Story Three Lions on the Shirt? - Match Day: Northamptonshire fight back!!!

[khalek]

4. Chanders and A. Dizzy for me.

Great hundred Tom, You > UV

 

[JD10]

A) K.Coetzer
B)T.Baker

 

[Biggy]

:hpraise Tom.. Must have been my inspirational words.


a) S.Chanderpaul
b) R.Croft

 

[ADA]

A.--> S.Chanderpaul
B.--> You Tom..
.... Hope your team clinches a nail-biter....

 

[Highlander999]

Liam Plunkett can't get any wickets now as it is the Durham innings and he plays for Durham

 

[ADA]

ok .... i dont know much about english cricket.... now contender is updated...

 

[Highlander999]

You aren't getting this You need to pick a Glamorgan bowler, the Durham bowlers have already bowled when Glamorgan were batting

 

[Highlander999]

Durham start slow but steady

As everyone started getting ready I decided to listen to some music on my iPod to inspire me. The first song that appeared there was Something Good '08 by Utah Saints. It is the ultimate feel good tune and I love it as I always listen to it if I am down or need to inspire myself.

3 minutes later (I know something else which only takes 3 minutes ) I felt fired up and wanted to get out there and rip into those Durham batsmen. With the likes of Chanderpaul and Collingwood out there we did certainly need to bowl with agression.

I had the lovely honour of being at slip so had a perfect view of all the action whilst Mark directed everyone else around. There was a hell of a load of cloud cover and the pitch still had quite a bit of grass on it, so we had to get some early wickets with the new ball and restrict Durham in the power-play overs. Dizzy would open, followed by Cooky and I would be the first change bowler so still have a relatively new ball.

We got off to the perfect start as well

In only the second over of the match, Cooky struck with his second ball to get the left-handed Phil Mustard. He managed to get the ball to jag in a huge amount as Mustard shouldered arms. He was rapped on the back pad and the ball would have been hitting the top of off-stump. Pretty much the perfect delivery

We all went running in and swamped Cooky, who was standing their arms raised in the air in celebration as Mustard trudged off. We couldn't have asked for a better start and it got the dangerous Durham captain, Will Smith in early.

With the momentum now with us, we had to keep the pressure on Durham. Everyone was alert and on their toes. There was no sloppy fielding and Mustard and Di Venuto were really struggling to score against some pretty agressive bowling by Cooky and Dizzy. Jason, managed to sneak a short one through Smith's defence and the physio was needed to strap up Smith's fingers. I saw his index finger when he pulled his glove off and it wasn't pretty. There was an interesting lump there and straight away I knew it was disolocated. I now knew to target him at the gloves as he would not like it.

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get Di Venuto or Smith in the first 10 overs. Dizzy tried to work Di Venuto over with the short ball, but he just pulled him away for consecutive boundaries so he quickly gave that idea up. Cooky meanwhile was having fun scaring Smith with the short ball, however, he was hanging in there and guarding his wicket like his life depended on it.

Eventually the skip came over to me:

"Right Tom. You're on to replace Simon. You have noticed Smith ain't liking the short ball, but don't over do it. Remember we need wickets and whilst bruising Smith might look good, it isn't going to win us the match. Just keep a nice tight line and let the conditions do the work for us. Learn from how the Durham seamers bowled and you'll get your just reward."


Good advice from an experienced man there.

I tried to get Smith with a shorter ball first up and I still think I got him. It flew past his edge and I could have sworn I heard a noise. The ball certainly deviated and Mark took the ball on the dive. I was up, Matty was screaming at slip and Mark had already thrown the ball up to celebrate. However, the umpire just looked at me and then shook his head. Smith was tugging his shirt all over the place as if I didn't get the hint he was giving us that it flicked his shirt which was utter bull-s***. I was pretty annoyed and decided to get my revenge by putting a yorker right onto his toes which did cause him to jump, but still I couldn't get through him or Di Venuto.

Dizzy could see I was getting frustrated so came over to me to give me some advice.

"Tom my mate. Cool it down for just a second. Some days we don't get the breakthrough straight away. Maybe Smith did edge, maybe he didn't, it's the nature of cricket and we have to live with these decisions. You've bowled excellently so far, don''t go all ragged cause your emotions have run wild. Just keep it in that famous corridor and eventually you'll get your reward."

"Yeah, you're right Jase."


I had been letting my emotions run away with me a bit and it was good of Jason being the senior, experienced professional that he is to come over to me and calm me down. Still by the end of the power-play overs in the 15th over, Durham had moved to 47/1 and Di Venuto and Smith's partnership had now reached 42. Whilst they would not be breaking any run rate records, they were doing exactly what we hadn't done when batting. Build partnerships...

Smith signalled that he wanted the physio to come on to look at his finger and it did look like he would be a wee while so drinks got brought on for us which gave us a good chance to regroup. The vice-skip, Jamie did not look happy as he walked over from gully, but Mark once again tried to buoy us up:


"Right lads. I'm really impressed with how we have started. Yes, we only have 1 wicket, but we have had plenty of chances and could easily of had both Di Venuto and Smith. Cooky, Jason and Tom have bowled really well and everyone else has backed them up well with their fielding. I'm not going to push people back to the boundaries just yet, I like the pressure that has begun to build up on these two. Already the required run-rate has begun to increase and soon they will have to start taking a few risks. Just keep this up and I am more then confident that we will have these tea drinking northerners back in the hutch soon."


Nothing better then slagging off tut coal mining northerners in cardboard box. Jason had really kept things tight with the ball, going at only just over 2 and half runs per over. Cooky had been slightly more expensive but had picked up the crucial wicket of Mustard. It was time I felt for me to contribute with some wickets and I wanted Smith as I felt I already should have had him!

Fantasy Cricket is now closed. Thanks to all entrants. Good luck!!!!

 

[bladescape]

Well, I got it half right!
111 is still consecutive numbers!

 

[Biggy]

Great update, get Crofty on!

 

[Gaurav_7]

Good one mate.And what were you doing with the ball there,ah?Hopefully you take some wickets(not more than Cook) and Colly scores some runs.

(I know something else which only takes 3 minutes )

What was that?

 

[Highlander999]

What was that?

Blame her not me

 

[khalek]

It's turning out to be a good game, Glam bowlers have been very disciplined so far still I think they need couple of quick wickets to build more pressure.

 

[Griffo]

Same boring main character... same boring sex jokes... you really need to grow up!

 

[ADA]

You aren't getting this You need to pick a Glamorgan bowler, the Durham bowlers have already bowled when Glamorgan were batting

Ok..... i was confused..... ... now its your turn...