Story My Journey Through County Cricket [C2k4]

[PhilD123]

Lancs well on top Nice to see that the game is realistic! No wickets involving Hegg in that update . Never mind, nice way to start your career!

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Sorry for lack of updates guys, been a bit busy lately.

Will try update sometime next week

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Final session. Surrey 6 down, with Azhar Mahmood and Rikki Clarke at the crease, with the score on 156. When we came out for the final session of the day, we looked on top with our bowlers keeping the runs down and only giving the odd single or a couple of runs away. However, the partnership did ride their luck a bit, with Clarke being hit on the pad and Clarke again surviving a very tight run-out chance. We were starting to think if this partnership would continue to frustrate us, that was until Andrew Flintoff was brought back into the attack, managing to trap A. Mahmood in front with a beautiful delivery. Mahmood went to defend a delivery pitching in line with offside but suddenly, the ball nipped back in and was eventually going on to it the middle stump, sending Azhar Mahmood back to hutch with Surrey in all sorts of trouble on 173/7 with Harbhajan Singh heading in.

A lovely piece of bowling provides the breakthrough​

Clarke was fighting a lone battle now, batting with the tail. However, he refused to just lie down and die hitting some nice shots off our bowling including a straight drive for 4 off the bowling of Flintoff. Once again though, our bowling proved to much for yet another Surrey batsman and Flintoff picked up the wicket of Rikki Clarke with yet another typical Freddie delivery. Clarke once again tried to drive Flintoff to the fence again but only managed to get an edge which carried to gully where Dominic Cork took a smart, one-handed catch to dismiss Surrey's last real hope of getting up to a decent total. Surrey now 182/8.

A great catch from Cork almost wraps up Surrey's innings​

With Singh and Mohammed Akram now at the crease, we targeted Singh as we knew he could scored some quick runs, which we were not going to allow. Law brought me back on for a spell and myself and Freddie managed to tie down the tail-enders and make them work hard, just to get the ball off the square! Surrey's running had been a huge problem with their recognised batsman, so when the tail-enders came in, you would expect chaos. That's exactly what happened when Singh called for a quick single hitting the ball my way but I was quick enough to get ball in to Flintoff who made a complete mess of the stumps with Singh yards short of his ground. Surrey now 182/9 with Ormond heading in.

Another run-out means that Surrey's misery is almost over​

Again, me and Freddie shared the ball and we both desperately wanted to get the last remaining wicket and you could tell this by the speed we were bowling. Freddie clocking up 95mph in one of his deliveries and myself falling slightly shorter on a mere 92mph. On a few deliveries we pushed a bit too hard resulting in a few no-balls which added to the extras column, but fortunately, Ormond and Akram were basically at a stand still with Akram the only one of the two scoring any runs off the bat in the brief partnership. Surrey's innings was finally ended by that man Flintoff again, trapping Akram with yet another LBW, the fourth of the innings. It was a slighty shorter ball than usual, but Flintoff used his brilliance and disguised it as a slower ball which proved to be too much for Akram. That wicket brought an end to Surrey's innings and they'd managed to post an overall total of 187.

​

After a short break, it was time for our turn to bat and chase down Surrey's score which we thought we had every chance of doing. Our openers, Chilton and Sutcliffe, made a great start scoring at a quick rate with Chilton taking the more attacking role and Sutcliffe nudging singles and rotating the strike. This was until Chiltion tried an on-drive and got caught LBW off the bowling of Ormond for only 9 runs. Chilts was understandably fuming as he looked like he could go on and make a big score. However, there were no doubts with the umpire's decision as it was a straight-forward LBW, which would have had the ball going on to it the off and middle stumps.

After a good start, Chilton gave his wicket away​

The fall of Chilton brought our number 3 in, Brad Hodge, who came in and looked in control hitting a few crisp shots with very few scares. He and Sutcliffe played well together and managed to score the runs at a quick rate and guided Lancashire to 44/1 after 12 overs, and ending the days play. It was a positive end to an overall good days play from our perspective and it gave us a platform to go on and get past Surrey's total and hopefully gain a vital first innings lead. It was almost the perfect way to start my County cricket career, with my team looking in a fairly strong position.

​

 

[treva]

Nice update that Stu. Enjoyable reading

The game is in Lancashire's hands here. If they make a big score, it is game over. But they do need to take their time considering 3 days still to play...

 

[PhilD123]

Brilliant from Flintoff, getting rid of the tail quickly.

Unlucky to lose Chilts early on, but Hodge and Sutcliffe will now build a platform.

Great work Culli.

 

[surendar]

Bowling at 92mph is amazing And also very economical. What a start to the career. Unlucky that Murali ending only with 2 Wkts.

Like Trev said, Lancashire is on top. Also nice presentation Stu.. the thing which strike me is, if the same match has been played in CKT05, you wud have had stadium packed full of fans This shows CKT04 is realistic compared to 05 though

 

[Deleted member 13648]

The thing which strike me is, if the same match has been played in CKT05, you wud have had stadium packed full of fans This shows CKT04 is realistic compared to 05 though

Yeah, I'm absolutely loving playing a cricket game for once!

 

[gamerkid22]

Great work culli . actually i didnt see that u have also started a story . nice story mate . just scrolled through the upadates but now i will read each and every line of this story .

 

[Deleted member 13648]

At the start of day 2, Sutcliffe and Hodge carried on where they left off from the day before, scoring freely and bringing up the team's 50 with the loss of only one wicket. However, the pair only managed 3 more runs until the 2nd wicket had fallen, that of Ian Sutcliffe. In Azhar Mahmood's first over, he'd managed to make the breakthrough tempted Sutcliffe to go over the top of the covers, but only picked out Mark Butcher who made no mistakes in taking a simple catch. The score now on 53/2 with the captain, Stuart Law, heading to the crease, hoping to carry on the positive start made by Sutcliffe and Hodge.

Another batsman made a good start but failed to capitalise on it​

Law came in and looked to take the attack to Akram playing at every ball but didn't manage to get any runs. He'd managed to fend off 3 balls from Akram and then suddenly, Akram made it 2 wickets in a single over, thanks to a complete lack of self-discipline and judgement from Law. A ball that pitched on middle stump, Law tried to slog-sweep Akram to the fence but only managed in making himself look completely foolish and putting his side under pressure that could have easily been avoided. The score 53/3 now and you could sense the momentum shifting from our corner into Surrey's. However, when you're in that sort of situation, it's always a nice sight seeing Andrew Flintoff stride out to the crease.

Law completely mis-read the line of the ball, and put us in deeper trouble​

Flintoff came in and looked comfortable at the crease, striking the ball well and his running between the wickets was top-notch. One of his particular strokes was a lovely cover drive for four runs which wouldn't have looked out of place in a coaching-manual. The pair, Hodge and Flintoff, looked comfortable together and were happy to rotate the strike and try and frustrate the bowlers. This was however until Hodge tried to flick the newly introduced Rikki Clarke off his pads and was caught plumb in front. The shot wasn't too bad, it was just a good delivery from Clarke. This wicket meant that I was into the firing line for my first innings in County cricket. The score on 61/4, I came out with my new Woodworm gear on. I was surprisingly calm, I imagined that was because I'd be batting with one of the finest players in the World. Freddie told me to take each ball as it came and just play my natural game. Simpler said than done. Soon enough, I had my eye in and we were both looking strong with our stroke play. A few overs after Hodge's wicket, Harbhajan Singh was introduced into the attack. I didn't manage to face him in his first over but Freddie kept one of the World's top spinners out well. However, into Singh's second over Freddie took a single, giving me the strike.

I might look calm, but I was cacking myself at this point​

It might have calmed me down slighty that the 2nd ball I faced off Singh, sailed back over his head, clearing the rope in the process! It was probably the greatest strike of my entire cricketing career. Freddie came over and said, "I tell you what lad, it's the Woodworm doing that!" I couldn't help but laugh and that was the main thing I enjoyed about the moment, I was enjoying myself at the crease. Freddie's personality and character had obviously rubbed off on me and I was playing my best cricket with the big man. We both were hitting boundaries freely, and Freddie brought up the 100 with a drive that we ran two off. Shortly aftwerwards, we reached another milestone, our fifty partnership, which I brought up from a sweep off Harbhajan. We had a slight scare when after a hesitated call from myself, nearly got Flintoff out. However, quick running again saved my blushes.

Quick running from Freddie and the run was made safely in the end​

After this scare, it was back to business and we'd managed to take Harbhajan Singh out of the attack completely, with some fierce hitting from the both of us. Lunch came quite quickly and myself and Freddie contemplated on our performances so far, but we both knew that we had a lot of work still to do yet.

​

Sorry for no pictures of Hodge's wicket, GameCam freaked out on me slighty.

 

[PhilD123]

Its Lancs though Suren, everyone should be there! Law going for 0 Nice start to your innings despite nearly criminally running out Fred, I dont think you would have been the most favourite person in the dressing room if you had done. A bit of a collapse but you and Fred have done well to steady the ship.

Nice work Stu.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Nice start to your innings, you need to concentrate on batting and stop messing about with freddie though If you'd run himk out he would have been well annoyed! Lancs need to make a big lead here as they have to bat last against Harbhajan

 

[Deleted member 11215]

good start now you need to focus on batting.

 

[surendar]

"I tell you what lad, it's the Woodworm doing that!"

If you wud have chosen MRF, it wud have been out of the stadium Smashing the quality spinner so early in career sounds promising.

 

[treva]

Good start there from yourself Stu, although at 61/4 and you coming in, I would of expect a big collapse (hearing about your real life batting )

Anyways great work with the bat here Stu and hope you can continue on in the next session

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Good start there from yourself Stu, although at 61/4 and you coming in, I would of expect a big collapse (hearing about your real life batting )

You'll find out when (if ) you get to the big stage you get some nervous energy and you find out that your skills are much better!

And to be honest, my stats aren't that high on the game.