Story Diary of a Madman - random waffle and scores from various cricket games

[Jaztheman]

Another drop catch, you've been very lucky so far. The total isn't bad to be honest, as I doubt Zimbabwe will make much more than 200 at most. 350 will be a good total from here, with Giles being a good batsman. Stewart and Flintoff's valuable partnership has definitely helped your score and Stewart at least got his 50 before getting out.

Good writing and presentation, mate.

 

[Ollie_H]

Your looking good against Zimbabwe, Butcher playing well.

BTW I have a thing of always calling heads too Heads never fails!

Apart from when it lands on tails

 

[Slowcoach]

I finished my first innings as England in the test v Zimbabwe, going to try to post images of the scorecard now, I'm not sure exactly how to now because the link to that thread seems to have been removed from the help for story writer's thread. Anyway, here goes...

Well, it seems to have worked.

As you can see, Butcher played well, with a few of the others chipping in with useful knocks. I was dissappointed with the eventual total, but on this pitch it is probably about par. There is still some cloud around, and more predicted early on day 3, so if I can knock over Andy Flower and Murray Goodwin cheaply I should be able to get a decent first innings lead.

Heath Streak and Bryan Strang were the pick of the bowlers, with Henry Olonga being the weak link in this innings (though he did manage to retain some respectability by just failing to concede 100).

Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, Henry Olonga's hair was more impressive than his bowling.

 

[Jaztheman]

Ha, very good update and laughed at the end.

England have posted a good total as I said earlier, thanks much to Butcher but there were a few scores accumalated by the batsmen that will help. Hopefully England can get a few crucial wickets early on.

Good stuff here.

 

[Slowcoach]

My bowling tactics were woefully misguided in that England v Zimbabwe match, so, after much stuffing around with lines, lengths, fielding positions, and the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys, I have given up on that game for now.

So I decided to stuff around with Cricket 07 on the ps2, and with Microsoft Works instead.

Here is the result of my efforts.

I know, I am mad, you will never fully understand just how I ended up in 1996 on Cricket 07, but somehow I did.

Right now I am feeling too tired and lazy to invent some cock and bull story about the match/tour/whatever, so the scorecard will have to do.

 

[Jaztheman]

Ha decentish update.

England 'A' have a poorish start and need Ramprakash to play anchor in the innings and last most of the 20 overs, if they are to win. Bilal Asad had a good first over, as did Afridi. England will need to play them well, next time.

 

[mattfb]

lol I really like the laid back style of this story. England in a tad of trouble, they need a few good knocks. kiu!

 

[Slowcoach]

Here is another progress score from the PCB XI v England 'A' match.

I'm playing on 4 star level, with Fast game speed, and reassigning the controller so I can do all the batting for both teams as well as make the bowling changes.

I don't have much to say about the match.

Ramprakash is batting well (probably because I was hoping he would fail), though he was caught at midwicket on 29 off a No Ball from Shoaib Akhtar .

Ostler was dreadful, a bundle of nerves and could hardly get the ball off the square, then he panicked because of his dismal strike rate and holed out to mid on (when an intended heave over square leg became an attempted heave over mid on due to the lack of co-ordination of the All Powerful Fat Controller).

 

[mattfb]

Haha, nice update there. Ramprakash playing the innings he needs too. England need to try build a bit of a partnership or they could be our cheaply. kiu mate!

 

[Jaztheman]

Ha nice to see you are going to do your upmost to get Ramprakash out, no doubt.

England need one more big partnership with some little individual innings aswell to get a respectable score. Ramprakash should lead them from the front.

Nice update mate.

 

[Slowcoach]

I finished the PCB XI v Eng 'A' match, but I'll only post the England 'A' scorecard now due to my usual laziness and lack of motivation.

Ramprakash was by far the best of the batsmen, but he fell the ball after reaching his 50 to a poor shot. England 'A' never really built any momentum because every time they got into a position to start hitting out someone would get out slogging.

Left arm seamer Mohammad Ali cleaned up the tail to end with the most impressive figures, taking 4 for 4 from his last two overs, including 3 wickets in the 18th over of the innings, but some of the other bowlers bowled just as well without reaping the rewards.

I'll probably add a photo to the next post to jazz it up a bit, but right now I can't be bothered looking for one.

 

[Slowcoach]

Here is the final scorecard of the PCB XI v England 'A' match.

Things got messy for the PCB XI, but Afridi played sensibly after a couple of sixes to see them home (I know, it is totally unrealistic, he never players sensibly, but I really wanted the PCB XI to win).

Chapple conceded 23 in the 18th over, including 2 no balls, to enable Afridi and Atiq-uz-Zaman to take their time, then Smith gave away 3 no balls in the 19th to make it even easier.

Afridi playing sensibly.

 

[Jaztheman]

Lots of no balls bowled by you at the end there... interesting.

Good update there mate and a relatively easy chase with Afridi scoring 51 off 16! Pakistan batsmen dominated the bowlers completely.

 

[Slowcoach]

I decided to go back to my England game on ICC.

Having finally settled on the bowling tactics and field settings I will use, the England bowlers put them into action perfectly, grabbing a couple of wickets before the tea break to leave Zimbabwe in some trouble at 2/34.

Grant Flower was the first to go, caught in close on the leg side for 16 off the bowling of Mullally. Carlisle was next out, edging the underrated medium pace of Butcher into the 3rd slip/gully region to fall for just 6.

The heavy cloud cleared during the tea break, meaning that England will have to hope for some impact from their two spinners to stay on top during the final session of day 2.

Zimbabwe 34/2 (16 overs)

A.Flower 6* (25 balls) 1 four
M.Goodwin 2* (4 balls)

A.Mullally 6-2-13-1
M.Butcher 2-1-4-1

 

[Slowcoach]

I think it's time to get serious about this game of ICC and write a proper story about it in another thread.

Trying to be entertaining all the time is too much effort, so I'll just report on it in a factual cricinfo style, with maybe a few Henry Olonga jokes thrown in to liven it up.

Edit...I changed my mind, I don't think I can be motivated to do a serious long term story about a game where the default lineup for most teams includes 4 seamers and no spinner.