Story England World Cup & Warm Up Matches [C07]

[nicksy111]

Sky Sports has today announced that it will be providing live and exclusive coverage for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, which is being held in the West Indies. Sky have also announced that they will broadcast both of England's warm up games against Bermuda and Australia

The England squad for the World Cup has just been announced by Chairman of Selectors, David Graveney.

England Squad for ICC Cricket World Cup

M.Vaughan (c)
A.Strauss
I.Bell
K.Pietersen
A.Flintoff
R.Bopara
P.Collingwood
J.Dalrymple
M.Loye
P.Nixon
L.Plunkett
J.Anderson
J.Lewis
Sajid Mahmood
M.Panesar



England coach Duncan Fletcher speaks to the press before the squad depart for the Caribbean

Reporter: Duncan the first question I would like to ask regards the fitness of Michael Vaughan. Has he fully recovered from his hamstring injury that caused him to miss the CB series finals in Australia, and will he be able to play a full part in the World Cup?

DF: We never had too much concern over the fitness of Michael anyway. His hamstring is fine and he will be 100% going into the World Cup

Reporter: In the event that Michael does become injured again, who will take over the captaincy?

DF: This is a subject that we have covered on numerous occasions, and we feel that although Andrew Flintoff did a tremendous job in leading the team to victory in the CB Series, he will be more beneficial to the team without the added burden of captaincy, it is for this reason that we have named Andrew Strauss as vice-captain for the World Cup

Reporter: What is the mood in the England camp after the recent tour of Australia, and, more importantly, do you feel that you can win the World Cup?

DF: Of course I believe we can win the World Cup. The final ODI games in Australia proved that, on our day, we can be a match for anybody, we just have to find that consistency. Regarding the mood in the camp, the boys are in fairly high-spirits. They're obviously disappointed to have lost the Ashes, but after winning the ODI tournament we can go into the World Cup full of confidence

England will begin their World Cup campaign with a warm-up match against Bermuda.

**I will be playing on a PS2 and on 3* difficulty**

 

[surendar]

Interesting tournament for England...Gud Luck with the story

 

[Jaztheman]

Good luck with the story nicksy

 

[plympilgrim]

nice start and good luck

 

[nicksy111]

Warm Up Match #1

Bermuda vs England

at Barbados

DG: Hello there and welcome to Barbados for coverage of the first ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up match between Bermuda and England. This fixture should provide decent practice for both sides, and particularly in the case of Bermuda, it will give them some idea of the quality of opposition they will come up against when the tournament begins properly on March 13th. I will now hand you over to Ian Botham for the pitch report.

IG: Thanks David, its a pleasure to be here in the Caribbean, and I for one am certainly looking forward to a cracking tournament. Now, onto this pitch. It looks an absolute beauty, its rock hard, should provide decent bounce and carry through to the keeper, and if I won the toss, I know what i'd do, and thats bat. Now over to Michael Holding for the toss.

MH: Well thanks Beefy. I am here in the middle with the two captains, and Ranjan Madugalle the match referee. David Hemp has the coin and Michael Vaughan will call.

MV: Heads

RM: It is a head, Michael you have won the toss

MH: Michael you've won the toss, what are you going to do?

MV: We're gonna have a bat, the wicket looks good, looking to put some pressure on the Bermudans with a good total, and then defend it later on.

MH: And what about your team?

England Team:

A.Strauss
M.Vaughan (c)
I.Bell
K.Pietersen
P.Collingwood
A.Flintoff
P.Nixon (wk)
L.Plunkett
J.Lewis
M.Panesar
J.Anderson.

MH: David, you're going to have to bowl first, does that bother you that much?

DH: No not at all, it'll be good experience for the boys to bowl first on a good track against top quality batsmen, and we're just looking to get some match practice before the tournament starts

MH: And what about your team?

Bermuda Team:

D.Border
O.Painter
D.Hemp (c)
A.Staid
C.Sinclair
J.Turk
D.Minors (wk)
D.Leverock
K.Hurdle
R.Staid
J.Roberts

MH: Well thats the state of the game so far, England have won the toss and are going to bat first, back upstairs to David Gower

 

[Ponting22]

looking foward to it sounds great come on little bell Smash them all

 

[nicksy111]

Warm-Up Match #1

England v Bermuda, Barbados

Match Report

England innings:

England went into this warm-up match full of confidence after their CB Series victory in Australia, while Bermuda were looking for some match practice ahead of the World Cup.

England's openers got them off to a decent start, and they quickly got used to the pace of the pitch, with the 50 partnership being reached without any alarms after 10.4 overs. However, in the next over, Hurdle produced a peach of a delivery that was too good for Strauss, and it hit him plumb in front, England 58/1 Strauss lbw Hurdle 21. Vaughan and Bell then got through the fielding restrictions,with Vaughan reaching his 50 in the process and were looking to up the ante and set a formidable total. Vaughan then edged a leg-cutter from Roberts through to the keeper Minors, and England were 91/2 Vaughan c Minors b Roberts 56 Bell then ran himself out for 17, and the score was 107/3 Bell run out 17.

This then forced Pietersen and Collingwood to play cautiously if England were to post a good total, and thats what they did, for about 2 overs. Pietersen then flayed the Bermuda attack to all parts, and reached his 50 off 39 balls, but with the intent he was playing with, you could see that he wanted a hundred. Pietersen and Collingwood bought their 100 partnership up off 13.2 overs, and the score was 212/3, but then Collingwood found A.Staid in the deep, and he was gone for 31, England 212/4 Collingwood c A.Staid b Roberts 31 Flintoff came and went quickly, running himself out for 10 Flintoff run out 10. This bought Nixon to the crease, and it seemed as though his job was to bat until the end of the innings, and this allowed Pietersen to carry on attacking, which he did, and he was rewarded when he bought up his century off 68 balls, in an innings which contained 11 sixes! However, six balls later, he tried to slog-sweep Turk out of the ground, missed the ball, and was adjuded lbw Pietersen lbw Turk 103 and England were now 254/6. Englands tail batted somewhat sensibly, and, with the help of Paul Nixon, England reached 285/9 off their 50 overs, with Turk the pick of the Bermudan bowlers with figures of 9/0/61/4. Check back later for the Bermuda run-chase

Scorecard

Strauss lbw Hurdle 21​

Vaughan c Minors b Roberts 56​

Bell run out 17​

Pietersen lbw Turk 103​

Collingwood c A.Staid b Roberts 31​

Flintoff run out 10​

Nixon not out 21​

Plunkett c Hurdle b Turk 9​

Lewis c Hurdle b Turk 0​

Panesar c Minors b Turk 4​

Anderson not out 2​

Extras: 11​

England 285/9 (50)​

 

[Ponting22]

shame about ell but good on yah Pietersen great story

 

[nicksy111]

Warm-Up Match#1

England v Bermuda, Barbados

Match Report

Bermuda innings:

After England had posted a formidable 285/9 off their 50 overs the Bermudan openers knew it was crucial that they had a good start if their side had any chance of victory in this World Cup warm-up match.

Anderson took the new ball for England, and immediately had the Bermudan batsmen in trouble, he beat the outside edge on numerous occasions, as did Jon Lewis, and after 10 overs, Bermuda were 17/0. Liam Plunkett was then bought into the attack, and with his very first delivery, bowled Painter, but, much to his dismay, he had overstepped the line, and the umpire called no-ball. It didn't seem to affect Plunkett much, as with his very next delivery (and his first legitimate one) he produced a carbon-copy of the previous ball, and once again it was too good for Painter, who played all round it, and Bermuda were 18/1 Painter b Plunkett 5 Shortly after that, Plunkett bowled Border Border b Plunkett 9 and Bermuda were 21/2 England's tails were then up, and it didnt take long for England to blow away the Bermudan batting line-up, with only captain David Hemp providing any resistance with 26. The final wicket to fall was that of Hurdle, lbw to Flintoff for 4, and Bermuda had been bowled out for 74 in the 37th over.


Scorecard

Border b Plunkett 9​

Painter b Plunkett 5​

Hemp b Lewis 26​

A.Staid b Plunkett 0​

Sinclair b Plunkett 4​

Turk b Lewis 7​

Minors b Lewis 0​

Leverock b Lewis 2​

Hurdle lbw Flintoff 4​

R.Staid run out 10​

Roberts not out 2​

Extras: 5​

Bermuda 74/10 (36.5 overs)​

Result: England 285/9 beat Bermuda 74 all out by 211 runs

After the match, Michael Holding caught up with both captains.

MH: David, you must be fairly disappointed to have lost in such convincing fashion out there

DH: Yes of course we are disappointed, but as I said before the game, we are using these warm-up games to gain some match practice ahead of the tournament, and when you are up against world class opposition like England, all you can do is try your best, and although the result isn't what we wanted, I am proud of the boys efforts, and we are looking forward to out next fixture.

MH: Michael, congratulations on todays performance, a good day all round then. A good batting performance followed on by some world-class bowling.

MV: Yeah I am pleased with today, for KP to go out there and play the innings he did in his first game back from a cracked rib was exceptional, and I was personally happy to get a half-century, particularly after all the injury troubles i've gone through over the past 18 months.

MH: How's the legs? They seemed to get through today alright.

MV: Yeah they're fine, a little bit of soreness but thats to be expected after a long lay off.

MH: You must be extremely pleased with your bowlers, particularly Liam Plunkett and Jon Lewis, who picked up 4 wickets apiece?

MV: Yeah the boys bowled well out there, but we must not get complacent, the Australians will provide a much sterner test than the one we faced today. No disrespect to the Bermudans, and we wish them all the best in the World Cup.

The Man of the Match was selected by Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle, and he has chosen Kevin Pietersen, for his blistering 103 off 74 balls.

Thankyou for joining us here on Sky Sports, and we look forward to seeing you for the next match, England v Australia

 

[Pakistani Army]

Great works mate

 

[plympilgrim]

a great win for england, although it should have been

 

[Roofrom50]

Good luck with this story mate, keep up the good work

 

[nicksy111]

Warm-Up Match #2

England v Australia

at Barbados

DG: Hello there and welcome to Barbados for this 2nd ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up match between England and Australia. England will be looking to continue their rich vein of form against the Australians, whereas Australia will be hoping to avenge their loss in the finals of the CB Series. Ian Botham is in the middle looking at the pitch....


IB: Thanks David, and I have to say that this pitch is a stark contrast to the one that hosted England and Bermuda a couple of days ago. This is a very green pitch that will provide assistance for the seam bowlers early on, if I won the toss, i'd definately insert the opposition.

DG: Well there we have Ian's verdict on the pitch. The toss took place some 5/10 minutes ago, and Michael Slater was there.

MS: Its a beautiful day here in Barbados, and i'm here with the two captains and Clive Lloyd the match referee. Ricky Ponting has the coin and Michael Vaughan will call.

MV: Tails

CL: It's a tail, Michael you have won the toss

MS: Michael, what are you going to do?

MV: We're gonna have a bowl, the wicket looks as though it will offer some assistance to the pacemen early on, and we'll be looking to take advantage of that.

MS: And are there any changes to the team that beat Bermuda?

MV: Yeah, Mal Loye, Ravi Bopara and Sajid Mahmood come in for Andrew Strauss, Jon Lewis and Jimmy Anderson

England Team

M.Loye
M.Vaughan (c)
I.Bell
K.Pietersen
R.Bopara
A.Flintoff
P.Collingwood
P.Nixon (wk)
L.Plunkett
S.Mahmood
M.Panesar

MS: Ricky, is that a bad toss to lose?

RP: Erm, i'm not sure, the wicket does look green, to be honest I would have bowled first, but we'll have to bat sensibly to counter-act the movement that the England bowlers will get.

MS: And whats the news on your team?

Australia Team

A.Gilchrist
S.Katich
R.Ponting
M.Clarke
M.Hussey
A.Symonds
P.Jaques
C.White
D.Cullen
B.Lee
M.Johnson

MS: The news from out here in the middle is that England have won the toss and will bowl first