The Golden Isles - A Story

[Imager36]

It was two defeats... Now it's three -



Now, kids, never taunt someone. You know what'll happen.

Won the toss and bowled again and was happy to restrict them to 224. Their top 4 all got good starts, but no-one went on to make above 50 and Wallace was outstanding with 4/28 from 9 overs.

Our innings started well with a 58 partnership between Morton and Chanderpaul before they both fell quickly before Bascombe and Barath rebuilt with a partnership of 51, leaving us on 118/3 when Bascombe went for 25.

We were soon 144/5 and looking shaky with Flokes coming to the crease to meet Sebastien. Flokes made a nice innings of 32 off 34 but when he fell Sebastien was too slow and so had to go gung-ho in the final overs, leading to us being all out and losing.

By the way, South Africa won, beating my bogey team England in the final by 5 wickets.

[Imager36]

Time for the rankings -
Test - 7th
ODI - 6th

Test - Batting (Top 100)
2nd Chanderpaul
18th Gayle
19th Bravo
33rd Barath
42nd Morton
45th Sarwan
55th Flokes
73rd Sammy
76th McClean
87th D.Richards
97th A.Richards

Test - Bowling
14th Wallace
21st Sammy
30th McClean
41st Richardson
42nd Martin
45th Garraway
60th Pascal
68th Gayle
71st Jaggernauth

ODI - Batting (Top 100)
5th Chanderpaul
10th Morton
22nd Sarwan
27th Barath
49th Flokes
62nd Sammy
81st Sebastien
86th Bascombe

ODI -Bowling
19th McClean
20th Martin
26th Sebastien
37th Sammy
53rd Wallace
77th Garraway
78th Hyatt
87th Hinds

[patrickF690]

how are u out of the world cup

[Imager36]

Lost in the semis, Patrick, first post on this page.

[patrickF690]

ok unlucky mate

[Imager36]

Right, off to the toughest year so far (by far). I wouldn't be surprised if I don't win a series this year. The full itenary is:-

Australia at home, 3 tests, 3 ODIs;
South Africa at home, 3 tests, 5 ODIs;
Pakistan away, 1 3-day tour match, 3 tests, 3 ODIs;
India at home, 3 tests, 3 ODIs.

The previous corresponding records are:-

Australia at home ('08) -
Tests - Lost 2-0
ODIs - Lost 5-0

South Africa at home ('05) -
Tests - Lost 2-0
ODIs - Lost 5-0

Pakistan away ('06)
Tests - Lost 2-0
ODIs - Lost 3-1

India at home ('06/'09)
Tests ('06) - Lost 1-0
ODIs ('09) - Lost 3-1

So, any series draws or victories we get this year are purely additional, we can't lose points, which is a pretty liberating situation

[Imager36]

The squad for the first test against Australia -

C.Gayle (O)
R.Morton (O)
S.Chanderpaul (BAT) (C)
R.Sarwan (BAT) (V/C)
D.Bravo (BAT)
A.Barath (BAT)
I.Flokes (W/K)
D.Sammy (ALL)
K.McClean (SEAM)
N.Pascal (SEAM)
A.Martin (SPIN)
G.Wallace (SPIN)

Wallace is the player to miss out as we've done well with 4 man attacks and as such don't need a second spinner. Martin just needs to play a few more tests to show me exactly how good he is, but it seems to me that he and Wallace are about as good as each other.

[Imager36]

When I said I'd probably lose... I didn't mean quite like this -



I thought, at the time, that I'd done quite well to limit Australia to 385, but looking again the pitch was in bad condition, and it took a good stumping from Flokes to get Jaques out after he got his hundred, and he was batting at 6. Gayle and Martin both impressed with the ball as the 3 seamers could only manage 2 wickets between them. Unfortunately, that would be the last I would see of my bowlers in this match.

Being all out for 115 really hurt in the first innings, and the only players to think about doing well were Gayle and Sammy. Out of the rest, all apart from Morton and Flokes fell for less than 2 figures. The follow-on was unsurprisingly enforced and we started to collapse again although Gayle (36), Chanderpaul (70) and Barath (49) slowed this one down quite a lot.

I'll stick with the current side for the next test. On a typical West Indian and Australian pitch, hard and bouncy. Oh boy.

[Imager36]

Oh no. Not again.



Lost the toss again, told to bowl again, did quite well again. Same old pattern, except we did so well bowling first time out that we didn't have to follow on. When I was 17/4, with both openers, Barath and Sarwan gone, I wasn't too sure about that, even.

The next thing I knew, Australia were 223/1 and cruising to victory. Barath and Sarwan failed again (time for a rest) and Chanderpaul and Sammy did well to get to 247.

[Imager36]

Barath, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Sammy and McClean are all being rested for this last one. The lucky players who come in as a result are Austin Richards (Leeward Islands, 27, Batsman), Kieron Powell (Leeward Islands, 21, Batsman), Thomas Adams (Jamaica, 21, Opener), Jerome Taylor (Jamaica, 26, True Quick Bowler) and Ravi Rampaul (Ireland, 26, Seamer). The player who misses out is Wallace again. Chris Gayle (Vice-Vice Captain) takes control and bats at 3 to accommodate Adams.

[mclaren007]

i m seeing this thread at the first time

so in which season r u right now

[Imager36]

Into 2011 now, thanks for reading!

[Imager36]

Oh dear. I think that counts as a thrashing. I'd better get used to these...



I refuse to talk about these ones, you can pretty much see what happened by looking at that scorecard.

Gayle was by far our best player with both bat and ball, but this was only because everyone else was so poor. After our good world cup performance, I feel we're turning into a ODI specialist team, pretty much the reverse of what I expected.

Anyway, here's the squad for that series:-

R.Morton (O)
S.Chanderpaul (BAT (will play as O)) (C)
R.Sarwan (BAT) (V/C)
A.Barath (BAT)
M.Bascombe (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
A.Holder (BAT)
I.Flokes (WK)
L.Sebastien (ASP)
Dwayne Bravo (ALL)
D.Sammy (ALL)
K.McClean (SEAM)
A.Martin (SPIN)
J.Taylor (SEAM)
F.Edwards (SEAM)

2 selections in that squad are controversial. Dwayne Bravo and Fidel Edwards haven't played games for me but have international experience, and they have been chosen over Andy Richardson and Trev Garraway, who both made the world cup.

Bravo (Darren), Holder, Taylor and Edwards miss out on the first match. Flokes will bat at six as we now know he's a good keeper and will persist with trying to make him a half-decent international batsman.

[Imager36]

Once more, I won't let this die... although my team seem to want me to!



After the 170 run opening partnership between Rush and Hughes at the start, we kind of knew the game was over. Kevin McClean bowled quite well, with 2 wickets, and Martin did well to keep his economy to 4.4.

Chanderpaul's 41 was good, as was Sarwan's 32 not out. Apart from this, only Bascombe, Bravo (Dwayne) and Sebastien got into double figures.

Because of the disappointing failure, Bravo (Darren) is in for Barath, and Edwards is in for Darren Sammy.

[mclaren007]

u need a fresh bowler just for gamble after all ,all ur bowlers getting thrashed take a youth bowler around 20-22 years of age or try an allrounder wh is handy with both bat & ball