Story Auckland Aces World Tour - Bangladeshi Tour Complete!!!

[CG123]

Pakistan vs Auckland Aces
Only five day match

Teams

Pakistan

1. Taufeeq Umar
2. Khurram Manzoor
3. Mohammad Yousuf*
4. Younis Khan
5. Misbah-ul-Haq
6. Kamran Akmal?
7. Mohammad Hafeez
8. Shahid Afridi
9. Umar Gul
10. Danish Kaneria
11. Mohammad Asif

Auckland Aces

1. Martin Guptill
2. Tim McIntosh (In for Kitchen)
3. Lou Vincent
4. Rob Nicol
5. Scott Styris
6. Reece Young? (In for Jones)
7. Gareth Hopkins*
8. Kyle Mills
9. Daryl Tuffey
10. Tarun Nethula (In for Hira)
11. Chris Martin (In for McKay)

Toss

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first.

My Thoughts

First Innings

After winning the toss and batting, the Pakistan top and middle order quickly got on top of our bowlers. Younis and Misbah were dominant as they piled on 179 for the fourth wicket, putting Pakistan well in control of the match. Our bowlers came back well to have them 294 for nine, but a 40 run last wicket stand between Kaneria and Asif broke our hearts. The wickets were shared between Martin, Tuffey and new boy Tarun Nethula, as Mills struggled to find any rhythm.

Second Innings

We needed a good start and we got just that, as Guptill and McIntosh put on 86 for the first wicket, but that was about all that went our way. Young and Mills fought hard down the order, but the Pakistani bowling quartet was just too on the money. We went into the second half of the game, with over an a hundred deficit to wipe off.

Third Innings

We made a strong start to have Pakistan in trouble at 18 for two, but it was the experience that came to Pakistan's rescue as Younis and Yousif put on 139 for the third wicket. We did however make light work of the Pakistani middle and lower order, and would head into the fourth innings needing an improbable 360 for victory.

Fourth Innings

Again we got the start we wanted, but yet again our middle order of Vincent, Nicol and Styris failed us. McIntosh continued to fight as he passed 50, and kept on going as wickets continued to fall at the other end. McIntosh would end the shining light in our poor batting effort, as he reached the magic ton. His 360 ball accolade lead him to a match high 114, and proved he was the Aces main man when it comes to the longer form of the game. Our bowlers tried their hardest to get us closer to the target, including a Chris Martin rampage which saw him blast 4 four's on his way to 20. In the end we finished 86 runs short, a gutsy effort none the less.

Post Match

The real difference between us and Pakistan were the middle orders. Pakistan's 3, 4 and 5 scored 349 runs between them at an average of 58, while our 3, 4 and 5 scored 48 runs between them at an average of eight. Younis Khan was awarded man of the match for his two half centuries, while Chris Martins seven wickets gave him the match high MVP points haul for us.

Short Scoreboard

Pakistan - 334 all out

Taufeeq Umar 7
Khurram Manzoor 46
Mohammad Yousuf 20
Younis Khan 68
Misbah-ul-Haq 102
Kamran Akmal 4
Mohammad Hafeez 3
Shahid Afridi 14
Umar Gul 9
Danish Kaneria 23
Mohammad Asif 21*

Kyle Mills 0-96
Chris Martin 4-81
Daryl Tuffey 2-57
Scott Styris 0-17
Tarun Nethula 3-75

Auckland Aces - 227 all out

Martin Guptill 56
Tim McIntosh 47
Lou Vincent 6
Rob Nicol 0
Scott Styris 14
Reece Young 31
Gareth Hopkins 23
Kyle Mills 36
Daryl Tuffey 0
Tarun Nethula 3*
Chris Martin 1

Mohammad Asif 2-69
Umar Gul 4-50
Danish Kaneria 3-48
Shahid Afridi 1-54

Pakistan - 252 all out
Taufeeq Umar 13
Khurram Manzoor 4
Mohammad Yousuf 63
Younis Khan 75
Misbah-ul-Haq 21
Kamran Akmal 6
Mohammad Hafeez 27
Shahid Afridi 5
Umar Gul 7
Danish Kaneria 14*
Mohammad Asif 8

Kyle Mills 3-76
Chris Martin 3-56
Daryl Tuffey 1-45
Tarun Nethula 2-57
Scott Styris 1-14

Auckland Aces - 273 all out

Martin Guptill 22
Tim McIntosh 114
Lou Vincent 9
Rob Nicol 15
Scott Styris 4
Reece Young 11
Gareth Hopkins 11
Kyle Mills 17
Daryl Tuffey 20
Tarun Nethula 22*
Chris Martin 20

Mohammad Asif 2-73
Umar Gul 3-76
Danish Kaneria 1-69
Shahid Afridi 4-50

Result

Pakistan win by 86 runs

Man of the Match: Younis Khan

MVP Points

Match MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Points
Chris Martin | 4 | 35 | 3 | 42
Tim McIntosh | 41 | 0 | 0 | 41
Tarun Nethula | 8 | 25 | 3 | 36
Kyle Mills | 10 | 15 | 3 | 28
Martin Guptill | 20 | 0 | 3 | 23
Scott Styris | 2 | 5 | 9 | 16
Daryl Tuffey | -1 | 15 | 0 | 14
Reece Young | 8 | 0 | 4 | 12
Gareth Hopkins | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9
Lou Vincent | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2
Rob Nicol | -7 | 0 | 0 | -7

Overall MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Wins | Played | Points | Average
Kyle Mills | 14 | 99 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 122 | 24.4
Scott Styris | 47 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 5 | 78 | 15.6
Lou Vincent | 70 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 76 | 15.2
Daryl Tuffey | 2 | 67 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 75 | 15
Chris Martin | 4 | 60 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 72 | 18
Martin Guptill | 40 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 5 | 61 | 12.2
Tim McIntosh | 41 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 50 | 16.7
Reece Young | 32 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 49 | 12.3
Lance Shaw | 6 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 14
Tarun Nethula | 8 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 37
Gareth Hopkins | 20 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 35 | 7
Rob Nicol | 24 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 33 | 6.6
Anaru Kitchen | 15 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 13
Roneel Hira | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 14
Andy McKay | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6
Richard Jones | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4

Photos

It was all Misbah-ul-Haq on the opening day, as his hundred led Pakistan to a commanding first innings total of 334.

A disappointed Younis Khan looks on, after twice not converting a fifty into a hundred.

Tarun Nethula made an impressive start to his world tour, as his leggies troubled the Pakistani batsmen.

Tim McIntosh was the only Auckland batsmen to show any fight, eventually falling for a match high 114.

 

[riz7khan12]

great batting from macintosh, pakistan were always going to be hard to beat on their home turf. Surprised at styris bowling efforts in the second innings, the conditions would suit his bowling.

 

[Varun]

Good bowling by Tarun Nethula. But it was surprising to see Taufeeq Umar playing for Pakistan again.

 

[Chewie]

Chris Martin 20

 

[blake]

Auckland cricket has certainly come a long way since

Match 3: Jeet Raval vs Scott Styris​

Next up was the wily Scott Styris taking on the enthuasiastic Jeet Raval, who had won in fine fashion last round to make it this far. The match would be a ladder match - the first person to set up a ladder in the middle of the ring, climb up the ladder and claim the belt would win. Except - this time, it was a large pie hanging from the ceiling - the winner would be rewarded with it, as well as an entrance to the next round.

Raval started well, dropping Styris to the mat with a gorilla press slam, and he followed it with a few nasty punches to the air near Styris' head, whilst Styris pretended to be hurt. Raval continued the momentum, choking Styris illegally for fifteen seconds before Rudi Koertzen realised what was going on. Styris, however, took the advantage from Raval's arguing with Koertzen, and slung him to the ground with a rugby tackle - nothing pretty about that. He then walked outside the ring, grabbing a ladder that was set up, and threw it into the ring, before sliding in himself. Styris thought about setting it up, but seeing Raval moving, he instead hit him in the head with it, and then set it up in the middle. He began to climb slowly up one side, a stupid mistake that wrestlers always make in ladder matches, and Raval recovered quickly and climbed up the other side. It was a true battle for the pie.. they both reached the top together, before exchanging blows.. hang on... what's this?!?? Styris lifts Raval on to his shoulders.. surely not.. ZOMG!!1!11!!1111!!!! HE JUST SUPLEXED HIM OUT OF THE RING! Styris just suplexed Raval out of the ring completely, over the top rope and all! Surely there must be a few broken bones after that encounter.. hang on a second! WHO'S THIS? JESSE RYDER JUST CLIMBED OVER THE BARRICADE... he slides into the ring, begins to climb slowly up the ladder.. and grabs the pie!! JESSE RYDER HAS WON THE PIE! NOW HE'S EATING IT! Well, that was to be expected, anyway.

Winner: ?

 

[CG123]

Auckland cricket has certainly come a long way since

Lol, I remember reading that, it was the only wrestling story I ever followed.

 

[hedger_14]

That was one great story. Anyway, hope you can do better in the ODI series.

 

[CG123]

Pakistan vs Auckland Aces
First one day match

Teams

Pakistan

1. Khurram Manzoor
2. Taufeeq Umar
3. Younis Khan
4. Mohammad Yousuf*
5. Misbah-ul-Haq
6. Kamran Akmal?
7. Shoaib Malik (In for Hafeez)
8. Shahid Afridi
9. Abdul Razzaq (In for Asif)
10. Mohammad Hussain (In for Kaneria)
11. Umar Gul

Auckland Aces

1. Martin Guptill
2. Anaru Kitchen (In for McIntosh)
3. Paul Hitchcock (In for Vincent)
4. Scott Styris
5. Richard Jones (In for Nicol)
6. Reece Young?
7. Gareth Hopkins*
8. Kyle Mills
9. Daryl Tuffey
10. Roneel Hira (In for Nethula)
11. Chris Martin

Team News

A massive blow for us on the eve of the first one day match saw Lou Vincent pull out of the series with a fracture. It is believed to be nothing serious, but he will be out of action for at least two weeks.
Due to this gaping hole in our top order, we were forced to send Paul Hitchcock up the order of his world tour debut.

Toss

Auckland Aces won the toss and chose to bowl first.

My Thoughts

First Innings

By far our most dominant bowling performance so far. Martin picked up Umar early, then when Hopkins brought on Tuffey in the tenth over he picked up two wickets in two balls. We were well on top of our more fancied opponents just a few overs later, as they limbered to 58 for five. Their middle and lower order came to their rescue, but our medium/slow bowling duo of Styris and Hira made sure the runs weren't flowing. Afridi who was really struggling to do anything with the bat ended up top scoring with 38 off 74 balls, while Martin and Tuffey both finished with three wickets apiece.

Second Innings

When our openers were walking out to the middle, I just got that feeling it was going to be one of those days. The plan was simple, keep wickets in hand, and head into the final ten overs with our batting powerplay plus only around 60 runs to get. That's exactly what we did. Guptill and Young were both well set, but the end turned a bit pear shaped for us. Hopkins was the only player in our lower order who could find the fence, as we finished an embarrassing 14 runs short when it was all looking so comfortable. Umar Gul was on top of his game, finishing with man of the match figures of 10 overs, four for 27. Martin Guptill was the only player in our top five who managed to get set in the middle and post a good score, everyone else seemed to struggle.

Post Match

With matches like these it's all about making sure we come out having learned more lessons than our opposition have. In hindsight we probably should of gone with an extra specialist batsman instead of Hitchcock, but we were not to know that Styris was going to bowl one of the spells of his life. I think it exposed a big hole in our lower order, as our 8, 9 and 10 all more than capable players with the blade struggled to find the fence when it was most dearly needed. The bowling unit that worked so well will probably be unchanged for the second one day match, but there are some big decisions to be made in our top and middle order.

Short Scoreboard

Pakistan - 182 for 8 (50 overs)

Khurram Manzoor 23 (40)
Taufeeq Umar 4 (3)
Younis Khan 22 (29)
Mohammad Yousuf 0 (1)
Misbah-ul-Haq 2 (7)
Kamran Akmal 34 (65)
Shoaib Malik 21 (34)
Shahid Afridi 38 (74)
Abdul Razzaq 28* (48)
Mohammad Hussain 3* (5)

Kyle Mills 0-38 (10)
Chris Martin 3-42 (10)
Daryl Tuffey 3-42 (10)
Roneel Hira 2-35 (10)
Scott Styris 0-13 (8)
Paul Hitchcock 0-11 (2)

Auckland Aces - 168 for 8 (50 overs)

Martin Guptill 79 (115)
Anaru Kitchen 2 (14)
Paul Hitchcock 0 (2)
Scott Styris 15 (30)
Richard Jones 2 (16)
Reece Young 42 (97)
Gareth Hopkins 21* (17)
Kyle Mills 2 (9)
Daryl Tuffey 0 (2)
Roneel Hira 1* (2)

Umar Gul 4-27 (10)
Abdul Razzaq 2-39 (10)
Mohammad Hussain 1-24 (10)
Shahid Afridi 1-47 (10)
Shoaib Malik 0-31 (10)

Result

Pakistan win by 14 runs

Man of the Match: Umar Gul

MVP Points

Match MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Points
Martin Guptill | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20
Chris Martin | 0 | 18 | 0 | 18
Roneel Hira | 2 | 15 | 0 | 17
Reece Young | 8 | 0 | 6 | 14
Daryl Tuffey | -5 | 18 | 0 | 13
Gareth Hopkins | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10
Scott Styris | 3 | 5 | 0 | 8
Anaru Kitchen | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3
Kyle Mills | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3
Richard Jones | 0 | 0 | 0| 0
Paul Hitchcock | -5 | 0 | 3 | -2

Overall MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Wins | Played | Points | Average
Kyle Mills | 14 | 102 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 126 | 21
Chris Martin | 4 | 78 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 91 | 18.2
Daryl Tuffey | -3 | 85 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 89 | 14.8
Scott Styris | 50 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 87 | 14.5
Martin Guptill | 60 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 82 | 13.7
Lou Vincent | 70 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 76 | 15.2
Reece Young | 40 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 64 | 12.8
Tim McIntosh | 41 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 50 | 16.7
Gareth Hopkins | 30 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 46 | 7.7
Lance Shaw | 6 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 14
Tarun Nethula | 8 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 37
Rob Nicol | 24 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 33 | 6.6
Roneel Hira | 2 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 16
Anaru Kitchen | 15 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 30 | 10
Andy McKay | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6
Richard Jones | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2.5
Paul Hitchcock | -5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | -1

Photos

Daryl Tuffey took two wickets in two balls, helping put Auckland well in control of the match.

Scott Styris took all the pace off the ball, getting through eight overs and only conceding 13 runs.

Man of the match Umar Gul is ecstatic, after picking up his forth Aces wicket.

 

[-D-S-B-]

OMG, Auckland choked!

So close, yet so far

The bowlers done awesome but it just seems Styris and Young batted too slow.

 

[riz7khan12]

cant blame styris he only faced 30 balls while young on the other hand :doh.

what a collapse!!

 

[-D-S-B-]

cant blame styris he only faced 30 balls while young on the other hand :doh.

what a collapse!!

I can and I will Bloody piggo :laugh

 

[CG123]

It was probably more my fault.
I should of tried to get ahead of the required run rate at first, but instead I let it drift up over six an over, and on ICC with that batting line-up it's almost impossible.
But we'll just blame it on Young, because we can. :sarcasm

 

[just_cricket]

Beauty of a write up there. Individually players are performing quite well but you can't seem to get them to all get going in the same game.
Organise some team building sessions like ND did (they are the best team!) where you have ruthless fitness sessions carrying packs of sand up hills and stuff. That'll get the team spirit going!

Kiu anyway...

 

[CG123]

Pakistan vs Auckland Aces
Second one day match

Teams

Pakistan

1. Khurram Manzoor
2. Taufeeq Umar
3. Younis Khan
4. Mohammad Yousuf*
5. Misbah-ul-Haq
6. Kamran Akmal?
7. Shoaib Malik
8. Shahid Afridi
9. Abdul Razzaq
10. Mohammad Hussain
11. Umar Gul

Auckland Aces

1. Martin Guptill
2. Anaru Kitchen
3. Rob Nicol (In for Hitchcock)
4. Scott Styris
5. Andrew de Boorder (In for Jones)
6. Reece Young?
7. Gareth Hopkins*
8. Kyle Mills
9. Daryl Tuffey
10. Roneel Hira
11. Chris Martin

Toss

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first.

My Thoughts

First Innings

We started alright, but the Manzoor/Younis partnership pretty much won them the game before we had even batted. However their run rate was only around 4.5, but that changed when Misbah, Akmal and Malik all went ballistic towards the end of their innings. If I remember rightly Hira's last two overs cost around 20 runs, Styris' last over cost around 15 runs, while Martin and Tuffey both got smacked towards the end of their spells as well. Mills was are only decent bowler on the day, and not having a full sixth bowler really cost us. I was reluctant to go to Nicol, as I felt his offies would just get taken apart.

Second Innings

Our innings was really all about Guptill as first, but when he got out I though we were going to struggle to get to 200. Andrew de Boorder the new boy on the block had other ideas, as he played a steady hand of 82 propelling is up to a respectable 231. After having a go at Mills last game for not giving the ball a wack at the end, he repaid me with a pretty much run a ball 21. Afridi done most of the damage this time for the Pakistani's, taking two for 33 off his ten overs.

Post Match

To be honest I'm not to sure how we should go about braking up the Pakistani spin trio, it seems they have quite a tight grip on this one day series. We have proven in both these one day games that we can compete with a good Pakistani team in one discipline, but it is now just about getting us up to a level where we can consistently preform with both the bat and the ball in the same match. We have a core group of about seven players who are all Blackcaps, so also a priority is getting those last three guys in our playing XI up to international standard. Our main target now is the Bangladeshi series up next, so the next one day match will all be about preparing for that.

Short Scoreboard

Pakistan - 285 for 5 (50 overs)

Khurram Manzoor 94 (125)
Taufeeq Umar 8 (10)
Younis Khan 89 (103)
Mohammad Yousuf 7 (7)
Misbah-ul-Haq 19 (15)
Kamran Akmal 39* (26)
Shoaib Malik 26* (17)

Kyle Mills 2-39 (10)
Chris Martin 0-64 (10)
Daryl Tuffey 1-63 (10)
Roneel Hira 0-51 (10)
Scott Styris 2-68 (10)

Auckland Aces - 231 for 7 (50 overs)

Martin Guptill 50 (56)
Anaru Kitchen 3 (10)
Rob Nicol 10 (15)
Scott Styris 21 (30)
Andrew de Boorder 82 (101)
Reece Young 32 (46)
Gareth Hopkins 5 (18)
Kyle Mills 21* (23)
Daryl Tuffey 2* (6)

Umar Gul 1-45 (10)
Abdul Razzaq 1-59 (10)
Mohammad Hussain 1-46 (10)
Shahid Afridi 2-33 (10)
Shoaib Malik 2-48 (10)

Result

Pakistan win by 54 runs

Man of the Match: Khurram Manzoor

MVP Points

Match MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Points
Andrew de Boorder | 23 | 0 | 0 | 23
Kyle Mills | 8 | 13 | 0 | 21
Martin Guptill | 17 | 0 | 0 | 17
Scott Styris | 5 | 5 | 6 | 16
Reece Young | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6
Daryl Tuffey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2
Rob Nicol | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2
Gareth Hopkins | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1
Roneel Hira | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Anaru Kitchen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Chris Martin | 0 | -5 | 0 | -5

Overall MVP Points

Player | Batting | Bowling | Fielding | Wins | Played | Points | Average
Kyle Mills | 22 | 115 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 148 | 21.1
Scott Styris | 55 | 20 | 21 | 1 | 7 | 104 | 14.9
Martin Guptill | 77 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 7 | 100 | 14.3
Daryl Tuffey | -1 | 85 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 92 | 13.1
Chris Martin | 4 | 73 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 87 | 14.5
Lou Vincent | 70 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 76 | 15.2
Reece Young | 46 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 6 | 71 | 11.8
Tim McIntosh | 41 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 50 | 16.7
Gareth Hopkins | 31 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 48 | 6.9
Lance Shaw | 6 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 14
Tarun Nethula | 8 | 25 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 37
Rob Nicol | 26 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 36 | 6
Roneel Hira | 2 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 33 | 11
Anaru Kitchen | 15 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 31 | 7.8
Andrew de Boorder | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 24
Andy McKay | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6
Richard Jones | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2.5
Paul Hitchcock | -5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1 | -1

Photos

Man of the match Khurram Manzoor was pretty happy with his half century.

Younis Khan was brutal, as he hit 12 fours and 1 six on his way to 89.

Andrew de Boorder in action, playing a lone hand for the Aces on his way to 82.

 

[Aditya]

Just had a look at the few updates of this story and to be honest you are doing quite well CG. I am liking the presentation not messed up and well done. Writing is really good and the whole idea of this story is really good. keep it up mate.

Manzoor and Younis partnership was really good for Pakistan. 285 was a good score. Guptill played well for Auckland. Boorder in the middle order was brilliant but not enough for Auckland to win the match. Good performance from the Pakistani bowlers specially Afridi. In the end an easy win for Pakistan.