The Young Australians.

[NSWBlue]

The goal…

Pick a core group of players who are 25 and under at the start of the game and build them into a world beating unit.

After it started going between than expected, I decided to try and make a story about it. Unfortunately I missed the end of the first season so tour details are rather sketchy for the first season. More detail will follow starting in the second season.


First up

Tour of Bangladesh April 2011

3 ODI’s - Won 2-1

Impressive performance by the young guys. 13 wickets for Pat Cummins and three half centuries for Nic Maddinson

Tour of Sri Lanka August-September 2011

2 T20’s - Drawn series 1-1
5 ODI’s - Lost 1-4
3 Tests – Drawn 1-1

Disappointed in the ODI score line, we were close in the first 2 ODI’s that we lost taking it to the last over . Winning the first test was a bit of a surprise but we were quickly bought back down to earth losing the second test and drawing the last. Highlights were a 216 seventh wicket partnership between Matthew Wade and James Faulkner. Two runs shout of breaking the Australian all-time seventh wicket partnership between Doug Walters and Gary Gilmore against NZ in 1977


Tour of South Africa October – November 2011

2 T20’s - Lost 0-2
3 ODI’s - Lost 1-2
2 Tests – Lost 0-2

Nothing good came out of this tour, the one and only time we followed on this season was during this tour and we conceded 600 runs in the first innings of both tests.

New Zealand in Australia December 2011

2 Tests Won 1-0

Won the series, but it could have been 2-0 if I hadn’t run out of time to get the kiwi’s last wicket in the first test.

India in Australia December 2011 – January 2012

4 Tests Drawn series 2-2
2 T20’s Lost 0-2

Lost the toss in all 4 tests, India batted first in all 4 tests. 2-2 could have easily been 4-0 my way if not for top order collapses in the 2nd innings of the first two tests. Lost by 125 runs in the first test after being 5/36 chasing a little over 350. While in the second test we lost by 18 runs while chasing 270 and again we were 4/27 early in the chase.

The last two tests went more in our favour with a 7 wicket win and a 9 wicket win to round out the series. Stand out performer was Nic Maddinson, along with a top score for the season of 213 he was also involved in a 257 run opening stand with Phillip Hughes and a 316 run fourth wicket partnership with Steve Smith.


ODI Tri Series India and Sri Lanka February – March 2012

4 ODI’s Vs India Lost 0-4
4 ODI’s Vs Sri Lanka Won 2-1 (one tie)


End of season summary

Tests
Leading run scorers 2011\12

Name	           M 	Inn	*	Runs	HS	BF	S\R	Ave	100	50
Maddinson, Nic	11	22	1	1393	213	2778	50.15	66.33	5	6
Lynn, Chris	11	21	1	971	120	1986	48.88	48.55	2	6
Hughes, Philip	11	22		958	160	2001	47.88	43.55	4	8
Smith, Steve	11	20	2	834	173	1485	56.15	46.33	1	7
Wade, Matthew	11	19	10	795	144	1875	42.41	88.33	2	4

Leading wicket takers 2011\12

Name	               Overs	Runs	Wtks	Ave	Econ	S\R	5Wi	BBI	BBM
Coulter-Nile, Nathan	381	1377	40	34.42	3.61	57.15		4\53	
Smith, Steve	        341	1253	39	32.13	3.67	52.46	3	6\65	9\139
Cummins, Pat	        310	1304	31	42.06	4.21	60.00	1	5\85	
Faulkner, James	        413	1349	30	44.97	3.27	82.60		4\31	
Pattinson, James	        204	 657	14	46.93	3.22	87.43		4\136	



ODI’s
Leading run scorers 2011\12

Name	        M	Inn	*	Runs	HS	BF	S\R	Ave	100	50
Hughes, Phillip	19	19		824	104	823	100.1	43.37	1	8
Lynn, Chris	19	19		781	106	1110	70.353	41.11	1	4
Maddinson, Nic	19	19		779	102	873	89.21	41.00	2	6
Smith, Steve	19	19		482	50	633	76.12	25.37	0	1
Khawaja, Usman	8	8	1	386	81	486	79.42	55.14	0	4


Leading wicket takers 2011\12

Name	               Overs	Runs	Wkts	Ave	Econ	S\R	4Wi	5Wi	BB
Smith, Steve	        175	984	32	30.78	5.63	32.81	1		4\51
Cummins, Pat	        111	683	27	25.33	6.16	24.67	2	1	5\52
Faulkner, James	        145	672	23	29.26	4.64	37.83	1		4\38
Henriques, Moises	70	364	15	24.27	5.20	28.00		1	5\49
Starc, Mitchell 	        105	567	13	43.69	5.41	48.46			3\33


T20’s
Leading run scorers 2011\12

Name	        M	Inn	*	Runs	HS	BF	S\R	Ave	50
Smith, Steve	6	6	2	171	59	138	123.90	42.75	1
Hughes, Phillip	6	6	1	155	56	127	122.05	31.00	1
Maddinson, Nic	6	6	1	144	70	109	132.10	28.80	1
Lynn, Chris	6	6	1	131	69	115	113.89	26.20	1


Leading wicket takers 2011\12

Name	              Overs	Runs	Wkts	Ave	Econ	S\R	4Wi	BB
Cummins, Pat	        24	179	9	19.89	7.46	16.00	1	4\24
Faulkner, James	        23	184	6	30.67	8.00	23.00		2\32
Coulter-Nile, Nathan	15	114	6	19.00	7.60	15.00		2\23
Smith, Steve	        20	147	5	29.40	7.35	24.00		2\21

World Ratings as at 31/03/2012

Tests

Batting

1st Nic Maddinson
6th Steve Smith
8th Phillip hughes
10th Chris Lynn

Bowling

13th Steve Smith
16th Nathan Coulter-Nile

ODI’s

Batting

1st Phillip Hughes
3rd Chris Lynn
5th Nic Maddinson
19th Usman Khawaja

Bowling

16th Steve Smith
20th Pat Cummins


T20’s

Batting

2nd Steve Smith
8th Chris Lynn
13th Phillip Hughes

Bowling

14th Pat Cummins

[bryce87]

Decent results, definitely a tough challenge. Best of luck.

[NSWBlue]

Thanks mate. Yeah, some decent results and some surprising ones too. I'm rather surprised at how well I'm doing in test cricket as aposed to the short forms of the game.

Bowling is a bit of a let down though. No one bowler is really standing out at least that season. and when they go missing, they all seem to go missing at the same time. A few too many dropped cathes from Wade and the slip cordon is a concern but theres nothing I can do about that.

[Damon_3388]

Try Ryan Duffield instead of James Pattinson.

[NSWBlue]

Aye. Picked him up at the start the second season. My leading bowler with 52 Wickets @ 26. Formed a good Trio with Ben Cutting and James Faulkner.

Just gotta finish writing up season 2