODI (his 50 in the first match was quite scratchy), and he will be hoping to recapture that form in this innings.

New Zealand now lead by 81. In the history of Sabina Park, there have only been 2 times that a team has successfully chased more than 100, and no team has ever chased down 250 here. If these two are together at stumps, New Zealand will be in a commanding position.

Stumps, Day 2: New Zealand lead the mini-session count 7-6

Two quick wickets from Narsingh Deonarine has taken the game back towards being even. Guptill again failed to convert a start. It was clever captaincy from Sammy, as both batsmen tried to turn the ball round the corner for singles into a gap that he'd left for them. Both of them missed, and so were out. New Zealand will be looking for a score of at least 250, but they will probably need someone to do what Samuels has done and convert a start to at least 100.

Final drinks, Day 3: West Indies lead the mini-session count 11-7.

Since I started keeping track of the mini-sessions, the closest any team has come to winning a game, but losing the mini-session count was Sri Lanka vs South Africa, where the mini-session count was tied, but Sri Lanka won convincingly. New Zealand will need to be the first to over turn the mini-session count if they are to win this match.

The set up is similar to Hobart. One batsman is playing well, the rest are looking shaky. There is a feeling that BJ Wattling may have dropped the match when he put down Samuels, who is looking imperious.

Earlier New Zealand managed to implode in dramatic fashion. 5 wickets went to batsmen trying to hit boundaries and 2 to batsmen trying to hit singles. Only Wagner, McCullum and Bracewell got out after being beaten by genuinely good deliveries. Ross Taylor probably needs to re-assess his decision to play the cut shot early in his innings. He's gotten out to it a few times now, he should probably either try and place it for 1, or just leave those deliveries alone until he has his eye in a bit better.

Stumps, Day 3: West Indies lead the mini-session count 11-8

West Indies need Chanderpaul to stay there and one batsman to stick with him. New Zealand need at least 1 good spell of bowling. The bookies currently have NZ at $7 for the win. I feel if the two teams were to play from this position 20 times that New Zealand would win 4 or 5, so $7 looks like a good price to me.

There is one joker in the pack: Ernesto. Hurricane Ernesto is likely to hit Jamaica about midday tomorrow. The NOAA have it 70% likely to have hit by 1pm local time. It is unlikely that play will be possible after it hits (although if it turns slightly to the left it may only last for an hour or so). If play progresses too slowly tomorrow, and neither side has won by lunch, then the game may be a draw.

End of match: West Indies beat New Zealand and the rain by 5 wickets. They win the mini-session count 13-8.

New Zealand were unable to make the vital break-throughs, and West Indies walked home in less than 2 hours on the morning of day 4. A terrible tour for New Zealand, who were comprehensively out played by a West Indies team that produced some of the best cricket they have played for about 7 years. Every time it looked like New Zealand were going to get back into a match or series, a player would step up and take the game away.

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