Story Brendon vs Callum vs Jono - A Worcestershire Battle

[CG123]

Lol. :laugh

The most surprising thing was that Ben Cox actually done something useful.

 

[Chewie]

21st April 2010
Worcestershire Vs Surrey
County Championship - D2​

Playing XI’s

Worcestershire

1. Daryl Mitchell
2. Vikram Solanki*
3. Moeen Ali
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Ben Smith
6. Shakib Al Hasan
7. Shaaiq Choudhry
8. Ben Cox †
9. Imran Arif
10. Matthew Mason
11. Alan Richardson


Surrey

1. Steve Davies (wk)
2. Michael Brown
3. Usman Afzaal
4. Mark Ramprakash
5. Rory Hamilton-Brown*
6. Chris Schofield
7. Gareth Batty
8. Stewart Walters
9. Timothy Linley
10. Jade Dernbach
11. Andre Nel​

Based on the previous two games, I feel that this is my strongest lineup. While using a part-time keeper may work in one day games, and in university matches, I feel that for a 4-day match, the risk of conceding byes is too high, and so I have retained Cox in my side. For some reason they played a weaker side, with no Tremlett or Anjum so I was hoping that I could do decently in this match.

I won the toss and decided to bat first. The batsmen started defensively to the pace bowlers, scoring only 35 runs in the first hour. Spin was soon brought on however and Solanki lamely chipped a ball to Hamilton-Brown. At lunch we were 69/1, with Mitchell strong on 25 from 100. Spin brought around the end of the in form Ali for 30 as we made our way excruciatingly slowly to 142 at tea. To try and earn some batting points Mitchell tried to play more aggressive but fell to Batty as the third victim to spin. Some poor running led to Kervezee being a mile out of his crease when the bails were removed to leave us at 203 for 4. Shakib didn’t last much longer as we finished the first day at 256/5. Wickets fell quickly on the second morning, as we were soon 292/8, with the tail exposed. Arif put some extra runs on the board, but Mason and Richardson couldn’t hang around with him, leaving us all out for 325 from 135.5 overs.

The pace bowlers couldn’t make any inroads on a pitch that was supposedly good for them, and it wasn’t until the introduction of spin in the form of Shakib Al Hasan in the 37th over that a wicket fell. Once one fell, it wasn’t too long before Surrey were 3 down, with two batsman who had not faced a ball at the crease. Shakib hadn’t contributed with the bat, but he was doing it with the ball, taking 5 top order wickets within a short space of time as Surrey were 201/6 at stumps. Due to the impact spin had had on the game so far, Solanki was brought on for a bowl and he had Linley caught behind for 1. The new ball was taken, with Richardson taking the last two wickets to fall. The tail had wagged however, and they finished only 5 runs behind our first innings total.

Spin again accounted for Mitchell as he was bowled in Batty’s first over. Ali played some good shots including one massive six, but he was out LBW to Batty, as was Kervezee a couple of overs later. Schofield then got in on the act taking Smith and Shakib’s wickets quickly while Solanki stood firm at the other end. He reached his second century of the season near the end of the day, but this achievement was soured by the loss of the last batsman Choudhry the over later. We were 184/6 at the end of the day, a lead of 189. We would be looking to push this towards 250 to have any chance of winning. These thoughts were dashed however, as Solanki was out in the first over of the final day. Cox didn’t make too many runs, but Arif and Mason started playing aggressively before we were all out for 262, a lead of 267. Surrey had just over 2 sessions in which to chase this total.

From the outset, it looked like they were going to try and get there as fast as they could. Davies hit 15 off Richardson’s first over, an over that included two fours and a six. Both batsman were going at a run a ball, but Richardson managed to sneak one between bat and pad to bowl Brown. Shakib came for a bowl, and while going for more than 4 an over, he managed to take the wickets of Afzaal, Davies and Hamilton-Brown. Going into the last session, Surrey needed 84 to win, with 6 wickets remaining. At the rate they had been going at before tea, it looked as if they would be able to win this one easily. The master, Ramprakash eventually steered the Surrey side home to win by 5 wickets, with 35 minutes still remaining in the day’s play.

It was quite disappointing to lose, especially after how we had managed to gain a first innings lead, likely something that will become increasingly rarer and rarer as the season progresses. Solanki’s century, and Smith, Kervezee and Mitchell’s half centuries are the only batting highlights, with the rest of the team mostly relying on them to make a big score. There weren’t many positives on the bowling front, barring of course Shakib’s 6 wickets in the first innings, and ten wickets overall. We took away 5 points from this match, compared to Surrey’s 20, with Solanki named man of the match for the only century scored.

Surrey won by 5 wickets

​

 

[CG123]

What is up with them resting their bowlers against you?

Lol at me getting more points than you, as you were actually in your match, while I was hopelessly outplayed.

Good news for me, after the next OD game Shakib is gone, so I'll be able to play Jacques.

 

[Chewie]

haha I just went and checked, Evans, Anjum and Tremlett are all injured, and it appears they don't have a reserve overseas player For the Middlesex game Udal's not injured, but they've played Finn consistently in their three games so far so they probably feel he's more suited.

It's because you managed to salvage a draw, whereas I lost I think I still have more points than you overall though.

Shakib will be gone for everyone most likely. That's probably worse for me than you two because he's actually been performing for me...

 

[TDTF]

Lol. :laugh

The most surprising thing was that Ben Cox actually done something useful.

Ben Cox was decent for me at 8/9 i had him.
Averaged 31.12 FC, missed 4 FC matches injured and i think Solanki is a poor keeper.

Averaged 35.00 One Day.
Averaged 20.65 T20.

My 3 best batsmen where:-
Solanki 1231 runs @ 47.35
Smith 1146 runs @ 46.56
Choudhry 946 runs @ 44.48

Best Bowler:-
Mason 64 wickets @ 26.53 and did alot of bowling !

Al Hasan batted and bowled v well too.

 

[TDTF]

Chewie you where undone by 2 players who left Worcs at the end of last season for Surrey in S Davies & G Batty :

Oh how they are missed :crying

 

[Dutchmen]

Bad batting by them. They should have made more than 300 in the second innings, but they didn't. Nel was petty good with the bowl. I want to see how many extras took place.

Chewie, Can you view the extra's?

 

[Chewie]

Chewie you where undone by 2 players who left Worcs at the end of last season for Surrey in S Davies & G Batty :

Oh how they are missed :crying

Oh wow I didn't know that. That is quite annoying haha

Bad batting by them. They should have made more than 300 in the second innings, but they didn't. Nel was petty good with the bowl. I want to see how many extras took place.

Chewie, Can you view the extra's?

I had Cox keeping and he didn't give away any byes, dunno about the other extras though

 

[CG123]

Worcestershire vs Sussex
Challenge Trophy - group match
25th April 2010​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Daryl Mitchell
2. Vikram Solanki*?
3. Moeen Ali
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Shakib Al Hasan
6. Shaaiq Choudhry
7. Jack Manuel
8. David Wheeldon
9. Imran Arif
10. Matthew Mason
11. Alan Richardson

I wanted to strengthen our batting by playing an extra all-rounder at eight, and also on a turning pitch a second spinner should have come in handy. Therefore I brought in David Wheeldon (on one day debut) for Gareth Andrew, which was the only change I made from our latest county championship match.

Sussex

1. Chris Nash
2. Joe Gatting
3. Ed Joyce
4. Murray Goodwin
5. Luke Wright
6. Matt Prior?
7. Michael Yardy*
8. Robin Martin-Jenkins
9. James Kirtley
10. Chad Keegan
11. Corey Collymore

Like Surrey, Sussex went into the match fielding seven players with previous international experience, making this a tough match for us to start our 40 over campaign off with.

Toss:

Sussex won the toss, and chose to bat first.

Match:

Sussex - 214 for 8 (40 overs)

Ed Joyce 71 (98)
Murray Goodwin 42 (47)
Luke Wright 35 (23)

Matthew Mason 3-41 (8)
Our other four bowlers all took one wicket each.

Worcestershire - 160 all out (36.3 overs)

Vikram Solanki 34 (38)
Jack Manuel 34 (42)

Chad Keegan 4-34 (8)
Corey Collymore 2-29 (6.3)
Robin Martin-Jenkins 2-41 (8)

Result:

Sussex win by 54 runs

Points:

Sussex 2
Worcestershire 0

MOTM:

Chad Keegan (4 for 34 off eight overs)

Reaction:

One thing I have always found with ICC is you need one go to batsmen who can always make a decent score, but by the looks of things this team doesn't have one. I was thinking someone like Shakib could play this role coming in at five/six, but he has turned out to be absolute garbage, and now it pretty much all comes down to our top three.

The bowling went alright I guess, they had some good batsmen who we were able to contain, and in the end Luke Wright's cameo of 35 off 23 probably just took their total out of our reach. Mason found some much need form, while the debutant David Wheeldon went at over six an over.

All up very few positives to take out of this match, in fact I can't really find any. Actually I guess Vikram Solanki only conceding two byes in 40 overs is kind of one.

 

[Chewie]

25th April 2010
Worcestershire vs Sussex
Challenge Trophy ? Group Match​

Playing XI?s

Worcestershire

1. Daryl Mitchell
2. Vikram Solanki* ?
3. Moeen Ali
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Ben Smith
6. Shakib Al Hasan
7. Shaaiq Choudhry
8. David Wheeldon
9. Imran Arif
10. Matthew Mason
11. Alan Richardson


Sussex

1. Chris Nash
2. Joe Gatting
3. Ed Joyce
4. Murray Goodwin
5. Luke Wright
6. Matt Prior?
7. Michael Yardy*
8. Murtaza Hussain
9. James Kirtley
10. Monty Panesar
11. Corey Collymore​

Because this is a one-day match, the likelihood of Solanki giving away numerous byes is small, and so I played Wheeldon instead of Cox. This move improves both our batting and bowling, as he offers another bowling option, and is likely better at batting that Cox. Sussex went for two spinners for this game as well, and look a very strong side on paper.

I won the toss (for the fourth time in a row!) and decided to bowl. Nash and Gatting played conservatively, scoring at less than four runs an over for the first few overs. The lesser keeping skills of Solanki showed, as he conceded four byes in an otherwise perfect over from Mason, and it was hoped that that would be his only transgression of the match. Gatting took to one of Mason?s overs, hitting it for 12, but throughout the power-play runs were slow to come, before eventually Nash was out LBW to Mason. At this point spin entered the attack, but it didn?t affect the free-scoring nature with which Gatting and Joyce were scoring their runs. Joyce flicked consecutive balls off his legs for four as they began to knuckle down and increase the run rate. Spin was brought in from the other end, but Wheeldon was smacked around, including a slog sweep for six. Because he was keeping, Solanki couldn?t provide his part time spin, and so Kervezee was given a shot with the ball. He was very expensive, going for 16 runs from his two overs and was quickly taken off. Shakib at the other end had been conserving runs very effectively, and inducing some plays and misses to no success until Gatting missed one and was given out LBW. Pace was reintroduced into the attack, and despite his first two balls being smacked for four, Richardson managed to get Goodwin out LBW. At the other end, Arif managed to get Wright?s edge for him to be superbly caught at slip by Choudhry. With 8 overs to go, Sussex were 177/4 and looking to accelerate. The batting powerplay was taken, with Joyce taking full advantage of this to punish the bowlers. Prior soon joined in the fun as 51 runs were taken in those four overs. When it was over, Mason managed to grab the wickets of Joyce for 107 from 92 balls and Prior for 30 from 19, but it was too little too late as Sussex finished on 258/6.

259 runs at 6.4 over is a tough ask for any team, not just the worst team, and it did not start well. Solanki was out in the third over, caught at silly mid on. Mitchell went into defensive mode at the point, but Ali was not giving up. He played aggressively, combining for a second wicket partnership of 146 before Mitchell fell for 50 from 84 balls. By this point Ali had reached his century, an eighty ball masterpiece which contained 12 fours and 3 sixes. We needed 102 runs at 8.7 however and the batting powerplay was taken to reduce the RRR. Ali fell in the first over however to a good catch at slip off Hussain. Once he was gone, the rest of the batsmen couldn?t maintain the momentum as we were eventually dismissed for 217, losing by 41 runs.

Only two of our bowlers showed any fight in resisting Joyce: Shakib and Mason. The others were all extremely expensive and our bowling plan will need to be reconsidered for the next match. With the exception of the outstanding Ali and Mitchell who played a good role in his shadow, the rest of the batsmen failed to emulate these two in falling quickly, mostly for single digit scores. Man of the match was Ed Joyce for his attacking century in the first innings.

Sussex won by 41 runs ​

 

[hedger_14]

25th April 2010
Worcestershire Vs Sussex
Challenge Trophy - Group Match​

Teams:

Worcestershire

1. Neil Pinner
2. Vikram Solanki*
3. Moeen Ali
4. Alex Kervezee
5. Shakib Al Hasan
6. Jack Manuel
7. Ben Cox?
8. Imran Arif
9. Gareth Andrew
10. Matthew Mason
11. Alan Richardson


Sussex

1. Chris Nash
2. Joe Gatting
3. Ed Joyce
4. Murray Goodwin
5. Luke Wright
6. Matt Prior?
7. Michael Yardy*
8. Chad Keegan
9. Monty Panesar
10. Billy Taylor
11. Corey Collymore


Darryl Mitchell was dropped from the side after a bad run of form along with Smith and Whelan while Pinner, Manuel and Andrew were all brought into the side. It was again going to be a tough encounter against Sussex, and not one we would have wanted for the first game of the CT season.


Toss:

Sussex won the toss and elected to bat


Sussex - 141 all out

Matt Prior 32 (60)

Imran Arif 5/37 (7)
Matthew Mason 2/20 (6)
Gareth Andrew 2/22 (6)


Worcestershire - 143/7

Alex Kervezee 36 (41)
Jack Manuel 26 (31)

Corey Collymore 3/46 (8)
Monty Panesar 2/16 (4)


Worcestershire won by 3 wickets


MOTM:

Imran Arif (5/37)


Points:

Worcestershire 2
Sussex 0



Comments:

Good performance, I guess. Perfect with the ball, each bowler doing their job. Arif was great taking 5 wickets, while Andrew in his first match of the season was tight, and took 2 wickets as well. All in all, everyone bowled well and I was very pleased with the bowling performance. Finally, a good opening partnership as Pinner made 26 and Solanki made 25. Kervezee did the job scoring 35 though and Manuel helped at the end to get the team over the line. A great result, and I thought we deserved it. Imran Arif was MOTM and his performance greatly pleased me.

 

[Chewie]

A great win for you Hedger! You outplayed Callum and I by far Maybe batting first was the correct thing to do...

 

[hedger_14]

I think my batting was the worst but my bowling was the best for sure.

 

[Dutchmen]

You both CG123 and Chewie went for Solanki as keeping. And I think the problem is with keeping. You doesn't have keepers, so it really hard to make out the playing eleven.

As per hedger_14, his team was great with the bowl and the rest comes to the batting and it was good either. I'm trying to say that go with 3 pacemen and 1 spinner with 4 batsmen and 1 keeper and 2 All round. I'm just give you all a suggestion. Good luck.

 

[CG123]

You both CG123 and Chewie went for Solanki as keeping. And I think the problem is with keeping. You doesn't have keepers, so it really hard to make out the playing eleven.

I'm not sure if you realise as that's the third time you've mentioned it, but on ICC 2010 Solanki is down as a part-time keeper, hence the reason why I've been using him to keep. He only conceded two byes in my latest OD match, so that was nothing to do with the problem. Obviously if he wasn't down as a keeper at all, I wouldn't be using him.

Great win there Hedger, our first win of the season.

I'm not sure why Keegan didn't play in either of your games, as he bowled first opening the bowling, and took four wickets in my game.

Out of interested do either of you use custom fields???