Budget Draft: Bargain Hunt

[ddrap14]

Alright, so what was my plan again? Oh yeah. Uhh. I got 30 points, which is enough for...

Handy with the bat, but primarily, absolutely terrifying with the ball. Malcolm Marshall joins my team. If he's taken, it's bc the index is screwed up

@mohsin7827

 

[mohsin7827]

Jack Ikin

Victor Trumper
CB Fry
Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
Graeme Hick
Jack Ikin
Alan Knott
Gilbert Jessop
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
Abdur Razzak
Jasprit Bumrah

@Supreme General

 

[blockerdave]

Alright, so what was my plan again? Oh yeah. Uhh. I got 30 points, which is enough for...
View attachment 300860
Handy with the bat, but primarily, absolutely terrifying with the ball. Malcolm Marshall joins my team. If he's taken, it's bc the index is screwed up

@mohsin7827

Great selection.

 

[blockerdave]

@Supreme General is late
@Welwyn is up

 

[Supreme General]

@Supreme General is late
@Welwyn is up

Whoops been busy at work recently. I’ll bring in Young Jack Hearne for 8 points

 

[blockerdave]

Will give @Welwyn a little longer before taking my pick

 

[blockerdave]

Jack Russell was often overlooked by England, and thankfully for me he's been overlooked in this draft. He was usually left out so Alec Stewart could keep wicket and balance the side in the absence of a genuine all-rounder. But he was also left out at different times for Richard Blakey, Steve Rhodes and Warren Hegg. Absolutely outrageous.

It was felt Jack's batting wasn't good enough, but his average of 27.10 with 2 hundreds and 6 fifties was, pre-Gilchrist, absolutely fine for a wicketkeeper in his era. And, he was capable of this.

He will bat 8 in this team, giving us lower-order solidity on top of truly world-class goat-level keeping.

1 Roy Fredericks (22)
2 Gordon Greenidge (24)
3 Rob Bailey (0)
4 Stuart Law (0)
5 Raman Lamba (0)
6 Adrian Kuiper (0)
7 Fred Grace (0)
8 Jack Russell (7)
9 Richie Benaud (27)
10 Ezra Moseley (7)
11 -

87 points used, 13 remain. I am very very very happy with this team.

@CerealKiller (or @Aislabie if still caretaking) is up.

 

[Welwyn]

1. Gooch
2. PJ Hughes
3. Steve James
4.
5. Fairbrother
6. B. Hollioake
7. Foster
8. Gibson
9, Lasith Malinga (17 pts 3 left)
10. Anderson
11. Tufnell

 

[blockerdave]

Well, it's more than 24 hours without @CerealKiller / @Aislabie going, so I'll go ahead and complete my team.

I just want raw pace, so alongside Ezra Mosely with the new ball, is Devon Malcolm

Criminally misused by England, and too often left out for military medium gun-barrel straight "swingers" like Neil Munton, Malcolm was lightning fast, and when it clicked, capable of stuff like this:

He could serve up some wild dross on his off days, sure - but that's why we have the equally rapid Mosely and Grace, as well as Kuiper, Benaud and Fredericks to make up overs if it's not happening for big Dev. But with 2 other properly fast bowlers helping soften up the batsmen - and it's worth noting his 9-fer came with Darren Gough (properly fast) and Joey Benjamin (quick enough) in the team - the wily captaincy of Richie Benaud managing him, and more importantly the "management" of Ray Illingworth nowhere bloody near him, I'm confident we'll see more good days than bad.

1 Roy Fredericks (22)
2 Gordon Greenidge (24)
3 Rob Bailey (0)
4 Stuart Law (0)
5 Raman Lamba (0)
6 Adrian Kuiper (0)
7 Fred Grace (0)
8 Jack Russell (7)
9 Richie Benaud (27)
10 Ezra Moseley (7)
11 Devon Malcolm (13)

100 points exactly. A world-class opening partnership; a middle order where 2 players have FC averages over 50, 3 genuinely fast bowlers, a world class wicketkeeper, top-class spinner and good captaincy, given the constraints of the draft I'm as happy as can be. This is a genuinely strong team.

(This was nearly the exact team I planned originally... had I got Ben Hollioake, 1pt, I'd have chosen a different spinner - don't want to say who as he's still available - for 22 points, and probably not used the difference.)

@Till Valhalla is up next

 

[Aislabie]

for 22 points

Of the many 22-point spinners, I'm guessing the grumpy Yorkshireman would be most on brand for you?

 

[Aislabie]

Leslie Wight (1)

scored 21 in his only Test innings
1,260 runs @ 66.31 (4 centuries, best 262*) in 12 first-class matches

From a long way out, I had @CerealKiller 's last point set aside for one of three players. The first, Billy Gunn, had a sprawling career that included 38 centuries from his 521 first-class matches. The second, Jess Duffin, boasts an ODI average of 37 that suggests her meagre Test number would have far improved had she been allowed to play more. But the third, Leslie Wight, was the obvious pick: with first-class average of 66 across even a small sample size there can be no doubt he was an excellent player.

CerealKiller's XI so far:
1. "Plum" Warner (3)
2. Nayan Mongia (4)
3. Ed Joyce (3)
4. Archie MacLaren (13)
5. Leslie Wight (1)
6.
7. Abdul Razzaq (22)
8. Shane Warne (25)
9. Nikita Miller (0)
10. Bob Newson (0)
11. Glenn McGrath (29)

0 points remaining

 

[blockerdave]

Of the many 22-point spinners, I'm guessing the grumpy Yorkshireman would be most on brand for you?

Ha, no… though I actually realised there was a 26 point spinner I overlooked and I’m disgusted at myself.

I’ll console myself with the idea I needed the captaincy though

 

[Till Valhalla]

Rajat Patidar
@Aislabie

 

[Aislabie]

Shafiq Ahmed
99 runs @ 11.00 (best 27*) in 6 Test matches
19,572 runs @ 49.92 (53 centuries, best 217*) in 266 first-class matches

I expect that any player who has ever played the game has had a sample of six matches where for whatever reason they couldn't find a score. Even Don Bradman will have six quiet matches if we look hard enough for them. For Shafiq Ahmed, those six matches were his six Test matches, spread over seven years, four different stints in the team and four different batting positions. Shafiq was set up for failure in the manner that only a prolific Pakistani batter can be, and so it was that his stunning first-class record (an average of all but 50 with 53 centuries) was never replicated at Test level - but it absolutely would have been, if he'd just been treated better.

Aislabie's XI so far:
1. KC Ibrahim (1)
2. Ajay Jadeja (6)
3. Don Bradman (50)
4. "Stork" Hendry (10)
5. Shafiq Ahmed (0)
6. Callum Ferguson (0)
7. Godfrey Evans (0)
8. Ashley Giles (10)
9. Brett Lee (20)
10. Jeetan Patel (3)
11. Mohammad Sami (0)
0 points remaining

@Welwyn

 

[Aislabie]

Young Jack Hearne for 8 points

Also, I missed this previously, but you've hunted an unbelievable bargain.

Hearne racked up 37,252 first-class runs @ 40.98 (96 centuries, best 285*) and 1,839 first-class wickets @ 24.42 (107 5WI, best 9/61). Either of those statlines on their own would make a player a borderline automatic selection in this draft.