Story Oceania Premier League:***End of Story!***

Who are you backing in the OPL Grand Final?


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Your graphics are really great and great update.
Good writing there too but Graphics outshone it.

With the Eagles now.:D
 
How do you do that? :eek:

The Jesse Ryder pic IMO was better than the Johnson one, only because you managed to get the creases right on the Ryder one when he was playing a shot and in Johnson's one he was just standing there.
 
Northern Eagles v Tasmania Diablos

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Changed-up Eagles fail to defend against Diablos

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Tim Paine led from the top of the order and showed his class

The Northern Eagles rang the changes for their first Super 8 outing against the Tasmania Diablos at home at Seddon Park in Hamilton. They not only changed their playing strip (both teams' normal strips are white) but also made several alterations to their lineup. Bangladeshi Tamim Iqbal was given his first chance of the OPL, in place of Sachin Sarfaraz Khan at the top of the order. Angelo Mathews also gained his first spot, in place of Kemar Roach who had pulled his hamstring, and BJ Watling was given an opportunity as a makeshift keeper, replacing Lou Vincent. The Diablos also made a couple of more minor changes, with Brett Geeves replacing Stuart Broad, and Craig Kieswetter coming back in, dislodging Ed Cowan at the top of the order.

The Eagles made a laboured start to their innings after being put in by the Diablos - the top three were barely troubled by the fine pace bowling duo of Aamer and Asif, but hardly got out of first gear. Iqbal looked classy for his 47 but seemed to lack awareness, leaving too many balls alone outside off stump. Guptill however, re-energised the innings with a sparkling, unbeaten 47 which featured several classic straight drives and elegant pull shots on one leg. And so after a sluggish start the Eagles managed to post a competitive 153 from their 20 overs.

They would need their pace bowlers to fire but unfortunately, they didn't really. Southee was less effective as an opener, as opposed to his normal role as a death bowler, and James Anderson had one of his proverbial "off days"- even though he didn't go for that many runs, he was wayward and lacked penetration. In contrast, Kieswetter and Paine were right on their game, getting their team off to a flying start from where they wouldn't look back. Paine won an important battle against Vettori, knocking the Eagles' premier spinner out of the game, but Kane Williamson stood up and ended up capturing two victims.

A brilliant run out from Tamim Iqbal and wickets from Williamson and Styris managed to take the game down to the last over, with the Diablos looking like blowing a comfortable position. Styris bowled his heart out but in the end Paine kept his head and was a deserved winner - having played so well throughout the innings, he continued on and sealed the game from the last ball, breaking the Eagles' hearts and winning those of his teammates.


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Tasmania Diablos won by 6 wickets

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Lovely work JC, your presentation and writing skills are amazing, really are a benchmark for the rest of the forum.

Good win Tas, awesome effort by Paine, great stuff pal :)
 
One thing I don't get though - why is Guptill bowling four overs a game and Tuffey none?
 
Sim problems plus something to do with how JC rated his bowling.
 
Super 8, Game 3: Queensland Thunder v United-Territories Gators

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Thunder haul down big Gators' total for first Super 8 win

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Matthew Hayden led an incredible chase with a timely return to form

After making 182/2 from their 20 overs, the United Territories Gators would have been confident of beginning their Super 8 with a win. Virender Sehwag with a cavalier 68 from 48, and Jacques Kallis with an exhilirating 88 from as many deliveries, had earlier demoralised the Thunder's bowlers with a 140 run opening partnership. The Queenslanders looked stunned and had no reply - only part time spinners JP Duminy and Andrew Symonds claimed wickets.

But to be feeling so confident would have been to be reckoning without the skill of the Thunder's own opening pairing. 140? Nothing! - try 183!

Matthew Hayden had previously had two failures in the Thunder's first two efforts but he made amends with a destructive 99 from a mere 47 deliveries. Wielding a "Mongoose" for much of the later part of his innings, he clubbed his way past fifty from just 22 balls and only a late onslaught from Kamran Akmal (who made a hard hitting 67 in his own right) prevented the born and bred Queenslander from posting a hundred. Josh Hazlewood would have been pleased with his economy rate but all the other Gators bowlers were more or less taken to the cleaners by the dominant Thunder's openers, as they cantered to a 10 wicket win with 17 balls to spare.


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Queensland Thunder won by 10 wickets

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Real nice touch putting the actual team jerseys onto the players. Shows you're putting in a real effort to make this story great. Well done.
 
Well, that's an amazing chase by the Queensland team.

Excellent work on the jersey again, JC.
 
Super 8, Game 5: Tasmania Diablos v Capital Pulse

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Pulse fall short to Diablos, despite fighting Elliott

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Elliott fought hard, but it was in vain

Both sides came into the match having won their first game of the Super 8 stages, but it would be the Tasmania Diablos who would come out of the game unbeaten.

For the second time in two games the Diablos' innings was led by two young aspiring wicket keeper batsmen at the top of the order. Following on from his match winning performance, Tim Paine struck the ball crisply and ran very well between the wickets with Craig Kieswetter, who played aggressively and looked to hit the ball hard. It paid off for both batsmen - Paine reached his second consecutive half century off just 37 balls, and Kieswetter blasted his way to his 50 from just 34. After their blistering start the Diablos were always going at around 9 or 10 an over and no bowler went for under 8 a over, other than Umar Gul who bowled very well at the death, claiming Ponting's scalp for a golden duck, and limiting the runs very well. However the Tasmanians still finished with a formidable total of 194, which would take some chasing.

The Pulse turned to Ryder, who had been instrumental in their successes thus far, to hit them into a winning position but on this occassion it was beyond him. He hit the ball cleanly but could only score at around a run a ball, and the Pulse were badly hit by two run outs which did for both their openers before either of them could really get going.

Although Stephen Fleming had had a miserable tournament up till now, the Pulse could have used his experience in chasing totals this time, as no one other than Elliott chased with conviction - Fleming's replacement Brendan Taylor and Luke Woodcock seemed to have little idea of how to chase a large total - they either hit out too early and didn't have any belief, or mucked around for too long. Meanwhile Elliott played a very intelligent innings and managed to push a lot of singles and hit boundaries in between, meaning he faced very few dot balls.

However in the end the Pulse were always behind the eight ball - it was only a late flurry of runs all around the park from Elliott which got them as close as they did, which was still far too short. He finished on 99 not out, a man of the match winning performance, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to win the match for his side.


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Tasmania Diablos won by 35 runs

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It's actually very simple. What I do is just find a photo with the player in a white kit. Then I add another layer, set it to multiply, and use a simple paint brush to colour the kit the colours I want. From there it's easy enough to add logos etc.
 
Super 8, Game 6: Eagles v Lions

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Eagles storm to victory over inconsistent Lions

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Tendulkar delighted the crowd with a masterful unbeaten 89

Some disciplined bowling from the Eagles attack, coupled with some delightful strokeplay from their celebrity openers, made for a surprisingly easy win over the Pacific Lions who didn't play particularly poorly, but just didn't get the rub of the green.

Batting first on an Eden Park pitch which had a bit in it, the Lions were able to post a fairly competitive looking total of 144, thanks to good innings from Noema-Barnett at the top of the order, and Kieron Pollard at no. 4. Noema-Barnett, normally a biffer of the ball, was surprisingly restrained and batted sensibly to reach a well compiled 58. Pollard meanwhile was back to his usual blasting self, hitting at a strike rate of over 200 for his last 20 runs, albeit after a fairly slow start.

But the outstanding skill of Umar Akmal and particularly Sachin Tendulkar made the Eagles innings seem to be on a different pitch - they effortlessly rocketed the score up past that which the Lions set within 16 overs. While Akmal looked spectacular in his audacious strokeplay, Tendulkar's innings was an absolute gem in the mastery of it. Every ball seemed to come off the dead centre of the bat, and every ball seemed to go exactly where he intended - on very few occassions did he hit the ball through or over the infield and not get rewarded with a boundary, such was his finesse at finding gaps.

So while the Diablos (with 2 wins) are assured of a spot in the playoffs, unless the Lions can somehow pull off a thrashing of the Tasmanians, the key game in the Group will now be the clashing of the Pulse and the Eagles in Hamilton, to decide the other team in the group to qualify for the playoffs.


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Northern Eagles won by 10 wickets

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Wow! Brilliant story. I'm going to follow this regularly now-on-wards. Excellent writing and presentation is also magnificent.

Awesome Graphics and perfect ratings make this league a Grand one.

You've managed this like a charm JC. :thumbs
 

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