Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Third Test

A few changes, Swann and Collingwood are rested. Bopara comes back into the team and Denly is handed his debut at six.

Pakistan win the toss and put England in to bat.
England start badly with the top four all failing. Good scores from Bopara(53), Denly(46), Ambrose(112) and Bresnan(82) help England towards a good total of 393.
Flintoff then rips through Pakistan taking five wickets.

Bresnan takes two while Anderson gets three, Pakistan all out for 171. England chose not to enforce the follow on. Strauss, Cook and Vaughan all fail again. Pietersen makes a quick 38. Denly puts on 32 while Bopara reaches 112.

Ambrose gets 72 and Rashid 74. England are all out for 413 at lunch on day four. Pakistan requiring 635 runs.
This time Rashid does most of the damage taking 5 wickets. Flintoff adds three more to his collection while Bresnan picks up another two. Pakistan falling 418 runs short.

England Man of the Match - Flintoff, eight wickets including five in one innings, Flintoff took centre stage ripping though Pakistan to set up a simple win.
Other Notable Mentions - Ambrose, Bopara, Rashid, Bresnan
Poor Game - Cook, Vaughan, Strauss

[Chasjs]

Forth Test

With the Series won Strauss, Cook, Vaughan and Pietersen were rested. Bell, Trott and Harmison were given their first appearance of the Tour while Moore was handed his debut. Denly has moved up to opener and Flintoff up to five and Captains the side.

England won the toss and opted to bat.
Moore retired hurt on his debut, unlucky. Bopara went soon after, as did Trott but Denly grew in confidence after a shaky start. Flintoff, Bell and Ambrose went quickly after lunch but Denly reached his half century. He was eventually out lbw for 67. Bresnan and Rashid batted out the day. The next morning Bresnan reached his century early on but was dismissed soon after. Harmison and Anderson didn't stick around leaving Rashid stranded on 88 as England were all out for 361 at lunch on the second day.
Despite Manzoor falling for a duck early on wickets were hard to come by with all of Pakistan's batsmen making decent scores. once through to the tail though Englands bowlers finished them off quickly leaving Pakistan with an 68 run lead.
In the absense of Moore, Bell opened for England with Denly. Despite looking comfortable both openers went for 18 before the close on the third day. Trott fell for 32 the next day. Flintoff disappointed and Ambrose was looking good until he was run out just before lunch.

The next two sessions were pretty much washouts taking England into the last day with 5 wickets left and a 129 run lead. Bresnan continued his good form reaching 42 as Bopara powered onto his century. Bopara eventually reached 173.

Harmison and Anderson again fell quickly leaving Rashid stranded for the second time in the game, this time for 59. England reached 398 all out with a lead of 330 requiring something special from the bowlers to win the Test.
Pakistan cruised to a draw with Flintoff taking the only two wickets dismissing both openers.

England Man of the Match - Bresnan, he took 3 wickets and scored in excess of 150 runs, including his first Test century, great contribution.
Other Notable Mentions - Rashid, Bopara, Denly
Poor Game - Flintoff, Bell, Harmison

Series Reaction
England win Series 3-0
A good team performance throughout. Denly did well when called upon. Moore was unlucky. Rashid, the other debutant this Series, performed well in the last three Tests taking 16 wickets. Pietersen and Strauss carried on being the main run machines in the team while Bopara had a better time. Ambrose played well in all four Tests and will surely keep his place next season. Flintoff just keeps getting better thoughout the year taking more wickets each Series, while still being as economical as before. Bresnan also performed well with both bat and ball reaching his first Test Century. But after disappointing with the bat in the Second Test, Rashid went on to make three half centuries, backing up his good bowling. He might've even had his first Test century aswell if he had not ran out of partners.

England Man of the Series - Rashid, in a Series which was won easily and many were rested Rashid played well throughout averaging 21.25 with the ball and 74.33 with the bat. Can't really argue with that from a number 9.

[Chasjs]

The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 15 man squad for the ODI Seires in the tour of Pakistan:

ECB Selection Committee
A Strauss*
J Anderson
R Bopara
S Broad
J Clare
P Collingwood
A Cook
A Flintoff
S Harmison
E Morgan
K Pietersen
M Prior^
A Rashid
G Swann
M Vaughan
L Wright

Davies again loses out on a place in the ODI side due to an injury. Prior is again called up in his stead. Morgan is also in the squad and will be given a chance to prove himself in the upcoming friendly.

Broad is out due to injury.

[Chasjs]

One Day Friendly

The team picked experiments with using Wright in a similar role to what he deploys in the T20s. As the four most in form batters are rested this team has plenty of bowling options, yet still bats quite deep due to a high number of all-rounders.

England win the toss and elect to bat.
Cook goes first over. Vaughan and Wright do well. Wright reaches 42 before getting caught behind. Vaughan gets in and begins to accelerate before he is out for 64. Morgan does well but is run out for 32. Flintoff and Prior then do alot of damage each reaching their half centuries going at over a run a ball to propel England to a total of 257.

The bowlers bowl really well with all six used taking wickets. Despite making a decent start, Rawalpindi are all out for 152 after 34.1 overs.

England win by 105 runs
Man of the Match - Vaughan
England Man of the Match - Anderson, finished with figures of 3-26 off 7 overs. Good show.
Other Notable Mentions - Wright, Flintoff, Vaughan, Morgan, Prior, Rashid
Poor Game - Cook

[Chasjs]

First ODI

Wright opens with Strauss, Vaughan comes in at 3 again. Pietersen bats in his usual forth place while the addition of Collingwood and Bopara drops Flintoff down to 7 and Prior to 8. Two spinners give the attack variety and batting depth.

Pakistan win the toss and put England in to bat.
That batting depth was needed aswell as England lost their top four inside the first 15 overs.

Collingwood and Bopara rebuilt slowly before the lower order put the foot down, each hitting a small amount of runs in not very many balls that when added together made a big contribution to push England to a respectable 225 all out after 48 overs.

Depite England taking early wickets Pakistan powered on with Yousuf and Kahn. Pakistan neared the total as Kahn fell. A few wickets then went quickly but ENgland couldn't get past Yousuf who reached 90 not out as Pakistan reached the total in 42.5 overs.

Pakistan win by 5 wickets
Man of the Match - Yousuf
England Man of the Match - Collingwood
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara
Poor Game - Strauss, Wright, Vaughan, Pietersen

[Pezza_02]

Really good story, good to look at the players you have been using for england and compare to my choices, as i am currently enjoying a good england save . Keep up the good work

[Chasjs]

Thanks. Just because I'm interested, who gets selected often for you but doesn't for me. There is a few players I've had to leave out and I've only really managed to fit batting alternatives into the side, Denly and Moore the most recent to get tried out. Wish I had a Lions side for this.

Have you selected your long term keeper???

Edit: woooooo 200th post!!!

[Imager36]

I'll also stick my nose in to this one and give you alternatives that have worked for me with England. Horton has really worked for me opening with Strauss and Imran Arif and Darren Pattinson have really impressed me in the bowling department, with Pattison averaging 29.21 in tests and 20.47 in ODIs. Probably got him right at the top of his ability on the randomiser.

Prior is my keeper, although his team-mate Hodd is really pushing him all the way.

EDIT:- I'm waaaay ahead of you

[Chasjs]

Looked at Pattison, not impressed. Would prefer Plunkett or Mahmood personally.
Horton... I like him, he does well for my Lancs side, although I only keep him for the first season as he's being paid a bit much. He's not doing to well this year, Moore has been alot better. Never noticed Arif.

[Imager36]

Ooh, I rarely try either Mahmood or Plunkett, as I expect them to fail like in real life.

Some players are good in most saves, but the other few selections (Mahmood, Plunkett, Pattinson, Arif) are really based on how the game randomises itself.

[Chasjs]

Second ODI

Similar team hear. Harmison comes in for Swann.

England win the toss and chose to bat.
Strauss was again out cheaply but Wright got the innings off to a good start hitting 19 off 19 to push the run rate up. After Vaughan went wickets collapsed at the tother end. Pietersen eventually was out for 58 and while Prior put together a good score, England ran out of wickets in the 42nd over reaching 196.

Faced with the task of bowling Pakistan out England got to work with Harmison removing Jamshed first ball. He got the other opener Manzoor a few overs later followed by the wicket of Alam.

But again England couldn't get past Kahn and Yousuf. Yousuf reached his century.
Shortly after Pakistan reached their total.

Pakistan win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Yousuf
England Man of the Match - Harmison
Other Notable Mentions - Pietersen, Prior
Poor Game - Rashid, Strauss, Collingwood, Bopara, Flintoff

[Chasjs]

Third ODI

Same team for the third ODI. England must win all threee remaining games to win the Series and go level with the Aussies in the ODI rankings.

England win the toss and decide to bat.
Strauss didn't disappoint this time. But wickets tumbled at the other end. Collingwood stuck around for a whil but didn't score quickly enough. After Strauss was out Bopara was the only batsman to offer any resistance with Anderson keeping the other end tight for him to reach his 50.

England batted out all 50 overs for the first time this Series.

Enhgland found wickets hard to come by early on. Rashid took the first and they were followed by two run outs. Pakistan cruised to the total to win the Series.

Pakistan win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Jamshed
ENgland Man of the Match - Strauss
Other Notable Performances - Bopara
Poor Game - Pietersen, Vaughan, Harmison, Anderson, Wright, Prior

[Chasjs]

Forth ODI

With the Series now lost and the season coming to a close Morgan and Clare came into the team. Cook also comes in to bat at 3. Vaughan goes up to open with Wright.

England win the toss and chose to bat.
England go on to the best score so far. Wright and Vaughan paly really well, Wright getting a Century.

Vaughan missing out on his first ODI Century again, but he edged 4 runs closer getting out on 94. They both scored at a decent rate. Cook and Morgan became victims of trying to increase the run rate. Flintoff played well with Clare supporting him in the best way possible, keep Freddie on strike. England reached 263.

Clare gave the innings a good start getting both openers in his opening spell. Wright came on and bowled quite well without taking a wicket. Anderson was quite poor. Bopara took a wicket first ball, but after that he was horribly expensive. Pakistan reached the total with an over to spare.

Pakistan win by 5 wickets
Man of the Match - Wright
England Man of the Match - Wright
Other Notable Mentions - Vaughan, Flintoff, Clare
Poor Game - Morgan, Cook, Anderson

[Chasjs]

Fifth ODI

There were no changes for the final ODI.

England win the toss and for the fifth time in the series bat first.
Wright gets the innings off to a good start hitting 4 four in two overs. Vaughan and Cook then both reach good scores at a good run rate. Morgan hits a half century in the last ten overs supported both by Flintoff and Clare. England reaching 290.

The bowlers were all great, only four were needed as Pakistan were wrapped up in 25 overs. Wright was a little expensive, though he still managed the important wicket of Kahn. Anderson wrapped it up in his second spell to complete a 5 wicket haul.

England avoiding the whitewash and taking some positive out of this ODI Series.

England win by 173 runs
Man of the Match - Anderson
England Man of the Match - Anderson
Other Notable Mentions - Vaughan, Rashid, Clare, Cook, Morgan
Poor Game - N/A

Series Reaction
Pakistan win Series 4-1
At the top of the order Wright sort of did the job he was there for. He failed in two innings and hit some quick runs in another two. He did expectionally in the forth game reaching a century. Vaughan also did quite well, especially when opening in the last two games. Morgan got a good fifty in his second game. Flintoff was disappointing with the bat. He put on runs quickly late in the innings though, which is always useful. His bowling was exceptional, though not taking many wickets, he gave away little in the way of runs. Prior was quite disappointing. Rashid din't have the best of series' but Clare is definatly one to watch for ODIs at least. Anderson was poor bowling apart form the last game. Pietersen and Strauss didn't have the best of times but managed one good score each. Bopara got a few good scores aswell. Harmison was generally poor.

England Man of the Series - Vaughan, he got several good scores and performed well in most games, especially when he opened in the last two.

[Chasjs]

Series Highlights

4 - Bresnan's first Test century. England losing early wickets and need someone from the lower order to step up and make some runs. Bresnan responds.


3 - Strauss' 178. Helped set up victory in the first Test by pushing setting a decent total for the bowlers to defend.


2 - Anderson slicing through Pakistan in the last ODI to set up an England victory.


1 - Before lunch on the last day of the first Test. England's pace trio ripped the Pakistan batting line-up to shreds.