Story The Silent Planet tour

[FishBowlMan]

The ICC have finally given up hope of England's caribbean tour being completed. The umpires took them off for bad light in April 2004, and they haven't returned yet.

(If you're not sure what I'm on about, follow this link. Don't worry, its clean!!)

I got the buzz to start another one of these things after reading some excellent stuff in these threads recently. But what to do and where to go? Well, I always have, and probably always will, play as England. So something recent / upcoming with them seemed like a good idea. Now... Vaughnie's doing a first class job with his South Africa tour, so that's out. Stevie H is well and truly cutting the mustard with the ashes series, and me old mucker Gas (or Mr. Contraceptive as he is now being referred to the world over) has rolled up with one of those new-fangled International Season thingies, so who am I to step on his toes? (Apologies if Ive missed anyone here).

Seeing as I am rubbish at the 1-day stuff (and you'll soon find out I'm not much better at the 5-day game), it will be test, test, test all the way.

England are staying at home this summer, and proudly present...

 

[FishBowlMan]

First, I will clarify some house rules:

1: If a green pitch is selected, it will only remain green for random 1, 2 or 3 sessions. Then it will be set to normal for rest of match. Otherwise its unrealistic, and every game will be over by tea-time on day 2.

2: If the cpu wins the toss and decides to bat on a green pitch (duh!), the game is restarted! This continues until I win the toss, or the CPU wins and puts me in. Otherwise its just bloody silly!

3: The teams maybe changed after the first over. e.g. if 5 seamers have been selected and afterwards, it gives you a dusty pitch. It's only fair for a spinner to be brought in.

4: The weather and temperature may change randomly each session. Only 1 level up / down during the day. Any change is possible overnight.


Okey Dokey - that's the technical rubbish out of the way, its match time. Sit back and enjoy the action folks! Its a beautiful sunny day here at Lord's with what can only be described as a normal looking pitch. Reasonably true, but no real pace or bounce to speak of. India have won the toss and are going to have a bat. Here are the teams for this first match.

 

[The_gas]

Hey hey hey, welcome back! Nice presentation there. Bet you will be up late tonight with this :onpc !

Best of luck with the series


Mt Contraceptive :drinks

 

[FishBowlMan]

Cheers Gas - yeah no doubt a cricket-filled weekend to be had What a shame!

Sit back and enjoy the action folks!

Well possibly a bit premature on the action front there folks. India play block after block to start the innings. Chopra gets walloped and next over decides to cut one straight to slip. Dravid promptly nicks one to the keeper and India are in trouble so far at 17 / 2 off 8 overs. Harmison with both wickets with a fine spell of hostile bowling.

At this point, I make the first config change. Decrease CPU difficulty a fraction and also the BattingMatchtype & CPUTacticsDefend to see if we can't up the run rate a smidge!

OK - that seemed to have worked nicely. Tendulkar is now punishing anything short and even a gnat's cock wide of off stump. The flip side is that Sehwag has been run-out going for a risky 2nd down to long off. At lunch, India are 86 / 3 from 28 overs. A steady fightback as they were 17 / 2 at one point.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Welcome back to the second session. Ganguly is playing steadily and is nicely settled, working the ball around for singles and 2's. Tendulkar is slowly moving up through the gears. Harmison took a pasting from his 1st over after lunch. Giles has been brought into the attack, primarily to try and restrict the run-rate a touch. All he has done so far though is give a couple of cracking sweeps to the batsmen. Unfortunately, (sorry for all you Indian and especially Tendulkar) fans, they came off the last ball of two successive overs when the photographer was changing his film.

Butcher came on for a couple of overs as England tried some new ideas! Yeah - that worked well. Tendulkar is now hitting some cracking shots. Two huge 6's - very nice. (I will Fraps him in the 2nd innings - promise)! Unfortunately, another stupid run-out meant he went for 77. Shame really as I was enjoying his innings and he deserved better. With V.V.S. Laxman at the crease (and it looks like he has borrowed Spurs' team bus and parked it in front of the stumps), Ganguly is starting to play a little more freely. The last 2 balls before tea, he played and missed lavish cover drives. I think the quickies will be back on again after tea!

India are 177 / 4 after 55 overs, with Ganguly 46 not out! His partnership of 86 with Tendulkar has left this game evenly poised. Ganguly looks in good form, and the Indian dressing room will be hoping he makes it to three figures in the final session.

More config changes here. I had two edges from the quicks that hit the outside of the bat, and just stopped. Plop! Dead level with the batsman. Values of EdgeFast2 have been changed - but I don't know what the problem is - it just seems to work again.

 

[The_gas]

I think your in a pretty good position. Do you go for broke and play attacking and try to finish them off quickly, or do you sit back and wait for something to happen?

 

[FishBowlMan]

I think your in a pretty good position. Do you go for broke and play attacking and try to finish them off quickly, or do you sit back and wait for something to happen?

The main problem is the pitch. It's doing absolutely nothing. (The edge error that I mentioned didn't help either).
Guess I'll just sit and wait for another run out

 

[The_gas]

The main problem is the pitch. It's doing absolutely nothing. (The edge error that I mentioned didn't help either).
Guess I'll just sit and wait for another run out

You dont sound to confident

 

[FishBowlMan]

Whatever Ganguly had for his tea must have worked. He came out and launched an enormous 6 over the covers and pretty nearly over the stands! It was enough to destroy any confidence that bowling aggressively was the way to go.

Again, Laxman played his role well and held one end up while Ganguly played the most pleasing innings of the day with some spectacular strokes. Vaughn reverted to spin, and when Giles almost had 2 catches in one over - the ball not quite going to hand, Vaughn brought himself on. Although his first over went for 8 runs, his second produced the wicket of Ganguly who was stumped on 78. The 81 partnership with Laxman could prove to be crucial as Giles soon removed Patel & Agarkar in successive balls.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Simon Jones produced a jaffa to have Laxman finally caught at mid-on having been fooled by the pace of an exquisite slower ball. So much for "down to the tail" though as brave resistance by Pathan and Balaji, who is unbeaten on 28 (the majority coming from edges through, over and under the slips and keeper!), mean India closed the 1st day on 275 / 8

 

[The_gas]

Nice screenshots the game is developing nicely . Knowing your batting i think India have the upper hand lets hope the tail dont wag like they just have done against me

 

[FishBowlMan]

Knowing your batting i think India have the upper hand

Very true though lol

 

[m_vaughan]

Ha...nice work there, John. Good to see ya back with our own story. Went through the rules and stuff, and seems like this thing will turn out pretty well.

As far as the match is concerned, I think youve done a good job, to have reduced India to 275-8 at the end of day 1. If you get them bowled out early tomorrow morning, and then probably bat sensibly to get a lead of, say, 100-150, then you should be in a healthy position. But that word "If", you know, is very wicked, as it says a lot, but does little.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Ha...nice work there, John. Good to see ya back with our own story. Went through the rules and stuff, and seems like this thing will turn out pretty well.

As far as the match is concerned, I think youve done a good job, to have reduced India to 275-8 at the end of day 1. If you get them bowled out early tomorrow morning, and then probably bat sensibly to get a lead of, say, 100-150, then you should be in a healthy position. But that word "If", you know, is very wicked, as it says a lot, but does little.

Cheers mate, nice to be back on this side of the bar again. You have a lot more faith in my batting than I do. Still, there's 7 more tests to go after this one, so plenty of time to practice.


Onwards & upwards: Day 2 beginneth. Today's weather exactly the same as yesterday. Hot and sunny. We playing in L.A. or what?

Well these last 2 wickets proved an annoyance for England, with India adding 32 runs to their overnight total to finish their innings on 307 all out. Pathan started where Balaji left off - playing some superb shots. If these are numbers 9 and 10, England could be in trouble if India's middle order wakes up in the second innings.

Some stats for you:

 

[FishBowlMan]

Steve Harmison proved to be the most potent threat. At least 16 of the runs he conceded, came from edges that passed by / over the sips.

Giles held up one end well at times, and pitched in with 3 valuable wickets.

Judging by the puddingy mess of the pitch, England will have to try and maintain their concentration to post a total that at least matches the Indian one. It will be slow going as timing the ball will not be easy.