Story The Tasmanian Green to the Baggy Green? [UPDATED!! - Greetings from Warwickshire!]

[mattfb]

What you going to do when I start the Aussie Domstic roster?

Haha, i'll use it but not for my story probably.

 

[mattfb]

Chapter 3: vs Western Australia - ING cup
8 months flew by, and before I knew it I was preparing for my first match in domestic cricket. I training really well over the past few months whilst settling in nicely and Tim has rewarded me by putting me in at number 5 for today's match against Western Australia. Ricky Ponting and his Australian men were on tour so both teams were without stars. We were only without Punter so it was still a strong squad.

We hoped on the flight 2 days ago and we were all excited for the first game of the season. The boys that played last season wanted to make up for the disappointing season last year. Western Australia were still a good squad without their internationals so travelling away to their will be hard and we will need to be on top of our games. The plane trip was uneventful, I had a bit of a snooze and read some magazines. We were getting their early to have a bit of training and check out how the pitch was looking in the days beforehand.

We arrived at the ground at 8:00am this morning for the 11am start and checked out the conditions of the pitch. It's a drop in pitch and shouldn't hold many surprises. A lot of runs should be scored on this today so I'm hoping I can cash in which would be a good way to debut. I'm excited to see I've been put in at 5, my favourite position. But there is a lot of pressure because it is an important position. I feel honoured to be put so high though, I've been put above Marsh but I think that is because Marsh is a better attacker then me. Doherty has been left out of the squad which means Marsh and I will be the 2 spinners. I'm not much of a spinner, I just get the job done and bowl long tight spells. I don't have any tricks nor do I get a lot of spin so I would imagine Marsh will be the main spinner with me just coming in if things get a little out of hand.

We went out on the ground not long after for a bit of ball catching and fielding. We want to bat first but it's always good to be prepared. I was feeling a bit nervous but was also extremely excited. I knew Tim had faith in me which was helping. Not long later Jamie Cox was out there doing the toss. We watched from a distance and heard Coxxy call head. Unfortunately it came down tails Goodwin decided to have a bat. I wasn't all that upset, I could calm the nerves out in the field first.

So we continued our fielding practice as the bowlers warmed up. We then headed back into the rooms to get our gear on where I started chatting to veteran Jamie Cox

"Hey mate, how you feeling?"

"Alright, a little nervous but I guess it can calm down on the field"

"Yep, that's right. I'm planning to give you a bowl fairly early if Ronchi and Marsh get going. You've done alright in the nets so you deserve your chance. You will be getting the ball either way today anyway"

"Thanks mate, I won't let you down."

Brilliant! If Ronchi and Marsh were firing I would be given the ball early, but for the teams sake I hope it doesn't happen. I'm glad to see I'll be given a chance with the ball. I was feeling really excited as we made our way onto the field. Ronchi and Marsh were out just behind us and the small WA applauded. This was it, I'd finally made it. At the age of 19 I still have another 16 years of cricket at least, so it was great I have already started my career.

------------------------------

I'm M.Coll. That's not my actual last name, I cut off the rest of it off. No one will probably believe me, but it's true.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Nice to see you in the starting Xi. Hope you have a great match. Good luck with the bowling. and then the batting,

Nice writing and a great story so far.

 

[Mad Snake]

Very nice Matty, i like this, and when will Jessica be back

 

[Covvy]

Nice start mate. LOL Diva should open and Birt should go to number 3. Where's Klingleffer for the Wicket Keeping spot

 

[Roofrom50]

Good start matty. Hope ya break a leg son

 

[mattfb]

Nice start mate. LOL Diva should open and Birt should go to number 3. Where's Klingleffer for the Wicket Keeping spot

Birt is a fairly defensive player (Well he is in this game) so I would rather him up top to get us off to a steady start. Dawson is a better batter then Klingleffer.

Cheers for the comments everyone.

 

[mattfb]

Chapter 3: vs WA - ING cup

As we made our way onto the field I took up my fielding spot at mid off. Mid off isn't my favourite spot, I prefer slip or covers but I felt I would get a fair bit of the ball at mid off so I wasn't disappointed. We got off to a great start with Wright and Griffith bowling really well. They kept it tight and Ronchi and Marsh struggled which is unusual. Both batsmen are usually quick scoring batsmen so it was great to keep them on their toes.

Luke Ronchi and Shaun Marsh were starting to get annoyed at their slow start. They were playing a lot of loose shots and played and missed a fair few times. Marsh was constantly trying to cut but kept failing. The ball was always close to the edge though. Wright was fired up and one ball hit Marsh straight on the body. It hurt him quite a bit as he stayed down for a while. We were all pumped and were looking good.

But these chances that were making us excited were starting to get really annoying. I think it was annoying for the batsmen too though and they were starting to show it with more and more loose shots. We hit the batsmen a few times which was good but when balls were landing short and just beating the edge that was just plain annoying. Both sides were getting a bit frustrated.

But in the 6th over we got the breakthrough.. Wright noticed how annoyed Ronchi was getting and decided to tempt him with a fairly full ball. It worked. Ronchi went after it as hard as he could and nearly swung himself off his feet. He didn't keep his head still and completely missed it and it just clipped off stump. I got a brilliant view of it from Mid off and we were all excited when the ball knocked the bails off. Ronchi walked off looking really angry with himself, and quite blatantly so he should be. His side are under pressure and that was a poor shot. Honestly, it looked like he didn't want to be their with all the pressure on him so he decided to hit out or get out.

"Well bowled mate! Another couple of those and we'll be in the driver's seat"

"Don't worry mate there's more of that just around the corner!"

"Don't get to cocky boys, Goody and I have hundreds coming up"

"Whatever Shaun, your next. Your off stump's gonna go."

I truly believed that to. Marsh was looking really shaky and kept playing and missing. He got hit once or twice as well and was getting lucky. I felt he would probably be on his way back to the pavilion pretty soon. Wright was pumped up and we had a Downton was roaring to go warming up every 2 minutes. I was getting into this, and got a few touches of the ball at mid off. I haven't really had much to do. At the end of the over I walked past Marsh on my way to my fielding spot.

"You useless piece of sh*t, I'm gonna hammer you all around the park."

"Yeah yeah talk it up. Let's see if your even in when I come into the attack. I highly doubt it though as staying in for 15-20 over's isn't something you can do."

I wasn't going to be intimidated. If that twat thinks he can have a go at me then he is rudely mistaken. Wright and Griffith continued there good bowling and Marsh was looking shaky. I felt I might have gotten to him which I was happy about. Showed he was mentally weak.

Wright and Griffith were getting a little tired and it was showing a bit. Goodwin only just came in but he was taking his time playing himself in. The run rate wasn't getting out of hand but they were loosening up. I was still confident though as they had dug themselves into a deep hole already. But Marsh was starting to make contact with a few more shots that he was previously missing. That said he still wasn't taking things to the extreme.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Wow!!1 great start to the match Matt. Quick wicket of Luke Ronchi was very important and Marsh looks to be struggling at the start but looks to get his rhythm back. Hope you get the ball soon and clean up Marsh.

Great writing and brilliant gfx.

 

[Jaztheman]

Ronchi deserved to go after all those chances that he gave, but in the end he went to slog a ball which should not be. Hit out or get out indeed. Marsh looked like he was going to get the same treatment but has got better as the match got on and is looking more settled now. Hopefully your team can get a few more wickets.

Great presentation, mate. Keep it up.

 

[Highlander999]

Nice wriiting Matt, lots more coarse language than mine

I say you get those EA Stumps and start beating Marsh over the head with them Oh yeah, we need a flying fridge

 

[mattfb]

Chapter 3: vs WA ING Cup

With Marsh starting to look comfortable and playing his shots with freedome Cox decided to make a change. Griffith was the man who was coming off for Downton. Griffith was the man who came off after a very good spell of clean and tidy bowling. He didn't pick up the wicket but he kept the pressure on and bowled nice and straight. Downton is a good bowler and a strike bowler too so I thought it was smart to bring him on. He kept on the pressure early and then he managed to strike in his second over with a full ball that drew Marsh into the shot. Marsh had hit 4 boundaries and was looking for another, but Downton managed to bring it back a tad and took out Marshes leg stump.

"On your bike matey!!"

"Shut it kid before I smash my bat into your head."

"Have a cry."

"That's enough boys, cool it before I send you both to the match referee"

Maybe it was a good thing the umpire stepped it because I felt it was only a matter of time before Marsh did smash me with his bat. We were toe to toe and he was pissed off. But I didn't mind, I thought it was quite funny. Although I think I can expect to get a bit of a spray by the Western Australian boys when it's my turn to bat. But that wasn't on my mind much at the time because we had Western Australia at 2/36 after 12 overs. If we kept this up I probably wouldn't have to bat. I was confident we could knock these guys over for under 200 the way we were going.

It looked like I was correct when in the next over Kremeskothen thought he had Voges out LBW. In fact we all thought he did. He bowled a nice full ball and Voges was just looking to leave it for some reason and it struck him right in front on the pad. We all went up and were actually half celebrating before we noticed the umpire said not out. It looked like Voges was starting to walk to the sheds too. We couldn't believe it was not out and neither could Voges.

"Do you want the number of my eye doctor, ump!?"

"Hey, don't start anything here mate. I don't want to report you."

"Well get the decisions right next time yeah?"

Kremeskothen was not impressed and he was giving it to the umpire. When we saw the replay on the big screen we were even more disgusted.

​

But luckily for us Voges failed to capitalise on his luck and 2 balls later tried to hook a short ball but was extremely late on it. All he managed to do was get a massive top edge and the ball flew straight up in the air. It went up miles and at first I thought it was going to going to come straight to me. But then I realised it was going straight to Bevan who was as comfortable as ever and showed why he is such a top class player. He took it comfortably and we were all celebrating. That was the 3rd wicket now and Western Australia were in big trouble at 3/39. But this only brang Michael Hussey to the crease. Mike has a great domestic record and everyone believes it's only a matter of time before he will be selected for Australia. He is a quality number 5 and has had a few good domestic seasons recently the job is far from finished for us.

As we were celebrating we all of a sudden heard the crowd cheer which we thought was unusual seems Voges was out for a duck. When we looked over at what they were cheering at we saw a man streaking and we heard the crowd chanting "Hooper!" "Hooper!". We figured he was a crazy Western Australian guy called Hooper, and boy he was quick, the police couldn't catch him! But to be fair the policeman was pretty fat so it wasn't much of an achievement. I think his badge said Dr Pepper or something, I dunno. Anyway as this Hooper fellow came closer to us players we saw we had something which made him dangerous. We all started backing away in fear.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Nice to see Marsh back and also Voges back for a duck. WA in trouble at 37/3 and well Voges should have gone before as that was clean out just hitting leg stumps but its ok he didnt do any damage.

Lolz who is this Hooper?? Nice story and presentation Matt

 

[Jaztheman]

Ooooo cliff hanger, Dr.Pepper/Hooper's gonna get ya.

Brilliant writing mate, good detail on the events that happened. I feel your teams pain after the lbw appeal but you got him out two balls later so not much damage. Keep it up.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Lol! I'm not fat! If anything, I'm extremely skinny . Good stuff Matty boy, good read. Nice to get a couple of wickets in there and pile on the pressure.