Story Brendon vs Callum vs Jono - A Worcestershire Battle

[Chewie]

4th May 2011
Worcestershire vs Yorkshire
County Championship -D2​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Vic Kelly
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Vikram Solanki
4. Niall O'Brien
5. Alex Kervezee
6. Tony Stack
7. David Wheeldon
8. Alan Richardson
9. Chanaka Komasaru
10. Steven Finn
11. Boyd Rankin


Yorkshire

1. Jacques Rudolph
2. Andrew Gale
3. Jonathan Bairstow
4. David Wainwright
5. Adil Rashid
6. Richard Kenworth
7. Ajmal Shahzad
8. Adam Lyth
9. Tim Bresnan
10. Steven Patterson
11. Oliver Hannon-Dalby

Yorkshire win by 3 wickets
​

A first innings collapse put us behind, and we never really recovered, despite a spirited second innings performance. Solanki played a lone hand at the top of the order, while the rest of the batting fell to pieces around him, thanks to some good bowling from Bresnan and the spinners. On a spinning pitch, I backed Komasaru to bowl just as well as Wainwright and Rashid and he responded with a six-for, but not before they had overtaken our first innings total by nearly 100 runs. Mitchell was dismissed for a duck, but half centuries from 4 of the top 5 had us off to a good start, and we looked like setting a decent total for Yorkshire to chase. Wheeldon and Richardson provided some resistance down the order, as we made our way to 383, giving them 292 to chase in one day. Despite a number of early breakthroughs, Rudolph and later Kenworthy steadied the chase, with an aggressive knock by Shahzad eventually getting them over the line. It was dissapointing to see that despite the pitch being excellent for spin, Komasaru and Wheeldon only managed 2 wickets between them in the fourth innings - it would appear that they spin the ball as much as Vettori, who is known for not being able to bowl out sides in the fourth innings. We gained a measly 3 points from this match, due to our shocking batting effort, and currently sit second bottom on the table, above the recently relegated Somerset, who have less points despite having a game in hand.
​

 

[Chewie]

9th May 2011
Worcestershire vs Yorkshire
Challenge Trophy - Group Match​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Vic Kelly
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Vikram Solanki *
4. Niall O'Brien +
5. Alex Kervezee
6. Tony Stack
7. David Wheeldon
8. Alan Richardson
9. Chanaka Komasaru
10. Steven Finn
11. Boyd Rankin


Yorkshire

1. Jacques Rudolph
2. Andrew Gale
3. Jonathan Bairstow
4. Anthony McGrath
5. Richard Kenworthy
6. David Wainwright
7. Adil Rashid
8. Adam Lyth
9. Ajmal Shahzad
10. Tim Bresnan
11. Steven Patterson

Yorkshire win by 2 runs
​

We just ruined our best shot of winning a OD match, losing by 2 runs. Bowling first, Richardson made a couple of early breakthroughs, but despite this Bairstow was smacking the ball to all ends of the ground, taking a particular liking to Finn and Wheeldon. Rashid finished the innings perfectly for them with a sparkling half century, and with a required run rate of over 6.5, it looked like we were out of the match before we had even had a turn to bat. Kelly wasn't standing for any of that though, hitting a very aggressive 60 off just 38 balls before being run out, while Mitchell played a comparatively patient role, with a run a ball 72 anchoring the innings perfectly from the top. Solanki played well for his 44, and we had the perfect launching point to win the match. The middle order had other plans however, with O'Brien and Kervezee not making much, leaving it down to Stack and the tail. Unfortunately, Stack couldn't get the support he required, finishing not out on 30 off 22, after needing 8 in the last over. He only managed a four and a single for us to lose a very narrow match.

​

 

[CG123]

Your bowlers are somehow performing worse than mine.

 

[hedger_14]

Unlucky there. Only 2 runs in it. High scoring match though.

 

[hedger_14]

Ok, so Callum and I have played 6 FC games and 3 OD games and Jono's played 5 FC games and 4 OD games. So we're all fine to post our next matches now?

Also, you still need to update my last FC match (10th May vs Middlesex) and of course Jono's latest match.

 

[CG123]

Ok, so Callum and I have played 6 FC games and 3 OD games and Jono's played 5 FC games and 4 OD games. So we're all fine to post our next matches now?

Yeah, I'll probably post my next match later tonight.

Also, you still need to update my last FC match (10th May vs Middlesex) and of course Jono's latest match.

Done.

 

[hedger_14]

16th May 2011
Worcestershire vs Surrey
Challenge Trophy - Group Match​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Stephen Moore
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Alex Kervezee*
4. Shaaiq Choudhry
5. Julian Stafford
6. David Wheeldon
7. Stuart Adler?
8. Calvin Flowers
9. Imran Arif
10. Chris Russell
11. Jack Shantry


Surrey

1. Phil Hughes - Oh ████
2. Steve Davies?
3. Usman Afzaal
4. Nick Poole
5. Rory Hamilton-Brown
6. Michael Brown
7. Chris Schofield
8. Gareth Batty
9. Jade Dernbach
10. Chris Tremlett
11. Andre Nel


Toss:

Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl first


Worcestershire - 220/3

Shaaiq Choudhry 80* (70)
Daryl Mitchell 48 (61)

Jade Dernbach 2/67 (8)


Surrey - 185 all out

Rory Hamilton-Brown 48 (42)
Nick Poole 42 (41)

David Wheeldon 4/37 (8)
Imran Arif 3/41 (6.1)


Worcestershire won by 35 runs


MOTM:

David Wheeldon (4/37 off 8 overs)


Points:

Worcestershire 2
Surrey 0


Comments:

Another great win there thanks to some nice bowling from David Wheeldon. Batting first, everybody made a score as we posted a reasonable total of 220/3, Moore 25, Mitchell 48, Kervezee 36, Choudhry 80* and Stafford 24*. We needed to get Phil Hughes out early and Arif did his job, getting him out for 4 in the first over. Arif then struck again with the wicket of Afzaal before Poole and Davies got Surrey back into it but Wheeldon took both key wickets. Hamilton-Brown and Brown both fell to Wheeldon who ended up taking 4/37. Kervezee was decent with the ball bowling 5 overs for 1/13 while Flowers was completely outbowled by Wheeldon as he only took 2/53 from his 8 overs. Arif took the final wicket to finish with figures of 3/51 as we won by 35 runs. Hopefully we could continue this golden run of form.


Callum, here are my points if you wanted them:

FC: 5 games, 4 wins, 1 draw, 17 Bat, 15 Bowl, 99 points
OD: 4 games, 3 wins, 1 loss, 6 points

 

[CG123]

How are you doing so good?

Can you give me a basic rundown of your tactics for FC and OD?

 

[Chewie]

How is Wheeldon doing so well for you? He just gets completely smacked around in OD matches for me this season going at over 6 an over. And Phil Hughes has been nerfed slightly in this version compared to last year so it's not something to be hugely afraid of

 

[CG123]

How is Wheeldon doing so well for you? He just gets completely smacked around in OD matches for me this season going at over 6 an over.

Same here, that's why I'm wondering what tactics he uses.

 

[Chewie]

10th May 2011
Worcestershire vs Sussex
County Championship -D2​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Vic Kelly
2. Daryl Mitchell
3. Vikram Solanki
4. Niall O'Brien
5. Alex Kervezee
6. Hugh Lucas
7. David Wheeldon
8. Alan Richardson
9. Chanaka Komasaru
10. Steven Finn
11. Boyd Rankin


Sussex

1. Christopher Nash
2. Michael Thornely
3. Ed Joyce
4. Michael Yardy
5. Murray Goodwin
6. Gary Holroyd
7. Andy Hodd
8. Murtaza Hussain
9. Ragheb Aga
10. Makhaya Ntini
11. James Anyon

Match Drawn
​

A game characterised by slow scoring and rain breaks came to a tame conclusion with the Sussex batsman seeing out the final session of the match safely. Put into bat, Kelly departed early for a duck, but Mitchell and Solanki combined well, before O'Brien came to the crease and looked imperious in scoring a century. However, the rest of the lineup couldn't support him, and we folded for 300. It was hard to make breakthroughs initially in Sussex's first innings, but once Nash, Joyce and Goodwin were dismissed, it was relatively easy to get the rest of the batsmen out, with Komasaru continuing his good form. It would appear that the batting conditions improved greatly for the second innings, as Mitchell, Solanki and O'Brien batted well without any problems. On this sort of pitch there's not much point going for the win, but I declared anyway and managed to take one wicket. I got 7 points and Sussex got 9

​

 

[hedger_14]

He has 2 good bowling performances and then you reckon he's gone good all season. Let's go back and note all of his bowling performances.

First FC game - 1/28 (10) and 0/44 (10)
Second FC game - 1/32 (8) and 0/20 (7)
Didn't play Uni match
First OD game 1/47 (8)
Third FC game - 2/67 (15.2) and DNB
Second OD game - 0/29 (3)
Third OD game 1/51 (7)
Fourth FC game - 0/55 (11) and 0/18 (5)
Fifth FC game - 4/48 (17) and 0/25 (6)
Fourth OD game 4/37 (8)

So he's taken 2 4wi and 1 2wi and the rest he's taken either 1 or 0 wickets so I wouldn't say he's been that great.

Well I think I've been pretty lucky but here's my tactics.

For FC when batting, normally I start by putting my 2 openers on 2 bars and look to just play out as much as possible, I don't move them up at all and depending on how they play, it depends on how the rest of the order. If one gets out early, normally I'll set Kervezee to defend to start off with and work his aggression up once we get back into the game but if the 2 openers do well (100 run opening partnership or so) then normally I'll start the next batsman on 2 bars and work up to 3 and finally 4 once they get about 30 and 75% settled. Bowling wise, I start off with about 15 overs of pace, then bowl Flowers who rips through them and rotate the pace bowlers and Wheeldon at the other end. Normally I bring on Wheeldon/Kervezee if Flowers is tired. And I normally use spinners from overs 70-80 to rest my pace bowlers for the new ball. Second innings, it will always depend on the situation. I normally just keep my bowlers on the same aggression the whole innings as I find full aggression fields barely ever get me wickets.

For One Day matches (saying we're batting first), I have an aggressive opener (Moore) and a defensive opener (Mitchell). Mitchell normally scores pretty quickly anyway, 103 SR last season and 92 this season. I normally put Moore on 6 bars and Mitchell on 4 or 5 depending on the bowling attack. (I'm not great at playing spinners so I'll attack the pace bowlers more if they have 2 or 3 spinners - That's why I hate playing Sri Lanka). If Moore passes around 35 and going at a decent SR and Mitchell is still with him, I will move him up to 7 bars (as far as I will ever go) while I slowly move Mitchell's up (normally 7 bars by 60 if he gets there). I start new batsman on about 5 bars normally. Normally I go at about 5.5-7 runs per over for the first 20 overs and I find that how well I do against the spinners will prove the difference between a total of 200 and 250. Normally I don't bother changing the aggression (stay on 5 or 6 bars) for spinners and just hope to play them off while scoring at around 4-5 an over. When new batsman come in with spinners at both ends, I normally put them on 4 bars and work it up slowly and to about 6 when the spinners come off. Regarding powerplays, I normally use it when there's at least 1 pace bowler bowling and I have 2 set batsman at the crease (normally between the 20 over mark and the end of the innings). I'll never use it when both batsman have only 2 men outside the circle as the powerplay won't do anything and if one batsman is running out of partners, I'll use it to add some quick runs before I get bowled out. With bowling, I never open with spinners normally bowl my pace bowlers between 3 and 5 overs (normally bowl Shantry and Rankin first) and if they bowl a bad over between them amount of overs, then I'll take them off unless they've bowled like 3 maidens and then go for about 10. Normally I bowl Arif as first change if I've already taken a wicket or two and then Flowers from the other end (unless there hasn't been any wickets in which case I'll bowl him first). Wheeldon will normally come on after about 20 overs and who he replaces really depends on the situations. If I'm defending a low target, I normally bowl Flowers a bit earlier and bowl him out and then bring the pace bowlers back on to hopefully do some damage at the end.


Sorry about how long that was.

 

[CG123]

TBH that's pretty much the same as me.

BTW I played my next match before I read that, you'll see why I said that when I post it in 15 - 20 minutes.

 

[hedger_14]

let me guess, you opened with a spinner?

 

[CG123]

Worcestershire vs Unicorns
Challenge Trophy - group match
16th May 2011​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Jeet Raval
2. Daryl Mitchell*
3. Vikram Solanki
4. Alan Darbon
5. Alex Kervezee
6. Luke Wright
7. Jeff Ingram†
8. Imran Arif
9. Mark Davies
10. Dewald Nel
11. Monty Panesar

Unicorns

1. Michael O'Shea
2. Duncan Snell
3. Zoheb Sharif
4. Chris Murtagh
5. Josh Knappett†
6. Jackson Thompson
7. Mark Hardinges
8. Tom Mees
9. Dave Burton
10. Chris Peploe
11. Carl Greenidge

Toss:

Worcestershire won the toss, and chose to bowl first.

Match:

Unicorns - 153 all out (34.1 overs)

Michael O'Shea 46 (62)
Zoheb Sharif 41 (51)

Monty Panesar 4-32 (8)
Mark Davies 3-28 (6.1)
Luke Wright 2-40 (8)

Worcestershire - 154 for 0 (22.2 overs)

Daryl Mitchell 95* (83)
Jeet Raval 48* (55)

Result:

Worcestershire win by 10 wickets, with 106 balls remaining

Points:

Worcestershire 2
Unicorns 0

MOTM:

Monty Panesar (4 for 32 off 8 overs)

Reaction:

I think the scorecard sums up the match, we obliterated them.

Monty tore their middle order apart, and Davies came back and cleaned up their tail.

Mitchell in his first game back after being out for two weeks with a back injury, took a real likely to their no name attack, and was well supported by Raval. Raval's now averaging a lazy 145 in our four OD matches this season.

We're now sitting in first place, but our next match is up against the only other unbeaten team in our group, Yorkshire.