Cramps

I swear SA were meant to have a good bowling attack at least, didnt they win the last series in Aus? When Kyle Abbott went crazy.

This is just sad.

South Africa have beaten us the last 3 times over here.

Stupidly hot in Melbourne. Outside of Nortje none of the bowlers are really bringing heat on a good batting wicket.

South Africa's biggest weakness is their batting and dedication to batting Verryenne at #6 instead of 7. Sacrifice a bowler, get some part time offies from a top order player etc...

Another Double Ton for our master batsman Kane W

His fifth double hundred and he now averages over 54 in tests. Highest Test average out of all batsman over the last 5 years too at well over 60

Champion and the NZ GOAT batsman officially now you have to say

Really disappointed with South Africa's performances so far, I thought their bowlers would hurt Aussie more and their batters are toothless these days

Eould love to see the list if you wouldn't mind sharing.

I still wouldn't quite put Kane Williamson in that same league as Steve Smith as Kane Williamson has got all of his runs against what really are the test minnows (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Pakistan). The only decent average he has against one of the 4 top test teams in South Africa is 48 while he averages only 41 against Australia, and 37 against India and England. While Steve Smith averages against South Africa is 41 (ok that is low against South Africa but is not unusual for a test great to average that low against SA with Tendulkar having a career average of 42 against SA), but then 72 against India, 60 against England and 58 against New Zealand.

yes, of players this century, I think he's a just a tiny bit below the Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Dravid, Kallis, Smith, Sanga grouping for the exact reason you laid out, but he's the top of the next tier down and he's an outstanding batsman

Beg to differ due to the green pitchs he has played on back home, he has respectable averages against the big teams too... Drill down on some of the greats, many have lower aves against the best teams of their era but have some great moments/centuries

Green pitches. Tiny boundaries

I’ll do a deep dive on averages vs different teams in the morning.

But even playing for a top team is an advantage. Ponting never had to face McGrath and Warne, Viv Richards never faced the 4 pronged pace attack etc

Took that stat from a random in game stat pop up but stats guru has come through to verify and post for you! Love that tool!! Top averages for batsman in Test cricket the last 5 years (min qualifier 1000 runs) Not the easiest era for batsman in tests lately either...
Hmmm where is Kohli?

I'd say averaging 38+ against the best bowling attacks of your generation is pretty darn great, happy if someone can drag up stats with a decent sample size that argues otherwise though...

Edit: England back in the day was rubbish so Aussie great batsman stats massively inflated from those Test series back in the 90s and pre 2005...

More helpful to post Statsguru links. I have no issue rating Kane up there with the best, although when you filter just for scores against AUS/ENG/IND/NZL, Smith, Labuschagne and Root still average 50+ while Kane averages a mere 32.85:

Last 5 years, 10+ matches played, average 30+:
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...s;type=batting

Last 5 years, 10+ matches played, average 30+, only scores against AUS/ENG/IND/NZL:
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...s;type=batting

Lol cherry picking much? Thats not a career... Especially when your team gets shafted with being able to play the bigger teams on the reg...

5 years of ALL tests is a fair sample and to top the averages over this period is a massive achievement, no matter what the opposition...

Crazy fun declaration from Babar here

Wait, Pakistan declared?? Surely not enough time to try to win it

Yeah insane or riggage one of the 2 lol

Babar bored from the last 4 days wants a 15 over match

what a ridiculous declaration, did PAK really think if they gave NZ a sniff that they would have a chance to bowl them out within 15 overs?

time for Pakistan to start wasting some time, only bad light can save them now

bowl bouncers, wides, change the field every ball, feign an injury or two

Needing quick runs, I would not be sending Kane out at any time

And that's it, bad light ends the match. Great effort from Shakeel and Wasim to save the match at 7/207 and get to 8/311.

Pakistan become just the 2nd team in history to play 7+ home Tests in a calendar year and not win any of them.

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...team;view=year

Nice one Kane. Nice clean qualifying points. 5 years and 1000 runs.

I'd still say that Smith is a level above because of his overall average and actually just watching them both bat.

Saw this on reddit and I and other people pointed out the West Indies issue (not a country).

Someone did the stat properly:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cricket/com...t=share_button

I also think there was an issue in NZ making the test championship final last time that they played a lot of weak opponents to get there.

Just watching the BBL which is a New Years eve tradition but just want to say Shaun Bradstreet as an assistant coach for the thunder is a blast from the past from NSW one day cricket.

I'm not bothered by that.

It encourages the big teams to play the smaller teams. It's a hit as far as the money goes but a plus for your test championship chances.

Also it doesn't always work out as planned.

SL beat Australia.
India lost a series in SA
And Pakistan had loads of home matches and weak away opponents but still managed to make a colossal mess of it all.