Story Men in Maroon's dream run| 1st innings

[AbhishekS]

You changed the storyline completed, right? IIRC Kapil Dev was appointed as the coach of the Windies in this story.

 

[westindies2007]

Hmm Interesing seem Imran Khan as a Coach. West Indies do Thave a coach beside Gibson to lead the team, but WICB never given him a chance, David Williams He was The asisatnt Coach of West Indies, until this year. Before he was The Coach of Trindad and Tabago, After he was overlook this year, he return to TnT to coach them.

Just my view, he would of made a great Coach for WI cricket, while Gibson be out bowling coach.

 

[Fenil]

You changed the storyline completed, right? IIRC Kapil Dev was appointed as the coach of the Windies in this story.

Yes. As I said in the other thread, I've started it afresh.

 

[Fenil]

Gee, Wavell Hinds isn't much of a talker. "Going forward in the right direction", are we indeed! Maybe he should give up his day job and be one of those "controversial" or "courageous" back-to-the-future selections!

ha ha! I confirmed and re-confirmed from various sources that Wavell Hinds was the successor of Dinanath Ramnaraine. I just couldn't believe the first time I came to know that.

 

[PC Cricket]

Interesting Story will wait fur further chapters

 

[Fenil]

Chapter - 3​

Rivals revealed!

BCCI selectors in the chairmanship of former test cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth today announced the 16 member squad for the test series against the host West Indies. "The team that will go to West Indies for a 3 match test series is as follows:

Gautam Gambhir (c), Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Kohli, Pragyan Ojha, Parvinder Awana, Umesh Yadav, Ashok Dinda, Shantakumaran Shreesanth, Robin Bist, Shahbaz Nadeem and Zaheer Khan" Srikkanth said as he announced the team.

Kris Srikkanth during the press conference​

We have included some talented youngsters in the side who have done well at the domestic level. Let me make it clear that we have took the side purely on the basis of the domestic/international performances of a player and not on the basis of IPL." he informed."The likes of Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin are given rest as we have chosen to give the youngsters ample opportunities to cement their place in the side while Gambhir has a golden opportunity to showcase his captaincy skills and give us more options for the future. The tour will be a good experience for them. Their mettle will surely be tested but I'm sure the young players will impress one and all with their talent and skill in the Carribean. The team for ODI series will be announced after the first test." Kris said before the press conference came to a close.

Meanwhile, WI selectors too announced the squad for the home team. WI squad had no real surprises and went with a solid team as they included the seniors for the first time after the rift between the players and the board ended few days ago.
The chairman of selection committee Clyde Butts said while announcing the team that they had gone with the best possible team and will look for winning the tournament without giving any chances to the rivals. Butts was of the opinion that the inclusion of senior players will boost their team. "With the senior players coming into the side we expect much better cricket from the team this time around and I'm sure that the experience that these players bring in will do a world of good for the rest of the players. We have been playing well for quite a while now but have been unfortunate not to have as many wins under our belt as we deserved given the way we have played. Hopefully, we will beat former world #1 side India."

WI squad: Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adrian Barath, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dinesh Ramdin, Kirk Edwards, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Darren Sammy (c), Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo & Tino Best

 

[AbhishekS]

No Dhoni and Gambhir the skipper. Wonderful!

 

[westindies2007]

WI squad: Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adrian Barath, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dinesh Ramdin, Kirk Edwards, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Darren Sammy (c), Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo & Tino Best

DREAM test side. only weak link in this side for the Test Match is the captain himself and D Ramdin.

1. C Gayle
2. Barath/K Edwards
3. Sarwan (c)
4. Daren Bravo,
5. S chanderpaul,
6. M Samuels/Dywane Bravo
7. D Ramdin (wkt)
8. S Narine/ Bishoo,
9. F Edwards,
10. K Roach,
11. R Rampal.

And if WI can do without Ramdin too.
1. C Gayle
2. Barath/K Edwards
3. Sarwan (c)
4. Daren Bravo (wk)
5. S chanderpaul,
6. M Samuels/Dywane Bravo
7. R Rampal
8. S Narine/ Bishoo,
9. F Edwards,
10. K Roach,
11. T Best

6 Batsmen that can Bat. along with Roach and Rampal who can also bat a little.
4 Quick Bowler and 3 Spinner (Samuel, Gayle, Narine or Bishoo)
4 Quick Bowlers and 2 Spinners ( Gayle and Narine or Bishoo and 1 Med Bowler ( Dwayne Bravo)

would still like to see pollard instead of Dywane Bravo in Test. would like to see how capable is Pollard in Test.


Waterboy Sammy at least he can still captain in between .

 

[Fenil]

Whoa! I didn't know that Darren Bravo can keep wickets as well. Is he good enough to keep long hours in tests or is he just another Umar Akmal/Younis Khan?

I'd personally have Dwayne Bravo or Darren Sammy in the side instead of Tino Best. I included Dwayne Bravo instead of Pollard as Bravo is more experienced and has done well both with bat and ball and in my opinion can be a good #7. It would be hard to keep a specialist keeper like Ramdin out of the team though.

 

[Aislabie]

Whoa! I didn't know that Darren Bravo can keep wickets as well. Is he good enough to keep long hours in tests or is he just another Umar Akmal/Younis Khan?

I'd personally have Dwayne Bravo or Darren Sammy in the side instead of Tino Best. I included Dwayne Bravo instead of Pollard as Bravo is more experienced and has done well both with bat and ball and in my opinion can be a good #7. It would be hard to keep a specialist keeper like Ramdin out of the team though.

Part timer - along the lines of Eoin Morgan I think.

I'd be looking more along the lines of:

Test | ODI | T20
Gayle|Gayle|Gayle
Brathwaite|Fletcher +|Smith
Sarwan|Sarwan|Samuels ^
Nash|Samuels ^|Da Bravo
Chanderpaul|Chanderpaul|Pollard ^
Samuels ^|Dw Bravo ^|Dw Bravo ^
Ramdin +|Pollard ^|Fletcher +
Taylor ^|Russell ^|Cooper ^
Best ^|Taylor ^|Taylor ^
Roach ^|Roach ^|Rampaul ^
Permaul ^|Narine ^|Narine ^

 

[westindies2007]

Whoa! I didn't know that Darren Bravo can keep wickets as well. Is he good enough to keep long hours in tests or is he just another Umar Akmal/Younis Khan?

I'd personally have Dwayne Bravo or Darren Sammy in the side instead of Tino Best. I included Dwayne Bravo instead of Pollard as Bravo is more experienced and has done well both with bat and ball and in my opinion can be a good #7. It would be hard to keep a specialist keeper like Ramdin out of the team though.

yep just a Part time keeper

Part timer - along the lines of Eoin Morgan I think.

I'd be looking more along the lines of:

Test | ODI | T20
Gayle|Gayle|Gayle
Brathwaite|Fletcher +|Smith
Sarwan|Sarwan|Samuels ^
Nash|Samuels ^|Da Bravo
Chanderpaul|Chanderpaul|Pollard ^
Samuels ^|Dw Bravo ^|Dw Bravo ^
Ramdin +|Pollard ^|Fletcher +
Taylor ^|Russell ^|Cooper ^
Best ^|Taylor ^|Taylor ^
Roach ^|Roach ^|Rampaul ^
Permaul ^|Narine ^|Narine ^

Right now Taylor shouldnt be in the WI squad, my personal view.
reason he got no cricket behind him at the moment.
Ofcourse alot of people around de world will support him issue against WICB.
Because he didnt even wanna play for Jamaica, then come around saying he is
still interesting in playing for WI. After his injure two time before he was rule out of favor after he Broke down in the 1st Test again Australia back in 2009/2010. All he was ask is to play for Jamaica which he had reject to play for. Gayle, Pollard, Dywane Bravo played for there Own country after ruling out of Favour. plus all 3 played Cricket around the world. unlike J Tayloe didnt play Cricket in a Very long time and just to bring him back into WI wouldnt be good idea.

for Me sammy Deserved a spot in WI T20 outfit. His Bowling Avg is better than any WI cricketer.

Sammy T20 Career
Match 26
Wickets 30
AVG: 16.43
5wkt : 1
4 Wkts : 1

Cooper I cant say anything about him until he play for WI, because IPL and WI domestic Cricket doesn't show how well a Player is.


Flecther isn't really good. would like to see how well young S Dowrich does, he currently gone England to train.

Plus that Test Team is the same Test Team which WI got trash in the past many many many time. Same batting line up with collapse all the time. nothing different Only instead of Brathwaite it would of been DS Smith. instead of Nash I prefer Daren Bravo , for me D Bravo is a better Test player for our Future.
Plus i perfer K edwards over Brathwaite, Brathwaite still got like ages to learn how to play Cricket. K Edwards just had one series fail. K Brathwaite is a 1 innings batsmen.

S Narine in international Cricket is good, but cant Judge him right now.
Played 2 T20 for WI and haven't gotten a wicket
While ODI played 10, got 15 wicket @ and avg of 25.60
and played 1 Test and gotten no wicket.
dont get me wrong he maybe good, but the hype around him for me isn't there.

Permaul again International cricket is different, but a chance we will see.

WI do have alot of youngster who is hungry for Cricket. WI need to expose more of these youngster.

btw lol sorry Fenil for going away from this story.
but yeah. People May say Sammy doesnt deserved in de Team which includes me, but I really don't see a different between Sammy in the Team and not in the Team. People may have ignore West Indies Worst 11 Between Pakistan tour till Australia Tour. but they had Played very well Cricket.

 

[Fenil]

The Author, I'll be using C07 for simming the games and it hardly uses more than 4 bowlers in a test match.

 

[Fenil]

Chapter - 4​

Visitors Welcomed

Hundreds of fans at Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) roared as the Indian cricket team arrived at Barbados tonight ahead of the 3 match test series. With the plenty of new faces in the side, the team seamed whole new one and it will be interesting to see how they perform without most of their front line players.

Sehwag spotted at the Grantley Adams International Airport (left) while the gathered fans tried to get a glimpse of their stars​

The squad led by Gautam Gambhir wasted no time and went into practice nets as soon as they reached the Kensington Oval. After 3 hours of rigorous net session, Gautam Gambhir spoke to the media. "I'm pretty confident that we have all it takes to beat the West Indies on their own home soil. We know it will be tough but looking at the talent and skill we possess it is certainly not an impossible task." "We have a right mix of young players in Pujara, Nadeem, Bist and others who have been very consistent at the domestic level and at the same time legendary seniors like Sachin, Viru, VVS and Zaheer. However, we don't want to make a foolish mistake of considering our rivals as incapable team. They have some very good players in their ranks who could trouble us when on song." the IPL 2012 winning captain said. When asked about Chris Gayle's form of a lifetime and the danger his side faces from the big man Gauti, as he is fondly called said "It is no doubt that Gayle is a quality player and can take away a game from the rivals on his own but he has had little exposure to international cricket in past couple of years and Tests will be a different ball game. That said, we should not forget that he still is a world class player and has an ability to score triple hundred in the game's longest format"

 

[Fenil]

Chapter - 5​

Eve of the event

As the media waited for the Indian captain Gautam Gambhir to come in the press meeting held on the eve of match day, VVS amazed everyone as he came to the hall and not Gambhir. Murmurs were heard as the bewildered media tried to figure out exactly why Gambhir wasn't present in the meet.

VVS Laxman interacts with media​

One of the reporter immediately shot a question marking the Gambhir's absence. On this, VVS joked "Gambhir is busy with the coach while I have had my net practice for the day and had no other thing to do which is why I came here." Asked about the team combination, the stylish batsman from Hyderabad replied, "We have a look at the pitch. We have had a chat with the curator Winston Reid. The pitch has grass on it at the moment but its not the live green grass. Its pretty dull dry grass and as per what Reid has informed us, it will be rolled off by the start of the match. So, one can expect a dry pitch but we will see how it comes up tomorrow".

On the other hand, WI skipper Sammy has expressed confidence and has said that his team is good enough to beat the former world #1 side. "Indians are pretty good bunch and they have had good times battling against us in recent times but I'm very confident that our team has enough ammuniation in our artilary to handover a defeat to the visitors. If we perform as per our ability, we have all it takes to life the trophy".

Both teams chose not to reveal their preferred line-ups for the match and maintained that it will depend on the situation of the pitch minutes before the game.

 

[Fenil]

Test 1|Day 1
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados​

Hosts on top

When the pitch expert came in, many eyes were on him wanting to know how exactly the much talked about pitch really was. After some observation, the pitch expert, Ian Bishop declared that it was a hard wicket which will give good bounce for the pacers and will gradually become good for strokemaking. India chose to bat first as they won the toss which took place a few minutes later. Both teams went with 1 spinner and 3 specialist pacers. West Indies of course had opted to give a nod to Dwayne Bravo over Marlon Samuels in the opening match of the 3 test series.

The first session saw a good battle between bat and ball as the West Indies bowlers tried to test the technique of Indian openers by bowling bouncers consistently. They also made a good use of slower ones and yorkers. On the other hand, captain Gambhir and otherwise flamboyant Sehwag chose to bat out the bowlers and make sure they don't any wickets. Their cautious approach had much to do with the relatively inexperienced batting order. WI bowlers bowled their heart out in the first session but were wicketless. However, as the Indian duo were starting to play their shots, spinner Sunil Narine got the breakthrough for the home team in the 41st over when Sehwag took the aerial route only to get caught in the hands of Rampual at long on. Pujara, sent at in #3 looked comfortable during his short stay at the crease but Rampaul was quick to remove the man from Saurashtra as the young lad caught in front of the stumps.

Gautam Gambhir tackles one of many short balls during his 211 ball innings​

In came the most experienced batsman for the visitors, Tendulkar who started with some positive strikes. He alongwith Gambhir batted for 22 overs but their partnership didn't do any good as mere 31 runs were added during the period. Just when it looked that the Indians have finally settled their ship, WI captain Sammy gave double jolts to India. First, he had his India counterpart Gautam caught behind for a well made 76 with a peach of a delivery which swung away very late and on the very next ball, he trapped VVS Laxman plumb in front off wickets as the wristy batsman tried to work the ball on the on side for a single which left India tottering at 147/4 in 67.2 overs. The run machine for India in ODIs, Virat Kohli walked into the middle, had some chat with his senior partner at the other end - Sachin Tendulkar - and both played at their chariest best as they looked to play out rest of the day but as the case had been for the entire day, India didn't get the partnership going and Kohli was out caught at gully by Dwayne Bravo off Kemar Roach on 23 when he went for a expensive square drive in a move to break the shackles.

VVS Laxman gets dismissed off a Darren Sammy delivery​

The score now read 187/5 in 87.5 overs as the last recognized batsman for the visitors, Wriddhiman Saha made his way to the crease. WI sensed an opportunity and took an extra hour of time from the umpires Billy Doctrove and Simon Taufel. However, that didn't helped the hosts as Tendulkar got an able ally in his little known partner Saha, who was included in the team in the absence of regular skipper MS Dhoni, batted out rest of the day. Now, the onus will be on these two batsman, to take India to a safe position and if India are to stand any chance in the game they would need at least 350-400 runs on the board against a strong batting Windies line-up. That said, the Calypsos will be looking to wrap up the Indian innings as early as possible when the game resumes on Day 2.

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