Story Englands attempts to become the best (ICC2006 Ashes Edition)

[Sureshot]

Sorry for the delay (Again!).

West Indies tour squad:

Michael Vaughan (C)
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Horton
Ian Bell
Nick Compton
Marcus Trescothick
Matthew Prior
Alastair Cook
Steven Davies
Paul Collingwood
Andrew Flintoff
Liam Plunkett
Simon Jones
Monty Panesar
Matthew Hoggard
Stephen Harmison
Gareth Batty

Thoughts on selection:

Steve Harmison has had a good season in county cricket and I didn't think Blackwell had done enough to keep his spot. Compton came in for Redfern, the young Middlesex player has scored 4 List A Hundreds and I want a 100 man at 4 in ODIs. Adil Rashid was unlucky in that he had an injury which meant he would've missed the Test series, he could've played in the ODIs but I think that Batty with his experience (and good recent record) was more suited to be the second spinner if needed.

This tour contains 4 tests and 7 One Day Internationals.

 

[Sureshot]

3 day Friendly against Barbados.

Team: Cook, Vaughan, Horton, bell, Collingwood, Flintoff, Prior, Plunkett, Jones, Harmison, Davies

They won the toss and chose to bat first.

They made a decent start putting on 60 for the 3rd and 56 for the 2nd wickets with Ryan Hinds in particularly good form. Plunkett had taken 2 of the early wickets to fall and he was impressing in this warm-up for the team and fringe players. Hinds and Nurse put on 91 for the 5th in the biggest partnership of the game before Fred got Nurse for 40. Ryan Hinds batted all the way before falling for 171 to Flintoff, Jones took the new ball next over and got Collins out to finish their innings on 296. Plunkett 3-80 was impressive. Jones 2-32, Flintoff 2-46, Davies 1-25 and Collingwood 1-29 were the other wicket taking bowlers.

Vaughan fell for 24 after 39 runs were on the board in his partnership with Cook, Collins bowling Vaughans middle stump. Cook and Horton added 64 for the 2nd before Cook went for 29, dismissed by Collymore. Horton and bell continued their good form by adding 100 for the 3rd wicket before Bell went for 51. Horton fell just 6 short of his hundred succumbing to Hinds. Flintoff and Collingwood added 204 for the 5th wicket when Fred fell on 111 to Hinds. Prior joined Collingwood and they added 50 for the 6th wicket before Colly fell for exactly 100. Prior and Plunkett continued the run fest as I looked for a hundred for the Derbyshire (yes I know!) keeper. They hit 70 for the 7th wicket and when Prior fell on 101 I declared 529-7. Hinds 2-99 and Collins 3-138 were the pick of the bowlers.

We only had just over a session left on the third day but Harmison bowled well taking 2 early wickets and Davies, Flintoff and Plunkett all chipped in with a wicket each but there wasn't enough time left. 124-5, match drawn. Harmison 2-24 bowled well. Hinds 51 and holder 20 the highest scorers in their second innings.

 

[rabeta]

Great Performance by Hinds, not only did he do a quality job with the bat, but was also useful with the ball. A good confidence booster for England, good to get some runs on the board and then also look very threatening with the ball in the 2nd Innings. Plunkett came out with the best figures in the first, but it has me wondering, how come he bowled so many when he went for 48 more than Jones, and Jones only took 1 less wicket, perhaps Jones should have bowled a few more, or was that just an economical performance from him?

Interesting pick of Cropton, with only 4 List A hundreds, he probably won't be your hundred man this early on. Good squad otherwise. Looking forward to the next update SS, keep the great work up!

 

[Sureshot]

He has 7 List A hundreds, he got 4 in the last season.

Hinds is No1 in the ODI world bowler rankings.

Jones was economical, Plunkett bowled somewhere between 18-22 overs, Jones bowled around 16. Difference probably was that I can get 7 overs in a spell from Plunkers and 5 in a spell from Jones.

 

[freddiw]

top emphatic performance in ODI against SAFRIKA

can you post redfern career stats hes awesome on my gme,
in nex series give SAM SPURWAY A TRIAL

 

[Sureshot]

I'll get Redfern's stats up when I next go on ICC.

1st Test vs West Indies.

Hoggard, Panesar and Pietersen in, Plunkett, Davies and Horton out.

I was tempted to play Batty on this pitch as it looked like offering something for the spinners.

I won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Jones and Harmison took some good early wickets, Lara went for 17 to the bowling of Harmison the big Durham lad also got Gayle. Sarwan and Hinds put on 89 for the 5th wicket with Sarwan the dominant partner, Panesar broke the partnership when he got Hinds for 26. This paragraph is hard to write from a WIndies aspect, due to the fact that Sarwan was the highest scorer by a long way. he helped put on 81 runs for the last 2 wickets before being the man not out at the end, a wonderful 143*, Lawrence contributed with 21 in the last wicket stand of 41. Harmison 3-60 was the pick of the bowlers. Jones 2-39, Hoggard 2-41, Panesar 1-29 and Flintoff 1-59 all got wickets. 249 all out, how much without Sarwan?

We needed a good start and we got a good one as Vaughan and Cook put on 73 for the 1st wicket before the Essex man fell for 26, Mohammed trapping him lbw. Vaughan was joined by KP and as the best two batsman in the world started I knew we were on for a big score, they proved me right too. They put on 246 runs for the 2nd wicket when Kp went for 118 to the bowling of Juggernauth. Vaughan and Bell put on 54 for the 3rd wicket, but the captain fell 7 runs short of his double ton, falling to Mohammed. Bell and Colly put on 81 for the 4th wicket when bell fell to Juggernauth for 61. Colly was dominating all the other batsman and was on his way to a quick hundred, but he fell to Mohammed for 82 (from 84 balls), I declared when Prior fell, didn't see much point in flapping about with the bowlers. 518-7 declared, lots of spin overs over a hundred. Mohammed 3-128 and Juggernatuh 3-180.

With a big lead over them I was hopeful of completing an innings victory. They made a decent start for a change with Gayle and (a regen who's name I've forgotten....) put on 50 for the opening stand, Jones and his quick arm got the wicket of the regen, bowled for 19. Gayle fell in Jones' next over, caught by KP at 1st slip. It seemed up to Sarwan to make us bat again as Monty ripped the middle order to pieces getting Lara and Chanderpaul for 17 runs between them. Harmison dismissed Hinds as the batsman walked off the pitch as quick as they walked on it. Sarwan finally got some help from Mohammed as they put on 30 for the 6th wicket, before Sarwan fell to Vaughan for 54. Lawrence batted well again (take notes batsman other than Sarwan), he got 43 runs putting on 57 for the 7th wicket with Mohammed. but Panesar got Lawrence and Vaughan got Juggernauth, the last man out. Monty 4-51 and the surprise bowling of Vaughan who took 2-12, bowled well.
209 all out, giving me a win of an innings and 50 runs.

I did take a screenshot of the match report screen but I missed the little square dotted line icon and the text isn't readable. I'll do that screenshot and one of Redfern on my next report (Tomorrow).

 

[Jaztheman]

Great story so forth SS, great innings win there and also thought I would just say your story was the inspiration to my current story now

 

[surendar]

You should be the real time English coach If i remember right, it was you who experimented with Rashid, Prior/Read and now Batty!

Well, nice knock from KP and a great win to England.. Bit unlucky test for Windies.... Haven't heard of Lawrence though.

 

[Sureshot]

Redfern

Another regen I think Suren. He's mainly a bowler, but was second best batsman in the last game.

I worked out my problem with Paint, when i was copying the image it wasn't filling the whole of the Paint screen. That's sorted now. I'm just about to do the 2nd test...

----

I made a mistake about Lawrence, he is actually an opener, but I thought he was a bowler due to batting at 8 and bowling some RMF. He opened in this test btw.

---

2nd Test, I named an unchanged team. We lost the toss and were asked to field first.

Gayle and Lawrence had put 21 on the board when Lawrence fell for 13, Gayle then was joined by Chanderpaul, but Gayle fell on 43 for 20 runs. Harmison getting Lawrence and Hoggard getting Gayle. I came close to dropping Hoggard for this game as his figures have been poor of late with a bowling average of high 30s. Lara fell to Harmison very cheaply as I got excited about the possibility of bowling them out cheaply. Chanderpaul and Sarwan put on the biggest partnership of the game for the 4th wicket, an almighty 27 runs, when Chanderpaul fell to Hoggard for 34. Sarwan tried to bat through and did okay but fell to Panesar for 32 as Monty bowled tightly on a seamer friendly pitch. The rest of the innings was based on 3 or 4 double figure partnerships the highest being 19. Monty got the wicket of Baugh and Harmison got Jeremy to finish with 3-27. But the man of the day was Matthew Hoggard taking 5-48, cleaning up Collymore and Taylor, 144 all out. Monty 2-12 from 12 overs also bowled well. It's worth mentioning that Jeremy bats at 8 for the WIndies despite a test average of 5!

I wanted a good start so we could declare with a big lead. Cook and Vaughan continued their fine form from the first test by putting on 156 for the 1st wicket before Vaughan fell to Jeremy for 90. Cook was joined by KP and the scoring didn't stop, they put on 62 when Cook fell 16 runs short of his 13th test century, lbw to Jeremy for 84. It amazed me at the ease of the runs and partnerships coming together, it carried on when Bell and KP notched up 106 for the 3rd wicket when KP went for 72. Yup you've guessed it, the next partnership was a good un too, 89 for the 4th wicket between Bell and Colly, ending when Jeremy got Colly for 33. Flintoff who was without a test century in over 2 seasons (I'm not sure if he's got one in this story..) looked good as he and Bell put on 124 for the 5th wicket when Fred fell for 74 to Hinds. Bell fell 5 overs later for a tremendous 163. Prior was aggressive as he stormed to 35 from 31 balls when King bowled him, I declared on 581-7. Jeremy 3-132 and Taylor 2-162 the pick of the bowlers, but tbh we dominated them. Bell passed 3,000 Test runs in this innings.

Lawrence and Gayle offered some good resistance at the top of the order putting on a good stand of 109 for the 1st wicket, it ended when Jones had Gayle caught at cover by Hoggard for 58. Lawrence and Chanderpaul added 31 for the 2nd wicket but when Jones got Chanderpaul, a brilliant wicket for us. Lawrence and Lara did one better by scoring 32 for their 3rd wicket stand, but Lawrence fell to Harmison for a fine 76. Hinds fell cheaply to the spin of Panesar but Lara remained at the crease. Lara and Sarwan added 84 for the 5th wicket when Lara finally was dismissed by Harmison for 72 runs. Sarwan and Baugh, perhaps the last chance for the WIndies to avoid an innings defeat, but they could only add 43 when Harmison got Baugh - his 6th wicket of the game. Hoggard got the big wicket of Sarwan for 67, caught at Mid Wicket by Flintoff, game is over! Jones got one more wicket, that of Jeremy to finish with figures of 3-99. Flintoff got the last two wickets to bowl them out for 351 and to finish with figures of 2-31. But Harmison 3-60 and Jones 3-99 were the main wicket takers in this fine innings victory.

 

[Jaztheman]

What a win Sureshot, that Sure was a great win.

Ba-Dum-Tis.

 

[Skater]

Redfern

It probably is a regen looking at the age but Derbyshire had a player called Daniel Redfern last year. I know because I watched the game and wrote about him on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Redfern

 

[Karachi Xpress]

That is a great win!

 

[Sureshot]

It probably is a regen looking at the age but Derbyshire had a player called Daniel Redfern last year. I know because I watched the game and wrote about him on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Redfern

The Derbyshire player is 17, I'm only in 2009 on the game. Different players, I'm pretty sure the one on my game is a regen.

I've been delighted by big Steve's comeback. 3, 3 wicket hauls.

 

[freddiw]

in ICC 06 ashes he is called
Daniel Redfern
and at the moment he is called Danny Redfern

Try Sam Spurway
Great win well batted IAN

 

[Sureshot]

3rd Test, unchanged team. We lost the toss and they elected to bat first.

Harmison got an early break through with the wicket of Lawrence. Caught well at Gully by Cook. Gayle played a decent little knock at the top of the innings, putting on 25 with Shiv for the 2nd before Shiv fell to Jones, bowled and 32 for the 3rd with Lara before Gayle fell for 27 to Jones. This innings looked okay at the top but as the patern of the series continues into this game, Simon Jones bowls exceptionally well to take test best figures of 6-38. Destroying the WI middle order, Flintoff took 2-19 as they were bowled out for just 112. Juggernauth scored 19 runs in quick time, but he fell to Flintoff.

I looked to make a decent start but Vaughan fell with just 29 on the board gone for 14 to Collymore. But Cook and KP got the innings back on track with a partnership for the 2nd wicket of 151, ending when Cook fell to Juggernauth for 89. Bell joined KP as we looked to post a big total with maybe a 300+ lead. But KP fell just after his hundred for 101, having put on 48 with Bell for the 3rd wicket. Collingwood didn't bat too well, only adding 14 to a partnership of 33 with the in form Bell (He's No1 in the world). Fred joined the Warwickshire lad and Fred scored 42 quick runs from just 49 balls, Bell was well set for a big total. Flintoff succumbed to Collymore and went for 42, lbw. having put on 73 for the 5th wicket we had just under 350 runs on the board. Prior joined Bell and they batted beautifully despite Day 3 of the test losing 3 hours to rain. They excelled despite going on and off 3 times for rain. They put on 189 for the 6th wicket with both men getting big scores, Bell fell just after passing 150 (153) with Prior needing just 6 more runs for a hundred I batted on. He passed the target with a boundary followed by another one 3 balls later. 545-6 Declared, Prior 107*.

With a mammoth lead of over 400 runs I was confident of a victory.

Things were going as planned, Jones got Gayle early, Harmison got Lawrence and Lara cheaply. Things were looking great. When Sarwan joined Hinds the game was miles away from them. They batted well though, looking comfortable against all the bowlers, and they had put on 137 for the 5th wicket when Monty got hInds bowled for 85. Mohammed offered some tail resistance with 26* but Monty cleaned up the tail taking 3-33. Sarwan was dismissed by Harmy for 66, Harmison bowled last man Collymore for 3, to finish with figures of 4-59 and to win the game by an innings and 190 runs. Wonderful.

3-0 up with one to go, I hope to give some fringe players a game in the final test match. Horton, Batty, Plunkett and maybe the keeper Davies could all play.