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

[Highlander999]

well done for being selected

Thanks mate

Nice to know, I hope you fail
(joke) Actually it would be nice for you to have a few successful seasons for Kent before England comes into the equation in my opinion.

Yeah it all depends, this story could hopefully last a few years.

Only thing holding me up is the created player's face as it is all shadowy. Hopefully Colin can fix it but if there is any more advice concerning how to fix the face it would really be welcome

 

[Highlander999]

Slight situation. The created player looks really bad. I can't seem to fix his face properly and Colin does not know what else to do. Now I can continue using a really ugly player which will decrease the effect of my wonderful graphics or else I could scrap this story and make another one (I know, I'm having a really bad run at the moment). It is your call guys. Do I continue or start a new one? (Personally I would much rather do a new one )

 

[freddiw]

whatever you prefer to be hapy with the story yourself is the key

whatever you do stick to it and good luck

 

[kookaburra69]

I rekon you should continue this story,Its been a great start!

 

[GrayNicolls]

Not another story, surely. Won't it make all the effort up to now be completely pointless?

 

[H0wZ4T!]

Is this going to be story where you score 100 on debut few 50's get picked for an England A tour after two games you get called up to play for england where you make 150 on debut and become captain ater 2 games? not having a go at you but its just how some stories turn out
Hope not, try and keep it realistic,

Otherwise KUTGW and good luck on your debut!

That is one of the most true things with career stories. It isn't a career, more a 'How To Become International Captain In Seven Days' instructional video.

 

[Left_Hander]

Continue with this one definetly.

 

[PhilD123]

Thread closed by request, it seems your pretty set on starting the new one, but if you do decide to carry this on at some point, then PM me and I'll re-open it.

 

[surendar]

Thread reopened by request.

 

[Highlander999]

Thursday 22nd March 7:00am

The big day had arrived for me. It was the day I would make my debut for Kent. I was the second person to arrive at the car park just after the skip and so we had a chat about the upcoming game. Rob seemed to think we had a good chance in this match as Derbsyhire are considered one of the "lesser teams". He however wanted to emphasise we shouldn't get cocky.

Eventually 7:30 arrived and after we did a head count we realised Martin and Matty were missing. As Rob got his mobile out to check where they were a taxi pulled up and out came Martin and Matty looking a bit worse for wear after obviously going out last night. After a dressing down from the skip and coach we got on the coach. As we were driving along the M25 Cooky started singing "the lady in..." song which kept us going for a while. As we neared Derby we began to quiten down and prepare ourselves. Suddenly the coach slammed it's brakes on and we had a massive jolt then a bang. We had just driven into an Arriva bus which came of a lot worse than us. No one was hurt but luckily we were only a 100 metres from the ground so we got our stuff and walked the rest of the way.

The Arriva bus came of second best

As we changed into our whites Michael Di Venuto the Derbyshire captain came in and checked if we were all OK after the crash. We told him we were fine and so he handed Rob the Deryshire team sheet. Their side did look quite a bit weaker than ours and this did boost our confidence. At 10:00 Rob headed out to the middle with Di Venuto to do the toss. I got chatting to Geraint who said how he would prefer to bat first on this pitch and I agreed with him. It looked to be very hard and hopefully the ball would come nicely onto the bat. We saw Rob walking back and he made the batting signal so we knew we would be batting first. David, Geraint and Martin all hurried around to get their pads on and eventually Rob and David walked out to the middle. The ground was still quiet although there were a few fans there already.

So the skipper and David Fulton were out there preparing to face the new ball. I decided that I would go into the indoor nets and let Cooky warm me up. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go in to early as I was beginning to get quite nervous.

 

[GrayNicolls]

I doubt you'll have to go in early unless you play like South Africa . Interesting with the whole coach thing. Kind of a miracle no one was hurt, but anyway, nice work.

 

[Highlander999]

Thursday 22nd March 10:30

So I am in the indoor nets with Cooky bowling to me. I started of pretty poorly but got better as time went on. By 10:30 I was striking the ball well.The doors at the back opened and Geraint appeared,
"Tom your in next mate"
"Ha Ha very funny Jonesy"
"No I'm being really serious we've had a massive collapse. Andy is just heading out now"
Bloody hell, that isn't good" As I waddled onto the balcony in my pads I saw Andrew walking out. I was now very nervous as the big guns had all got out pretty early on and we appeared to be in some trouble.

Over in the corner the TV was on, with the match being televised on Sky Sports. It was showing the dismissal of the skipper. The ball had pitched massively outside his offstump and hit the seam, shooting back and clean bowling him. I doubt if any of the England team could have kept it out. What made it worse was that it was for a diamond duck.

Matty, Geraint and David had also all been dismissed so far with Martin and Andy facing now. The skip saw me standing in the corner looking as pale as a sheet.
"Hey Tom, don't get too nervous. The ball was nipping about lots early on but things appear to be calming down. If your out there soon, take every delivery on its merit and if it is bad put it away. Dean appears to be swinging it into us right handers so watch out for those."
"Cheers skip." I leaned over the balcony to watch Andy and Martin. They appeard to be developing a solid partnership together and the score was beginning to progress along quite nicely. All of a sudden there were sudden yells. Andy had it appeared just been run out. It had been sent upstairs but the Derbyshire team looked confident. The view was that it had been out and Andy was quickly sent his marching orders.

"In you go Tom" Someone said. I began to walk down the steps feeling like I was going to be sick. As I passed Andy he wished me good luck. As I walked out to the square, I heard a Derbsyshire player laughing at me for being the new boy. I felt worse. I was to face Dean, the bowler who had been causing all the problems. I asked for middle and leg remembering what skip had said to me about him swinging it into the right hander. Let's just say I was a bit nervous about facing my first ball, with the team in such trouble. I really didn't want a duck as my first score.

Wish me luck!!!!!!

 

[LUMB_YORKSHIRE]

nice way to leave it keeping us in suspense great update

 

[Left_Hander]

The suspense is killing me . Good luck, it looks like you will need it because Derbyshire are all over you at the moment.

 

[Highlander999]

Thursday 22nd March: Facing my First Ball

So there I was. Standing in the middle with Martin at the non strikers end. My team were in a lot of trouble with the top order collapsing. However that didn't bother me. What I was concerned about was just getting my first runs in professional cricket and try and avoid a duck. I was facing the left-armer Kevin Dean who had caused all sorts of trouble with his in-swing to the right-hander. His started his run. As he got closer I got more and more nervous he released the ball......



















it looked full. It was. I shuffled around and clipped it of my legs for two runs.

So I had opened my account. That was a massive weight of my shoulders. I began to grow in confidence and started to rotate the strike with Martin. I was now facing Lungley. He gave me a slightly over pitched delivery, I attempted to drive it and made perfect connection with it. It went all the way to the rope. My first ever boundary for Kent :happy

Things just seemed to get better for Martin and I. He looked to be in excellent touch with some really agressive shots over the fielders. I however was nurdling it around taking one's and two's. The Derbyshire bowling attack seemed to be becoming more disorganised. They looked ragged. They started to bowl a few no-balls which meant "free hits" :happy. The first one was to Martin. He didn't time it though and we only got a single. The second one was for me. I tried to go over the top and skied it to a fielder who dropped it but it didn't matter. That was a waste, but it was worth a go.

The partnership however between myself and Martin looked to be in full swing. They just could not dislodge us. There were a few close calls, and I nearly ran Martin out but he managed to get back in time :o. I also nicked one of Dean, but Di Venuto had removed all the slips so it ran down to third man. Derbyshire were becoming annoyed at our resistance and not only that we were dramatically increasing the run-rate. Eventually we reached the 50 partnership. We met in the middle:

"Well done Tom. You have batted like someone with a lot of experience"
"Cheers Martin. You've had some nice shots as well."
Yeah we are doing well. We both need to convert our starts into half-centuries. Keep it up Tom."
OK Martin. Let's get 'em"

So the 50 partnership had been reached and we had taken the score to 126/5 of 23 overs. Things were looking bright. We still had 23 overs to go and we definetly had a chance of posting a big score. The scoreboard kept on ticking over. We were both nearing our half-centuries. In an attempt Di Venuto brought on the left-arm spinner Botha to slow down the run-rate. He did cause a bit of trouble to begin with for me, with a few swing and misses by me. Eventually I managed to get of strike and Martin was facing now. He tried to play across the line, missed and was adjudged LBW. He had to go on 42. He was not pleased. I had thought he was hit outside the line. That meant my new partner was Darren Stevens. This guy has a lot of potential and I feel he could play for England one day soon.

So I had to rebuild the partnership with Darren. He started of with some very nice shots which got him a couple of boundaries. Meanwhile I was closing on my 50. Could I make this milestone in my first ever game. I was on 49 of 44 balls. I was really excited, not that nervous which surprised me.

Can I make my First 50?