Story England's Road to Glory: v India - 1st Test: Gallant India Turned Over by Rampant Lions

[formula1man]

England are now in control, good work

 

[shefellover93]

Blistering weather, blistering cricket
A blistering Day 4 met the players as they headed out on to the famous Lord’s turf to start the day’s play

England started well and Pietersen and Ambrose reached their 50 partnership in the 122nd over, KP on 41 off a blistering 30 balls and Ambrose looking well on 28 off 31 balls. Vettori brought himself into the attack and worried Ambrose, the Warwickshire player wobbling under good spin bowling on a 4th day pitch.

Kevin Pietersen played a crucial part, hitting a quickfire half-century


Soon Ambrose was gone, trying to flick a ball to the leg side but only managed to scoop the ball into the hands of Daniel Vettori, Chris Martin’s 3rd wicket of the game. Pietersen kept firing though and reached fifty in the 129th over off 50 balls exactly. But 4 balls later his partner Matthew Hoggard was gone, much in the same way as Hoggard, this time the roles were reversed with Vettori taking the catch off Martin.

Ryan Sidebottom came in and blocked out, England reached the 500 mark after the 135th over, much to the applause to the Oval crowd, but the next ball Sidebottom lost his head and tried to come down the track to Vattori’s bowling. He missed the ball and was smartly stumped by Brendon McCullum for only 1 off 18 balls.

Ryan Sidebottom didn't last long
Coach Kevin Galvin looked far from phased in the pavilion though, Stephen Harmison came in and played well, playing at bad balls and blocking good balls, he looked more like a man in the middle order than a No. 10.

But Kevin Pietersen was bowled trying to slog Craig McMillan over his head and after 138 overs Michael Vaughan declared, England finishing on 527-9 with New Zealand needing 483 runs to win the test match.

Only one of the Kiwi overs was completed for three runs before the bails were taken off to signal lunch.


England started the afternoon session well and Matthew Hoggard was looking dangerous with the ball, and in his 4th ball of the session he picked up the huge wicket of Hamish Marshall, this was a big wicket for England after Marshall’s last score of 79. Harmison was economical on the other end.

Stephen Fleming came in next and was out after 4 balls without scoring, bowled by a vicious in swinger that took out his off stump, Hoggard taking his second wicket. Harmison was aggressive and hit McMillan with a dangerous bouncer to the ribs, McMillan carried on though through the pain and the 3rd wicket partnership was worth 50 in the 15th over, Lou Vincent smacking a six high into the OCS stand to bring it up.

Lou Vincent was New Zealand's top scorer on day 4


Panesar and Sidebottom replaced Harmison and Hoggard and in the 23rd over McMillan was gone, Panesar tried a faster ball, McMillan went to sweep, the ball thumped off his pads, and Hair raised the finger, New Zealand now 84-3. An over later Vincent went to his half century, reaching it in only 66 balls and hitting 3 sixes to the milestone. That was the last talking point of the session as New Zealand needed 381 runs in 4 sessions, an unlikely target, England needing to take 7 more wickets to take a series lead.


The Evening session started off with a bang, Ryan Sidebottom smashed all over the ground for 14 in the first over, but Vaughan held faith and got his rewards when Sidebottom’s next two overs went for only 2. But Panesar was bowling economically, bar the slip up he had in the 35th over when Vincent hit him all over the ground for 13.

Sidebottom wasn’t threatening either Taylor or Vincent and Hoggard replaced him an over later. The Leedsman soon took the all important wicket of Vincent, the opener going for one big sot to many and his missed timed slog over the bowlers head fell into the grateful hands of Mal Loye standing at mid-on.

Panesar was doing well keeping runs tight on the other end and he picked up his second wicket in the 47th over, Ryan Taylor blocking a faster ball and the ball popped up for Ian Bell to take an excellent diving catch at silly point.

The sizeabale crowd appreciated Panesar's two wickets

In came Brendon McCullum and he and Matthew Sinclair led the Kiwi’s into the fifth and final day, finishing the day on 184-5, 299 runs behind England.

Scorecards

 

[formula1man]

Great bowling by Hoggard, England are in total control.
I love ur simple writing style, makes it easier to read.
for some reason ur pictures and graphics are really crisp compared to mine, mine are always blury?????.
Great story mate, the comments will start to flow

 

[shefellover93]

Great bowling by Hoggard, England are in total control.
I love ur simple writing style, makes it easier to read.
for some reason ur pictures and graphics are really crisp compared to mine, mine are always blury?????.
Great story mate, the comments will start to flow

I think your graphics kick ass tbh!

If you want a tip, go into the layers part of your graphics on photoshop, right click the bars (as in the stuff the text is put on) click blending options, and then go 'bevel and emboss'. It makes it stick out

BTW: People if you like it please comment, if you think something should be improved, please comment. It's the comments that keep us diary makers interested and lets us know you are looking at it

 

[Highlander999]

Great work mate. Total domination by England.

Keep it up mate, some stories always take a bit of time

 

[shefellover93]

Well the problem is the fact that it takes about 4 hours to do a day, and often I don't have the time.

 

[SciD]

This is one of the best work I have seen here. I always have bias towards story then the presentation hence I dont demand too much.

Excellent stuff mate hope you win STOM soon

 

[shefellover93]

England Wrap Up First test Win
New Zealand started Day 4 very well, McCullum and Sinclair kept scoring runs at a huge rate and Panesar nor Hoggard could find the answers. In the 66th over Harmison came in to replace Hoggard and 4 overs later he took his first wicket of the day when he removed the very dangerous Matthew Sinclair 3 runs shy of his half century.

Panesar gave way for Hoggard in the 72nd over and kept the scoring low on the other end. Harmison picked up Daniel Vettori 3 overs later, the Kiwi captain nicking an edge and Tim Ambrose making a good catch to his bottom left.

Matthew Hoggard picked up yet another wicket, this time Matthew Sinclair


Brendon McCullum reached his half century in the 75th over, McCullum making his important knock in 95 balls. Soon his partner Daryl Tuffey was out, he tried to smash a ball over the mid on boundary and only found Mal Loye at mid on, gratefully Loye took the catch, his second of the innings.

Brendon McCullum acknowledges the crowds applause for his half-century


The 82nd over was the last when Stephen Harmison took the last two wickets, the first ball Bond tried to smash but the ball hit him on the toe and the relieved Bond ran for a leg bye, McCullum was now on strike and after a ball pitched up by Harmison was hit by McCullum, the ball went straight up in the air and Ambrose ran a long was to get under it and take the catch.
Shane Bond was the last man to go when he tried to smash a six off Harmison but the Durham man had the last laugh when the ball skipped low and whipped the bails off his stumps. New Zealand finish on 310 all out.

England celebrate their third test match win in a row

Scorecards

shefellover93 added 0 Minutes and 57 Seconds later...

Eye On the Ashes 2009

Tim Ambrose

Gloves

With the gloves Ambrose did well, conceding only 6 byes, that off a rouge Panesar fast ball, with the seam bowlers with the ball swinging and seaming he did very well continuing his form Down Under in New Zealand, he took 4 catches in the matches, 2 catches in the first innings, and 2 in the second and was very competent behind the stumps.

The only blip on his performance was his failure to stump Brendon McCullum off the bowling of Panesar in the second innings. But overall a good performance by the young wicket keeper.

Batting

Ambrose had the worst start possible to a game, playing a loose block in the 4th over to get out for a duck. He did better in the second innings and with Kevin Pietersen reached an acceptable 33 before getting out.

But an average of 11.50 is something to be improved on if he wants to secure his place in the England team.

 

[formula1man]

excellent presentation, i love it,
good win for England, New Zealand need to sole search now

 

[thesweepmaster]

Fantastic presentation mate, brilliant amount of work has gone into it I see and I love the pictures and graphics that you put in during the report.
Fantastic work mate, keep it up!

 

[Highlander999]

Aye as others have said, great work. This is really going along nicely. England really played well and deserved the victory.

KUTGW mate

 

[Jit]

your story has improved a lot and great presentation

 

[shefellover93]

Second Test Preview

England will come into this game full of confidence after their 172 run win over New Zealand at the Oval. New Zealand will hope to get back into the series and hope to use Shane Bond to their advantage on a fast pitch.

Shane Bond could be dangerous on the Lord's pitch


England will be happy after a good bowling display and an excellent second innings. Newcomer Mal Loye was a disappointment, as well as Ryan Sidebottom who failed to take a wicket in both innings’. Michael Vaughan will be on top form after 161 in his last innings, and Cook, Bell and Pietersen also reached milestones.
Another good point for England is the flying return of Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, two men that have disappointed as of late but they found their groove and took big wickets with the new ball.

The weather in South London is typical of early summer in England, clouds are dotted around, bringing rain in patches, but both sides will hope that the sun will shine over Lord’s but they will keep a close eye on the weather as the test match progresses.

From a New Zealand point of view they will hope to put a big defeat behind them and move on to Lord’s focused on drawing this test series. Good points include half centuries from Hamish Marshall, Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum. Bad points include a low 1st innings of 160 and bad bowling from Martin and Bond letting England to a massive score of 519 dec.

Michael Vaughan looked in good nick


But New Zealand did get a big enough second innings total and will hope to replicate the first and last innings performance.

Follow the second test with the Telegraph, with exclusive interviews and features our coverage is second to none

shefellover93 added 10 Minutes and 37 Seconds later...

Stephen Harmison Interview

Man of the Match in the first test Stephen Harmison has taken some of his time out to talk to the Telegraph’s Derek Pringle.

DP: Hi Stephen, how are you taking all of your new found form in?

SH: Well, it’s been great, I’ve really been soaking up the feeling of being on a high and I can’t wait for the Old Trafford test to start. After being down in the dumps for so long the feeling is so much sweeter.

DP: What did you do between the overseas tour and the home tour to improve so well?

SH: Well as you all do I only had a small amount of time in New Zealand before the first test because of the birth of my son Charlie. As I said on Sky Sports that I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and that I didn’t regret the decision, it wasn’t the greatest preparation for an international test match.

Thankfully for this series I’ve got to get tons of overs under my belt. I’ve been bowling well enough for Durham alongside my brother Ben, and I was feeling good coming into the series

Harmison has been working hard over the winter


DP: Many were ruling you out for the test after your, quite frankly, abysmal performance in New Zealand, were you surprised that you got picked?

SH: Well I was and I wasn’t really. I mean it was a massive surprise to be picked so early after my tour down under, but I knew if I kept bowling well for Durham my chance would eventually come. Kevin and I don’t know each other all to well but I think that he respects my work ethic and the bouncebackability that I showed after the test

DP: Your predictions for the summer?

SH: Well I think we showed people in England that our wins in New Zealand weren’t just a fluke and we’re starting to gel as a team. I think that we should win the test series against New Zealand but the ODI’s will be harder. For the up and coming games against South Africa, I think it’s a toss of a coin as to who will win the test series but I suspect they might be a little too strong for us in the ODI Series.

shefellover93 added 26 Minutes and 18 Seconds later...

Telegraph Quiz

If you can guess this correctly you win 5,000 vcash!

Question:
Who has the best bowling figures for an English bowler against the Kiwi's?

 

[formula1man]

great update.
hmmmm best figures out of every bowler or just the bowlers in the squad?

 

[shefellover93]

Of all time. Who has the best bowling figures playing for England against New Zealand