NZ v England test matches, November 2019

[Arthur Crabtree]

Excellent first session for England.

Maybe NZ regretting not having a bit of pace in the attack.

[sussexpob]

That technique that Sibley has looks, er.... very erratic. He seems to just want to step to his offside and bring everything onto his pads, unless hes Steve Smith-esque in his hand-eye co-ordination, hes going to have a lot of bowlers fancying wrapping him on that front pad, or testing that outside edge with the away swinger.

Its pretty much no surprise a little nibbler away from him got. Trying to play into the leg side to a 4th stump ball? Puzzling.

[bigfluffylemon]

Excellent first session for England.

It's not very often we've been able to say that when England have been batting on the first morning of a series in the last few years.

[backfootpunch]

Burns run of luck in the ashes seems to have followed him to New Zealand

A good trait to have

James vince v2 made a pretty 28 so far with some beautiful shots

[bigfluffylemon]

And after doing a lot of hard graft, England still slump to 120-3.

Better than the customary 40-3, but still.

[bigfluffylemon]

Proper attritional cricket here, England doing well not to lose too many, but NZ doing well to keep the run rate under control.

[bigfluffylemon]

Denley goes for a hard-fought 74. Shame he couldn't have gone on, but lays the platform for Stokes to cash in. He's been transformed in 2019 - averages over 50 for the calendar year with 2 hundreds and 4 fifties from nine matches

Trent Boult must be sick of the sight of Ben Stokes in 2019... although he was dropped on 63, but otherwise he and Pope have done a good job blunting the second new ball.

Close on 241/4. Good effort by both sides. Probably just England's day (definitely England's final session, 120 runs for 1 wicket off 34 overs), but a good first hour for New Zealand tomorrow, and the advantage will be theirs.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes might have a chance of being world cricketer of the year for the ICC this year. Unless it's the Blond Bradman.

[sussexpob]

Decent platform for England to build on, but it looks a tame pitch, so they need to push the score comfortably past 400 to get really on top.

I still cant get over Sibley's technique. He has an initial trigger movement that is very pronounced to the offside, his hands wobble once set, there is no foot movement once planted, and he plays so far away from his body. And there is hardly any follow through with the bat, he drives at balls by trying to essentially time blocking it, rather than completing the stroke.

He obviously has crazy hand-eye skills to have come through county cricket with such a style, and such a record, but as a pacer with a new ball and a decent away swinger, I think Id fancy my chances at him. And my guess is when he's not in touch that technique will really be problematic.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Different from Graeme Smith?

Denly and Burns average 30 this year. Even a year ago that would have got you dropped (didn't do Nick Compton much good, going further back) but now it feels these two are woven into the side.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe the orthodox has changed. Steve Smith doesn't look much like a traditional coaching book, and he plays a lot through leg from off stump.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Different from Graeme Smith?

Denly and Burns average 30 this year. Even a year ago that would have got you dropped (didn't do Nick Compton much good, going further back) but now it feels these two are woven into the side.

Root averages 28.

[sussexpob]

Maybe the orthodox has changed. Steve Smith doesn't look much like a traditional coaching book, and he plays a lot through leg from off stump.

I think this is where ideas about techniques become confused, because unorthodox techniques that are successful are technically sound when it comes to getting the fundamental basics right, the steps that they take to position a player in getting to the point of being able to execute those crucial elements are the difference in the two types. A cricketer for instance needs to watch the ball onto the bat, and the established wisdom is to stay upright with little movement to keep the eyes and head still, but hell if someone can still watch the ball perfectly while doing cartwheels then they have achieved it. So I think the important thing is to look not at how a player achieves or positions themselves to achieve great execution, but the net result.

As an example, while Steve Smith is all over the place, look at his hands; his bat when hes going through his backlift is almost sideways, but his hands are tucked into his body, which allows him on his downstroke to straighten the bat and play compactly. He has a large trigger movement to the offside, but sets very still to watch the ball. His stance is totally open with straightened hips and feet spread, but his feet move serenely into strokes in a natural and balanced way. All the fundamentals are there, he just prepares to achieve them in a certain way. He plays with a dominant bottom hand, but can turn his wrists into strokes (also the defining feature of Virat Kohli's picture perfect cover drives, another player who is bottom hand dominate who is able to open the face on drives into the offside).

Sibley has a very similar bottom hand dominant approach, but you can see he closes the face onto balls he shouldnt do, not open his wrists or play straight to balls off the stumps. Like Smith, he has an open stance and steps to the offside, but unlike Smith those hands are far from the body, so he cant lean into offside strokes. Worth mentioning at this point Steve Smith (and Graeme Smith actually, as you mention it) both credit their tucked hand position as the best fundamental change they made as professional cricketers to their techniques. GS for instance has spoken before about bottom handed dominant players who dont move the feet into shots, being totally reliant playing in the small zones around their body, which requires that tucked hand position to protect from lbw and play balls coming into the legs and body with a solid straight bat. Also, Sibley is very jittery, he seems to ask a lot of his eyesight because hes got a lot of moving parts.

So to me, its not unorthodox (well it is), but also a technique that has real problems. Happy to be proved wrong, but a top quality pacer who moves the ball into his pads, or away from that outside edge should cause him a lot of problems. Simultaneously, anyone drifting on his leg stump is going to see the ball the boundary rope before they realise.

[Durhamfootman]

It's almost like it's a test match.

blimey.... who knew?

I see that Colly will take England to the India ODI series as coach to reduce the burden on hey ho silverwood away. I'd have thought that would put more of a burden on him..... seeing your natural replacement taking work off you before you've even got your feet under the table

[Arthur Crabtree]

Thanks for the reply Sussex.

The actually rather orthodox Ben Stokes moves into the nineties.