I'd like to say sorry for the Black Caps' abysmal tour

And for us ever suffering Kiwi fans, here is some footage of us pounding McGath, Lee, Warne, and Gillespie into the dirt at the WACA in that 2001 series… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2PqIIDDNoo

Not for me it won't. I haven't been able to watch a cricket match involving NZ since we capitulated in Aussie. Too much to take. Cut me deep in the guts. I think NZ need to ditch the nice guy act. Come up with fire and brimstone and fling the verbals like they used to do under Stephen Fleming, which, under his captaincy would have beaten the greatest Australian team of all time in their own backyard in summer of 2000/01 if it were not for Ian Robinson giving Steve Waugh and then Gillespie not out on the last day in Perth.

There were periods where they established some pressure but let it off with a four ball or poor execution. The lack of a decent spinner hurt, not to mention injuries. But... I agree with you. No pass. Only Blundell and Wagner came away with par or better performances. This was embarrassing for us genuine fans of the Black Caps and the game. Never expected us to walk away with the (melted) choccies but some fight and at least a few sessions was a minimum expectation. Sorry from me too...

The problem is they're used to winning against mediocre opposition, with them crowing about the "#2 test ranking" which is ridiculous as test nations don't play each other evenly or regularly enough to warrant a ranking system, but hopefully that changes now with the new test championship. NZ coaches/selectors are to blame for not planning and selecting the right to players capable to win in Australia, and having these players at least playing together in NZ prior to coming over for Australia.

The facts are Wagner isn't fast enough or dangerous enough on his own against a quality team. Yes, his relentless energy and effort is inspiring on roads with a dead kookaburra, and certainly more impressive than Jimmy Anderson's approach as you mentioned, but he won't win a match against top opposition on his own with this approach. He needs the right cattle around him as part of a bowling attack, with Southee certainly not being that guy in Australia. Boult is unfortunately on the wane with age and injury taking a toll. The kiwis were on the right track with Lachie Ferguson, where Smith should've been his first test wicket with a poor dropped catch. Ferguson should've been playing tests in NZ, or at least first class matches, as he was under-bowled in recent times, which highly likely contributed to his injury breakdown after only around a dozen overs or so. And I was making comments before the series started on how the kiwis didn't stand a chance with the limited overs hack spinner in Santner: obviously not a test quality spinner! The whole point of Wagner is he's able to utilise a strategy that helps win a match on roads and with kookaburra balls that don't swing much after a dozen overs. His success is exacerbated by the fact he's playing in an era where the quality of test batting has severely dipped due to the prevalence of T20, promoting an unnecessarily overly aggressive approach, and not respecting the bowling, which has affected the quality of test batting. What the exciting emergence of an old school test batsman in Labuschagne shows is how quickly Wagner's defensive method is exposed, as someone with an old school mentality (like Boycott or Lawry from what I've heard about them) could just wait all day for the right ball to hit and happily let the others go, with Wagner generally looking impotent once Labuschagne was batting (with the exception of that 2nd innings in Perth). Wagner relies on the batsmen's lack of patience in the modern era, which ironically meant Smith was susceptible, with his extraordinary batting meaning he's not used to being tied down for long without scoring. That old school approach by Smith at the SCG, with 40 balls or so taken to score his first run with ironic cheers from the crowd (followed by a big grin from Smith) was great to watch, and showed Smith was capable of playing that way, it just took this series against Wagner to bring that old school mentality out of him. :happy:

Disastrous tours can happen to anyone. Aussies have had our share in recent memory. Kiwis may not have done themselves justice as a squad of cricketers, but as men they certainly did. A credit to the nation in that regard. My family of cricket watchers enjoyed the spirit with which they went about their work when things were not going well for them.

I get where you're coming form Micko, but am not sure you're exactly on the money. Wagner would be very effective if there's anything through the air or off the the pitch,similar in some ways to James Anderson. He was obviously not going to get much of either in Australia, so used another tactic, relatively successfully. You're right, this was largely a defensive approach, but took a lot of skill and an aggressive mindset to execute well, especially at the pace he was bowling.Anderson's tactic, when he's getting no movement, is to bowl 2 foot outside off stump with a 7/3 or 8/2 field and wait for a mistake. Now THAT's defensive bowling.

Ironically, Wagner's bodyline 2.0 is actually defensive. He relies on batsmen losing patience and playing risky legside shots. He can't rip through a good team as he's just not fast enough. His figures look good, but the fall of the wickets are quite a way apart. Bowlers need spells where they dominate and take wickets quickly, decimating a team's batting in a spell/session. Wagner isn't really capable of doing this against a quality batting lineup.

Yep, as tours go that was pretty dire. Fortuitously, we were entertained by the great Jeremy Coney and Brian Waddle on the ABC radio commentary, both of whom have seen it all before and who lessened the disappointment with cheerful, pleasant chat throughout the series. Still both great value behind the mic.

At least Black Caps supporters now know what Wallabies fans feel like when they play the All Blacks

We understand how you feel - just substitute "Wallabies" for "Black Caps" and change the series to the Bledisloe Cup...

Yeah, didn't we score 450+ each 1st innings?

I'm not sure there's a lot to apologise for, TC. I think you need to take a step back from the actual skills on show and look at two things; mindset & tactics. The mindset after the first hour in Perth was largely defensive, with bat & ball and the field placings and tactics reflected that mindset. Williamson I'm sure wanted his bowlers to take wickets but once they failed to get more than one, they resorted to a very defensive approach. The only guys who showed an aggressive mindset were Blundell & Wagner and look how they went? Taylor also did briefly in that First Test, but other than that, the skills matched how it seemed the Black Caps mentally approached this series. It didn't work in Australia and for sure they're going to have to be way more aggressive if they're going to try and match it with India.

So how do the bowlers get a pass? They simply did not get the job done or nothing like it. Massive first inning totals let Australia dictate. Batters poor for sure, bowlers same, negative tactics that slowed the Aussies but failed and nothing changed all series. Bowlers for mine were poor and dumb! Fans ... great!

Yeah, I apologise on behalf of NZers, too. I thought they'd have backbone this time, instead they were the worst visitors we'd sent for a long while.

The Black Cap's real test will start against India in T20I, ODI and Test match Series from 24th. onwards.