Story CSL: It's time for trades

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We'll start with the groups:


Now to player stats. Firstly overall runs which is run by Joe Root ATM:

I won't show average yet due to the amount of NaN there is but we'll look at strike rate, where Seattle's first game speedchase helps their players to the top:


Bit of a surprise who the leading wickettaker is:


And finally, some impressive economy:

 

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Again, I screwed up and missed lineups for Thunder vs Renegades

Thunder made a change with Alex Ross injured, bringing in Ollie Davies. Renegades also made changes; Imad Wasim and youngster Peter Hatzoglou, on debut, replaced Noor Ahmad and the injured Josh Lalor.
Note: Hatzoglou doesn't actually exist on Ashes Cricket, so he will be under Noor Hossein's name for this match

The Renegades were sent in and performed well. They lost Harper in the third over, hitting Chris Green's first delivery straight down the throat of Cutting at long on. Finch was run out in the next over from Ben Cutting by Tremain fielding at the same spot, before Marsh and Rossouw went on a hitting spree, taking 16 from Cook and 22 from Sams before both fell in the same Green over, Rossouw to a top edge and Marsh to an armball. Nabi went out in the next over, picking Ollie Davies at square leg (who earlier dropped Marsh on 9) and Webster was also dismissed in the ninth caught at mid off by Hales. The Renegades slowed at the end but still made 112.

Some did well, some less so



The Thunder's batting performance seemed to be going alright despite Hales getting out second ball to a good ball from Richardson. However, Khawaja tried one too many big shots and picked Marsh at mid off from the last ball of the fourth. The Thunder imploded; with the rate needed at 13 an over, Ferguson missed a Wasim ball before in the next over, Nabi got rid of Davies and Holt both trying to score quickly. Sams and Cutting steadied the ship before Sams got out unluckily, flat-batting a ball directly to Sutherland at deep mid wicket. Richardson's last over was carnage; Green was stumped trying to keep the game alive, Tremain caught at short cover the next delivery and Cutting missed a big swing from the last ball to end the innings at 9/86.

Resounding bowling from Nabi and Richardson, also big up Evans on debut


MOTM was pretty clear

 

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Round 3

Western Conference
Seattle chose not to drop struggling batsman Evin Lewis and they were vindicated; with time on his side, he made 97 while anchoring Seattle's 4/180. However, a lack of sustained support came back to haunt them with fourties from Tamim Iqbal, debutant Sam Hain (replacing a struggling Hamish Rutherford) and Ravi Bopara getting them home.


While Joe Root was finally dismissed for the first time in the tournament, Dan Hughes, Rolof van der Merwe and Dinesh Chandimal got them to 194. San Diego struggled to chase thanks to economical bowling by van der Merwe and Rashid as well as a duck for Shan Masood.


LA, led by Colin de Grandhomme and Virat Kohli, got to a decent 3/182. However they bowled brilliantly- particularily Abbott and Curran- to get the win despite a good attempt from Samson.


Southwest Conference
Dallas were carried by Phil Salt scoring his first ever T20 hundred. Then they were carried by Ash Nurse to a 34 run win.


Aaron Finch scored a hundred to put Austin into a winning position, ably sipported by Chris Morris, who then stole his man of the match with a 4-for.

 

[Yash.]

That was some all round performance from Chris Morris! Also, Finch!

 

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That was some all round performance from Chris Morris! Also, Finch!

Yeah, Austin got absolutely carried

 

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Phoenix would have thought they were in a good position after good innings from Banton and Rishabh Pant was backed up with Houston being 9/163. However, a miscalculation meant that Roston Chase had to bowl the final over rather than 3/18 Phehlukwayo and this cost them the game as Dan Christian hit Houston to the win.


Southern Conference
St Louis absolutely removed Cincinatti, a team that had significant batting doubts before the season, for 110 in 117 balls, and while they stuttered early, Kusal Mendis, Shadab and Overton got them home.


Despite a big effort from Amla and Akmal once again, they couldn't strike the ball as cleanly as last time, and Adam Lyth helped steer Memphis home.


Steve Smith and Imad Wasim again coming up big for Oklahoma. I have concerns should they fail


Northeastern Conference
A tale of two innings. For Philly, Billings played well but nobody else stood up. For Chicago, Dhoni and Charles played well before Pretorius and Sarfraz hit home.

 

[Neptune]

the Cincinatti Knights look very weak on batting

 

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the Cincinatti Knights look very weak on batting

Them and the somewhat unfortunate Philadelphia are the only teams to have gone P3 L3 this tournament so far.

Here's their batting stats:

Obviously Jonker has been pretty decent but their problem has been that their top 4 has been Godleman-Harper-Elgar-Perera who combined average 16 so far. Not to mention several of their players have much lower strike rates than expected- Kleinveldt 84, Elgar 86, Perera 113 and arguably Godleman 124. Obviously their bottom 3's strike rates are lower but the fact they've had to face 35 balls between then kinda amplifies the weakness.

As for Philly their weakness is bowling economy rate- none of their five main bowlers are going at under 9.

 

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Detroit, assisted by economical bowling from Duanne Olivier and batting from Karthik and Ollie Pope, held on to beat Kedar Jadhav's late charge for Washington.


Cleveland were carried to 6/160 by Kusal Perera's hundred but Danuskha Gunathilaka scored 125 of 165 runs for Milwaukee as they got home.


Eastern Conference
Again a target of 6/160 proved not to be adequate although this was a match where the batting efforts were more balanced.


Another tight game, another batsman doing a hard carry (Aneurin Donald today), another unexpected Charlotte win...


Riki Wessels set up a good platform for Boston, Kuhn kicked on, and New York were unable to make it despite good performance from Handscomb and Hardik.


Stats Update:
Batting (runs): Dual centurions up top


Batting (S/R): Seattle's 1-2-3 broken up


Bowling (wickets): Tom Curran delivering the goods


Bowling (economy): A bit bugged because of the 9.5, but no doubt Nawaz, Henriques and Charlotte

 

[Neptune]

so glad to see root at the top
tremain has surprisingly been excellent too

 

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tremain has surprisingly been excellent too

He's been doing really well, yeah. I think that bowlers who have good variations and can move the ball both ways are generally doing better this year; all 5 pacemen currently in the top 10 fit this bill to at least a good degree while out and out quicks, with the exception of Fidel Edwards, have struggled- the talisman of this kind of bowling, Mitch Starc, currently averages 124!

 

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Finally the BBL series continues with the BBL not being televised last night!

The only change for either side was Zahir Khan's inclusion for Hinchliffe given he was out of quarantine.


The Stars innings was dominated by one man- Marcus Stoinis. Hitting four fours off Manenti in the first over, he wasn't stopped after that. In fact, with Fletcher playing his support role with aplomb, it took 5.3 overs for the first wicket to fall with Henriques skidding one on. In fact Henriques seemed to be the only bowler to get anything from the pitch (barring some patchy movement for Steve O'Keeffe) and he took a second wicket the next over in the same fashion. Despite Maxwell falling for nine, missing a ball that clipped leg, Stoinis went on to finish with 85, the series' highest individual score.

Plenty of blowout there. Henriques and Dwarshuis, the wickettakers, had the most respectable figures.


Philippe and Hughes got Sydney off to a decent start, however, after Nathan Coulternile got rid of Hughes, things went downhill. A turning point was Zahir Khan running out Philippe at short fine leg in the sixth over. Henriqures and Christian fell quickly, leaving Vince and Brathwaite with a near impossible task. Indeed the Stars had won the game by the final delivery, which was hit down the throat of Maxwell by Vince.



MOTM was really easy

 

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ROUND FOUR

Western Conference
San Diego never recovered from losing Gayle and Masood cheaply, and missed their spark for the rest of the innings. In form Sam Hain and Heinrich Klaasen gave San Fran that spark.


Seattle did well with the bat with Kieran Powell batting through wile Evin Lewis and McDermott went hard. Portland... didn't.


However, Portland weren't the worst team this week. Joe Root would have scored his third century had he had more overs and more strike, before the LA Stallions failed to even reach that.


Southwestern Conference
Good batting from Vince and Cooper got Denver to a great total and Dallas only just missed that despite the efforts of Uthappa, who scored the fastest 50 in USL history.

Team batting carried PHoenix to the win over Kansas who, with the exception of BJ Watling, lacked enough spark to approach 200

 

[Neptune]

Dickwella, wow! And root is now taking wickets too lol

 

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BBL match again

The Hurricanes changed Sandeep and Jacks for Tim David and Keemo Paul. Given how disastrous Paul was.... The Heat on the other hand switched the injured Lynn for Gregory, as well as Bartlett for Steketee.


The Heat had some early issues with Bryant missing his first ball. Then Ellis took three wickets in the third over although this was partially down to my controller batteries being critically low. Peirson and Gregory steadied the ship, and after the latter and Wildermuth's dismissals, Mujeeb joined his fellow international to bring it home. A late four from Steketee meant the Heat posted 7/116.

Ellis was a star while Meredith copped the full force of Lawrence in his first and Gregory in his second.


The Hurricanes got off to an OK start before Short ran down the wicket off Steketee and was stumped. Mujeeb came on the next over and carved; first Ingram chipping to point and then McDermott with an overambitious run. Swepson followed up by getting Wright caught at mid on and David at cover (after a big six over mid wicket) to leave Hobart 5/31. Handscomb tried to mount a recovery but he didn't get a ton of support; after he singlehandedly won the Bash Boost point, his partner Faulkner was yorked by Laughlin the next over. Ellis stuck around until Over 9, seeing out the spinners, only to miss another fast straight one. With the run requirement 22 from 8, Handscomb then tried to pinch a bye after a Peirson fumble, but he picked it up quickly enough to throw down the stumps and run him out. Despite a little hitting from Boland, the Heat put an exclamation mark on the game when he was removed with the final ball.

Everyone but Gregory took a wicket (Steketee's went down as a run out rather than, correctly, a stumping).


Ellis still got MOTM because of Gregory scuffing his bowling and nobody else being particularily notable.