Story Brendon vs Callum vs Jono - A Worcestershire Battle

[CG123]

Worcestershire vs Northamptonshire
Twenty Over Cup - group match
11th June 2010​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Sanath Jayasuriya
2. Vikram Solanki*?
3. Alex Kervezee
4. Steven Smith
5. Ben Smith
6. Moeen Ali
7. Jack Manuel
8. James Cameron
9. Imran Arif
10. Matthew Mason
11. Alan Richardson

Northamptonshire

1. Mal Loye
2. Niall O'Brien?
3. David Sales
4. Andrew Hall*
5. Lou Vincent
6. Rob White
7. Nicky Boje
8. Chaminda Vaas
9. James Middlebrook
10. David Lucas
11. Lee Daggett

Toss:

Worcestershire won the toss, and chose to bat first.

Match:

Worcestershire - 149 for 7 (20 overs)

Steven Smith 73* (52)
Vikram Solanki 32 (21)

James Middlebrook 3-27 (4)

Northamptonshire - 151 for 3 (18.5 overs)

Niall O'Brien 77* (60)
Mal Loye 53 (35)

Steven Smith 2-41 (4)

Result:

Northamptonshire win by 7 wickets, with 7 balls remaining

Points:

Northamptonshire 2
Worcestershire 0

MOTM:

Niall O'Brien (77 not out off 60 balls, plus one catch and one stumping)

Reaction:

Another match we didn't get wasted in, but again we didn't manage to win. Our innings was again built around Steven Smith and Vikram Solanki, as we managed to score a decent 149.

Yet again our bowlers were not great at all, as their openers took the match away from us. Richardson and Jayasuriya both bowled their four overs for 26 runs, but the likes of Smith and Arif were again very disappointing.

James Cameron made one of the worst debuts for an all-rounder in a while, getting out for a golden duck and not getting a bowl.

As expected we are now the only team without a win, and 2/3 of the teams with just one win have beaten us.

 

[Varun]

Wow! None of the 7 matches won! The bowling is just crap!:laugh

 

[Ollie_H]

Holy ████, who's Alex Hales?

Hales is an absolutely fantastic up-coming batsman for England. Certainly one for the future. He opens in every form of the game for Notts and even though he isn't actually an opener he does incredibly well. He will play for England at some point.

He is a pretty tall strong bloke who looks to play down the ground.

Jack Manuel is another one for the future though, plays for the England Under 19's made a 70 odd the other day against Sri Lanka in their little U19 series.

 

[CG123]

Pretty much my knowledge of English cricket is most players who've played for England at the highest level, all Worcestershire players because of this, and all Lancashire players before they're my favourite county.
I'm guessing he had to be someone good because of that score, but pretty much I hadn't heard of him because he hadn't played for England at the highest level.

 

[Biggy]

I would get it if you dont have it. But everyone has different conditions Jobs/studies etc.

Pretty much my knowledge of English cricket is most players who've played for England at the highest level, all Worcestershire players because of this, and all Lancashire players before they're my favourite county.
I'm guessing he had to be someone good because of that score, but pretty much I hadn't heard of him because he hadn't played for England at the highest level.

Callum's source of knowledge on Cricket players:

New Zealanders
High profile International players
Players who perform well on ICC

 

[Chewie]

Callum's source of knowledge on Cricket players:

New Zealanders
High profile International players
Players who perform well on ICC

lol that basically is it. A very accurate representation

 

[CG123]

Callum's source of knowledge on Cricket players:

New Zealanders
High profile International players
Players who perform well on ICC

That's more or less it.

I'd say I know 90%-95% of players who've played international cricket in the last few years, not just high profile players.
I know 95%-99% of New Zealanders who've played domestic cricket over the last few years.
And I know a bit about Eng domestic players and Aus domestic players because of ICC, as well as players who're overrated in ICC.

 

[hedger_14]

11th June 2010
Worcestershire vs Northamptonshire
Twenty Over Cup - group match​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Phil Jaques
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Vikram Solanki*?
4. Jack Manuel
5. Steven Smith
6. Shaaiq Choudry
7. David Wheeldon
8. Imran Arif
9. Gareth Andrew
10. Matthew Mason
11. Jack Shantry


Northamptonshire

1. Niall O'Brien?
2. Stephen Peters
3. David Sales
4. Andrew Hall*
5. Lou Vincent
6. Rob White
7. Nicky Boje
8. Chaminda Vaas
9. David Lucas
10. Lee Daggett
11. Jack Brooks


Toss:

Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bat first


Worcestershire - 141/5

Vikram Solanki 60 (45)
Phil Jaques 36 (26)

Jack Brooks 3/30 (4)
Chaminda Vaas 1/17 (4)


Northamptonshire - 118 all out

Niall O'Brien 46 (29)
David Sales 23 (28)

Steven Smith 4/14 (2.3)
Jack Shantry 2/23 (4)


Worcestershire won by 23 runs


Points:

Worcestershire 2
Northamptonshire 0


MOTM:

Steven Smith (15* off 14 and 4/14 off 2.3 overs)


Comments:

Great performance. Batted well, with Solanki finding some T20 form, while Jaques bats well again. Our bowlers were good, especially Steven Smith who took 2 wickets in his first 2 balls, of Sales and White and then the last 2 wickets in his last 2 balls of his innings. Shantry and Andrew impressed with 2 wickets each, and both having an ER of less than 7 an over. Wheeldon was the only poor bowler who bowled the one over, conceding 12 runs.

 

[CG123]

Nice win there.

For my next match I'm going to drop Jayasuriya down to seven and play him as a bowling AR, as his batting is just such a fail. In contrast Smith is terrible with the ball for me, so I can only really play him as a 6th bowling option, meaning I have to play four bowlers, plus Jayasuriya and Smith. I don't actually think I've been all out yet, it's just my bowlers are so budget, especially my 4th and 5th options.

Are you playing a second game today, hence shall I post a game today?

 

[Chewie]

I've nearly done my essay so I'll play my games after that.

By any chance did you play Manuel after Ollie said he was a good prospect?

 

[CG123]

So shall I play a second game today?

 

[Chewie]

Yea may as well

 

[hedger_14]

I don't know. If you both want to play another match today, I will but if not, just wait for tomorrow.

hedger_14 added 0 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

And no. I had been playing him pretty regularly.

hedger_14 added 1 Minutes and 1 Seconds later...

I didn't make any changes for that last match other than Shantry in for Richardson as Manuel had batted at #4 in the previous match.

 

[Chewie]

11th June 2010
Worcestershire vs Northamptonshire
Twenty Over Cup - Group Match
​

Playing XI’s

Worcestershire

1. Vikram Solanki *†
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
3. Moeen Ali
4. Steven Smith
5. Imran Arif
6. Alex Kervezee
7. Jack Manuel
8. Shaaiq Choudhry
9. Matthew Mason
10. Alan Richardson
11. Chris Russell


Northamptonshire

1. Mal Loye
2. Stephen Peters
3. David Sales
4. Andrew Hall*
5. Lou Vincent
6. Nicky Boje
7. Rob White
8. Chaminda Vaas
9. Paul Harrison †
10. James Middlebrook
11. David Lucas
​

Jack Manuel comes in for Daryl Mitchell who had been having a torrid time at the top of the order. Solanki goes up to open instead. Northamptonshire is not too strong a team, so I felt we had a chance going into this match. They have a really screwed up lineup too

Lost my fourth toss on the trot and was put into bat. Jayasuriya was out in the first over, which puts pressure on his position in the team. Ali was then out on the last over having hit Hall for four the ball before. Vaas struck first ball to have Solanki out LBW. Arif was then caught at first slip by Vincent, and we were in trouble at 15/4. Kervezee didn't last long, and it was up to Manuel on T20 debut to provide some stability. Manuel and Smith combined well, finding the gaps and picking up singles to rotate the strike. Manuel played well before finally being stumped off Middlebrook for 34(36). He had helped stabilise the innings after the early fall of wickets, and hopefully we could build towards a semi-decent total of 120. Smith had reached his half century, but attempting to push for a good score, he was caught behind to a good diving catch on 61(53). We eventually made 124/9 from our allotted 20 overs.

It appeared that Northamptonshire wanted to increase their NRR as much as possible, as the first over was hit for 18 runs. Mal Loye was incredibly fluent in playing his shots, but the same couldn't be said about Peters. he top edged a pull shot to be caught out for 3(7), while Loye was on 34 at the other end. Smith managed the next breakthrough to have Sales out LBW, but they only needed 51 from 10 overs at this point. Bringing Jayasuriya in for a bowl proved a good move, as Hall was out for 1. Loye was still strong at the other end however and he closed out the game for Northamptonshire, finishing on 76(56) as they won by 7 wickets with 7 balls remaining.

Smith showed good form with the bat, and Manuel impressed on debut, but apart from that there were no standout performances anywhere.

Northamptonshire win by 7 wickets
​

 

[CG123]

Mal Loye hit the first over in my match for 16, which is similar to how your first over went.

I probably will play a game sometime this evening.