Scary to watch. Taylor has a sound technique, Guptill the makings of one if only he could put that pull shot away.  We know Ryder when fit has a simple but effective technique although it is less certain that his career will avoid self-destruction. And then the rest.  Watching McIntosh bat makes me ill: can't play the short ball at all.  Flynn picks his bat up crookedly and - surprise, surprise - brings it down crookedly.  Fulton appears to have no idea whether to play forward or back so often does neither, whilst Elliott is from the McIntosh short ball school. Reading alvey's thread about tall batsmen makes me think most of these blokes could do with losing a few inches. Hopefully replacements will emerge in the next year or two.  Promising contenders include the Wellington left-handed opener Josh Brodie, the Gujurati-Aucklander Jeet Raval, and BJ Watling and Kane Williamson from Northern Districts. It was also heartening that Tim Southee took 8-27 against Wellington yesterday.  As the first decent fast bowling prospect to emerge for about five years, NZ really needs him to succeed. Andrew

It was also heartening that Tim Southee took 8-27 against Wellington   yesterday.  As the first decent fast bowling prospect to emerge for   about five years, NZ really needs him to succeed. He looked good in Australia lat summer when the ball was swinging, but   pretty ordinary when it wasn't. That hasn't stopped Doug Bollinger and   Nathan Bracken of course...

Scary to watch. <snip Why doesn't Vettori bat higher in the order? Surely with this NZ batting line-up he should bat no lower than number six, and maybe even higher.

In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Andrew Dunford < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it writes: Scary to watch. <snip Why doesn't Vettori bat higher in the order? Surely with this NZ batting line-up he should bat no lower than number six, and maybe even higher. In principle you are probably right. Coming into the match Vettori was carrying a shoulder injury, having also missed the last match of the recent series of matches in Abu Dhabi owing to concussion suffered when hit by a short ball.  Indeed he seems to have developed a (hopefully) short-term problem against the short ball and was hit a couple of times this morning, which is uncharacteristic.  So I just wonder whether batting in the top six might be a step too far considering he is already the captain, coach, selector and spin bowling attack. Andrew

John Hall < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it wrote in message In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Andrew Dunford < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it writes: Scary to watch. <snip Why doesn't Vettori bat higher in the order? Surely with this NZ batting line-up he should bat no lower than number six, and maybe even higher. In principle you are probably right. Coming into the match Vettori was carrying a shoulder injury, having also missed the last match of the recent series of matches in Abu Dhabi owing to concussion suffered when hit by a short ball. Indeed he seems to have developed a (hopefully) short-term problem against the short ball and was hit a couple of times this morning, which is uncharacteristic.  So I just wonder whether batting in the top six might be a step too far considering he is already the captain, coach, selector and spin bowling attack. Andrew He's probably also on the phone every day advising the PM on how to conduct foreign policy. Time to crown him King Daniel I of NZ I say!

Why doesn't Vettori bat higher in the order? Surely with this NZ batting line-up he should bat no lower than number six, and maybe even higher. I say don't fix what ain't broken. Vettori's scoring runs lower down the order so let him be. The issue lies in the top order scoring more runs.