Story Stick Cricket Cup [Stick Cricket]

[nightprowler10]

ICC announce the Stick Cricket Cup:
Oct 17th, 2005

Following its Captain's Conference, the ICC President Ehsan Mani made an announcement in a press conference that took the whole world by surprise. When asked about the future plans to promote cricket following the Super Series, Mani explained that the ICC has been working with Stick Cricket to organize a tournament that will be held in England following the super series.

More details and sponsors of this tournament will announced soon.

 

[nightprowler10]

ICC announce groups

The ICC have announced further details regarding the tournament. The current ten test playing nations will participate in the tournament. All matches will be 50 overs of length*. The teams have been divided in to two groups according to the latest LG ICC rankings:

Group A

Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
England
Zimbabwe

Group B

Sri Lanka
Pakistan
West Indies
India
Bangladesh

ICC has also announced the sponsors for this tournament besides Stick Cricket. bet365 has been doing a great job providing all sorts of markets for all cricket matches and Spin Magazine has been covering all cricketing events throughout the world in their monthly issues.

*Since there are only 10 overs in SC, 1 over in Stick Cricket will be equivalent of a 5 over spell.

 

[nightprowler10]

The fxtures have now been announced:

*W. Indies vs. India - Lord's, London (India win by 19 runs)
*England vs. Zimbabwe - Headingley, Leeds (England win by 8 wickets)
*Pakistan vs. Bangladesh - The Oval, London (Pakistan win by 7 wickets)
*New Zealand vs. England - The Oval, London (New Zealand win by 7 wickets)
*Sri Lanka vs. W. Indies - Lord's, London
*Australia vs. S. Africa - Old Trafford, Manchester
*India vs. Bangladesh - Edgbaston, Birmingham
*Australia vs. England - Lord's, London
*Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan - Old Trafford, Manchester
*New Zealand vs. Zimbabwe - Edgbaston, Birmingham
*W. Indies vs. Bangladesh - Headingley, Leeds
*S. Africa vs. Zimbabwe - Lord's, London
*New Zealand vs. S. Africa - Old Trafford, Manchester
*Sri Lanka vs. Bangladesh - The Oval, London
*Pakistan vs. India - Edgbaston, Birmingham
*S. Africa vs. England - Lord's, London
*Australia vs. New Zealand - Edgbaston, Birmingham
*Sri Lanka vs. India - Headingley, Leeds
*Pakistan vs. W. Indies - The Oval, London
*Australia vs. Zimbabwe - Lord's, London

 

[nightprowler10]

Squads announced...

Some of the teams participating in the SC Cup have announced their line-ups:

Australia

M. Hayden
+A. Gilchrist
*R. Ponting
D. Martyn
M. Clarke
A. Symonds
S. Watson
B. Hogg
B. Lee
J. Gillespie
G. McGrath

India

G. Gambhir
V. Sehwag
*R. Dravid
S. Tendulkar
S. Ganguly
V. Laxman
+D. Karthik
I. Pathan
L. Balaji
A. Kumble
H. Singh

New Zealand

*S. Fleming
N. Astle
M. Sinclair
S. Styris
H. Marshall
J. Oram
C. Cairns
+B. McCullum
D. Vettori
K. Mills
I. Butler

Sri Lanka

A. Gunawardane
S. Jayasuria
*M. Attapattu
W. Jayantha
+K. Sangakarra
M. Jayawardane
T. Dilshan
U. Chandana
C. Vaas
F. Maharoof
N. Zoysa

West Indies

C. Gayle
W. Hinds
R. Sarwan
B. Lara
*S. Chanderpaul
M. Samuels
D. Bravo
C. Browne
I. Bradshaw
P. Collins
M. Dillon

Pakistan

S. Afridi
T. Umar
Y. Khan
*I. Ul-Haq
Y. Youhana
A. Kamal
A. Razzaq
+K. Akmal
M. Sami
R. Naved-ul-hasan
D. Kaneria

England

M. Threscothick
A. Strauss
*M. Vaughan
P. Collingwood
A. Flintoff
K. Pietersen
+G. Jones
V. Solanki
J. Lewis
D. Gough
S. Harmison

More squads are expected to be announced by tomorrow.

 

[Bilal91]

Good idea mate...

 

[nightprowler10]

South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh have announced their line-ups as well so the games will begin shortly.

South Africa

*G. Smith
H. Gibbs
J. Kallis
J. Rudolph
M. van Jaarsveld
+M. Boucher
S. Pollock
L. Klusener
N. Boje
C. Langeveldt
M. Ntini

Zimbabwe

S. Matsikenyeri
B. Taylor
V. Sibanda
D. Ebrahim
M. Vermuelen
*+T. Taibu
E. Chigumbura
T. Panyangara
P. Utseya
D. Hondo
E. Rainsford

Bangladesh

M. Ashraful
J. Omar
N. Iqbal
R. Saleh
A. Ahmed
+*K. Mashud
M. Rana
M. Rahman
M. Rafique
T. Baisya
N. Hossain

 

[nightprowler10]

Teams arrive in London
Oct 18th, 2005

After taking just a short break from the world's blunders in Australia in the Super Series, all the superstars have now arrived in London followed by the rest of their teams. Many superstars may see this tournament as a chance to redeem themselves after their subpar performances in Australia.

The opener, West Indies vs. India, will be held tomorrow at Lord's cricket stadium, the homeground of cricket, with Rahul Dravid captaining the Indian side for the second time. Dravid said in an interview earlier this week that he sees the Stick Cricket Cup as a chance to prove himself as a good captain, and that with Sachin fit, his chances of doing so improve.

West Indies on the other hand, still sorting out the commercial feud back home that has hurt cricket in many ways, will be looking for a tournament win here in order to bring cricket ratings back up in the islands.

 

[nightprowler10]

West Indies vs India

At the beginning of the very first match of the very first Stick Cricket Cup, India won the toss and decided to bat against the Windies at Lord's. With openers Sehwag and Gambhir at the crease, India started off a bit shoddy not being able to find many gaps. Matters got worse for India when they lost Gambhir early to a swinging yorker from Bradshaw. With Dravid now on the crease, India were scoring at a steady pace of 4.0 runs per over, but Dravid too lost his wicket at the 20 over mark leaving India 84/2.

With Tendulkar's arrival, things finally settled down once again. While Sachin and Sehwag were building a solid partnership, India's runrate dropped below 4.0. On the bright side of things, Sehwag was able to get his half-century after which India's runrate seemed to get back up to 4.0. W. Indies were able to get yet another break-through when Sachin tried to hit one for a six but was instead caught at cover.

Ganguly's arrival surprisingly spelled doom for the W. Indies. In the last 15 overs of the inning Sehwag and Ganguly went on a scoring blitz off of Bravo and Collins which saw the ball landing past the rope a few times. Ganguly took his score to 41* at the end of the inning while the resilient Sehwag was able get his much deserved century. India scored 228 runs for the loss of just three wickets.

 

[nightprowler10]

Sarwan's century in vain

Gayle and Hinds walked on to the pitch ready to chase a relatively small target. After scoring 12 runs off of the first two overs, Windies lost Gayle early when one of Pathan's deliveries edged off of his bat and smashed into his off stump. India couldn't be happier after dismissing Gayle so early, but Sarwan was about to give Indian fans something to cry about. Sarwan started hitting the ball all over the Lord's stadium. This one man show took the Windies runrate well past 5.0 and India looked to be done for.

Even after Hinds dismissal by Kumble, nothing seemed to slow Sarwan down, and to make matters worse he was now somehow taking most of the strike with Lara enjoying the show on the other end. India got their biggest break-through when Ganguly was finally able to take Sarwan down shortly after his century, and it was all downhill for the Windies from that point on.

In rapid succession, Kumble got rid of Chanderpaul and then Samuels, leaving Windies 170/5 after 45 overs. Despite a valiant effort from Lara and Bravo, the W. Indies were only able to add on another 39 runs falling short of the target by 19 runs. Anil Kumble was India's star bowler with the figures of 3/30 in 10 overs.

India beat the West Indies by 19 runs.

 

[nightprowler10]

Man Of The Match

Though it was a tough competition between Virender Sehwag and Anil Kumble competing for the MOM award, it was Sehwag who got the nod for his fantastic century and his timely batting that helped him carry his bat throughout the inning.

 

[sid_19840]

What is this game and where did you get it?

 

[nightprowler10]

What is this game and where did you get it?

Its Stick Cricket mate. Its a flash game that you can play at http://www.stickcricket.com

Its not a serious cricket game. I've been playing it for a while now and figured it'd be fun to make a story out of it, in case people are bored of BLIC and C2K5 crappy graphics and wanna enjoy SC's superb graphics. (<<joke)

 

[nightprowler10]

Stick Cricket Points table after first ODI

 

[MWaugh]

thread title changed as per request

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Hehehe. Your playing the two player :rtfl Who against?