Story Treva and !x!Culli!x!'s Twenty20 Cup [C2004]

[mattfb]

Great start guys. This is looking good :cool:

 

[Deleted member 13648]

The first match of this year's Twenty20 cup is about to get underway, with Northamptonshire hosting Worcestershire. This game is sure to set the standard of play in this tournament and it's also a chance for the fans to become involved in the proceedings. Past years of Twenty20 has shown us that even the lesser sides can claim glory as the game format means that the game is constantly in the balance, providing thrills and near misses along the way. In short, Twenty20 is back with the biggest of bangs!

Beautiful conditions for cricket here today mean that losing the toss is not a big deal but things may sway towards the batting side as the ball will bounce nicely off the pitch onto the bat. Worcestershire win the toss and decide to bat first. Worcestershire may be considered the favourites to win here with the experience of two openers Vikram Solanki and Graeme Hick who will need to perform well to boost Worcestershire's hopes of winning. Further down the batting order comes Kabir Ali, a good performer with the ball as well as the bat he can be dangerous in the final few overs if he hits his form. Northampshire's obvious star is England international, Monty Panesar. Monty's spin and bounce have caused many top flight international batsman by surprise, including the great Sachin Tendulkar in Monty's first tour with England. Let's take a quick look at the teams;

Worcestershire made a fantastic start with Solanki and Hick hitting plenty of boundaries and giving the bowlers a tough time, forcing them off their length with a full array of strokes. Solanki was scoring nicely hitting six fours in his 25 off 17 with Hick providing good support at the other end. Solanki's best shot came from a majestic cover drive in Crook's second over which raced to fence giving the fielder no chance of stopping it. The pair had made it to 38/0 off of 3 overs with Brophy about to start his second over after being well negotiated in his first over. Brophy ran in and bowled a ball just back of a length which Solanki attempted to pull but the ball never got enough height and Solanki was adjudged to have been out leg before wicket. This decision proved to be wrong however as replays showed that the ball was going over the top of the stumps by some distance. Northamptonshire didn't mind though as they had made the much needed breakthrough. Solanki was fuming and he stormed off, swatting at the air with his bat.

The controversial wicket of Solanki brought Phil Jaques to the crease who has played international cricket for Australia and in his ODI debut made 94 against South Africa. Jaques came in just as Hick started to replace the role of Solanki, hitting some crisp shots that wouldn't look out of place in the top drawer. Although Hick was in the attacking role, Jaques was still scoring nicely including the odd boundary. His best shot came off a leg glance on his toes and guiding the ball past the fielder at square leg for another four to the team's total. It didn't take the pair long to bring up the fifty run mark and with only the loss of the one wicket, Worcestershire had built themselves a solid platform to give them a license to attack.

The pair knew that their work wasn't even half done yet as they continued to attack in an attempt to take the game away from Northamptonshire as early as possible. Hick was creeping towards a half-century with Jaques still scoring freely whenever he had the strike as Hick was taking up most of the strike. If your team-mate is in top form however you want to give them as much of the strike as possible. Not even the introduction of spin helped Northants with Hick punishing the spinners for anything not on the perfect line and length. Hick's performance shows that in Twenty20 you don't need to slog every ball, you can get as much success playing proper cricket shots. The pick of the bunch was a on-drive off the bowling of off-spinner White. Hick eventually made it to his half century, a brilliant innings whilst under pressure to perform.

After Hick made his fifty the runs continued to flow as Northants began to visibly tire. Worcestershire's hundred was nearing and after the loss of Solanki the second wicket partnership had done exactly what was needed of them and that was maintain the momentum that was started in the first few overs. Hick hit a few more sweet shots to bring the score ever nearer to the hundred mark including a straight drive that sped past the bowler at the non-strikers end. Even though Hick was the one scoring at the quicker pace, Jaques brought the 100 up with an exact replica of the shot he hit to get off the mark, a leg glance to the boundary rope. Northants seemingly had no answer Worcestershire's brutal onslaught.

Worcestershire were in cruise control and it looked as if they had no intentions of easing up the scoring rate. Jaques was beginning to look confident after hitting the boundary to take the score past 100 and Hick was still in phenomenal form. Klusener's line and length was everywhere and was giving no control to his captain which is what was desperately needed at the stage of the innings. Then suddenly, completely out of the blue, Klusener bowled a brilliant leg-stump yorker to Jaques, knocking leg-stump back sparking celebrations from the home side. Jaques left the pitch reluctantley and looked dejected after giving away his wicket after he was starting to look good. Northants had new found confidence now and they looked to put the pressure back onto the visiting side.

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Check back later for the second half of Worcestershire's innings

 

[PhilD123]

Brilliant graphics guys! Worcestershire well on top, going at a rapid rate even by Twenty20 standards! However, Monty will slow down the Royals and make them collapse!

Great update guys!

 

[OrderDX]

great work man good batting so far

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Really, a great start for the Royals but when there is Zulu ther is no fear, Hick is looking good and north need to remove him quick nice story and and awesome presentaion Stu and Trev

 

[mattfb]

Worcs doing pretty good here. Great pres guys, KUTGW

 

[freddiw]

good one boys,
lets hope essex willll win the trophy

 

[kookaburra69]

Great stuff guys,Worcestershire well in control.

 

[gamerkid22]

Worcestershire with a good start and superb 50 from Hick. Great graphics Trev ans Stu .

 

[surendar]

Neat presentation I wud have prefered to see both Zulu and Hick down the order in their respective teams though Lets see what Zulu can do at 3.

 

[King Pietersen]

Whats happened to this ? Are we going to see anymore updates ?

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

I was thinking that too, excellent from what I have read so far

 

[Deleted member 13648]

Whats happened to this ? Are we going to see anymore updates ?

I was thinking that too, excellent from what I have read so far

As you may or may not know, Treva has been down to his Dad's the past few days and I have too. That means we can't update as we do not have the screens/info needed to update.

Patience is a virtue.

 

[King Pietersen]

Trev's not been at his dad's since the 15th of July

 

[treva]

Yes I am back now and the lack of updates then were due to a) making the screens and b) Stu writing the text. Updates will be done soon