The_Googly
School Cricketer
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2005
- Online Cricket Games Owned
** first post **
Just had one hell of a match so i thought id let you people no about it. ( long post )
The first day arrived of the first test between Austrailia and England (me). As the captains came out for the coin toss the conditions were very hot and the pitch was very hard. Ponting picked corectly and chose to put his team into bat. This proved to be a good move.
The teams for the match were:
Austrailia:
Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Martyn
Lehmann
Clarke
Gilchrist
Warne
Lee
Gillespie
McGrath
England:
Strauss
Trescothick
Vaughn
Thorpe
Pietersen
Flintoff
G. Jones
Giles
S. Jones
Harmison
Hoggard
Austrailia first innings:
Australias opening batsman got of to a good start with hayden scoring quickly whilst langer was playing himself in. Austrailia scored there first 50 in quick time with the opening bowlers of harmison and hoggard out of sorts. It was hoggard who got the break through though not long after bowling langer with an inswinger for 10(41). This would be my last wicket for along time as ponting an hayden put a partneship on with over 200. Every bowler was used even graeme thorpe had a bowl ( i accidently selected him lol ). Eventually it was jones who got the breaktrough bowling ponting out for a hard earned 83(174). After this i got 3 quick wickets which got my hopes back up of bowling them out for a reasonable score. These wickets were of martyn for 4(6), lehmann for a golden duck and clarke for 8(12) all clean bowled off the bowling of harmison. My only concern was that of hayden who was still going strong just passing 150. My confidence was back up as the score was now 332 - 5 if i could just get 1 more wicket then the tail would be exposed. This was not to be. Gilchrist scored a quick fire 50 and hayden was well into his 200s. I just could not get one of them out. Every bowler, every type of length every type of swing the basman were too good. For the 2nd time in the innnings these 2 put on a 200 partneship and my misery was only put to and end just before lunch on the second day when they declared on 557 - 5 with gilchrist finishing on 85(121) and hayden who batted from the front finnished on an amazing 292(384). the best bowler was harmison picking up 3/147 runs lol. They batted for 111 overs. I was going to need a big score to get back in this match.
England first innings:
Strauss and trescothick opened aginst the bowling of mcgrath and gillespie a couple of overs before lunch on the second day. It all started reasonaby well with steady play up until lunch but after lunch disaster struck. Australia got the early wicket they wanted of strauss for just 17(48) leaving the score 52 -1. Vaughn looked in good shape as his first ball went for a 4 but just 3 balls later he was caught behind of a great delivery by gillespie for 4(4). trescotick was going along steady in his 30's but he needed a partner to stay with him. Up steped graeme thorpe who knew he needed to deliver and deliver he did. his partneship with trescothick went past 50 which included a lovely 6 from trescothick to his 50. But soon after trescothick was out after gilchrist caught him off the bowling of mcgrath for a good 50(62). We were now in trouble as the score was 116 - 3. i neede a big partneship fron thorpe and pietersen but this did not happen as pietersen edged to slip off the bowling of warne for 24(39) and when flintoff could only do a little better with 31(60) getting out to the spin of lehmann again edging to the slips. The score was 253 - 5 with only 1 decent batter left. G. Jones strolled out knowing he needed to perform but succomed to the pressure scoring just 2(12) trapped lbw by lehmann. Now it was thoepe who was running out of partners but who was on 83. Then i suffred a batting collapse. Giles offered some resistance before being caught in the slips off the bowling of warne for 18(28). Thorpe had by this time got his hundred. Not long after though knowing we needed every run we could get thorpe got ran out on 118(129) a superb knock. Then 2 quick wickets brought the innings to a close with S. Jones being bowled by lehmann for 2(3) and hoggard being bowled by warne for 4(3) leaving harmison not out on 2(3) leaving me on 306 all out. Australias best bowlers were warne and lehmann who had 3/89 and 3/50. It left me 251 runs behind so i knew id have to have a nuch better bowling performance in this innings.
Australia second innnings:
The batsman came out just before the end of the second day givivg me just 3 overs to try and get wicket before the next day but i could not get a break throgh leaving them on 11 - 0. I knew that i needed a couple of early wickets as i could not let the likes of hayden and ponting get into there stride again. Both batsman were going along slowly as they were having to face a lot of short pitched balls but there were no signs of a wicket until i got that all important breaktrough with just 28 on the board and it was the crucial wicket of hayden caught behind off the bowling of harmison who last innings was 292 not out but this time managed to just get 15(39). Harmisons confidence was now sky high troubling both batsman and it only looked a matter of time before he would get someone else. i was proved correct as he got the other crucial wicket of ponting for just 13(31). That was the 2 dangermen removed with just 57 runs conceded. Now it was langer and maryn at the crease and thy started to look good but both wickets fell in quick succssion with langer on 32(91) and martyn on 19(33) both bein bowled by jones. The quick bowlers were on form getting rid of the 4 opening batsman. Now at the crease was lehmann and clarke who were on 3 and 1. But i could not remove these 2 who went on to build a 50 partneship. I could see the first innings happining again were these 2 would go on to make a 200 partneship but i got the crucial wicket of lehmann caught in the slips off harmison for 22(77). Gilchrist came out fresh from his 85 not out in the first innings but started to look a bit shakey. Then 2 key wickets fell with both clarke and gilchrist going. Clarke made a quick fire 40(34) but fell short of his 50 when hoggard took out his middle stump and gilchrist went for 12(36) with harmison claiming his 4th wicket making gilchrist edge to slips. The last 3 wickets were got quickly as warne went for 9(10) being bowled by hoggard then his very next ball he trapped lee lbw for a golden duck and harmison finished the innings off to claim his 5th wicket when he bowled out mcgrath. the innings finished on 187 all out much better bowling this innings. Clarke top scored for australia with 40 whilst harmison took 5/61 and hoggard took 3/67.
This left me with a total of 439 to chase down to win the test. I had plenty of time with over 2 days left.
England second innings:
I knew that if i had any chance in the match then my openers would have to get us off to a good start. However australia had other ideas and in mcgrath and gillespie they had 2 bowlers that were troubling me and the pressure told as strauss went for 6(12) caught lbw off a mcgrath yorker. with the score at just 7-1 i needed a miracle. Vaughn came out and new he had to get a score and he and trescothick looked like getting a good partneship with vaughn playing the shots and trescothick taking a more cautious approach. The 50 partneship came and as it looked like these 2 could go on for a long time vaughn was caught behind off another superb ball by mcgrath. This left the score at 74-1. Although it was a good partneship, i knew that i needed a partneship of more than a hundred at least. the next man out was thorpe and i needed another 100 from him and he went the right way about it scorin alot of boundaries. Trescothick was stil going nicely up the other end but not scoring ver fast. Thorpe rushed to his 50 off just 29 balls but 1 four and 2 balls later he was gone trapped lbw by a gillespie yorker for 54(31). Again these 2 put a 50 partneship on but i knew i needed a bigger partneship. This left the score at 138 - 3. Next man at the crease was pietersen. Both the batsmen were playing well and trescothick got his 50 but it took him 107 balls but he was still going strong. Up the other end pietersen looked unstoppable as he smahed 4 after 4 and these 2 got there 50 partneship. This is were i needed these 2 to carry on and not give there wicket away. they got trough it and started to look like they would never get out with pieterson especially smashing warne and lehmann around the pitch. he soon moved on to his 50 and with trescothick still looking good up the other hopes were high. The partneship got to 100 through a 4 from trescothick which moved him on to his 70's. But only 12 more runs were added before pietersen fell being bowled by warne for 66(72). This left it 250 - 4. I needed 185 runs to win with 6 wickets left. When flintoff came out i knew that if australia got 1 more wicket then i would only have 1 batter left so it was crucial that flintoff and trescothick stayed in to at least near the end. Flintoff started slowly but hit lee for 14 in 1 over to get his strike rate back up. these 2 went along nicely also bringing up the 50 partneship in good time. As they continued to get runs both of them wee nearin milestones and it was trescothick who got his first scoring a very important 100 in 186 balls. flintoff then got in on the act becoming the 4th player to score 50 or more coming 57 balls. then the 100 partneship came. At this point i thought i had it in the bag with 2 players going well and only needing 89 runs with 6 wickets remaining but like for the last wicket i was unable to push on an just added 4 runs when flintoff was caught behind off the pacey lee for a quick 60(68). I needed 85 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Next in was the wicketkeeper jones who needed just to keep the runs ticking over with trescothick so the tail enders didnt ever need a bat. This was not to be however as jones soon went when he was clean bowled by lehmann for just 7(16). The tail was now exposed and as giles came out to bat trescothick knew it was up to him to make sure england win the test. but with trescothick stil keeping the runs ticking over at the other end giles was under pressure and the pressure told as he was out for just 3(11) caught behind from the in form lee. From looking like an easy victory it had turned into a struggle. The score was 378 - 7 which left me needing 61 runs with 3 wickets left. S. Jones was the next man in and he knew that all he needed to do was defend and let trescothick take centre stage and try to wrap up victory. So much for that as jones was caught lbw again off lee on just his 2nd ball. Harmison was the next man in and he looked in good shape defending most balls then striking lehmann for a 4. He and trescothick who was still there from opening the batting put on 20 and looking good when disaster!! lee got his man and trescothick was on his way with a excellent but slow 129(223). This left the worst batters ever hoggard and harmison to try and get the 41 runs needed for victory. If this was the first innings i would have gave up and just slogged but i wasnt gunna give up after playing for so long. I defended everything that was on the wicket and tried to hit anything outside offstump. Harmison looked safe enough but hoggard couldnt hit the ball. These 2 must have batted for about 10 overs and got about 20 runs but it was working. There was a close lbw appeal that hoggard survived and how one ball missed his stumps i will never know. after what seemed like ages i got it down to needing 10 runs when it was the end of the day. As they came out the following morning they knew what they had to do but every special ball yorker that lee and mcgrath did looked dangerous but somehow they could not get one of them out. harmison was on 31 and hoggard was on 7. Every ball i was concerntrating so much then i got it down to needing just 2 runs. when harmison got the single i knew that i had at least tied the match but after coming this far with these 2 it would of felt like a defeat if i did not get that single. In then hoggard struck the winning run for a famous win by 1 wicket. both of these batsman faced so many balls with harmison not out on 37(94) lol and hoggard not out on 11(61). Australias best bowler was lee who has 4/63 but he couldnt get me last 2 out.
I dont know how i managed to win this game needing 41 runs with my 2 last batsman but when i did manage to get there i was overjoyed.
Im sure you will all agree that this was a quality match.
Just had one hell of a match so i thought id let you people no about it. ( long post )
The first day arrived of the first test between Austrailia and England (me). As the captains came out for the coin toss the conditions were very hot and the pitch was very hard. Ponting picked corectly and chose to put his team into bat. This proved to be a good move.
The teams for the match were:
Austrailia:
Langer
Hayden
Ponting
Martyn
Lehmann
Clarke
Gilchrist
Warne
Lee
Gillespie
McGrath
England:
Strauss
Trescothick
Vaughn
Thorpe
Pietersen
Flintoff
G. Jones
Giles
S. Jones
Harmison
Hoggard
Austrailia first innings:
Australias opening batsman got of to a good start with hayden scoring quickly whilst langer was playing himself in. Austrailia scored there first 50 in quick time with the opening bowlers of harmison and hoggard out of sorts. It was hoggard who got the break through though not long after bowling langer with an inswinger for 10(41). This would be my last wicket for along time as ponting an hayden put a partneship on with over 200. Every bowler was used even graeme thorpe had a bowl ( i accidently selected him lol ). Eventually it was jones who got the breaktrough bowling ponting out for a hard earned 83(174). After this i got 3 quick wickets which got my hopes back up of bowling them out for a reasonable score. These wickets were of martyn for 4(6), lehmann for a golden duck and clarke for 8(12) all clean bowled off the bowling of harmison. My only concern was that of hayden who was still going strong just passing 150. My confidence was back up as the score was now 332 - 5 if i could just get 1 more wicket then the tail would be exposed. This was not to be. Gilchrist scored a quick fire 50 and hayden was well into his 200s. I just could not get one of them out. Every bowler, every type of length every type of swing the basman were too good. For the 2nd time in the innnings these 2 put on a 200 partneship and my misery was only put to and end just before lunch on the second day when they declared on 557 - 5 with gilchrist finishing on 85(121) and hayden who batted from the front finnished on an amazing 292(384). the best bowler was harmison picking up 3/147 runs lol. They batted for 111 overs. I was going to need a big score to get back in this match.
England first innings:
Strauss and trescothick opened aginst the bowling of mcgrath and gillespie a couple of overs before lunch on the second day. It all started reasonaby well with steady play up until lunch but after lunch disaster struck. Australia got the early wicket they wanted of strauss for just 17(48) leaving the score 52 -1. Vaughn looked in good shape as his first ball went for a 4 but just 3 balls later he was caught behind of a great delivery by gillespie for 4(4). trescotick was going along steady in his 30's but he needed a partner to stay with him. Up steped graeme thorpe who knew he needed to deliver and deliver he did. his partneship with trescothick went past 50 which included a lovely 6 from trescothick to his 50. But soon after trescothick was out after gilchrist caught him off the bowling of mcgrath for a good 50(62). We were now in trouble as the score was 116 - 3. i neede a big partneship fron thorpe and pietersen but this did not happen as pietersen edged to slip off the bowling of warne for 24(39) and when flintoff could only do a little better with 31(60) getting out to the spin of lehmann again edging to the slips. The score was 253 - 5 with only 1 decent batter left. G. Jones strolled out knowing he needed to perform but succomed to the pressure scoring just 2(12) trapped lbw by lehmann. Now it was thoepe who was running out of partners but who was on 83. Then i suffred a batting collapse. Giles offered some resistance before being caught in the slips off the bowling of warne for 18(28). Thorpe had by this time got his hundred. Not long after though knowing we needed every run we could get thorpe got ran out on 118(129) a superb knock. Then 2 quick wickets brought the innings to a close with S. Jones being bowled by lehmann for 2(3) and hoggard being bowled by warne for 4(3) leaving harmison not out on 2(3) leaving me on 306 all out. Australias best bowlers were warne and lehmann who had 3/89 and 3/50. It left me 251 runs behind so i knew id have to have a nuch better bowling performance in this innings.
Australia second innnings:
The batsman came out just before the end of the second day givivg me just 3 overs to try and get wicket before the next day but i could not get a break throgh leaving them on 11 - 0. I knew that i needed a couple of early wickets as i could not let the likes of hayden and ponting get into there stride again. Both batsman were going along slowly as they were having to face a lot of short pitched balls but there were no signs of a wicket until i got that all important breaktrough with just 28 on the board and it was the crucial wicket of hayden caught behind off the bowling of harmison who last innings was 292 not out but this time managed to just get 15(39). Harmisons confidence was now sky high troubling both batsman and it only looked a matter of time before he would get someone else. i was proved correct as he got the other crucial wicket of ponting for just 13(31). That was the 2 dangermen removed with just 57 runs conceded. Now it was langer and maryn at the crease and thy started to look good but both wickets fell in quick succssion with langer on 32(91) and martyn on 19(33) both bein bowled by jones. The quick bowlers were on form getting rid of the 4 opening batsman. Now at the crease was lehmann and clarke who were on 3 and 1. But i could not remove these 2 who went on to build a 50 partneship. I could see the first innings happining again were these 2 would go on to make a 200 partneship but i got the crucial wicket of lehmann caught in the slips off harmison for 22(77). Gilchrist came out fresh from his 85 not out in the first innings but started to look a bit shakey. Then 2 key wickets fell with both clarke and gilchrist going. Clarke made a quick fire 40(34) but fell short of his 50 when hoggard took out his middle stump and gilchrist went for 12(36) with harmison claiming his 4th wicket making gilchrist edge to slips. The last 3 wickets were got quickly as warne went for 9(10) being bowled by hoggard then his very next ball he trapped lee lbw for a golden duck and harmison finished the innings off to claim his 5th wicket when he bowled out mcgrath. the innings finished on 187 all out much better bowling this innings. Clarke top scored for australia with 40 whilst harmison took 5/61 and hoggard took 3/67.
This left me with a total of 439 to chase down to win the test. I had plenty of time with over 2 days left.
England second innings:
I knew that if i had any chance in the match then my openers would have to get us off to a good start. However australia had other ideas and in mcgrath and gillespie they had 2 bowlers that were troubling me and the pressure told as strauss went for 6(12) caught lbw off a mcgrath yorker. with the score at just 7-1 i needed a miracle. Vaughn came out and new he had to get a score and he and trescothick looked like getting a good partneship with vaughn playing the shots and trescothick taking a more cautious approach. The 50 partneship came and as it looked like these 2 could go on for a long time vaughn was caught behind off another superb ball by mcgrath. This left the score at 74-1. Although it was a good partneship, i knew that i needed a partneship of more than a hundred at least. the next man out was thorpe and i needed another 100 from him and he went the right way about it scorin alot of boundaries. Trescothick was stil going nicely up the other end but not scoring ver fast. Thorpe rushed to his 50 off just 29 balls but 1 four and 2 balls later he was gone trapped lbw by a gillespie yorker for 54(31). Again these 2 put a 50 partneship on but i knew i needed a bigger partneship. This left the score at 138 - 3. Next man at the crease was pietersen. Both the batsmen were playing well and trescothick got his 50 but it took him 107 balls but he was still going strong. Up the other end pietersen looked unstoppable as he smahed 4 after 4 and these 2 got there 50 partneship. This is were i needed these 2 to carry on and not give there wicket away. they got trough it and started to look like they would never get out with pieterson especially smashing warne and lehmann around the pitch. he soon moved on to his 50 and with trescothick still looking good up the other hopes were high. The partneship got to 100 through a 4 from trescothick which moved him on to his 70's. But only 12 more runs were added before pietersen fell being bowled by warne for 66(72). This left it 250 - 4. I needed 185 runs to win with 6 wickets left. When flintoff came out i knew that if australia got 1 more wicket then i would only have 1 batter left so it was crucial that flintoff and trescothick stayed in to at least near the end. Flintoff started slowly but hit lee for 14 in 1 over to get his strike rate back up. these 2 went along nicely also bringing up the 50 partneship in good time. As they continued to get runs both of them wee nearin milestones and it was trescothick who got his first scoring a very important 100 in 186 balls. flintoff then got in on the act becoming the 4th player to score 50 or more coming 57 balls. then the 100 partneship came. At this point i thought i had it in the bag with 2 players going well and only needing 89 runs with 6 wickets remaining but like for the last wicket i was unable to push on an just added 4 runs when flintoff was caught behind off the pacey lee for a quick 60(68). I needed 85 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Next in was the wicketkeeper jones who needed just to keep the runs ticking over with trescothick so the tail enders didnt ever need a bat. This was not to be however as jones soon went when he was clean bowled by lehmann for just 7(16). The tail was now exposed and as giles came out to bat trescothick knew it was up to him to make sure england win the test. but with trescothick stil keeping the runs ticking over at the other end giles was under pressure and the pressure told as he was out for just 3(11) caught behind from the in form lee. From looking like an easy victory it had turned into a struggle. The score was 378 - 7 which left me needing 61 runs with 3 wickets left. S. Jones was the next man in and he knew that all he needed to do was defend and let trescothick take centre stage and try to wrap up victory. So much for that as jones was caught lbw again off lee on just his 2nd ball. Harmison was the next man in and he looked in good shape defending most balls then striking lehmann for a 4. He and trescothick who was still there from opening the batting put on 20 and looking good when disaster!! lee got his man and trescothick was on his way with a excellent but slow 129(223). This left the worst batters ever hoggard and harmison to try and get the 41 runs needed for victory. If this was the first innings i would have gave up and just slogged but i wasnt gunna give up after playing for so long. I defended everything that was on the wicket and tried to hit anything outside offstump. Harmison looked safe enough but hoggard couldnt hit the ball. These 2 must have batted for about 10 overs and got about 20 runs but it was working. There was a close lbw appeal that hoggard survived and how one ball missed his stumps i will never know. after what seemed like ages i got it down to needing 10 runs when it was the end of the day. As they came out the following morning they knew what they had to do but every special ball yorker that lee and mcgrath did looked dangerous but somehow they could not get one of them out. harmison was on 31 and hoggard was on 7. Every ball i was concerntrating so much then i got it down to needing just 2 runs. when harmison got the single i knew that i had at least tied the match but after coming this far with these 2 it would of felt like a defeat if i did not get that single. In then hoggard struck the winning run for a famous win by 1 wicket. both of these batsman faced so many balls with harmison not out on 37(94) lol and hoggard not out on 11(61). Australias best bowler was lee who has 4/63 but he couldnt get me last 2 out.
I dont know how i managed to win this game needing 41 runs with my 2 last batsman but when i did manage to get there i was overjoyed.
Im sure you will all agree that this was a quality match.
.....I will try myself now...These matches just makes ur enthusiasm reach sky high!..Keep up the good work 
