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The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

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  • Imager36
    replied
    Okay... we've been slightly too competitive to date. It's scaring me.



    Now, weirdly, this time out their opening partnership was 108, but they never really seemed like they were at all on top. Smith and Wilson were not their usual dominant selves, as they meandered to 108 through 27 overs at a measly 4 an over! All the bowlers were economical at the start, with the exception of Ryan Hinds who was the spinner to bowl in the powerplay, which is always tough. Even after Wilson fell, Smith failed to really accelerate, and despite a lovely cameo of 34 from 33 from JP Duminy, other batsmen departed for low scores to Khan, Alford and Narine and South Africa failed to take advantage of their position. Alford appears to be back in to some sort of bowling form, which has rather compensated for the drop off in his batting so far this season!

    We came out to bat knowing if we messed this up we would not be likely to get a third chance in the series. We started cautiously, therefore, with Dolston Tuit making 28 fairly slowly to give the innings some form of base, but with Barath and Simmons out early, we became 82/3 and feared another collapse. Thankfully Darren Bravo was in form. He put on 78 in partnership with Sarwan to add to his 40 partnership with Tuit, and his 79 from 103 balls was almost perfectly paced, including 12 fours and a six. We did fear when he was LBW to Morkel with still 56 to score, and we seemed right to when Alford, Benjamin and Hinds departed for a sum total of 21, leaving us needing 25 more with Khan and Sarwan in. Khan scored a quick 15 though, danger was dispelled, and we reached our target with 10 balls to spare.

    Series State West Indies lead the series 2-1 with 2 to play
    Batting Award Darren Bravo - The highest score of a low-scoring match, in good time too.
    Bowling Award Imran Khan - Economical and took wickets. Alford is unlucky here!
    Team News Thought about switching Benjamin for Pollard or Brathwaite for Matthew, but in the end made no changes.
    Aside - I like to think my declarations are a little more positive than Alastair Cook's, if I get in a position to make one!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    I wasn't quite so impressed with our batting this time around.



    We won the toss and chose to bowl again. Wilson was, unfortunately, rather good yet again. This was his 3rd hundred in only 6 innings against us this year, but it was fine. Whilst Smith and de Villiers fell early, he had fine support from de Kock, who really brought the attack to us with 43 from 41 balls. Amla and Duminy fell quickly after QdK, but Philander once again provided resistance, this time only 21, as Wilson reached his hundred and Narine got him LBW. They failed to press on to the 220 plus total they were on course for thanks to some great death bowling by Mike Alford and Sunil Narine, who as our best spinner was granted more responsibility. We felt this target to be well within our grasp.

    As things on this game seem to go though, we were soon 19/3. We hadn't been looking to push on at all at the start, merely try and maintain wickets to make the game safe, but the SA quicks rather saw to those attempts. Barath (31) made it through the carnage, and started playing well when Sarwan joined him, but they were both out not too long after to leave us 55/5. Mike Alford and Dean Benjamin battled hard to a 42 partnership, but Bothma broke that, dismissing Alford for 22. 35 year old Ryan Hinds though, in at number 8, played superbly. He ended with 59 from 67 balls, his 2nd ODI half-century, and with 11 balls to spare when he was dismissed, a little more resilience around him would have led to us winning the match. It wasn't to be.

    Series State South Africa level the series to 1-1 with 3 to play.
    Batting Award Ryan Hinds - I doubt he'll get another of these, but he really was splendid.
    Bowling Award Alford/Hinds/Narine - Another triple award sums up our bowling. Hinds first ever to win both in one match?
    Team News Spin is our strength and we're sticking to it! No changes.
    Aside - University exam season means I really shouldn't be here, but on the plus side you've got a whole summer's worth of updates to look forward to!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    I think it's safe to say no-one was expecting this...



    We produced a very confident display to win the first ODI, although I was hopeful we might get it done before the last ball of the match! We won the toss and chose to bowl first, but our start was not ideal. Smith was out for 10, bowled by Carlos B, but de Villiers and Wilson remained and hit hard at our bowlers. Within the first 18 overs, they'd passed 100, but the loss of ABdV when they were on 99 preceded a slowing down period, with de Kock falling as quickly as he came out and the spinners taking charge from there. Between them, in a 20-over period, they conceded only 58 runs and managed to pick up 5 big wickets for us. Brathwaite and Benjamin were the death bowlers, and they performed their job admirably despite Morkel batting well at the end. The total, we felt, was manageable.

    We started cautiously against the strong South African quick bowling line-up, and Barath and Tuit managed to make 49 for the opening partnership, despite the ferocious attack making runs hard to come by, and we were only going at about 3 an over. Lendl Simmons, strangely, gave us exactly what we needed in terms of impetus. His bright 41 from 48 balls came by attacking Bothma and Morkel, and Ade Barath managed to stay there and slowly accumulate at the other end. When Simmons got out, Darren Bravo continued his good work, and even though Barath was out for a stodgy 65, the result was never really in doubt, with Sarwan hitting hard straight away. We only needed 2 from the last over, but still somehow took it down to the wire with the wicket of Bravo, and needing 1 to win, Sarwan hit a nice boundary.

    Series State West Indies lead 1-0 with 4 to play.
    Batting Award Lendl Simmons - His innings really got us back into the game when it could have faded away from us.
    Bowling Award Narine/Khan - Bowling in tandem, they were utterly deadly and the reason we won.
    Team News On a spinning track, Hinds replaces McClean. This could be amusing.
    Aside - We're 5th in the ODI and T20I world rankings, but 7th in the tests? I thought we were best at those!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Another brilliant test match. It's a shame we only have 6 this year, and that the close ones don't always fall in our favour!



    Winning the toss helped us this time, although Darren Bravo's stint as opening batsman did not start well as he was out for 3. Barath was in supreme form though, scoring 112, his fourth test century. Sarwan scored 43 on his unexpected return to the test arena, and captain Kirk faired just as well in his innings of 45, which Barath fell right towards the end of, leaving us 215/4 with two new batsmen at the crease. Luckily one of them was Mike Alford, who fired a stunning 58 from 60 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes (I had him set to normal! Honest!) to put us back on top, with Paul out early and Browne playing the supporting role in a partnership of 75. Stoute and McClean managed to put on 42 together to give us a good score of 379.

    Bowling was considerably easier than it had been for us previously in the series! Dom Wilson continued to show why he's played 13 tests by the age of 23 by scoring his 4th century, 133, but with ABdV, Rindel, Duminy and Philander all out early, and Smith, de Kock and Amla making starts but not going on at all, it was left down to Morne Morkel to produce a good partnership, with the score when he came in at 177/7. They put on 76 together, much to the annoyance of our bowlers, and he added even more when Wilson was out and Steyn joined him, McClean getting all their wickets to make it 6 for the innings.

    We had a slimmer lead than we wanted, in the first session of day 3, and it was clear we didn't need to go too hard. Imagine my surprise, or with this bowling line-up against us, lack of it, when we tumbled to 61/5. Paul and Browne managed to battle though, and between them put on a partnership of 97 to get us back in the hunt. Browne fell for 45, but Paul pushed on to his 3rd test half century and the tail added a few extras to put the target for victory at 291.

    Kev McClean got Wilson early for once, and de Villiers next ball to leave the South Africans 22/2 and us believing. The following 110 partnership between Smith and de Kock rather saw to that, realising that they're better than us, but three more wickets from McClean left them 161/5 and struggling. Rindel made 37 with Duminy, but when JP was bowled by Mike Alford, who followed two balls later by trapping Philander, we felt we had the game in the bag.

    Unfortunately, we didn't. Morne Morkel was our thorn in the first innings, and so he proved again, adding 28 in a 52 partnership with Rindel. Steyn stuck around for a bit, and Rindel scored 18 while he scored 8 to take them within 15 of victory when McClean got Dale's wicket. Fielding and bowling tactics meant little was on offer for Rindel, but Marchant de Lange managed to eke out 11 from 18 balls to deny us a victory and point off the South Africans.

    Series State South Africa win the series 2-0. How unfair that looks.
    Batting Award Adrian Barath - No-one scored in both innings, but Ade got a century for his efforts in the first.
    Bowling Award Kevin McClean - Well that's more obvious. 12 wickets in the match against the South Africans? At an average of 16.25? Yes please.
    Next up, as is standard practice, we play a 5 match ODI series. Shane Burton will miss this series through injury. Squad approaches.

    Originally posted by These bits always feel forced now.

    A. Barath (O)
    D. Tuit (O)
    L. Simmons (O/K)
    Darren Bravo (BAT) (C)
    R. Sarwan (BAT)
    K. Pollard (BAT)
    M. Paul (BAT)
    M. Alford (ALL)
    D. Benjamin (ALL)
    R. Hinds (ASP)
    I. Khan (SPIN)
    C. Brathwaite (SEAM)
    K. McClean (SEAM)
    M. Matthew (SEAM)
    S. Narine (SPIN)
    Sarwan gets a recall to the ODI side too following a decent test showing and the absence of Shane Burton, a key figure in our ODI middle order. Kevin Stoute is dropped for consistent bad ODI performance. Kev McClean gets a place in the ODI side due to his sparkling form, making the side for the first ODI looks a little like this...

    A. Barath
    D. Tuit
    L. Simmons (K)
    Darren Bravo (C)
    R. Sarwan
    M. Alford
    D. Benjamin
    I. Khan
    C. Brathwaite
    K. McClean
    S. Narine
    PS - Just saw that this thread has an average star rating of 4.9 after 30 ratings. Firstly, wow, this forum has a star rating system, second, aww, you guys :').

    Leave a comment:


  • Graham_5000
    replied
    Originally posted by Imager36 View Post
    Note - I note that this is now the most viewed thread on this year's forum. So thanks to everyone who's read any of it through its rather long residency! And to all the people who clicked this because it was at the top and then left the forum, never to return, I'm sorry.
    I love following your thread.. I hope D Wilson emerges for us one day soon!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    If I'm honest, it went as well as I could realistically have hoped for.



    We lost the toss, and after the first 2 sessions, we knew we'd probably be losing the game, with the opening partnership still growing, eventually terminated by a run out for 224 runs. We took semi-regular wickets from then on, but that partnership had somewhat killed us off. Narine got the wicket of Wilson for 156, but otherwise failed to impress, going for 142 runs. Imran Khan, however, despite going for a lot of runs, did manage to bag 5 wickets and keep his average going in the right direction. Stoute's 3 were the only wickets for the seamers, and that big partnership, as well as 59 between Steyn and Philander, had really hurt us.

    The first blow, and possibly the one that hurt us most, was when when Burton picked up a fracture 11 runs in, ruling him out for 2/3 weeks and making him miss two innings where he was on the teamsheet! Barath, Bravo and Edwards all fell quicker than I would have liked them to, and whilst Alford, Paul and Browne had a good time on the counterattack, it got us nowhere near avoiding the follow-on, although a late 19 between Narine and McClean did make sure our first innings deficit was over 300.

    Bravo came out to open with Barath and showed that he's possibly the only member of our team who could get into the South Africa XI. He shared brief partnerships with the rest of the middle and top orders, who mainly got starts and failed to convert them into anything. Browne and Stoute then put on 40-odd together, but when Brown, Khan and McClean fell quickly, we were expecting an innings defeat. Step up Narine, who produced his highest test score of 23 to put on a 46 partnership with Stoute and give us 16 runs to bowl at!

    We did manage a wicket apiece for the opening bowlers. Which is more than can be said for the first day.

    Series State South Africa lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
    Batting Award Darren Bravo - For his 88, which was constructed with aplomb.
    Bowling Award Imran Khan - His 5fer was the only thing worth mentioning on this front.
    Squad News The 35 year old Ramnaresh Sarwan returns in place of the injured Burton. He's been in great form in England.
    Team News Sarwan in for Burton, Matthew replaces Narine. Bravo opens with Barath with Sarwan at 3.
    Note - I note that this is now the most viewed thread on this year's forum. So thanks to everyone who's read any of it through its rather long residency! And to all the people who clicked this because it was at the top and then left the forum, never to return, I'm sorry.
    Last edited by Imager36; 05-11-2013, 11:00 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    2016/17 Season Preview

    2nd June - 3rd July - South Africa - Home

    2 Tests - Last series lost 2-0.
    5 ODIs - Last series lost 5-0.
    2 T20Is - Last series lost 2-0.

    Well... I think it's fair to say we can't do any worse than the team that came before us against South Africa in their home series, but having played them in the T20 World Cup, I don't know that we'll be doing much better. Key aim - Maybe nick a point in the test series?

    7th October - 2nd November - Pakistan - Away

    2 Tests - Last series lost 2-0.
    5 ODIs - Last series lost 3-0.
    2 T20Is - No series played.

    Pakistan. I know we lost to them in that crucial T20 World Cup match, but somehow I don't feel it'll remain that way over a longer period. I expect us to take points off them at some point in some form.

    2nd - 29th January - Zimbabwe - Away

    1 FC friendly
    2 Tests - Last series won 2-0.
    3 ODIs - Last series won 2-1.
    2 T20Is - Last series won 2-0.

    And finally, in our short season (26 matches total? We played 8 in one triangular last year O.o) we take on the... mighty... Zimbabwe. We have nothing to gain from this series. Except a large amount of shame.

    So here we go, ladies and gentlemen. No-one's retired, and I've named the first 12 man squad for the first test against the South Africans. (Remind me of the name Mark Nixon before the Zimbabwe series... promising young RMF bowler.)

    Originally posted by First Squad!

    A. Barath (O)
    S. Burton (O)
    D. Bravo (BAT) (VC)
    K. Edwards (BAT) (C)
    M. Alford (ALL)
    M. Paul (BAT)
    M. Browne (K)
    K. Stoute (ALL)
    I. Khan (SPIN)
    K. McClean (SEAM)
    M. Matthew (SEAM)
    S. Narine (SPIN)
    On a really dusty track, Imran Khan takes the last place in the XI from Mervin Matthew.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the...
    2015/16 Season Awards!

    Test Batting

    Most Awards - Darren Bravo - 4 awards - Oh, what a surprise. You might see that name a few times.

    Most Runs - Kirk Edwards - 900 runs - This one was a surprise to me. We played 9 tests this season, so that's amazing.

    Breakout Player - Max Browne - For a man we didn't think could bat, an average of almost 30 isn't bad, and he's a handy gloveman too!

    Test Bowling

    Most Awards - Sunil Narine - 4 awards - I'm going to get sick of typing his name too, I can tell.

    Most Wickets - Sunil Narine - 44 wickets - Bowled the most overs by a long way too, but it's 13 ahead of anyone else.

    Breakout Player - Kevin Stoute - Didn't play a test before last season, but was our second highest wicket taker this. Cracking.

    ODI Batting

    Most Awards - Shane Burton - 6 awards - Very impressive from Shane this year, he's really cemented a place in that top order.

    Most Runs - Adrian Barath - 777 runs - Burton had the best average, but Barath had more runs by virtue of playing more matches, and rather well!

    Breakout Player - Dolston Tuit - Not really improved, but no-one has considerably. His 185 runs in 5 ODIs show promise.

    ODI Bowling

    Most Awards - Sunil Narine/Imran Khan - 6 awards each - They've both been rather good in ODIs this year, so it's fitting that the spin twins share this award.

    Most Wickets - Sunil Narine/Carlos Brathwaite - 31 wickets each - He's got a thing about sharing his awards, hasn't he? Carlos mainly gets his wickets at the death and start though.

    Breakout Player - Carlos Brathwaite - Played okay last year, but this year made sure he was a large part of the team and was ever present.

    T20I Batting

    Most Awards - Darren Bravo - 4 awards - I thought he'd sweep it with more awards than that, but what do I know?

    Most Runs - Darren Bravo - Makes sense, really. 130 better off than his nearest rival, Powell.

    Breakout Player - Kieran Powell - Powell of course played 6 fewer games, and this appears to be his form of the game.

    T20I Bowling

    Most Awards - Sunil Narine - 7 awards - Yet again, no surprises there. Most awards of anyone in any form.

    Most Economical (min. 20 overs) - Sunil Narine - 6.02 - Yep. Economy matters more in this form, but he's still king. Matthew had an economy of 5.85, but only played 4 games.

    Breakout Player - Carlos Brathwaite - Again, sort of wins this cause he emerged at the end of last season, but played rather well this year.

    Notable Mentions

    Mike Alford - Only man to get an award in every category. Got 9 in total, 6 for bowling.

    Sunil Narine - 17 awards cross-disciplines. Brilliant season for the mystery offie.

    And that just about wraps up our awards for this season. Next up, a preview of the next year, with a warning that it's looking an incredibly short season.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    And just like that, my prediction came true and my season was over.



    We got off to a very good start, Brathwaite and Hinds bagging Shehzad and Jamshed respectively and keeping the powerplay tight. Narine bowled well after to keep that run rate low, but Khan bowled 2 overs that went for 20, so was swiftly recalled and Alford and Benjamin bowled an over each, both pretty expensively. Brathwaite managed to keep the run rate down at his end, but the others were being carted to all parts by Jaffar and Haider, before the latter was shot out and Brathwaite took the late wickets of Hafeez and Azam to make his figures look better.

    Powell made a good start to our reply, making 17 from 10 balls before falling, but after that the pace slowed rather under the care of Simmons and Darren B. They went along at about a run a ball each for their partnership of 65, which for the start was good and solidified our position, but when it came to hit out Simmons just couldn't effectively and was out for 31. Bravo managed though, ending on 47 from 38. Then the run rate required had leapt to almost 9 though, and every new batsman had to hit from ball one. Few managed, and we didn't threaten late in the innings at all.

    Batting Award Darren Bravo - Yet again the captain was our best batsman. Shame the others aren't at his level.
    Bowling Award Sunil Narine - Another of the massive surprises... 1/21 from 4 overs. Best spinner around in this form.
    Key Opposition Player Watch Nasir Jamshed - 1 from 2 balls. We got him early, but it didn't help us win! He took a catch, too.
    For those of you interested, England won the tournament from India, with Jim Gates making 110 in the final. Next up, the revamped Season Awards and a preview of the 16/17 season!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Team News for Pakistan (24/3/2016)

    In the other match in our group, as I predicted, South Africa fairly easily defeated the Pakistanis. Therefore, this match against the team in green basically serves as a quarter-final match between our teams, with the winner likely to play the winner of the England/New Zealand match in the other group. Good luck to everyone involved.

    West Indies Pakistan
    K. Powell A. Shehzad
    L. Simmons (K) N. Jamshed
    Darren Bravo (C) F. Alam
    M. Bascombe U. Akmal
    K. Stoute R. Jaffar
    D. Benjamin Z. Haider (K)
    M. Alford M. Hafeez (C)
    R. Hinds H. Azam
    I. Khan M. Irfan
    C. Brathwaite N. Abbas
    S. Narine A. Tanvir
    With neither Burton nor Tuit having done much in T20s recently, it felt like as good a time as any to get rid of Tuit from the side and replace him with Benjamin, who can't bat any worse really and can bowl as well just in case of overs needed. The pitch looks like it will spin from ball one again, so all three spinners are included and I would expect them to be vital if we're to win!

    The news from the middle is that Pakistan have won the toss and have decided to bat first.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    No stroll in the park, but we were never unduly troubled.



    Batting first, we made a very slow start. Powell was out to Otieno before long, and whilst the partnership that followed turned out to be worth 109, it started incredibly negatively against a team I was expecting to wallop. The bowlers weren't of a quality where Lendl Simmons could get out to them, even on full aggression, but he was failing to pierce the field at all throughout his innings, and whilst he finally managed to rotate the strike to Darren Bravo a little more effectively, he still managed his 57 from 58 balls, almost half of the innings used up at just under 6 runs an over. Simmons, Bravo and Bascombe were all out in the 19th over to Odihambo, Bravo for a wonderful 62 from only 40 balls, and Alford was promoted up the order to give the ball a whack. He managed that to an extent, with 13 from 6 balls taking us over the 150 mark.

    We always managed to keep the run rate down though, and were never really in trouble at any point. We got the early wicket of Obuya, and whilst the spinners weren't quite up to their usual standards, or the standards we will need to beat Pakistan, they managed to do enough to keep it down. The seamers returned at the death, as always, and needing 36 from the last 2 overs, Kenya looked beaten. Keeper Ouma had a successful thrash for 28 from 14 balls, but he just couldn't see his team over the line alone.

    Batting Award Darren Bravo - Made up for Simmons slow scoring with his strike rate over 150.
    Bowling Award Sunil Narine - Again economical, again 3 top order wickets in his 4 over spell.
    Key Opposition Player Watch Errmm... yeahh... I didn't pick a key player for them... I've been shown up there.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Team News for Kenya Match (22/3/2016)


    Originally posted by Me in the preview
    Summary - They'll almost certainly be dreadful.

    Key Player - None, they haven't got a hope.

    Prediction - Losers in Group B. I'll be surprised if they score over 100 in either match.
    That, ladies and gentlemen, was me talking on the subject of Kenya before the tournament started. I was pretty certain we wouldn't have to face them. However, much to my luck, hopefully at least, we do. They've already lost their first Super 8 match against Pakistan, but I know they'll put up more of a fight than I am expecting. That's how things work.

    West Indies Kenya
    K. Powell S. Waters
    L. Simmons (K) D. Obuya
    Darren Bravo (C) N. Laker
    M. Bascombe R. Patel
    D. Tuit A. Obanda
    K. Stoute C. Obuya (C)
    M. Alford P. Tong
    R. Hinds M. Ouma (K)
    I. Khan H. Varaiya
    C. Brathwaite N. Odihambo
    S. Narine E. Otieno
    Only one tiny change for us, in that Tuit and Bascombe swap batting order places at 4 and 5. The pitch again looks like it could spin sideways, and Kenya have only picked 3 bowlers, so we'll be hoping we can get their part-timers away brutally and give them a very hard task scoring too many runs for us.

    Anyway, the news from the middle is that the West Indies have won the toss and have chosen to bat first.

    Unusual for me, I know, but I really feel if we can get a lot of runs, we can win this game in the first innings!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    I didn't quite expect our batting to crumble so much, but the result was as expected.



    We got a wicket with the first ball of the match as Stoute took Wilson by surprise and caught an edge. Stoute bowled 3 overs through at the start to help us through the powerplay, also getting rid of ABdV, and Hinds and the spinners then took over after a single over from Alford picked up the wicket of Graeme Smith to leave South Africa 58/3. Narine and Khan kept the run rate seriously down, conceding only 42 from 8 overs between them to make us feel we really had a chance with SA struggling at 106/5 with only 3 overs left. Alford got the wicket of the struggling Pienaar, but Rindel capitalised on our poor death bowling and got his team over 140.

    He needn't have worried too much, a remarkable batting collapse that saw all of the top 7 except Miles Bascombe fall left us 39/6 very early and from there we had absolutely no hope of rescuing the match. Bascombe and Hinds put on 63 together to save face for us and a bit of our net run rate, but we never got anywhere near our actual target.

    Batting Award Miles Bascombe - Played very well. Shame about 8 of the others.
    Bowling Award Sunil Narine - Went for 17 runs from 4 overs. The man is brilliant.
    Key Opposition Player Watch Abdul Razak - Didn't play. Shows how good I am at picking teams, eh?!

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Team News for South Africa Match (20/3/2016)

    24 hours have passed since our Netherlands tie, and here we are facing up to the might of the South Africans. Their batting is phenomenal, their bowling more than half decent... I think we might have to settle for a loss in this and try and turn it around in the Pakistan and Kenya games. We must endeavour to try, however. Here are the teams...

    West Indies South Africa
    K. Powell D. Wilson
    L. Simmons (K) G. Smith
    Darren Bravo (C) A. de Villiers (C)
    D. Tuit Q. de Kock (K)
    M. Bascombe H. Amla
    K. Stoute M. Rindel
    M. Alford O. Pienaar
    R. Hinds R. McLaren
    I. Khan V. Philander
    C. Brathwaite K. Eccles
    S. Narine D. Steyn
    Their strong side leaves little room for maneuver, except for maybe if we could pick off one of their allrounders they have no strength in depth of bowling in the eleven. Pienaar and McLaren are men I'm really going to have to try and target, if we have enough wickets left by the time they come on to bowl, anyhow! For us, Burton, who never seems to perform in T20s, drops out to give room for the return of Tuit, batting at 4 this time around. The pitch looks encouraging for South Africa... a bit of a green top, if you ask me.

    News from the middle is that the West Indies have won the toss, and they have decided to field first. We can but hope, my friends. We can but hope.

    Leave a comment:


  • Imager36
    replied
    Not exactly the convincing thrashing I was hoping for...



    Hinds once again bowled straight through from the start, and once again conceded only 22 runs, but the seamers were expensive at the other end, all 3 used for one over apiece and going for over 10 runs each. After that, we switched to Narine and Khan, who regained control but didn't take any early wickets, eventually removing de Grooth with the score at 74. From a run rate of almost 10, we then reigned them in completely, with Heggelman getting out soon after for 46 from 31 balls, and none of the other batsmen managing to accelerate to the same regard, with ten Doeschate's 21 from 20 balls the only other innings with a Strike Rate of over 100, and we were very pleased with the end by Brathwaite and Alford to keep them to under 7 an over, a target we thought was easily in our reach...

    Hahahaha. We made a slow but steady start before Simmons was caught off ten Doeschate for 5, but Darren Bravo built with Powell, Burton, Bascombe and Stoute to take us to 110/4, needing another 29 runs from 23 balls, that we thought should be fairly regulation. Ten Doeschate caught Stoute LBW for 18, and Darren Bravo followed later in the over for 43 from 36 balls, us needing 22 fromthe last 3 overs to win it. Alford struggled slightly to keep the pace, but Ryan Hinds hit a boundary in the 18th over and they both rotated the strike to keep us on track, and we needed 8 from the last over. Alford was out to the first ball of it. Khan managed a single off the second, but Hinds struck a 4 off the third to make us need 3 from 3. He hit a single the next ball, but Khan played and missed at the penultimate delivery, and could only manage one off the last, so the match was tied... and we go through in first place from the group!

    Batting Award Darren Bravo - The only man to score over 20, captain B made a good score.
    Bowling Award Imran Khan - 1/20 from 4 overs, and his wicket was the important one of Heggelman.
    Key Opposition Player Watch Ryan t D - 21 runs from 20 with the bat, 4 overs 3/28, their best player played like that.
    The remaining result from the first group stages was Australia (169/9, Warner 61, Reza 3/25) beat Bangladesh (70 all out, Cutting 5/16, Faulkner 3/22) by 99 runs.

    Which all means the Super 8 groups are going to look a little like this...

    Group E Group F
    Kenya Australia
    Pakistan England
    South Africa India
    West Indies New Zealand
    To me, Group E, where we are, looks remarkably weaker. I'd expect South Africa to win all their matches, and possibly Kenya to lose all of theirs... though I shouldn't underestimate them as they beat my dark horses Sri Lanka to get here! The West Indies/Pakistan match will likely be the decider in our group for our prospects. The order of matches for us is SA, Kenya, Pakistan. The other group is harder to call, but sticking my neck out, England and India will qualify.

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