Roar of the Lions - An England World Cup Story.

[Imager36]

As always a great story on it's way! I'll be starting one over the next few weeks, need to buy the game first, in the meantime I might do an ICC2013 story if anyone would be up for looking at it

Certainly would be... always love your stories!

I decided once and for all that the scorecards on this game aren't made for stories. Many apologies for the slight change in look.



We chose to bat having won the toss, and it went rather well, actually. Hales and Bell hit a lovely partnership of 95 at just over 4 an over to get our first 20 overs out of the way in no time, and for no loss. Hales and Taylor fell together, but Bell continued, now with Root, and the two added 90 to take us to 185/3 with fifteen overs remaining in the innings. Unfortunately, no-one took advantage of this. Root did well to stick around and hit for as long as he could, being the the only reason we got anything remotely competitive as Patel's 10 was the highest score from number 5 down. A shame he couldn't complete a century, but we thought we'd done okay.

Things improved when Perera went for 0 to Anderson, and then got massively worse as Mathews struck a fine century in partnership with Dilshan, as we failed to control the runs or bring wickets thanks to some excellent batting. After this, we didn't really have a chance of saving the match, and they romped away to a 4-1 series victory.

Our man of the match was of course Joe Root. Thoughts on the fallout and squad for the India matches to follow next

[Imager36]

Okay, so looking at that last series, we do of course come out with a lot of negatives from a 4-1 thrashing, but we'll try and look at the positives as well. Root, Bell, Buttler and Hales all averaged 30 and above, and keep their places in the next squad. The bowling was more concerning, as none of our seamers went for less than 5.5 an over, with Jordan going for a lot of runs and being dropped for his efforts. TRJ was also poor in his one game, but his good domestic form will see him get another chance. Broad was also woeful, going at almost 6 an over and taking only 3 wickets in the 4 matches he played. Tredwell is also totally out of form in the One Day cup, so we're going to drop him. Samit is also removed as we search for a better number 5.

Ravi has been poor and is replaced by Ben Stokes. I'm going to try out Adil Rashid as well, because it's definitely worth a go at this stage! Shaaiq Choudhry is given the final spinners birth as the specialist, but he may well not play despite being the highest wicket taker in the domestic tournament. Rory Burns comes in as a specialist batsman thanks to some excellent attacking form, and James Harris is the final addition as we search for seamers who can keep the runs down a little. Our team for the first ODI looks like this.

Alex Hales
Ian Bell (C)
Rory Burns
Joe Root
Eoin Morgan
Jos Buttler (K)
Adil Rashid
Ben Stokes
James Harris
Toby Roland-Jones
James Anderson

[Imager36]

A poor defeat, really. Totally beaten again.



Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this at all, really. Stokes and Anderson bowled well, but the rest of the attack was pretty woeful, and the batting was even worse as we crumbled in 36.3 overs and never looked like we would ever overturn the score. The batting is the thing that is really failing us at the moment, and I don't know what it's going to take to reverse the slide. My man of the match is Ben Stokes.

Shaaiq Choudhry makes his début at Cardiff in place of James Harris, who was the most wayward of the lot in the first match.

[Imager36]

Another fairly poor defeat, though with a little more bite.



Our total was below par, certainly, but a poor start where both Hales and Burns failed to get double figures really hurt us, and though Bell and Root then played well, I failed to take risks and the run rate was very poor indeed. Bell kept going and eventually made his century, with a cameo from Eoin Morgan helping us to pop over 230 and into the range of a total that might be defendable on a very good day.

Today was not that day, as we bowled well but not exceptionally. Stokes went at 7 an over, basically sealing our fate from the get-off, and while Anderson bowled very well and the spinners did okay to keep us in the game for a bit, they got to their target with 5 overs to spare as we were probably 40 runs short.

Our man of the match though, is still Ian Bell. Ian played well, he just needed players around him to help out. Team news for Trent Bridge is that Morgan gives his place to Taylor, and Moeen replaces Rashid.

[Imager36]

Much better, the kind of victory I'm used to in one day cricket.



We lost the toss, which made the decision to bat first much easier. We started very slowly again, but this is apparently to be our downfall in this form of the game. Bell managed to hold us together, thankfully, even when Hales and Burns fell almost at the same time as each other. Hales had made 35, but Burns made 1 and Root only made 8, leading to us having to rebuild a little even when already going at a poor run rate, with Taylor joining Bell and helping out. Thankfully, we then started accelerating, Taylor eventually going for a run a ball 47, and Moeen Ali taking up the mantle after he ran out Jos Buttler to score 61 from only 51 balls. Stokes made a first ball duck, but Ali was assisted by Choudhry's 12 from 12, and TRJ's 9 from 8 as we chalked up a total we felt less below par than our previous efforts.

We didn't start well with our bowling, with Anderson going well at one end but TRJ and Ben Stokes struggling a little at the other. Then we brought on Ali and Choudhry, and decided strangling India against spin was the only way to go. Each of the pair took 1/43 from their 10 overs, giving us a few runs to play with, and Root came on for a couple of overs and took the wicket of Dhawan. After that, batsmen just kept falling, with TRJ and Anderson's death bowling proving a little tough to get away, and Indian batsmen seeming keener on giving their wickets away than fighting. Somehow, we ended up winning!

Our man of the match on this occasion is Moeen Ali, his batting giving us a solid total, and his bowling doing exactly the job he was set.

[Imager36]

I just haven't found anything like the right batting tactics yet.



We lost the toss again and batted, but Hales ate up far too many deliveries again, and I don't know why it's happening to him quite so regularly that he's just getting bogged down. Bell batted in incredible style, and he's been the only batsman worthy of his place in the team at this moment. Burns' 44 was a nice flash of what he can do, but we'd have liked him to go on and add a few more to the total before he departed. Buttler was promoted, and failed, but James Taylor made 23* from 12 balls to give us a whiff of respectability.

It wasn't enough on a good batting track though. While they only managed it with 2 overs to spare, it was comfortable for the entire time as their top order did the bulk of the work, and while strangling them worked for a fair while, it didn't provide quite enough runs to the seamers to work with, although they managed a couple of consolatory wickets.

My man of the match is once more Ian Bell for his very classy century. Team changes for the final ODI again, Woakes back in for Stokes and Morgan in for Hales, with Moeen going to the top of the order with Bell.

[DaveK93]

What aggression levels do you start Hales on?

[Imager36]

What aggression levels do you start Hales on?

4 for about 3/4 overs, then bump it to 5 if he's faced a few balls... Admittedly I could start more aggressively, but his ODI SR's down at like 50 O.o

[DaveK93]

4 for about 3/4 overs, then bump it to 5 if he's faced a few balls... Admittedly I could start more aggressively, but his ODI SR's down at like 50 O.o

Hadn't realised I'd not replied.... my bad!

I usually start him on 5 with a slightly more defensive batsman on 4 bars, i.e Cook, that usually seems to work. Alternatively, I like having Hales and Roy open, both on 5 bars.

[Alrounder80]

Hadn't realised I'd not replied.... my bad!

I usually start him on 5 with a slightly more defensive batsman on 4 bars, i.e Cook, that usually seems to work. Alternatively, I like having Hales and Roy open, both on 5 bars.

Wouldn't it make more sense to go the opposite way (i.e. using more aggression bars on defensive batsmen and less on aggressive batsmen)? But if it works for you, keep on using it!

[DaveK93]

Wouldn't it make more sense to go the opposite way (i.e. using more aggression bars on defensive batsmen and less on aggressive batsmen)? But if it works for you, keep on using it!

That's what I always thought, but it seems to work. Whether it's because they are in their comfort zone, I don't know