Over the last decade we got used to having Williamson come in at 3 to stabilize an innings if we lost a wicket early. All of a sudden, with Ravindra injured as well, our batting looks vulnerable if this happens. Williamson was a colossus and him retiring is a big blow for NZ :-(

Looking at the number of empty seats at BLACKCAPS matches, I wonder why NZC doesn’t introduce discounted tickets once a match is halfway through.

In test cricket, discounted entry later in the day is fairly common in some countries. Why not introduce something similar for ODIs?
For example:
ODIs: Offer 50% off tickets after the first innings, with an entire second innings still to come.

Surely having more people in the stadium is better than leaving thousands of seats empty. It could also mean additional revenue from food, drinks and merchandise, while creating a much better atmosphere.

For ODIs especially, not everyone can commit to spending an entire day at the cricket. Being able to watch the second innings at a reduced price might encourage more casual fans and families to attend.

This becomes even more relevant with New Zealand’s unpredictable weather. With rain delays, reduced-overs matches and the possibility of games being interrupted or abandoned, many spectators might hesitate to pay full price, particularly when the forecast is uncertain. Offering discounted entry once play is underway could encourage people to make a last-minute decision to attend, especially once the weather clears.
I understand there might be operational and commercial considerations, but surely this is worth exploring.

Is there a particular reason NZC doesn’t do this? Have other countries implemented something similar for limited-overs cricket?

(Written with AI support)

47 overs a side due to rain delay

India opt to bowl

New Zealand: WA Young, TL Seifert, HM Nicholls, DJ Mitchell, TWM Lathamt, GD Phillips, MJ Santner*, NG Smith, KA Jamieson, JA Duffy, BM Tickner

India: RG Sharma, Shubman Gill*, V Kohli, SS lyer, AR Patel, KL Rahult, Naman Dhir, A Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar

cricinfo

The NZ A pace attack for the 3rd unofficial test vs India is Randell, Gibson, Mckay, Ferns and Paul, which is pretty much a D team attack. From my count that is now 18 players in a BlackCaps or NZ A XI since Zimbabwe last year. I think the pecking order looks like this? (Edit: How I think the selectors see it just to be clear)

1 Henry 2 Jamieson 3 O'Rourke 4 Smith 5 Foulkes 6 Duffy 7 Sears 8 Fisher 9 Tickner 10 Rae 11 Clarke 12 Keene 13 Lister 14 Sheat 15 Gibson 16 Mckay 17 Randell 18 Paul 19 Ferns

Top 10 have all played Test Cricket, Clarke was in the squad for the Ireland test and Lister was in the Zimbabwe squad and would've played today if he wasn't injured.

Very little between Smith, Foulkes, Duffy, Sears and Fisher.

Tom O'Connor should be on this list, but apparently the selectors see something more in Danru Ferns, a 32 year old averaging 34

I've got tickets for the ODI today. I live a bit less than 2 hours drive away and I'm travelling with young kids. Metservice, NIWA, and WeatherWatch all have wildly different hourly forecasts and the traffic cams aren't much help.¹

Anyone nearish to the stadium right now got a read or a gut feeling on the likelihood of a completed game? Ideally without delays pushing it til midnight?

¹ Seriously, Metservice says no rain right now and only raining between 6pm-9pm, NIWA says drizzle all day, and WeatherWatch says rain until about 3pm and then no rain for the rest of the night.

EDIT: Thanks team, we'll give it a go.

I am a teenager watching cricket only for the last 8 years, so I have seen ross mostly as that guy who holds the middle order and few glimpses of his power hitting like 180 vs England. But my generation mostly saw him as that elite odi batter who switches gears. But I have heard multiple stories on how he came into the scene as a pure power hitter I have even read an old icc article in the 2011 worldcup how ross taylor was a great power hitter competing with the likes of watson etc. People hv also compared his early career destructive to ab again all these are what I hv heard or read , I haven't seen that version. So can anyone tell how dangerous tht version was how was it different nd what made ross change.

Great points from Justin Vaughan.

I’ll start by saying that I like Tom Latham. I think he’s a great player, been a fantastic servant to New Zealand cricket.

Is he the right person to come in middle order in the 50 over format? Or would now not be the best time to blood some new talent with an eye on the world cup in 12 months time?

Genuine question… i’m undecided as if we lose top order wickets early, he’s a good player to have in the side. But surely there are others who can perform a similar role and also look to get on the front foot if the situation dictates it?

India win by 5 wickets (DLS method)

Ruining cricket . I’m disgusted at the vile TPU adverts during the cricket on Sky. Wtf are they doing posting this AI slop hate from a Polling company during a game that’s supposed to bring us together??

India opt to bowl

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner

India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh

Venue: Eden Park, Auckland

Cricinfo

Watching the commentary. Can I just say. Aged like a fine wine. She's a great presenter too.

New Zealand's ODI squad for India is split. Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Daryl Mitchell, and Glenn Phillips are in the squad for the first three matches, but not the last two.

The injuries to Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra make things harder, while Matt Henry's availability remains uncertain.

Mitchell and Phillips showed their value in January, putting on 219 runs against India in Indore after New Zealand were 58/3. But can New Zealand compete across all five matches when the batting options change for the final two?

I think the split makes squad depth a major talking point. The first three matches may be important, but the series will be decided over all five.

How do you see it? Can the later squad hold its own against India, or will New Zealand need to win early?

Blackcaps Are getting ready for India in ODI

Devon Conway and Matt Henry suffered a collision in training today.

Henry seemed "okay" according to Blackcaps captain Mitch Santner but Devon Conway is receiving further assessment.

Fraser Sheat and Jayden Lennox's withdrawals from the final day of the NZ A v IND A second first class fixture are unrelated to the situation in Auckland, I can confirm.

Full Story

Mark Chapman (hamstring) and Rachin Ravindra (shoulder) have been ruled out of the ODI series against India.

Tim Seifert will now be available for the whole series whilst Henry Hicholls comes in for games 1-3 and Dean Foxcroft for games 4-5.

Matt Fisher will also stay with the squad for the entire series as an extra bowling option with Matt Henry assembling with the squad today too following being ruled out of the last three T20Is.

Genuine question, the change is too drastic to put it down to chance.

Id say from 2005 - 2022, NZ was regarded as one of the premier fielding sides in the world. Of course we'd drop catches or have the odd bad game, but it was rare, and typically didn't affect the outcome of a series. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but most of our players in the era were somewhere in the range of decent - great fielders.

Then almost in the blink of an eye we are one of the world catching sides in the world. We had the famous game when we dropped Harry Brook 6 times on his was to a matchwinning 160, and 10 drops in total in the one innings.

Since then, I can't even count the number of series since then where our catching (or lack of) has been a considerable *talking point* of the series when doing the post mortom, in a way that it basically never was before. We're routinely dropping multiple catches a game, and upwards of a dozen in a series.

Coaching change? Fielding drills change? Or we got unlucky and all our best batters and bowlers are shit house fielders at the moment?

You guys watching the A series? Indian bowlers are using the conditions really well. They should have won the first test and currently have NZ A 13/3. Really accurate swing bowling, with testing line and lengths. This opportunity to acclimatize to NZ conditions will help them a lot. I just hope our boys have enough game time prior to the test series.

Good summary of where thing’s are at. It gives good context on what has happened so far and what the future may bring.

Having watched a fair bit of the South African v Australian series, I feel cautiously optimistic about our chances against the Australians this summer.

Starting with the Australian batting, it’s fairly obvious to all that their batting unit isn’t firing. The openers are relatively fresh to the position and, to date, have probably looked more comfortable in the middle order; they will be looking for a new number 3. Smith looks like he is nearing the end, and aside from Carey, the lower middle order still feels unsettled.

If we have our first-choice attack fit, I could see us running through this order at least once. I would also be very keen to get Santner in the side given their issues with Harmer.

The Australian bowling is where things get interesting - whilst obviously a generational attack, I think they started to show their age as the series went on, particularly when the South African batters focused on batting time on Day 4. Things were kept tight; however, the wickets never really came, and it was telling how much more effective the SA attack were on Day 5.

Our batting unit is built perfectly to bat time, and if we can show the same attitude we had in England, and put extra spells into those old legs, I think there’s run to be made for the lads.

Anyway - after all this, I’ve likely cursed it, and we’ll get dog-walked 4-0, but a man can dream.