Just one kiwi in World XI?

[crabs]

Good point Victor, I agree with you on everything. Fleming is ofter regarded as one of the best Captains in the world and what worries me about this World XI is I don't know how well they are going to play as a team. I don't know if Smith can play enough mind games with the Aussies.

[Collyisamackem]

I think, from watching the home and away series we had with SA, that Smith is an excellent captain who puts his money (runs, and the odd wicket) where his mouth is. He did a great job with Somerset this year, especially in winning the Twenty20 for them with his canny eye for field placings. I think he's a good pick as captain.

As for NZ, it's a while since we've played you so I don't know the side as well as I used to. Vettori played superbly yesterday and I remember Chris Cairns turning in some amazing performances in our last series in NZ, as well as Oram. I don't think I've ever seen much of Bond.

[crabs]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

I don't think I've ever seen much of Bond.

Hopefully you will do soon. If Bond was in this side it could have made a huge difference. The Aussies have never got the hang of his bowling. Although I understand why he wasn't selelected as know one knew what kind of form he would be in on return.

Incidentally I did a bit of research. New Zealand have played Australia 6 times in Australia this decade. Out of those 6 matches NZ won 4 of them! The weird thing is NZ and Aussie have played about 9 times in NZ this decade and NZ have only won 1.

[ahsan32]

Interesting Stats

[kwicket]

Bond should be in the world XI...The World XI are missing a genuine wicket taker (some may say Akhtar is but really hes just unwanted Paki pace). Should Akhtar even be there? he got dropped by Pakistan, i dont see how that warrants him a place in the World XI, also Afridi with an average of 24 and 17 against Australia, him being in the squad is debatable at best. I guess the super series is just a money making scam for the ICC, otherwise the best squad would probably be on the park.

[kwicket]

Originally Posted by crabs

Hopefully you will do soon. If Bond was in this side it could have made a huge difference. The Aussies have never got the hang of his bowling. Although I understand why he wasn't selelected as know one knew what kind of form he would be in on return.

Incidentally I did a bit of research. New Zealand have played Australia 6 times in Australia this decade. Out of those 6 matches NZ won 4 of them! The weird thing is NZ and Aussie have played about 9 times in NZ this decade and NZ have only won 1.

I also did a bit of research and some more interesting stats are that Bond has played 6 matches vs aussie, taken 22 wickets at an average of 10.45 and a strike rate of 15.5...NOT BAD!!!!!

[greg]

It's good to see Vettori doing well in the series against Australia.Makes all the supporters of Ashley Giles look rather foolish when they think Giles is better than Vettori.As good a job as Giles does he is not as effective as Dan the Man.

[Maranello]

I think the key point Greg is that they both have to do very different jobs for their teams, and both do the jobs assigned to them reasonably well (though Giles only became consistent at this very recently).

Giles is a negative / defensive bowler, with his primary role to dry up runs from one end; this is why he is one of the few Test SLA bowlers who routinely bowls over the wicket! This role he performs reasonably well, though of course he never has and never will have the class to trouble or quieten quality players of slow bowling in unhelpful conditions.

Vettori on the other hand, in ODIs and even in Tests, is a genuine wicket-taking option for his team, and is used as such; some argue he has not done well enough of late to justify his immense early potential, and it is true that his career has been blighted by injuries. However, he is still very young, and I have always hoped that his best days are in front of him.