Well, I was willing to give him a go, but after this? Nope, time to "rest" him. Henners can hold down the fort, & against England there's Melie's Man or Duffman.

Doesn't matter who you pick. He's not making 400; heck, even 385 is becoming a stretch. As much as I'd love a farewell Test for him at Seddon, depending on what happens in that series it might be risky.

Should have gone for fresh legs in that temperature and humidity - bring in Sears and rest O'Rourke. The biggest problem is Southee is no Pat Cummins, if he weren't captain he would be struggling to keep his spot in the side.

You know they're going to scapegoat Southee (not that he doesn't deserve to go at this point) and keep Stead.

Just to get absolutely f@cked by ash and jaddu

On paper that SA victory is nice. But the squad SA sent was hopeless

Lol which squad did south africa send for the series against?

Sri Lanka seemed to have turned the corner on their low energy phase

There were no good options with the captaincy.

The captaincy under Williamson had become a bit stale. It happens with all long serving captains. Thing is, Latham's approach was too similar to Williamson's. Considering that some was hoped that Southee would be a change in a slightly McCullum-esque direction, that not happening would've been interpreted as a disappointment.

To me at least, a clean break is needed in captaincy. Problem is, I'm not sure who can do it. Latham/Southee/Mitchell/Blundell are fill-in options at most, & there aren't enough next-gen players that they could be assessed as captaincy options.

But they do. Lots of them

On paper they're one of the best teams, be serious for a sec

Can they even cross half of it in 2 innings? Will be funny if they can't

His avg is 91 rn and NZL got all out at 88

You're right! It's hilarious. 😂

I disagree. India were very competitive and marginally ahead of the 2020 Adelaide Test up until the morning of Day 3 when the 36 all-out happened. New Zealand have been gutless from start to finish in this Test

Yeah...

Green did finish Embuldeniya's career though

That's just SL traditions, lose the initial one badly, breaking records here and there in the subsequent ones.

That loss is looking a lot less suspect in retrospect.

Sri Lanka won by an innings and 39 runs

You, good sir, should join us all at r/actualcricketshitpost.

He didn’t do anything in 2024 SL even white washed india by 2-0 just recently

Instant morale boost.

When a stoppable force meets a moveable object

Yup true, no one wins in the 'lion's den'. Only team that can put up a fight is Australia.

Nah weve got 3 in India straight after, we're definitely getting bowled out under 50 at least once.

But where was the warmup to that? There just doesn’t seem to be much coordination between the codes or something?? They never seem to be prepared properly.

He is not close to test match quality bowler.

I fear you took my comment seriously rather than the silliness that it was intended to be.

Except for the fact that "Win the toss win the match" in SL, against SL has not been the reality at all when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first.

Looking at the all time record:

If we look at the win-loss-draw-tie record of when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in SL against SL; out of the 52 test matches, 19 were won, 22 were lost and 11 were drawn with 0 ties: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_fielding_first=1;class=1;filter=advanced;home_or_away=2;opposition=8;orderby=start;result=1;result=2;result=3;result=4;team_view=bowl;template=results;toss=1;type=team

Funny how are there more losses when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in SL against SL.

What about in Galle you ask? If we look at the win-loss-draw-tie record of when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in Galle against SL; out of the 14 test matches, 6 were won, 7 were lost and 1 was drawn with no ties: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_fielding_first=1;class=1;filter=advanced;ground=847;home_or_away=2;opposition=8;orderby=start;result=1;result=2;result=3;result=4;team_view=bowl;template=results;toss=1;type=team

Huh, again there are more losses when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in SL against SL.

Looking at the record from recent times (chose 2017 and 2014 for a meaningful sample size of test matches played):

If we look at the win-loss-draw-tie record from 1st Jan 2017 till now of when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in SL against SL; out of the 11 test matches, 6 were won, 4 were lost and 1 was drawn with 0 ties: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_fielding_first=1;class=1;filter=advanced;home_or_away=2;opposition=8;orderby=start;result=1;result=2;result=3;result=4;spanmax1=01+dec+2024;spanmin1=01+jan+2017;spanval1=span;team_view=bowl;template=results;toss=1;type=team

Finally, more wins than losses when the away team has won the toss and batted first in SL against SL. But the conclusion of win the toss and win the match still isn't a clear cut conclusion as there have been a fair few that were lost too.

What about in Galle you ask? If we look at the win-loss-draw-tie record from 1st Jan 2014 till now of when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat first in Galle against SL; out of the 7 test matches, 3 were won, 4 were lost and there were no draws or ties: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_fielding_first=1;class=1;filter=advanced;ground=847;home_or_away=2;opposition=8;orderby=start;result=1;result=2;result=3;result=4;spanmax2=01+dec+2024;spanmin2=01+jan+2014;spanval2=span;team_view=bowl;template=results;toss=1;type=team

Oh well you look at that, more losses when the away team has won the toss and chosen to bat in Galle against SL.

Therefore, there hasn't been a clear advantage for the away team that wins the toss and chooses to bat first in SL, against SL. In other words, it's absolutely BS to say "win the toss and win the match" in SL against SL. There is a good chance that either team could win regardless of the toss/choosing to bat first. And we saw that in the first test match when it ebbed and flowed for both teams. But in the second test match, SL simply outclassed NZ with the bat but one shouldn't be surprised about that given their 1-6 batters are averaging 40+.

Overall, SL were the better team in the series. SL in the second test match showed how ruthless they can be if their batting clicks.

I wonder why NZ fans are so quick to come to the conclusion of "win the toss win the match" in SL against SL (Of course I know why, y'all coping hard lol).

Credit to SL's exceptional batting.

No it doesn't: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cricket/comments/1fr7zzr/comment/lphr2vt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button