The Block(er)Chain Draft

[blockerdave]

In that case. I think I need a bowler. Which is going to mean I'm taking Stuart Broad and using my chain break.

All the bowlers Curtly played with against and you break the chain for Stuart Broad...

I need a shower, I feel all dirty.

 

[Ed Smith]

All the bowlers Curtly played with against and you break the chain for Stuart Broad...

I need a shower, I feel all dirty.

Could be related to me watching his 8fer against Australia earlier, but never mind

 

[ahmedleo414]

@Dale88 forgot to tag @Yash. so you can continue with Stuart Broad as your link

 

[Yash.]

I’ll use my chain break here to take Sydney Barnes[DOUBLEPOST=1605232934][/DOUBLEPOST]@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

I want Bart King, and as far as I can tell none of the teams he played against on the various Philadelphia tours of England contained S F Barnes. So I’ll use my break and select Bart King.

Over to @CerealKiller

 

[qpeedore]

The @blockerdave Blocker-chains are coming into play. (Just btw, don't ever name an FC team that). Then again...a ChainBlocker named team might actually be sort of decent...but getting wayyy into my creative side here. So it's @CerealKiller next.

 

[CerealKiller]

I'll break the chain as well, and take one of the most underrated spinners of all time, Rangana Herath. If we’re playing in Asia, he'll act as chief tormentor, otherwise he can hold up one end perfectly.

CerealKiller's XI
1. Hanif Mohammad
2. Graeme Pollock
3. Sir Donald Bradman
4.
5.
6. Ian Botham
7. Adam Gilchrist
8. Wasim Akram
9. Rangana Herath
10. Dale Steyn
11.

@qpeedore

 

[qpeedore]

Not breaking the chain here. I'm going along with the rules of this thread and also saving my one chain break for later. Let's see...Herath did play a hell of a long time in FC. But really mostly in Sri Lanka. Hmm. Alright, I've got it. And I know I do tend to put players' full names in this thread, but I think we can all agree when it comes to Sri Lankans, my keyboard would probably explode if I dare try to type a full name.

Normally he'd bat a 4, but he has some experience at 3, and he would actually anchor my squad at that spot. Let the West Indians bat around him while silently getting to a century in his own way. There are very few batsmen who can play out of the textbook like him, and that's why (I'm going to just copy and paste it instead of trying to type it all)...that's why Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene bats at three in my team.

1. Gordon Greenidge
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Mahela Jayawardene
4. Sir Everton Weekes
5. Sir Clyde Walcott
6. Sir Garry Sobers
7. Johnny Douglas
8.
9. Sir Curtly Ambrose
10.
11.

My bowling attack is horribly, terribly at stake for my last three picks, but I've got a trick or two up my sleeve.

@Aislabie who will use his VARP and kill my entire squad.

 

[Aislabie]

AB de Villiers

Test stats: 8,765 runs @ 50.66 (22 centuries, best 278*) in 114 matches
Batting VARP (middle order): 73.22%
First-class stats: 10,689 runs @ 49.71 (25 centuries, best 278*) in 141 matches

The all-time highest Test batting average as a wicket-keeper (min. 10 Tests) belongs quite comfortable to the very talented AB de Villiers: a truly remarkable 57 that matches his career number in the middle-order. So why, if this was a player who averaged 57 come rain or shine was his career number a bit lower? Well, because selectors love nothing more than misusing players, and de Villiers spent 20 Tests opening the batting and averaging a merely good 36. We'll not be doing that.

Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3. Kumar Sangakkara
4. Greg Chappell
5. AB de Villiers
6.
7. Mike Procter
8. Alan Davidson
9. Hedley Verity
10. Shane Warne
11. Glenn McGrath

@ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

I am having a really hard time decding on my batting order, but i do I know I need Jacques Kallis in the lineup. I have to move Andy Flower all the way down to 7. I still have yet to use my chain break

Here is my team as it stands now.

1. ?
2. Herbert Sutclliffe
3. Ricky Ponting
   
4. Brian Lara
5. Zaheer Abbas
6. Jacques Kallis
7. Andy Flower
   
8. ?
9. ?
10. Courtney Walsh
11. Lance Gibbs

@Aislabie you are next again

 

[CerealKiller]

I am having a really hard time decding on my batting order, but i do I know I need Jacques Kallis in the lineup. I have to move Andy Flower all the way down to 7. I still have yet to use my chain break

Here is my team as it stands now.

1. ?
2. Herbert Sutclliffe
3. Ricky Ponting
   
4. Brian Lara
5. Zaheer Abbas
6. Jacques Kallis
7. Andy Flower
   
8. ?
9. ?
10. Courtney Walsh
11. Lance Gibbs

@Aislabie you are next again

Had already selected him, changed my pick at the last minute, because i wanted a spinner, and Herath was available

 

[Aislabie]

Virender Sehwag

Test stats: 8,586 runs @ 49.34 (23 centuries, best 319) in 104 matches
Batting VARP (opener): 113.05%
First-class stats: 14,683 runs @ 47.36 (42 centuries, best 319) in 194 matches

What do you call an opening batsman who scores at five an over but averages 50? Virender Sehwag. Whilst the change in the expectations of a wicket-keeper pre- and post-Gilchrist are well documented, the expectation of a Test opener to be someone who doesn't just lay a foundation, but sets a tempo is less so. But it is for that reason that time and again, even the best teams in the world have picked a middle-order batsman who opens against the white ball to do it against the red one. Because, for India, for a decade or so, it worked so well that it took them from Test match strugglers into world-beaters. And it might never have happened if it weren't for a generation of middle-order batsmen - Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman, Sehwag - that just didn't all fit in the same Test team. So one of them would have to open, and that one was Sehwag. And he became arguably the best India has ever had.

Aislabie's XI so far:
1. Virender Sehwag
2.
3. Kumar Sangakkara
4. Greg Chappell
5. AB de Villiers
6.
7. Mike Procter
8. Alan Davidson
9. Hedley Verity
10. Shane Warne
11. Glenn McGrath

@Yash.

 

[ahmedleo414]

And there goes my next pick

 

[qpeedore]

My batsmen have already been picked, but I really did consider Kallis (who can be in any team as a pure bowler if needed) and my favourite Indian player in VVS Laxman. Sehwag was there or thereabouts but with Greenidge and Haydos, he had no chance of being picked. My middle order has the legacy behind them. I really am at odds with my bowling now though.

 

[Ed Smith]

1. Mark Taylor
2. Wilfred Rhodes
3. Len Hutton
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Clive Lloyd
6. 
   
7. Waqar Younis
8. Stuart Broad
9. 
   
10. 
    
11. Michael Holding

Just going to keep this here so I know where I'm at