Rebuilding Australian Cricket

[Kevin Hedger]

OK
I decided to start a story of my home team and will be updating it on and off. So stay tuned

[Kevin Hedger]

As the focus is on rebuilding, so some changes are made in the T20 World Cup in Carabian. P Hughes and U Khawaja are included as openers in the 15 men squad. T Copeland and J Hastings also made their way in the final 15 to surprize many. Let's see how these changes will work.
The squad includes
D Warner
P Hughes
U Khawaja
M Clarke
D Hussy
B Hodge
C White ( Captain)
B Haddin( Keeper and V Captain)
S Watson
S Smith
J Hastings
M Johnson
S Tait
D Nannes
T Copeland

[Kevin Hedger]

First match was againt Pakistan and Australia decided to play without S Tait, D Nannes and D Warner. P Hughes and U Khawaja were playing their first T20 Int while T Copeland and J Hastings were making their debutes.
Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first.
T Copeland got Butt and Akmal in the very first over. K Latif was next to go. K Akmal was the only one to make 50+ which helped Pakistan to set a target of 144 for the loss of 7 wickets. Copeland was impressive with 4/17 while Smith took 2/31.
Australian openers gave a solid start of 91 runs. P Hughes fell right after making fifty of 29 balls in the 9th over. After that Khawaja and Clarke batted well to see Aus home in the 16th over. Khawaja scored an unbeaten 71 of 41 balls while Clarke score 21 of 23( run a ball as usual)

[ab5ides1]

Great story so far. Good to see someone experimenting in stories. Clarke is a surprisingly good t20 player on my game, while Warner is pretty poor.

[Kevin Hedger]

Great story so far. Good to see someone experimenting in stories. Clarke is a surprisingly good t20 player on my game, while Warner is pretty poor.

Thanks for your comments.

[Kevin Hedger]

Second match was against Bangladesh. I decided to keep the same side.
Under cloudy conditions, winning the toss is always a sign of good luck. Australia won the toss and put Bangladesh to bat first.
Bangladesh batted really well and set a decent total of 156. Mahmudullah scored 74. S Watson and T Copeland took 3 wickets each.
S Smith and Hastings took 2 wickets each.
Australian start was not much impressive. Khawaja was first one to go and on the very next delivery a direct throw from the boundry send P Hughes back to the pavillion. Australia was 2 down for 9 at the end of first over.In the 3rd over Australia lost S Watson as well. But Clarke on the other end, was playing superbly( unlike real life lolz).
A short cameo from D Hussy 31 of 14 kept the asking rate in control. Australia managed to get the target with 8 balls to spare and won the match by 5 wickets. M Clarke scored an unbeaten 72 of 52 balls.


In the first two matches of the tournament, Australian openers and M Clarke showed a fine form with the bat. Copeland and Hastings proved that they have enough skill to play at international level. Smith and Watto did well with the ball but still need to do some thing with the bat. With all these things in mind Australia will be playing against India for the Super 8 round.

[Kevin Hedger]

After World Cup Australia will be playing 5 ODI's against England, 2 T20's against Pakistan as well as 2 tests. Any suggestions for some young Australian players will be taken into consideration before selecting a final squad for the tour of England.
Cheers

[dancingmongoose]

luke feldman & ben cutting

as you can probably tell khawaja copeland are overrated

[Kevin Hedger]

luke feldman & ben cutting

as you can probably tell khawaja copeland are overrated

Ya no doubt about that. S Smith is also over rated when it comes to his batting.
Thanks for ur suggestions; I will be looking for their performance in FC season.

[Kevin Hedger]

Australia played with the same XI against India. India won the toss and put Australia to bat first. Both openers started well. Khawaja fell when Australia was 44 in the 4th over. Australia also lost the wicket of Clarke in the next over. But P Hughes and S Smith gave a good stand to take Australia past 180 on a batting track. Hughes was the top scorer with 63 of 41 balls. Smithy and Watto remained unbeaten on 51(40) and 39(18) respectively.
The total of 184 was good to defend. Copeland continued to impress. He got 3 wickets in his 2nd over to remove Karthik, Gambhir and Yuvraj.In the 5th over Watson got rid of Dhoni.And in the 6th over Hastings got dangerous Pathan.That exposed the Indian tail and Hastings did well to get 4/28 along with Copeland who finished with 4/20. India was bowled out in 15th over and Australia had a comprehensive win with a margin of 65 runs.

[ab5ides1]

After World Cup Australia will be playing 5 ODI's against England, 2 T20's against Pakistan as well as 2 tests. Any suggestions for some young Australian players will be taken into consideration before selecting a final squad for the tour of England.
Cheers

Definately Peter George and possibly Aaron Finch as well. I would say Callum Ferguson, but for some reason he is extremely underrated.

[Imager36]

That reason is probably that his FC and List A averages are pretty terrible, despite his good ODI average. The game generates a lot of its ratings based on averages, as we know. Anyway, best of luck. Except for when playing England

[Kevin Hedger]

Well some starge things appened when I tried to play my save game. After winning the first super 8 round game, australia was supposed to play against Sri Lanka. When I loaded my save file and click on continue button, it automatically played my matches against Sri Lanka and W Indies. Australia won both matches but was knocked out in the semi finals where Bangladesh gave an upset to qualify for the final after beating Australia. I did not play that match even.
It was just what computer wanted I think
Anyway I will continue same save game. Can anyone explain why it happen though?

[Kevin Hedger]

Here is the 15 men squad for ODI series against England.
P Hughes
U Khawaja
M Clarke (V Captain)
R Ponting (Captain)
A Finch
B Haddin (Wicket Keeper)
S Watson
S Smith
C White
J Hastings
M Johnson
T Copeland
P George
S O'Keefe

[Kevin Hedger]

For the friendly OD match against Middlesex, Ponting was rested and Clarke was captaining the Australian side. A Finch was given a chance to prove his talent. Johnson and C White were also rested and were replaced by P George and O'Keefe.
Australia won the toss and Clarke decided to bowl first. Australian attack was quite forceful to restrict Middlesex to 222 in 50 overs. P George was unable to take any wicket but still was very economical( gave away only 31 in 10 overs). Keefe was pick of te bowlers. He manged to get 3 wickets for 39 in his 10 overs.
In reply, Khawaja and Hughes delivered yet again and both scored 80+. A Finch was impressive in his short inning of 37* of 30 balls.Australia got the target in only 33rd over.