Mini-session Analysis, 2nd test, New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, Basin Reserve 2014/15

Here is the mini-session analysis for the second test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Basin Reserve, Wellington

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-sesison Analysis, 2nd test NZ Eng, Wellington 2012/13

Here is the mini-session analysis for the second test between New Zealand and England at Basin Reserve, Wellington

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-Session	Score	Winner
1-1a	England 44/1 off 14	draw
1-1b	England 31/0 off 14	draw
1-2a	England 56/0 off 15	England
1-2b	England 31/0 off 15	draw
1-3a	England 74/0 off 15	England
1-3b	England 31/1 off 17	New Zealand
2-1a	England 31/1 off 15	draw
2-1b	England 55/2 off 15	England
2-2a	England 52/2 off 15	draw
2-2b	England 60/3 off 11.5	draw
2-3a	New Zealand 33/1 off 17	England
2-3b	New Zealand 33/2 off 16	England
3-1a	New Zealand 52/2 off 13	England
3-1b	New Zealand 51/0 off 15	New Zealand
3-2a	New Zealand 47/2 off 15	England
3-2b	New Zealand 38/3 off 13.2	England
3-3a	New Zealand 46/1 off 16	England
3-3b	New Zealand 31/0 off 17	draw
4-1a	New Zealand 32/1 off 14	England
4-1b	New Zealand 44/0 off 15	New Zealand
4-3a	New Zealand 9/0 off 6	-

Latest update, click here
England lead the mini-session count 10 - 3

First drinks, Day 1: The mini-session count is tied up, 0-0

Some early signs of swing, but not nearly enough to justify bowling first. Both captains were going to insert the other team, so this might have been a good toss to lose. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 1: The mini-session count is tied up, 0-0

England haven't lost a wicket, but New Zealand have kept them contained. These two are biding their time, but they are not looking particularly threatened. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 1: England lead the mini-session count 1-0

This is a fantastic partnership for England here. Compton is going well in a second match in a row, which is a credit to him, as New Zealand is often a graveyard for opening batsmen. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 1: England lead the mini-session count 1-0

New Zealand have ramped up the pressure, without any reward as yet. - Mykuhl

Final drinks, Day 1: England lead the mini-session count 2-0

More solid batting. This is an outstanding partnership, which has put England into a very strong position. New Zealand once inserted the West Indies, only for them to be 270/1 at stumps. This is feeling similar. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 1: England lead the mini-session count 2-1

Not quite 270/1, but still very much England's day. The new ball bowlers just didn't have any penetration, and looked a bit tired. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it might have been better to save the new ball until the morning, when Southee, Boult and Wagner would be fresher. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 2-1

England are making very slow progress. I'm not sure if it's a deliberate thing, where they are trying to play on the fact that the New Zealand bowlers are tired, but it's certainly attritional stuff. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 3-1

While New Zealand had their most successful hour with the ball, this hour belonged to England. They started to accelerate, and losing a couple of wickets at this point is not as crippling as doing it early on day one would have been. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 3-1

England won't be unhappy with that hour, despite losing another couple of wickets. Bruce Martin has really stepped up here. The concern with Martin was that he was going to be too wayward, and bowl too many bad balls looking for wickets. He has instead bowled quite tightly, but hasn't sacrificed giving himself some opportunities to take wickets.

England scored quickly enough that they will still feel that they are in as good a position after the hour as they were before it. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 3-1

New Zealand were effective at one end, while Matt Prior owned the other end. Once he departed things wrapped up quickly. I think Prior is looking like England's best batsman at the moment. - Mykuhl

Final drinks, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 4-1

It's not just England playing incredibly slowly. The New Zealand top 3 have been very cautious. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 2: England lead the mini-session count 5-1

That hour turned dramatically in the space of 2 balls. New Zealand looked to be building a solid platform, then Broad removed Rutherford and then bowled a peach to dismiss Ross Taylor for only his third test duck. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 3: England lead the mini-session count 6-1

The follow-on target is starting to look a long way off now. New Zealand need big innings from McCullum and Watling now. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 3: England lead the mini-session count 6-2

A good hour for New Zealand, they are now less than 100 from the follow on target. - Mykuhl

Middle drinks, Day 3: England lead the mini-session count 7-2

Southee is a good option at 8 when the team is on top, the bowlers are tired and NZ are looking for quick runs. I'm not sure Southee at 8 is such a good idea when the team is needing to bat time. He almost embodies the reductio ad absurdum to the "play your natural game" concept. - Mykuhl

Tea, Day 3: England lead the mini-session count 8-2

New Zealand fall 11 runs short of the follow on target, and England enforce it. Bruce Martin showed some bottle at the end, but it was just not enough. - Mykuhl

Stumps, Day 3: England lead the mini-session count 9-2

New Zealand managed to survive the final hour, but it feels like only rain can prevent England winning this match by a large margin. - Mykuhl

First drinks, Day 4: England lead the mini-session count 10-2

The wicket of Peter Fulton made this England's hour. New Zealand will be pleased that it was just one, and not a cluster, like they have been losing in the rest of this match. - Mykuhl

Lunch, Day 4: England lead the mini-session count 10-3

A solid hour from Taylor and Williamson. England are losing their race against the clock. - Mykuhl

Final drinks, Day 4: England lead the mini-session count 10-3

That's probably the end of the match. The forecast is for rain tomorrow, and so this match will probably end as a damp squib. All eyes will now turn to Eden Park, hosting a test for the first time in 8 years. - Mykuhl

Jesse Ryder's comeback

In his comeback innings to first class cricket Jesse Ryder hit 117* off 113. That's pretty impressive. But it's how he scored them that was impressive.

He hit 13 boundaries. Which means that he hit 65 runs off the 100 balls that he didn't hit to the fence. This is a particularly easy to calculate activity rate of 0.65. Which is more like a t20 activity rate. In fact it's more than his actual t20 activity rate, which is closer to 0.55.

I believe that a high activity rate is one of the best signs of a batsman being in form. It shows that they are scoring off a lot of the deliveries they are facing, and therefore they are seeing the ball well.

117* off 113 with 10 sixes and 5 fours would possibly be more dramatic, but would be a lot less of a sign of a batsman who is really ready to return to international cricket.

While the opposition wasn't a full international line up, Doug Bracewell and Taran Nethula are international players and Kieran Noema-Barnett and Ben Wheeler are both capable bowlers. It was a fantastic innings, and one that if he continues to play like that, should see him return to international cricket soon.

The live scorecard for the match is here.

Preview NZ SA 3rd Test Wellington 11/12

It's not often that a third test is as much of a mystery as this one. New Zealand have made large changes to their lineup, changing both the opening batting combination, and also (potentially) the balance of the side. South Africa look solid, and have been a class above New Zealand, but there are still some questions.

The Basin Reserve often thrown up interesting events. It's often a place where the balance switches between batting and bowling teams throughout the day (for more info, see Batting against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve

Going on that previous information, I'd suggest that this could actually be the best test for New Zealand to abandon their 4 bowler, 1 all rounder policy (which I am generally in favour of) and return to a 3 bowler, 1 all rounder line-up.

It's really a horrible test for Flynn to make his come back in, particularly if he is playing as an opener. He has been in good form, but form means little early in the day in Wellington on a green pitch.

The players that tend to do best in Wellington are the players who come in to bat in the afternoon, when the bowlers are tired from running into the wind. As a result if I was going to bet on this match I'd look at batsmen like Jacques Rudolph, Daniel Vettori and Dean Brownlie to be the top scorers. It's also good for players who play cross batted shots well, so Van Wyk and Boucher could also do well.

Has the postman mised his delivery?

Gavin Larsen has just pulled off what looks like a fantastic coup. He has secured Muttiah Muralitharan for the Wellington team. However it may have come at a cost too high.

Wellington are also chasing someone far more valuable, and someone who is not very impressed by this move.

For the majority of the past 20 years Wellington has been captained by a non-Wellingtonian. During that time they have won the championship only twice. They have imported their players from hither and thither, and have lacked a cohesiveness that could have led to them being a good team. As an example their team that played in the last Plunket Shield match had only 4 players born in Wellington. There is one other player who was born elsewhere, and moved to Wellington when he was young. The rest of the players are imports.

If Wellington is to become strong they need to get someone who can develop younger players, and bring out the best in the players that they have. Currently they have a mercenary culture, which might avoid getting the wooden spoon, but it hardly lends itself to establishing a legacy.

Gavin Larsen, the CEO of Wellington Cricket has an opportunity to bring in someone who might be able to help do something about this. Jamie Siddons has applied for the job of coach.

In my opinion Jamie Siddons is one of the greatest coaches in world cricket. In the time that he has had Bangladesh he has taken them from whipping boys to a side that other teams take seriously. Before Siddons the Bangladesh team had an average test innings score of below 200. Under him it rose to 240. This is despite having to play full sides now, rather than before when teams would regularly rest their best players against Bangladesh.

But the numbers don't tell the full story. Bangladesh have turned from a team that played poorly generally and occasionally put in a good performance into one that generally competed and occasionally played poorly. They were still not world beaters, but they had got to the point where they deserved to be talked about.

Siddons agressive personality had managed to bring out the best in some of his players. If he could come in and develop talent inside Wellington like that then he could have a real impact.

Unfortunately Wellington have not secured his signature yet. They have instead spent their time focusing on getting another import to add to their mercenary army. And it might have come at a cost. Siddons is not particularly impressed with the decision being foisted on him.

It's not that there is anything wrong with getting one of the greatest wicket takers ever to play for your team. Far from it. but if you are wanting to build long term for continued success you need to develop players. Not just poach them from Northland and Central Districts.

Murali will help the team for one season, but Siddons will help develop the whole generation of players. If Larsen wants to make his reign one that sets up Wellington, then he needs to look at the future. Siddons should be his next step.

Fortresses

I just watched a very brief ODI between New Zealand. It was the third of 3 ODI matches that were played over 2 days in the Southern Hemisphere.

First Australia eventually beat England by a quite large margin, then the rain robbed South Africa of another opportunity to choke against India, and then finally New Zealand snapped their 11 match losing streak in ODI's with a performance that defied most superlatives.

But despite these games going slightly against recent form, all three of them continue a long-term trend. These three matches were all played at fortresses.

By a fortress I mean a ground where the home team has won more than twice as many as they lose, and have a RPO scored of more that 0.5 more than RPO conceded. The lucky coincidence is that these three games were played at the grounds that are at the top of the list for RPO difference.

Here is the list of the 6 fortresses: (qualification 15 matches)

Team	Stadium	W/L	RPO for	RPO against	RPO difference
New Zealand	Caketin, Wellington	2.40	5.16	4.37	0.79
South Africa	Newlands, Cape Town	6.25	4.96	4.18	0.78
Australia	Bellerive Oval, Hobart	3.66	5.05	4.33	0.72
West Indies	Arnos Vale, St Vincent	5.66	4.41	3.82	0.59
South Africa	Springbok Park, Bloemfontein	2.00	5.10	4.54	0.56
South Africa	Buffalo Park, East London	2.75	4.86	4.32	0.54

There is one interesting result in there, Arnos Vale in St Vincent (pictured above). The results there are certainly helped by 3 matches against Zimbabwe and 2 matches against Bangladesh, but even removing these matches, they still have a W/L ratio of 4 and a RPO difference of 0.4. The other extraordinary thing about this is that all but one of the matches are after 1992. (That's after the retirement of Marshall, Garner, Holding, Richards etc.)

The next 3 games are at Centurion, Adelaide and Queenstown, all of which only just miss out on this list, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see a repeat of the last two days results.

There is only one ground in the world that is a fortress for the away teams, Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka. Bangladesh have won only 3 of 32 matches there, and have conceded 1.2 runs per over more than they have scored. However, with the improvement in the Bangladesh team, and the extra teams that have been given ODI status, look for that statistic to change.