Match,Tour & Competition Experiences

Moseley did very well considering the format of the game. I needed a few extra runs to prevent a total collapse haha
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Rebel League - Arosa Sri Lanka vs West Indies Rebel XI continued...

Arosa Sri Lanka came to the wicket still reeling from Ezra Moseley's onslaught and facing a huge total of 511.

Captain Bandula Warnapura and Bernard Perera opened the innings. Initially the West Indies bowled too short, expecting the Sri Lankans to struggle with the pace and bounce, and the field was set with men square both sides of the wicket as opening bowlers Stephenson and Croft bowled almost nothing in the batsman's half of the pitch.

Despite having never really seen any bowling like this before, Warnapura and Perera were completely untroubled, putting on 30 in the first 8 overs. Captain Lawrence Rowe quickly changed tack, setting a different field and having his bowlers pitch up more and threaten the stumps. Though there seemed to be little swing, the move paid swift dividend with Warnapura picking out Rowe himself off the bowling of Stephenson, to go for 17 off 37 and leave the score on 31 for 1.

Jeryl Woutersz joined Perera, and though the West Indies were bowling much better neither Woutersz nor Perera were troubled as they put on a 50 partnership - the pitch looked very flat and it was hard to see where a wicket might come from.

It was a measure of the West Indies desperation that despite having a 5 man pace attack, part time spinner Richard Austin was brought on, and bowling with Collis King at the other end who was finally finding some reverse swing the scoring rate was slowed significantly although it didn't stop Perera and Woutersz moving the score past 100.

However, with Austin and King providing few scoring opportunities, the pressure told and eventually Woutersz played well inside the line of a ball from Austin as if he was expecting turn that never came and was bowled for 40 off 64 deliveries to leave the score on 107/2.
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This brought Flavian Aponso to the crease to join Perera, and he started well with a big six off Austin.

King was really swinging the ball and a late-swinging yorker went through Aponso's defences and clipped the leg stump. Aponso hadn't added to his 6, and the score was now 121/3

Despite losing two partners in quick succession, Perera stayed calm and brought up his 50, off 82 balls, and with the score at 125 for 3 Arosa Sri Lanka were still in a decent position if they could build on this.
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Nirmal Hettiaratchi was at the other end, and like the others he was also struggling to get King and Austin away.

As the man in, Perera looked to force the issue but disaster struck as trying to hit King over extra cover he miscued and was caught by Croft running in from long-off. Perera had made a good 57 from 94 balls but it was a bad time and poor way to get out from a man who had looked untroubled thus far.
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Arosa Sri Lanka had lost their set batsman and were 134/4 which was a major setback having been 107/1 just a few overs ago.

This left Hettiaratchi and Bandula de Silva looking to rebuild, and with the new ball due in a couple of overs consolidation was key to protect the lower order from that. It was strange therefore to see Hettiaratchi try a big shot to Austin and scoop it up only to mid-on, and the Sri Lankan will have been relieved to see it shelled. It was frustrating for the West Indies who had seen a chance to expose the tail.

The West Indies didn't have to wait long to make amends, however, as in the very next over Hettiaratchi played another irresponsible shot to be caught by Croft off King for 6 off 26. It was a rash shot in the circumstance, but the control King and Austin were exerting played its part. Sri Lanka were 146/5 and in real trouble.

It only got worse in the next over as Austin induced Goonatilleke to edge behind to fellow wicketkeeper David Murray to go for 6 and leave the score 156/6
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King was generating extravagant swing but had bowled an 8 over spell and so Rowe had no hesitation in taking the new ball and bringing back Clarke and Croft.

With the new ball swinging straight away and Croft showing good control and restricting the batsmen, and Ranasinghe tried to cut a ball from Croft that was far too straight and played on to be dismissed for an 8-ball duck.
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Kaluperuma and De Silva played the new ball well, and it was a blow when Kaluperuma's inside edge off Sylvester Clarke hit his pads and richoceted on to the stumps.


Kaluperuma was dismissed for 7 off 14 balls to leave Arosa Sri Lanka on 174/8.
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It was a relief for Sri Lanka to see out the last couple of overs of the day to close the second day on 181/8. The West Indies will be delighted to have forced the collapse from 107/1, and credit goes especially to Collis King who made up for his disappointing showing with the bat to bowl a great spell of 3/27 off 8 overs and along with Austin was key to halting the momentum Perera and Woutersz had built up and to keep the squeeze on each of the new batsmen.

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If the first day had been relatively even, there is no question the second day belonged to the West Indies; first the brilliant innings from Moseley lifted them up to a massive total before King and Austin forced a batting collapse. With 3 days to go, Arosa Sri Lanka will do well to avoid anything other than an innings defeat.

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Rebel League Continued - Arosa Sri Lanka vs West Indies Rebel XI day 3

De Silva and Fernando resumed on 181/8 with West Indies hoping to take the last two wickets quickly, force a follow-on while their bowlers were fresh and possibly even finish the game today.

Though they'd only added 7 in three overs the previous evening, the batsmen had been untroubled in reaching stumps unscathed and this did not change as the morning got under way, and though the West Indies were getting swing and bowling with good pace and accuracy, neither of the two Sri Lankans looked like getting out.

Scoring was slow, but began to increase a little as the batsmen got in and the score went past 200 without further loss and continued to grow.

Fernando was offering de Silva solid support to and the partnership grew past 50 runs, with de Silva immediately after bringing up his individual half-century.
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Rowe rotated his 5 man seam attack, and though they all bowled accurately and economically, the breakthough never came.

Eventually as on the previous day Rowe turned to his part time spinner Richard Austin, but this tie Austin couldn't find the breakthrough and shortly after Rowe had gone back to his seamers the 100 partnership was brought up.
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This was the second 9th wicket 100 partnership of the match but they were chalk and cheese - Mosely and Croft's 100 partnership took just 68 balls, but de Silva and Fernando's century partnership came up off 211 balls.

The match format meant the innings would be closed after 90 overs, and Sri Lanka were still well short of the follow on target of 407, so the main subplot was whether de Silva could reach his hundred or Fernando could reach his 50.

It looked as if each would be marooned just short of his milestone, but in the last over Fernando cut through the vacant third man area to reach a well earned 50 from 125 balls, his boundary also bringing up the Sri Lankan 300.
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The innings finished on 300/8 - a great recovery from 174/8 but with the forced innings closure and a follow-on differential of 110, Sri Lanka still face a massive challenge. De Silva was left unbeaten on 92, and while it was disappointing he didn't reach his hundred, he played a wonderful innings.
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Lawrence Rowe had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on, so Sri Lanka will bat again 217 runs behind and with just 90 overs to get ahead and set a decent target.
 
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How much runs / overs, do you folks work on in your innings in a test match / 4 day match before declaring? 80 overs? 500 runs? etc.
 
following this discussion about pre-T20 players who would be successful in T20, I put my picks up against @ethybubs picks thanks to the magic of Cricket academy.

Yes, it's Blocker's Boys v Ethy's Effetes

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Lara led the way for the Effetes with a score 0f 93* as they racked up 179/3 - so the Blocker's Boy's need 180 to win

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Despite losing wickets throughout the innings, strong partnerships between Bevan & D'Oliveira and then Bevan & Verity saw the boys home.

After the match it was revealed Lara had played T20s. So the Effetes were disqualified and @ethybubs was banned from planet cricket forever
 
A good team performance always beats a few good individual performances from us *sigh* effetes.
 
Rebel League continued: Arosa Sri Lanka vs West Indies

So Arosa Sri Lanka start their Second Innings 217 runs behind the West Indies with a maximum of 90 overs to get in front and create a defendable lead.

Warnapura and Perera start aggressively, with 30 runs coming up off the first 8 overs, although deeper analysis shows Colin Croft taking the brunt of the aggression his 4 overs going for 23, with Franklyn Stephenson giving up just 7 runs.

Needing to score quickly, Warnapura took one too many risks against the economical Stephenson and was caught by Kallicharan at deep mid-on to leave Sri Lanka on 41/1
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This brought Woutersz to the wicket to join Perera, and the two continued the good partnership they enjoyed in the first innings. However the scoring wasn't quick, and once Moseley replaced Croft the scoring slowed further, Moseley finding a very accurate line and length and 3 of his first 4 overs being maidens.
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Perera and Woutersz were eking the score along slowly, and the pressure told eventually as Stephenson found a bit more bounce forcing Perera to edge behind:

Perera was gone for 31 off 55 & Sri Lanka were 54/2

Flavian Aponso was really struggling to get Moseley or Stephenson away and the pressure caused him to try to cut a ball that wasn't short or wide enough and it ran off the face of the bat and Murray snaffled a great catch to give Stephenson his 3rd wicket & leave Sri Lanka reeling on 57/3
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As the 4th day started, Woutersz & Hettiarachi were at the wicket with Sri Lanka far from making West Indies bat again, let alone face a challenging total. Moseley and Stephenson, who had bowled so well the night before, took the ball but Stephenson didn't find the same rhythm he had the night before and was quickly replaced by King.

The change paid swift dividend, King taking a sharp caught & bowled chance to dismiss Woutersz and leave Sri Lanka on 88/4
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This brought in Bandula de Silva, the first innings lynchpin. However he couldn't repeat his heroics with Moseley picking up his first wicket of the match to dismiss de Silva for just 1.
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At 89/5, it seemed the innings and match would be over soon.

Wicketkeeper Mahes Goonatilleke joined Hettiarachi, and they steadied the ship as Hettiarachi moved to his 50
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Shortly after the batsmen reached the 50 partnership, coming up off 86 balls. However, the Sri Lankans were still behind and there were less than 41 overs of the innings left. Could they set a challenging total?
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Before they could get going much further, Croft - brought back into the attack and bowling much more economically than on the previous evening - tempted Goonatilleke into a big shot and he was well caught by Clarke at Forward Square Leg to go for 23 and leave Sri Lanka 155/6
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Hettiarachi was still going well, and in concert with new batsman Ranasinghe pushed the score on. Hettiarachi eventually brought up his own century and the team 200 with the same shot.
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With the West Indies turning the screw, scoring was extremely slow and when Ranasinghe was out to leave the score on 220/7 - a lead of just three - he had taken up 83 balls to make just 18 and the time in which to make a defendable lead was almost gone.
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Kaluperuma joined Hettiarachi, and despite their best efforts by the time the innings closed after 90 overs the score was just 245/7 - a lead of only 28.

Hettiarachi was not out on 116 off 188 balls, a quite magnificent innings albeit in a losing cause. Kaluperuma had offered decent support in making 17* off 41.
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The West Indies therefore had 29 to make with just under an hour of day 4 remaining.

There was no realistic chance of defending such a small total, so the aim for Sri Lanka was simply to take as many wickets as they could. They were boosted when Alvin Greenidge was caught in the gully for a duck to make it 5/1.
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However, Austin and Mattis never looked like stumbling and the runs were knocked off in short order for no further loss.
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So a solid win for the West Indies, with Moseley taking the man of the match award for his brilliant first innings 181.
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It really was the match changing innings. With the West Indies failing to dismiss the Sri Lankans in either innings, it was only Moseley's score that got them to a high enough total to force the follow on, meaning they were set a small total rather than trying to take the 10 wickets and risk the Sri Lankans snatching a draw. Perhaps the other captains may take note of the advantage of batting last in this format when winning the toss.
 
Really enjoying these reports Blocker, that ball to Perera was an absolute peach and shows the games potential from a bowling p.o.v. if the glaring issues finally get addressed. What level are you playing on?
 
Really enjoying these reports Blocker, that ball to Perera was an absolute peach and shows the games potential from a bowling p.o.v. if the glaring issues finally get addressed. What level are you playing on?

thanks, glad you're enjoying it - it's on Pro; about my level tbh - i might just about cope on veteran with the bat (although stumbling to 311/8, maybe not) but with the bowling frustrations i wouldn't dream of bowling on veteran.

i enjoyed that game massively, batting first i played really properly, trying to protect my wicket with the top order and punish the bad balls, then hit out with the tail - Moseley getting such a big score was a fluke, but also great fun to smash it to all parts after batting more defensively for 70 overs!

bowling was much more of a slog, especially as I had a game crash and lost about 60 overs of progress, so actually after enforcing the follow on i bowled something like 240 overs on the bounce! but i created the format (70 over days, 90 over limit for the first 3 innings, unlimited 4th innings and new ball every 40 overs) because i felt that was a format i was more likely to stick with the bowling in since there'd usually be a limit to how many overs i'd bowl or i'd never be too far from a new ball... it worked pretty well. except for t10's/t20s that's actually the first game i've ever played every single ball of the match start to finish, no simming.

only 30 more games in the competition! :)
 
I'm with you regarding pro level, as soon as I feel that I am comfortable and think about stepping up a level a batting collapse is usually around the corner! I've had a few goes on veteran but find it's so difficult to maintain the level of concentration required.

Do you feel the new ball makes much of a difference? I'm undecided at the moment.

Love that last screenshot, it really makes a mockery of any review that slates the graphics imo.
 
I'm with you regarding pro level, as soon as I feel that I am comfortable and think about stepping up a level a batting collapse is usually around the corner! I've had a few goes on veteran but find it's so difficult to maintain the level of concentration required.

Do you feel the new ball makes much of a difference? I'm undecided at the moment.

Love that last screenshot, it really makes a mockery of any review that slates the graphics imo.

not sure about the new ball making a difference, tbh, I just chucked it in to the format on the off chance... though I did notice in the first innings of that game I was getting a huge amount of reverse swing that tailed off with the new ball until i'd shined it up again...
 

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