Story England's tour of the Caribbean

[FishBowlMan]

Here we are then, after a successful confidence-building game against the Minor Counties, England are to embark on a Caribbean tour. "Sponsors" for this tour are "Sam's .exe" and "Tutsi's AI patch 3.0". Both sides have agreed that "hard mode" is the order of the day for 4 and 5 day games, but "medium" conditions may prevail for the 1-day series (because I am c*** at 1-day cricket!!!).

England's squad is shown below and contains a mixture of youth and experience for both game codes, and includes the surprising choice of Darren Gough. Dazzler has been quoted as saying "It's great to be selected for the tour. The pre-season with Essex has really sorted me out - and if I can make it into the 1-day team, it will be through sheer hard work rather than my past achievements. Now where's the bar..."

This could be an interesting series on these generally hard / fast pitches. England will have to bat and bowl well against what should be a testing West Indies side.

 

[FishBowlMan]

England squad (hopefully)!!

 

[The_gas]

Originally posted by FishBowlMan
Here we are then, after a successful confidence-building game against the Minor Counties, England are to embark on a Caribbean tour. "Sponsors" for this tour are "Sam's .exe" and "Tutsi's AI patch 3.0". Both sides have agreed that "hard mode" is the order of the day for 4 and 5 day games, but "medium" conditions may prevail for the 1-day series (because I am c*** at 1-day cricket!!!).

England's squad is shown below and contains a mixture of youth and experience for both game codes, and includes the surprising choice of Darren Gough. Dazzler has been quoted as saying "It's great to be selected for the tour. The pre-season with Essex has really sorted me out - and if I can make it into the 1-day team, it will be through sheer hard work rather than my past achievements. Now where's the bar..."

This could be an interesting series on these generally hard / fast pitches. England will have to bat and bowl well against what should be a testing West Indies side.

Good luck mate! Should be a good story! I have mixed feelings about Tutsi's patch but im not that great at this game and still find hard a challenge! GOugh is a suprised i must say, i went for good old Martin Saggers

 

[FishBowlMan]

Re: Re: England's tour of the Caribbean

Originally posted by The_gas
Good luck mate! Should be a good story! I have mixed feelings about Tutsi's patch but im not that great at this game and still find hard a challenge! GOugh is a suprised i must say, i went for good old Martin Saggers

Thanks. Will post bits as and when. Gough was in the roster.pak that I downloaded - I wanted him for Essex this year and he is in the default squad selection. The only change I made was to bring in James Foster as backup keeper. My first reaction to Tutsi's patch was that it was quite good. Having said that, this tour will be my first real test of it. I too find hard mode a challenge. I need some form of update though as the default 1-day stuff is a joke.

Here we go then...

 

[FishBowlMan]

So, we have arrived in Kingston Jamaica, for the 1st game of the tour. A 5-day (I think as is listed as a test match - not sure why?) game against West Indies A. We have normal pitch conditions and an overcast sky and the locals here inform me there is a moderate chance of rain.

Vaughn calls 'tails' for the toss... and tails it is. First success to England. "We'll have a bat" says Vaughny. "Pitch looks OK and we should get some decent runs. Better go and find me box!"

 

[FishBowlMan]

England struggle to 80/4 at lunch. Neither opener looked comfortable against a containing spell of fast bowling from Black and King. Trescothic edged a couple of sneaky 4's through the slips and finally went to a fine diving catch edging a cover drive to Bravo in the gully. Vaughn was trapped on his crease and was plumb LBW to a ball that nipped back off the seam. Good bowling by Black.

Butcher and Hussain looked to be batting England comfortably back into the game, putting on 37 in short order before Nasser was "given out" LBW. A disgraceful decision as if the stumps were up on a step ladder, the ball would still have gone over the top. This decision (or Hussain's swearing) seemed to rattle Butcher who was soon out mistiming a hook shot.

One other point of note was Freddie chopping a short ball on to his helmet 1st ball in. So, England have a lot to do in the second session to get themselves back into the match.

At this point, there should have been 2 in-game screens. One of Nasser being robbed, and one of Freddie banging his head. Blasted Fraps was playing up so I will have to download the earlier version and try that.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Oh dear oh dear. It's time to pray for rain. With the exception of Matthew Hoggard who made an untroubled and classy looking 14 not out, England lost 6 wickets for 41 runs in just 14 overs. A combination of suicidal strokes and appalling running - there could have been at least 3 run outs - left England bewildered and facing a tough challenge before tea on the first day.

Bravo trapped all his 4 victims LBW and deservedly so with a good session of swing bowling that the England middle order and tail could not read. England coach Duncan Fletcher needs to have some serious words with the batsmen before the second innings. Let's see what the bowlers can do to rectify this mess. Will be even harder now as I'm sure Freddy is seeing stars.

 

[FishBowlMan]

OK, this is the embarassing score card:

 

[FishBowlMan]

Some people were there ages for not many runs. Others were in and out before you could say "Learn to bat you muppet!"

 

[FishBowlMan]

This was the decent part of the innings. Unfortunately, it was the computer.

 

[The_gas]

good luck mate i find batting much easier than bowling with this patch

 

[karan_rvd]

good luck mate you gonna need it!!!!!

 

[sachin]

i'd like to see some chopping on.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Originally posted by FishBowlMan
Oh dear oh dear. It's time to pray for rain.

So out they go... and in they come again. (I assure you I am not making this up)! Hoggard is halfway through marking out his run up, and the heavens open. Serious monsoon time! Fortunately, the England side brought their playing cards with them. Even more fortunately, the rain stopped at 6pm sharp. I think that another 10 minutes and the game would have locked as I believe the rain bug occurs when the rain stops after the scheduled close of play.

In the first over, Smith is all over the place and after playing and missing twice, edges a full-length ball to Butcher at 3rd slip. That's the first "quacking" of the innings. Closely followed by the second. Hoggard again, only this time a wicked cutter short of a length that Dagon could only fend off to gully. Bravo survived for 20 balls - mostly ducking and getting hit by a vicious spell from Harmison, before another cutter from Hoggard led to a fantastic catch from Read behind the stumps. 21/3 at this point, and Hoggard was to finish his first spell with figures of 8-3-11-3.

Simmons looked promising for a while, hitting 5 boundaries, before edging Flintoff to the slips, and West Indies reached lunch on 61/4.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Flying Read!