Story Club Life - The Diary of a County Cricketer [C2007]

[m_vaughan]

Those two shots on the offside were brilliant mate. Good total already and I could expect some fireworks if and when Freddie gets past 50. Btw how big is he??

 

[evertonfan]

He's huge!

 

[evertonfan]

Failing to Capitalize

April 27th 2007 - I got my first 50 this morning but i'm far from happy. We didn't really make the most of our overnight position and collapsed a little bit. This meant that I had to bat with the tail which I was quite happy with. It meant that I could play a few shots with the pressure off. As it happens, I made 51 but was last man out when I was clean bowled trying to slog a good length ball out of the park. An early lunch was taken which meant a nervous wait until I could bowl.

Straight down the ground; A booming straight drive.

Over the top; Straight back over the bowler's head.

There she goes; The incredibly thin looking crowd had some catching practice.

There I go; A bit of an over-adventurous shot saw to my downfall.

I was really annoyed at myself for the way I got out because I knew I could have batted for longer. In hindsight though, i'd got a 50 and pushed our total beyond 430; A total which I was happy to bowl too.

A fantastic knock from Stewy accompanied by half-centuries from myself and Fred.

Now it's time to shine with the ball. Oh damn, I forgot about the Sky cameras! Hopefully this lunch will give me food poisoning so I don't have to bowl...​

 

[IloveGilly]

Lol, you totally lost control of that shot which you got bowled to! I mean your bat is about to go flying! Trying to play Gilchrist shots down the ground

 

[mehkar]

great work mate keep it up

 

[m_vaughan]

That was a well played and well earned half century. And yeah it was a sort of mini-collapse in the end but its still a good total imo.

 

[Simbazz]

Lol, you totally lost control of that shot which you got bowled to! I mean your bat is about to go flying! Trying to play Gilchrist shots down the ground

Matt seems to play a Gilchrist kind of role for Lancs! If the top 6 get a decent score, and put on a big total Matt comes out to make it an unachievable target.

Very nice presentation

Originally Posted by evertonfan
Thanks Suren, I try my best to make this realistic. I could quite easily put a load of Photoshop effects on my pictures but what kind of diaries have pictures like that?

A good old pop at Simbazz there Matthew

Culli i hardly use too much effect do i, to be honest i rarely use effect, its just cutting things out and sticking stuff in like a diary should be

 

[treva]

he's got it the wrong way around

Anyway good knock matt and set up the innigns nicely; Great presentation mate

 

[evertonfan]

Rain Can't Stop Brilliance

April 27th 2007 - He really is a genius. Muttiah Muralitharan is an absolute cricketing legend and he was almost unplayable today. The ball was turning at right-angles and he troubled everyone and the fact that he only took 4 wickets was testiment to how unlucky he was with some appeals as well.

Before Murali could even get a bowl though the rain tried to thwart our push for victory. It was nothing more than light drizzle but it was heavy enough to stop us from coming out of the pavillion. The rain washed out all but 7 overs of the afternoon session but amazingly, we bowled Yorkshire out for 84 in the final session alone.

I got just the 1 wicket today but I was pleased with it. I came around the wicket to Gale and bowled him through the gate to keep up my impressive record of hitting the stumps.

How's that Bob? Even Willis himself couldn't be grumpy about that.

Have that you scum; No sympathy from me as our mates from across the penines were well and truely demolished.

Murali dominates our bowling card but i'm happy with my tight bowling performance.

So with just a day left in the match all we had to do was bowl out Yorkshire again. Piece of cake. It's about time I had some cake actually; I fancy a nice bakewell tart. But wait, isn't that a tart and not a cake?​

 

[Simbazz]

Your section of that card looks very neat. As a captain id like to have a Matt Roberts at one end and a Murali at the other, i can worry about where to put fielders for Murali, to get wickets and to stop runs but your over ran itself Nice presentation as always.
But then again Murali's took care of itself, god Chilton would have had a field day out there

 

[Leicester Fox]

willis would still moan. It would take a miracle to stop him moaning

 

[sami007]

wow, youre def in control of this match.

 

[surendar]

Good fifty there evo.. i was expecting a declaration before itself though as i have mentioned before!

Also in bowling, gud to see u with a wicket and also gud eco rate! 6 maidens in 7 overs... seems batsmen were relaxing themselves against you

 

[evertonfan]

Deja-Vu

April 28th 2007 - It happened again. Yorkshire were bowled out for double figures and it was Murali who was the destroyer of their innings. He took another 5 wicket haul but his figures were somewhat ruined by a period of mindless slogging from the Yorkshire batsmen towards the end. Nevertheless, he bowled absoluteley superb and it gave me precious little time to take any wickets because he was getting a wicket with practically every over. It was only fitting that he was subsequently awarded man of the match for the second time in a week.

I did however get one wicket, and it was the very last wicket to fall. I bowled a regulation length ball outside off-stump and it took the edge of Gillespie's bat and the ball went straight into the mitts of Brendon McCullum.

No 200 this time for Dizzy.

The Sky cameras were still swarming around the ground but no one wanted to interview me. I thought my performance deserved an interview but I was happy not to recieve any attention as I wasn't really in a talkative mood. I was overcome with amazement over the fact that we have just skittle a good Yorkshire batting line-up ofr double figures twice in the same match. We were really going places as a team, and that is far more important than individual performances.

The Yorkshire batting card makes happy reading for us Lancastrians.

Murali; The stand-out performer again.

It was time for me to go home and watch the highlights of my performance today, but not before Ian Botham collared me just to say, "Well played son". Wow, the world's greatest all-rounder just said well played to me...​

 

[aussie_ben91]

Gillespie batting at number 11, huh? What's up with that? His the only in that XI to make a Test double-century! And you got him out aswell!