Story Brendon vs Callum vs Jono - A Worcestershire Battle

[Varun]

:laugh Daryl *filnghead* Mitchell, a pure legend.

 

[TDTF]

Daryl Mitchell's got a new nickname, and that's "flinghead", after being on very aggressive and scoring 43 runs off 56 balls, as well as running out our best batsman Steven Smith.

LOL

 

[CG123]

I'm really not, he hasn't clicked for a long time in any form of cricket and to me he is well past it with the bat. If your going to play him then you should only play him as a specialist spinner. I was surprised you guys actually went with him for so long after he just couldn't perform.

I've only been playing him because Jaques has been injured in my game for several weeks, I think he's due back in the next few days however.

I would expect you guys to be experimenting a little bit more, but I can also understand what a struggle it is to get it going with the touted worst team in the country. I will try and give you a run down on who I think you guys should be playing if you fancy a cheekay experiment. You guys probably have been using these players anyway but I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm doing it from CQ's squad.

I have no idea whether you've had any experience with ICC, but pretty much when players don't play for the "1st team", they play for the "2nd team", which you don't control. From this you can normally see what players are worth playing, and what players aren't.

Sure fire players;
I would say that all of Vikram Solanki, Moeen Ali, Alex Kervezee are your sure fire batsman, with Jaques to play when Shakib isn't around. On the bowling side of things I would say people like Jack Shantry, Alan Richardson, Richard Jones and Matthew Mason.

Which leaves your line up looking something like;
1. Phil Jaques
2.
3. Moeen Ali
4. Vikram Solanki (wk)
5. Alex Kervezee.
6.
7.
8. Jack Shantry
9. Alan Richardson
10. Richard Jones
11. Matthew Mason

Because the game is based on players FC averages, Shantry and Jones are rated pretty bad, while someone like Arif is rated a lot better than them. All three havn't play a lot of cricket, so I guess it just comes down to when the game was put out, as to how much they're averaging at that time. Also Arif has a decent batting ratting in the game, so is very handy down at eight.

which leaves you with 3 spaces in the line up, I would say for an all rounder, a lower order batsman and a opening batsman. There is a reason why I have moved Solanki down the order, as he really doesn't seem to be doing well for you guys. And I also gave him the keeping job cos you hated Ben Cox. . You could always play Cox at 7 if you fancied it with an all rounder above him.

In the T20 stuff Solanki has really been my only decent batsmen, and with Jaques injured I really haven't had too many options for who to open with.

But the players I think you should experiment with are; Jack Manuel, Ben Cox and anyone of Smith, Pardoe, Pinner and Mitchell. Jack Manuel is a pretty good talent and you would have to let Cox bat down the order but it does leave you with batting down to about 7 before the tail starts.

I've been playing Mitchell and Smith in most of my matches, as they are two of the higher rated batsmen in the team. Manuel is a real mixed bag, sometimes he does great, while other times he's a real fail. Pardoe, Pinner and Cox all have terrible 2nd team averages.

Also thinking back, it's probably better off play Al Hasan then Jaques if you get the chance as he provides the best A/R option, but if he wasn't playing I'd look at Wheeldon or Cameron. Wheeldon doesn't actually seem to be an A/R in real life but he would provide some form of spin with back up from Ali.

I was actually using Wheeldon a bit, but then he got got injured for nine weeks, and is still out for another few ATM. In my next T20 match I'm actually going to try opening with Cameron, as he's aggressive stance, so that should be a bit of fun.

So two line ups we can look at, one with Jaques and one with Shakib. IMO the one with Shakib will be a better all round line, whereas the one with Jaques will be a bit weak in the all round department.

With Jaques.
1. Phil Jaques
2. Jack Manuel
3. Moeen Ali
4. Vikram Solanki
5. Alex Kervezee
6. Wheeldon/Cameron
7. Ben Cox
8. Jack Shantry
9. Alan Richardson
10. Richard Jones
11. Matthew Mason

With Shakib Al Hasan
1. Jack Manuel
2. Solanki/Al Hasan
3. Moeen Ali
4. Solanki/Al Hasan
5. Alex Kerveze
6. Smith/Pinner/Pardoe/Mitchell.
7. Cox (wk)
8. Shantry
9. Richardson
10. Jones
11. Mason

Shakib's never done good for me this season, while Jaques proved to be match winner. I've said a few times I go a lot better when I have Jaques, because his FC batting average of over 50 means he's rated very highly in the game.

That gives you a couple of options to look at, you could bat Al Hasan at 2 and see how he goes, but it's risky as he would be your best batsman and if he gets out early you haven't got that stability to come in the middle order, but he could also steady the ship up at the top. Personally I prefer the Shakib Al Hasan line up as he offers you the better A/R option. You could fiddle with that line up and look at Moeen Ali opening and then moving Solanki down to 5 or 6 and Al Hasan at 4.

1. Jack Manuel
2. Moeen Ali
3. Smtih/Pinner/Pardoe/Mitchell
4. Kervezee
5. Al Hasan
6. Solanki.

You can really float that role of Smith/Pinner/Pardoe Mitchell as the extra batsman.

I think I actually found a decent FC line-up, it's just for the T20 stuff that I may really need to do some experimenting. Shakib and Smith are now both away on international duty, so it will mean we're really going to struggle in our next few T20 games.

I haven't really looked back and seen how you guys have been playing it but I just wrote this off my opinions and maybe it might help you a bit.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts.
As I said above I have little idea whether your basing your thoughts on RL, or on ICC, or a mixture, but I'll definitely look into some of what you said.

Also at the end of the T20 stuff we do get one or two youth regens, so hopefully one of them is a real gun for me.

 

[Chewie]

I didn't think about that (getting regens)

Since I felt this would only be going for one season I reduced all my youth team investment so I could hire someone/get more coach and physio.

I reckon for the second season we should play with an Australian team?

 

[CG123]

Yeah, we'll wait to the end of this season.
It'd like to play a few matches next season, just to see who play the contract system the best.

 

[CG123]

Worcestershire vs Warwickshire
Twenty Over Cup - group match
18th June 2010​

Teams:

Worcestershire

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

Warwickshire

1. Jeet Raval
2. Darren Maddy
3. Tim Ambrose†
4. Jim Troughton
5. Varun Chopra
6. Ian Westwood*
7. Ant Botha
8. Neil Carter
9. Naqaash Tahir
10. Imran Tahir
11. Boyd Rankin

Toss:

Worcestershire won the toss, and chose to bowl first.

Match:

Warwickshire - 190 for 3 (20 overs)

Darren Maddy 68 (47)
Jeet Raval 56 (34)
Tim Ambrose 34* (24)

James Cameron 2-29 (4)
Moeen Ali 1-15 (1)

Worcestershire - 170 all out (19.5 overs)

Ben Smith 39 (24)
James Cameron 31 (29)
Shaaiq Choudhry 28 (20)
Moeen Ali 23 (14)
Alex Kervezee 21 (15)

Ant Botha 3-38 (4)
Neil Carter 2-22 (3)
Boyd Rankin 2-28 (3.5)

Result:

Warwickshire win by 20 runs

Points:

Warwickshire 2
Worcestershire 0

MOTM:

Jeet Raval (56 runs off 34 balls)

Reaction:

Another piece of ████ bowling effort, again we couldn't brake their opening partnership early on, and they went on to punish us. James Cameron was our only decent bowler, picking up two wickets, as well as having a decent economy rate.

Our batting effort was the same as usual, lots of starts, but no one managed to push on to a big score. Ben Smith was the stand out for us, with a very good cameo of 39.

Jaques is fit to play next match, even though he'll be on minimum fitness, I think I'll take the risk of playing him. James Cameron was decent with both bat and ball, as well as a few of our batsmen showing some decent signs.

 

[CG123]

Worcestershire vs Derbyshire
Twenty Over Cup - group match
21st June 2010​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Phil Jaques
2. Vikram Solanki*†
3. Alex Kervezee
4. Shaaiq Choudhry
5. Ben Smith
6. Moeen Ali
7. James Cameron
8. Imran Arif
9. Matthew Mason
10. Alan Richardson
11. Jack Shantry

Derbyshire

1. Wayne Madsen
2. Loots Bosman
3. Wes Durston
4. Greg Smith
5. John Sadler
6. Lee Goddard†
7. Jonathan Clare
8. Graham Wagg
9. Robin Peterson
10. Tim Groenewald
11. Charl Langeveldt

Toss:

Derbyshire won the toss, and chose to bowl first.

Match:

Worcestershire - 143 for 9 (20 overs)

James Cameron 29 (16)
Vikram Solanki 27 (21)
Phil Jaques 21 (25)

Graham Wagg 3-26 (4)
Jonathan Clare 2-33 (4)
Tim Groenewald 2-34 (4)

Derbyshire - 145 for 2 (18.1 overs)

Wayne Madsen 77* (63)
Wes Durston 34 (25)

Imran Arif 1-19 (4)
James Cameron 1-30 (4)

Result:

Derbyshire win by 8 wickets, with 11 balls remaining

Points:

Derbyshire 2
Worcestershire 0

MOTM:

Wayne Madsen (77 not out off 63 balls)

Reaction:

This season the amount of wickets our bowlers have taken per T20 match are; 5, 1, 8, 3, 2, 3, and now 2...

Our strike bowlers just aren't picking up any wickets in the first six overs, meaning their batsmen are playing a 14 over game where they can go ballistic.

Again we manage to post a half decent total, but with the standard of our bowling, we really need to be posting in excess of 160. We had a platform laid by our two openers, but our middle order failed to capitalize on this, and it was left to James Cameron to boost our total up.

Again only one or two of our bowlers were half decent, while everyone else took a hiding. James Cameron again impressed with his medium paces in the middle overs, and Imran Arif finally showed some of his potential in the T20 game.

Is all we can do again is continue to look forward, and hope that one day we put a complete team performance out on the park. At least now our number one T20 eleven is starting to take shape, with only really our fourth specialist bowler spot up for grabs.

 

[hedger_14]

21st June 2010
Worcestershire vs Warwickshire
Twenty Over Cup - Group Match​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Vikram Solanki*?
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Steven Smith
4. Jack Manuel
5. Sanath Jayasuriya
6. Alex Kervezee
7. Moeen Ali
8. Imran Arif
9. Gareth Andrew
10. Matthew Mason
11. Jack Shantry


Warwickshire

1. Darren Maddy
2. Ian Westwood*
3. Jonathan Trott
4. Rikki Clarke
5. Jim Troughton
6. Tim Ambrose?
7. Chris Woakes
8. J Ord
9. Naqaash Tahir
10. Imran Tahir
11. Boyd Rankin


Toss:

Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bat


Worcestershire - 137/5

Steven Smith 49 (40)
Daryl Mitchell 27 (20)

Rikki Clarke 2/17 (3)
Imran Tahir 1/20 (4)


Warwickshire - 138/1

Darren Maddy 77* (55)
Ian Westwood 39 (33)

Gareth Andrew 1/36 (4)


Warwickshire won by 9 wickets (with 19 balls remaining)


Points:

Warwickshire 2
Worcestershire 0


MOTM:

Darren Maddy (77* off 55 and 0/7 off 1 over)

 

[Chewie]

18th June 2010
Worcestershire vs Warwickshire
Twenty Over Cup - Group Match
​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Vikram Solanki *?
2. Steven Smith
3. Moeen Ali
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Imran Arif
6. Sanath Jayasuriya
7. Jack Manuel
8. Matthew Pardoe
9. David Wheeldon
10. Matthew Mason
11. Chris Russell


Warwickshire

1.Varun Chopra
2. Darren Maddy
3. Jonathan Trott
4. Rikki Clarke
5. Tim Ambrose?
6. Jim Troughton
7. Ian Westwood*
8. Ant Botha
9. Naqaash Tahir
10. Imran Tahir
11. Boyd Rankin
​

Don't have much time today. Same lineup as before.

A great match for us. We won the toss and bowled and Russell and Mason combined superbly to take 3 top order wickets. Wheeldon came on and took 2 wickets before Steven Smith took a hattrick!. They finished on 130/9, a chaseable total. Solanki and Smith got us off to a good start, and despite a number of wickets falling following Solanki, Smith took us to victory with a great 59(41), as we won by 4 wickets with 13 balls remaining.

Worcestershire win by 4 wickets
​

 

[CG123]

So Steven Smith gets selected for Australia in my game, but not in either or yours??? :confused:
I've had the worst run with injuries, and now this...

 

[Chewie]

21st June 2010
Worcestershire vs Derbyshire
Twenty Over Cup - Group Match
​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Vikram Solanki *?
2. Steven Smith
3. Sanath Jayasuriya
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Imran Arif
6. Moeen Ali
7. Jack Manuel
8. Matthew Pardoe
9. David Wheeldon
10. Matthew Mason
11. Chris Russell


Derbyshire

1. Wayne Madsen
2. Loots Bosman
3. Wes Durston
4. Greg Smith
5. John Sadler
6. Paul Borrington
7. Jonathan Clare
8. Graham Wagg
9. Tom Poynton
10. Tim Groenewald
11. Charl Langeveldt
​

Jayasuriya and Ali have swapped places. It seems we have finally learnt how to play T20s. Losing the toss and batting first we racked up 187/7 thanks to 56(38) from Jayasuriya and quickfire innings from Solanki and Manuel. A disciplined bowling attack from Mason, and wickets to Jayasuriya got us home, despite 74(40) from Madsen and 52(27) from Clare. We're on a roll.

Worcestershire win by 9 runs
​

Chewie added 0 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

So Steven Smith gets selected for Australia in my game, but not in either or yours??? :confused:
I've had the worst run with injuries, and now this...

Jaques has gone on international duty in mine but not Smith

 

[CG123]

Hmmm... I might bring Jayasuriya back after what he just done for you.
Both of you are starting to win, while I'm still stuck on the big "0".

 

[hedger_14]

Same with me. Jaques on duty, Smith not. I would rather have Jaques than Smith anyway.

 

[CG123]

I wouldn't, they're both more or less the same in batting, but you can use Smith as a bowler.

 

[Chewie]

I'd much rather have Smith, he's doing really well for me lately