England story!

[UTBash]

3rd Test vs WI - The Decider

Team News: Joe Root comes in to replace Livingstone after finding some form in recent games. Joseph comes in for the West Indies.

The Toss: West Indies won the toss and chose to field. With conditions a bit up and down I was happy to lose this toss.

We claimed the first day as ours, with Cook and Jennings getting us off to a flyer. Conditions took a bad turn in the final session and a rain break disrupted our flow. A couple of wickets fell before the end of the day but we had set ourselves up well with a bad 2nd day ahead in terms of weather. Play didn't start until late in the second session and when we took to the crease the weather was overcast. As the weather improved, we looked to attack and ended the 2nd day just shy of 400. I was looking for quick runs and a declaration on the 3rd day as soon as possible. It took us half a session to pile another 130 on including 41 from 21 balls from Woakes, along with some other great strike rates!

A nervy start from the West Indies saw Braithwaite and Chase knuckle down and bat well. However their departures were followed the West Indies' demise as Ali took 3 wickets in 4 balls in the last over of day 3. Finn opened the 4th day and cleaned up quickly!

We once again opted against the follow on, conditions were bowler friendly on the final day and we could put them out of the game and bowl them out again. We declared with a lead of 537 after hitting 219 in 30 overs. Broad and Woakes smashed them late on, I almost didn't declare because I was enjoying it so much haha!

We had a day and a half to bowl them out, if the weather plays fair! They battled admirably but we had them 7 down with a session to go. Unfortunately, we couldn't get over the line to win. Maybe my decisions played a part in the draw but the signs of improvement were positive. However I'm hoping the Ashes will go much better!



Batting Award: Joe Root. Finally showing some form!

Bowling Award: Moeen Ali. We bowled well to be fair, but Ali topped the charts at both times of asking.

Series Result: 1-1 draw

[UTBash]

T20i vs West Indies

We play a single T20 game against the Windies before kicking off the one day series. Mason Crane is handed a debut!

The Toss: West Indies win and choose to bowl.

Roy and Root put on 90 in the first ten after Morgan fell early. Roston Chase turned to innings upside down with his spell of 4 overs, 1 maiden, 3 for 7 and we ended on 147.

Opener Lewis held firm whilst scoring at a good rate despite wickets going around him and the game was finely balanced with 7 overs left and needing 8 an over. Crane returned for his second spell and held his nerve, taking 2 in 2 balls after going for 17 in his first. Benny Howell joined the attack and proved good again as him and Crane left them needing 14 an over with opener Lewis gone. We saw the game out well to take the win!


Batting Award: Jason Roy. Proving a great T20 player for us!
Bowling Award: Mason Crane, on debut he did well. Last 3 overs were 3-7.
"Series" Results: England win 1-0!

[UTBash]

First ODI vs West Indies

Liam Livingstone replaces Morgan from our last one day squad. Morgan may struggle to get back in the side after his recent form.

The Toss: West Indies win the toss and elect to bat.

Their top order set the game up perfectly for a late onslaught. Our inability to take early wickets (besides Stokes) meant that we allowed them to to do this. Although at 170-2 we can be happy that they only reached what is a chase-able score. Topley was our most expensive bowler, going for 70 from his 10, Stokes was unlucky to go for 20 from his last.

A good opening partnership of 94 was broken by a silly run out. We were falling behind the rate as it went over a run a ball and Livingstone was promoted to 3 in the hope he could cause some carnage on debut. He did exactly that! Making their bowlers look average as he smashed an unbeaten 93 off 68 balls! Root and him put on 130 and Root also hit 61 from 56, a brilliant chase!


Batting Award: Liam Livingstone, unreal debut.
Bowling Award: Chris Woakes. In good form and pips Stokes to the award.
Series State: 1-0 England with 4 to play!

[UTBash]

Second ODI vs WI

Team News: Willey in for Topley

The Toss: We won the toss and chose to bat!

Our middle order were crucial in our innings and Liam Livingstone retained the number 3 position after his knock in the first game and batted well for his 43. Warrican and Chase were their only bowlers under 6 an over as they kept it tight in the middle overs. We managed to post a respectable 280 as David Willey enjoyed a quickfire cameo late on.

Braithwaite and Lewis opened the innings very well and once they fell only small partnerships came for the West Indies. We looked good for the win until their tail wagged to get them over the line. 1-1.



Batting Award: A hard hitting Jos Buttler innings earned him the award.
Bowling Award: Jake Ball. Best by miles
Series State: 1-1 with 3 to play, hopefully a minor blip.

[UTBash]

3rd ODI vs WI

Team News: Topley back in for Willey who has been too expensive with the ball.

The Toss: Once again we won the toss and chose to bat on an absolute road!

Jason Roy showed good form again as he led the way with a 70 after Duckett fell early. Liam Livingstone looked set for another good innings before a careless run out led to the long walk back to the pavilion. An experiment to send Stokes in for an early counter attack failed but Bairstow continued to pick up the pieces that Root had started to do. When Roy fell leaving us 143-5 it felt as though we were struggling. Buttler stayed for 18 with the score on 190. Thankfully Chris Woakes showed his class with the bat in an excellent stand with Bairstow and they took us up to another decent score which I hoped we could defend this time!

A confident start from the West Indies saw aggressive batting as they looked to take the series lead in style. The quality showed by Braithwaite and Samuels wasn't replicated by the rest of their line up as wickets tumbled regularly from the fall of the 2nd and Reece Topley claimed 5 wickets to compensate for his expensive run rate! It seems him and Rashid were targeted but they had the last laugh in the end


Batting Award: Jonny Bairstow. He's been fantastic for us this year and continues to be one of our best batsmen.
Bowling Award: Reece Topley. Despite being expensive he's justified his recall.
Series State: England lead 2-1 with 2 to play.

[UTBash]

4th ODI vs WI

Team News: Willey in for Ball as the rotation continues

The Toss: West Indies win the toss and put us in.

Roy was magnificent for his century in testing conditions for the batsmen. Their spinners played a crucial role in bowling us out and were the cause of a middle order collapse in the middle overs, the score wasn't flattering but I felt we had a chance on this pitch!

Braithwaite once again scored runs for the West Indies, he's been their best player by far! Despite his efforts and Chase's support, our bowlers showed they can take wickets and defend low scores which was satisfying for me!



Batting Award: Jason Roy, brilliant stuff!

Bowling Award: Rashid just takes it from Stokes!

Series State: England lead 3-1 with one to play, our one day form continues with another series win!

[UTBash]

5th ODI vs WI

Team News: Changes were made for the dead rubber with Hales, Ali and Anderson coming in for Duckett, Stokes and WIlley.

The Toss: West Indies win and put us in.

The conditions were overcast for the final game and Roy fell early for once! Joe Root batted well supporting Hales at the start of the innings as the Notts man looked to take the game to them with a quickfire 31. Their spinners played a solid part as had been the case throughout the series and we were bowled out pretty cheaply for the second game in a row.

Once again the runs from Braithwaite weren't backed up and we cruised to a 4-1 series win!



Batting Award: Joe Root
Bowling Award: Chris Woakes
Series Result: England win 4-1!!


Up next, the Ashes!!

[UTBash]

England in Australia - The Ashes

Once again I've decided to postpone the posting of statistics as I want to crack on with the games, don't worry they will come. With it being the first season im keen to try get on with it and try new things as its the only save im running at the moment. At the very least a full season review will be done after the New Zealand tour, hope you're enjoying the story either way!

So, we make the journey across the world to Australia in an Ashes series i'm secretly dreading. We've not found any sort of test form in the few we've played and drawn a series with the very poor West Indies! A few tweaks to our side will have to be made as we gamble to win the Ashes down under.

England Squad
Alastair Cook
Mark Stoneman*
Haseeb Hameed
Ben Duckett
Joe Root
Jonny Bairstow
Liam Livingstone
Jos Buttler
Ben Stokes
Ben Foakes*
Gary Ballance
Moeen Ali
Adil Rashid
Chris Woakes
Mark Wood
Stuart Broad
James Anderson
Tom Curran*

* three potential debutants join the squad and Mark Wood is called up to the side for the first time! Jake Ball and Keaton Jennings fail to make the cut!

[UTBash]

The Ashes - First Test

The Toss: Australia won the toss and chose to bat.

I'd have liked to bat in the first game of the series, but we had to make do with taking to the field. After Warner fell with the score on 3 we were buzzing around but Renshaw and Smith killed that with some boring batting. Renshaw was the mainstay of the innings and a decent knock by Handscomb left them in a decent position at 220-3. Mark Wood seemed desperate to show me he was worthy of his selection and along with Woakes they cleaned up as the Aussies struggled to play the pair.

Cook and Hameed showed we meant business with a monstrous opening partnership before the latter fell before reaching his century. Cook proved himself as the dominant left handed opener as he got off to a cracking start to the series and we built a solid lead. Bairstow, Root and Ali also batted well and as we looked to attack, the lower order chipped in too.

Despite a good opening partnership which threatened to take the win away from us, we came back well. I was happy to see Wood perform again in the second innings as he picked up a 5 for and only Burns resisted in the middle overs.

Root took us over the line as we gained advantage over our rivals, I have a good feeling about this series.



Batting Award: A no brainer. Alastair Cook, I just wish he got the double!
Bowling Award: Mark Wood. Fantastic return to the test squad and hopefully he can continue, it looks like Ball may really struggle to enter the fray again any time soon!
Series State: We lead 1-0 with 4 more tests to play!

[UTBash]

The Ashes - Second Test

Team News: Ben Stokes replaces Ali after his injury. Australia remain the same.

The Toss: England won the toss and chose to bat.

NB: I've not got screenshots of tests 2-4 as I forgot to save them and I don't want to post full innings scorecards as it takes up a lot of room!

After choosing to bat I was hoping for a better start! We were reduced to 189-8 with only Root and Bairstow scoring runs, 44 each. Liam Livingstone retained the strike fantastically late on and the tail supported him valiantly as he hit a vital 83! 281 a/o

Australia got off to just as bad a start as we did and a massive point in the innings was the injury to the in form opener Renshaw, who was hit by a nasty bouncer by broad when he was on 13 (Unlucky right?). Broad's aggressive approach payed off as he took 5 wickets and they were bowled out for 273, although having had them 132-5 we hoped we could have them for 200. Wade and Starc (44) batted well late in the innings and 5 of their batsmen failed to score over 2 runs!

With a slender lead and time left in the game I felt we could kill any hope of Australia winning. Despite Cook's 55, our players failed to capitalise on a number of starts but the runs they chipped in helped us along to 249 all out.

Smith was forced to open with Warner this time round as we had just 9 wickets to take before they scored 258, so the game was finely balanced. Bowlers dominated the innings again, with Anderson picking up 4 wickets for us. Khawaja and Warner passed the forties for them but it wasn't enough as the rest of their line up failed. 2-0!!

England
281 (Livingstone 83, Starc 4-84)
&
249 (Cook 55, Siddle 3-40)

Australia
273 (Wade 82*, Broad 5-52)
&
200 (Khawaje 52, Anderson 4-51)

England win by 57 runs

Batting Award: Liam Livingstone. Rescued our first innings to keep us in it early on!
Bowling Award: James Anderson. Wickets in both innings' for the Lancashire man!
Series State: England lead 2-0, surely we can't bottle this!

[UTBash]

The Ashes – Third Test

Team News: No changes for England. Shaun Marsh in for Renshaw for Australia with Burns to open the batting.
The Toss: Once again we won the toss and chose to bat!

The onus was on us to win the series with two games to spare and batting first confidence was high that the task would be completed. The experienced Cook passed 50 for the second time in a row but a poor performance from our top 5 saw us at 181-4, not bad by any means, but more would be expected if we were to assert our dominance. From 181-4 we didn’t manage to kick on and with regular wickets falling we ended 306 a/o. Josh Hazlewood was the pick of their bowlers.

Burns struggled opening the batting and was caught at gully cheaply. Warner, Smith, Khawaja and Wade all managed to pass 50 and Shaun Marsh scored a century in his first innings of the series as piled on the runs. They eventually declared on 508-7.

Our second innings painted a similar picture to our first, Cook and Bairstow scoring runs and Hazlewood taking 5 more wickets. We slumped to 299 a/o and had a mountain to climb.
As expected, Australia eased home as our morale was low and the lead was narrowed to 2-1.

England
306 (Cook 83, Hazlewood 5-83)
&
299 (Cook 81, Hazlewood 5-96)

Australia
508-7 (Marsh 126, Woakes 3-86)
&
98-1

Australia win by 9 wickets.

Batting Award: Alastair Cook. Batting well at the moment, shame he wasn’t supported!
Bowling Award: Chris Woakes. Simply because he actually took a few wickets haha!
Series State: England lead 2-1 with 2 to play!

[UTBash]

The Ashes - Fourth Test

Team News: Moeen Ali replaces the unimpressive Haseeb Hameed but must settle for batting down the order as Root is promoted to open. Australia make changes from the side that dominated us in the last game with Cartwright and Mennie replacing Siddle and Burns.

The Toss: We won the toss and batted!

After the disappointment of the last game we had the chance to rectify it as we looked to put runs on the board. Alastair Cook fell short of his 50 and Root was sent back for 22 in his first time opening for me. Ballance failed to trouble the scorers and we needed a big innings to get us on our way. Cue Jonny Bairstow’s 150! The wicket-keeper batsman answered all the questions asked by the Australian attack and overshadowed Moeen Ali’s 84 on his return as we made 443 a/o.

Despite not losing 10 wickets in the whole 3^rd test, Australia seemed to want to let us catch up on the wickets/runs ratio. Only Steve Smith showed some steel along with a wag of the tail in the form of Pattinson as we put ourselves firmly in pole position. 190 a/o.

The follow on was available for us to take but as I have before, I opted to bat again with time left in the game to put it beyond doubt. We didn’t reach the heights of the first innings but handy knocks from Root (60), Stokes (75) and Livingstone (53) left them needing almost 500 to win. Now we just had to bowl them out. 241 a/o.

This time round, the Aussies put up more of a fight, with their top 6 scoring runs. Ultimately and despite them shutting up shop to try and save the game, we bowled them out to win the Ashes with a game to spare. What a first series to win!

England

443 (Bairstow 150, Pattinson 3-86)
&
241 (Stokes 75, Starc 4-60)

Australia

190 (Pattinson 59, Woakes 4-50)
&
289 (Khawaja 68, Broad 3-49)

England win by 205 runs

Batting Award: Jonny Bairstow. He’d be hard done by if he didn’t get it after his 150
Bowling Award: Chris Woakes. No wickets in the second innings but ripped their batting apart in the first innings.
Series State: England lead 3-1 with 1 to play and win the Ashes!

[GrahamB]

Some tough times in the various test series so far. Was surprised to see the Windies do so well.

[UTBash]

Some tough times in the various test series so far. Was surprised to see the Windies do so well.

Aye it's a strange one, maybe a bit of unluckiness for me, especially after going down under and beating the Aussies!

[UTBash]

The Ashes - Fifth Test

Team News: For this dead rubber we bring the changes! Stoneman, Foakes, Duckett, Rashid and Tom Curran come in and Ali, Stokes, Wood, Anderson and Livingstone depart. Stoneman, Foakes and Curran all make their debut. The most notable Australia change is the inclusion of Renshaw who is back from injury.

The Toss: England win the toss and bat. I'm getting good at this!

Australia seemed depleted as we absolutely dominated in this final test. Unfortunately, none of the newly included batsmen could score runs but those who had been playing regularly scored buckets full. Cook ended a successful tour with a double century and that was backed up with centuries from Root and Ballance!

They batted well but despite reaching 409 they were asked to follow on. Adil Rashid was trusted to bowl a lot of over on a spin friendly deck and didn't disappoint.

Following on it was clear they were buried as their line up crumbled. Rashid bowled excellently again to make it 11 wickets for the match and debutant Curran picked up 4 wickets and despite the circumstances did himself no harm!



Batting Award: Alastair Cook, obviously!
Bowling Award: Adil Rashid. 11 wickets.
Series Result: England win 4-1, get in!

Next up, the one day series!