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Originally Posted by Rachael From what I can work out (having missed pretty much all the play to date), Broad found a better length than Sidebottom and Anderson until McCullum got after him and then played into McCullum's hands by bowling lots of shorter balls |
McCullum got after everyone yesterday not just Broad, and yes they did all bowl a little too short, and that doesn't really help when McCullum bats about 2 feet out of his crease or comes down to the track to you as he was doing.
I thought McCullums innings was pretty 'agricultural' and he really did have the luck with him. Several balls dropped yards from fielders and he struggled with Panesar throughout, having two very good LBW decisions turned down, before he finally succumbed to a flighted ball that went on with the arm, off the pad and onto the stumps. On another day he'd have been out for naught.
Sidebottom really cleaned up the tail this morning, with some simple good accurate swing bowling. Both Southey and Mills bowled on deliveries simply too good for them, slanting across and then straightening at the last minute to take out off stump, and the same for Vettori but the other way round, the ball that goes straight on and doesnt swing, taking out middle and off.
Those dismissals and swing movement in these conditions are what's causing these Kiwi's the problems. Mills and Southey in New Zealand where the ball didn't swing much simply hit through the line, try and do that here with the swinging ball on the stumps and you're out.