The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

[Imager36]

We got destroyed again!



Looking back, 204 wasn't too bad a total from where we were. We lost regular wickets throughout the entirety of the innings, with the openers starting us badly by going for 4 and 0, to leave us 10/2. Burton was playing fluently, but unfortunately got out on 34, caught Finn off the archaically named Barry Tetley. Barrett was shaky to say the very least before being out for 15, and Pollard couldn't add many more. Even Bravo's 44 seemed scratchy. Mike Alford played a gem again, scoring 52 from 63 balls, most of that time spent batting with the tail trying to protect our wickets and get us to some sort of competitive score.

We thought that 204 might be that score, but it turned out England could just smash it. Nixon came in for particular tap early on which really set the tone, and despite Holder getting the wicket of Cook, Kenworthy, Gates and Spence easily knocked off the runs, and took next to no risks while they were at it. It almost doesn't seem fair playing this team!

Series State	England lead the series 1-0 with 2 to play.
Batting Award	Mike Alford - Played well to set us up with an almost decent score.
Bowling Award	Nah. None here again.
Team News	No changes... Barrett will get these 3 matches to prove himself, at least.

Aside - Crikey, these Ashes are actually looking rather good... I'm starting to regret the fact I'm working tomorrow!

[Imager36]

I don't want to talk about it. We lost by 16 wickets and 85 runs.



Yeah. I don't want to talk about it. Undoubtedly my very worst 3 days on the West Indies balcony.

Series State	England win the series 2-0.
Batting Award	Mike Paul - Batted really well... somehow.
Bowling Award	Nah. Don't think I will.

3 ODIs against them up next. The first XI for us is Barath, Simmons (K), Bravo (C), Burton, Barrett, Pollard, Alford, Nixon, Khan, Holder, Narine. The reserves are Paul, Sarwan, Browne and McClean. ODI début for Barrett! Yay!

Aside - Ashes coming soon! YEAH! Not that I'll watch too much of them, probably.

[Imager36]

I should probably have loftier ambitions than not being beaten by an innings, but it went okay.



We lost the toss and were forced to bowl. We never got regular wickets. It really did hurt me to watch, even though there were no centuries from the England team, their top 6 scored 53, 31, 60, 40, 80 and 91, which really put us on the back foot by a long way. Even when we were through them, we had a fight on our hands to get rid of the tail. In the end, Finn and Bannister put on 44 together for the 10th wicket to grind us into the dirt and hope for a draw.

In contrast, we lost early wickets and were 67/3 soon after having to start batting. Bravo and Edwards put on 119 for the 4th wicket, and Darren was joined by Alford as they added another 43. Unfortunately, after that, we totally crumbled again. We lost our final 6 wickets for only another 28 runs, meaning we had to suffer the ignominy of following on.

Barath and Burton both failed again, leaving us 31/2, but this time the fightback was a bit stronger. Darren Bravo was good again, hitting 72 this time, but we never really had a chance of setting a strong total from our position following on, as Paul departed for 65, and the next 5 all managed to get starts but couldn't convert it to a score of any more than 38.

They only needed just over a hundred to win the match, and they did it simply. Changes needed, but I'm not sure if it's the players faults, mine, or the fact that we just simply don't have the quality to compete here.

Series State	England lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - Backed up his first innings tonne with a half in the second.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - Our unlikely strike bowler in the first innings!
Team News	Allen replaces Burton. Khan replaces the profligate Nixon.

Aside - Yeah... nothing much to say today. Problem with the format, that.

[Rumblah]

Thanks champion.

[Imager36]

Hey mate how do you set up those beaut tables? I'm looking at a similar setup for my new story on 2013. Love your work!

i have no idea i just wanted to reiterate your great words LOVE YOUR WORK BRO!!!!

Haha, cheers guys For the tables, if you go to the Advanced posting bit, there's a little table logo at the start of the bottom row of icons... from there on in it's pretty self explanatory

Anyway, here are the results of the tour matches, followed by some notes from me!

• Wow... Max Brown really took his opportunity! 250 unbeaten runs? Nice.
• We bowled poorly in one innings of each of the games. That's not hard to work out, but it's something we've got to tighten up on.
• Allen did okay in his 32 in the first game, but Barrett was on the whole more impressive.
• Permaul looked great in the first game, but in the MCC's first innings he was as toothless as everyone else.
• I brought Mike Alford and Kirk Edwards in for the second game for Burton and Nixon, and they both played well and got some more form.
• Horace was a little disappointing, but we'll keep an eye on him.

With all of that taken into account, there are no drastic changes to the Test side. Here's the XI for the first test!

Barath, Burton, Bravo, Paul, Edwards (C), Alford, Browne (K), Nixon, McClean, Holder, Narine.

If Narine doesn't bowl too well, Permaul will probably replace him for the second test, the same going for Burton and Barrett.

Aside - I'm more excited for tomorrow due to the start of Sussex's FLT20 campaign down at Hove than I am for ICC13, but only because I'm looking forward to the former a hell of a lot!

[CharlesDarwini]

Hey mate how do you set up those beaut tables? I'm looking at a similar setup for my new story on 2013. Love your work!

i have no idea i just wanted to reiterate your great words LOVE YOUR WORK BRO!!!!

[Rumblah]

Hey mate how do you set up those beaut tables? I'm looking at a similar setup for my new story on 2013. Love your work!

[Imager36]

wrong scorecard could you get the correct score card up plzzz (big fan by the way)

Cheers man! It's harder now Imageshack have stopped naming files after the actual filename... damn them! All sorted now!

And a fairly simple win ties the series.



We took wickets regularly early on, and when spin came into the attack they were already 3 down. They restricted the batsmen even further, and picked up a wicket each when partnerships started to build. When the seamers came back, Holder was the man who did the late damage. He added 4 wickets to his earlier one, and Alford got the last to bowl Pakistan out for a measly 114.

Simmons and Barath started exactly as required, a partnership of 68 at just over a run a ball. Simmons was the slight aggressor in the partnership, his 39 coming from 37 balls and including 5 boundaries. They both got out fairly soon after each other, but Bravo and Burton arrived to (just!) see us over the line in time.

Series State	West Indies and Pakistan tie the series 1-1.
Batting Award	Lendl Simmons - Just got us ahead to make sure we won.
Bowling Award	Brathwaite/Holder/Alford/Narine/Khan - Entire unit was SUPERB. I could not have asked for more, and they all played their parts.

So what next for the newly successful side? Oh, yeah, it's a tour of England in which we probably get annihilated... I get to name an 18 man squad for the 2 warm ups and 2 tests against a powerful England team! I've thrown a few new faces in for the tour games.

Player	Type	Age	Comment
A. Barath	O	27	2 good tests against Pakistan have him in the squad again!
A. Allen	O	21	Andy is 21 years old and averages 88 in 2nd team cricket. No great record in FC, but worth a go.
D. Bravo (VC)	BAT	28	Probably our best batsman across all forms.
K. Edwards (C)	BAT	32	Test captain and all-round good egg.
M. Paul	BAT	27	Really promising Test career ahead of him... Just needs a century now!
S. Burton	BAT	24	Not a great Test record... but I really like him.
R. Sarwan	BAT	36	Old guy. Spare batsman.
D. Barrett	BAT	22	Dean, 22, has started his FC career well and gets a shot at the tour!
M. Alford	ALL	22	Yeah. Mike Alford. Who's surprised? Thought not.
D. Francis	K	22	He's never going to keep performing. Never!
M. Browne	K	23	Solid. Dependable. Strictly average.
M. Nixon	SEAM	22	Still a very exciting prospect for me.
I. Khan	SPIN	32	Decent with a bat, great with a ball, always there or there abouts.
J. Holder	SEAM	25	A real revelation in recent times. Cracking.
K. McClean	SEAM	29	Yeah, he's still in the squads. Hasn't really let us down yet.
V. Permaul	SPIN	27	Permaul has too good a record to have only ever played 2 matches for me.
J. Horace	SEAM	25	Joe, 22, is a RF bowler. From the West Indies. With good stats. Good luck.
S. Narine	SPIN	28	Narine is a beast. We know this.

And that concludes the squad. Massive, ain't it? For the Sussex (MY TEAM!) match, we play an experimental XI. Here it is.

Barath, Allen, Bravo (C), Barrett, Burton, Browne (K), Nixon, Khan, McClean, Permaul, Horace.

Yeah, the batting's a bit light, but hopefully we shouldn't need too much. Here's the Sussex team for anyone interested... in other words, me.

Hales, Gale, Gatting, Prior (K), Hurst, Horton, Piesley, Beer (C), Arif, Goodis, Panesar.

We won the toss and chose to bat. Should be a laugh!

Stat! - The average age in our squad is 26.2. Nice and low.

[CharlesDarwini]

And... turns out we weren't better than them!



They scored very heavily to start with, grabbing over 50 runs from the first 5, and we couldn't drag it back very well. Alam batted incredibly well for his 82 from 54 balls, but they lost late wickets to Brathwaite, Alford and 2 run outs. Alam stayed strong though and guided them to an over-par score, but one that still felt reachable.

Unfortunately, our chase never really got off the ground. We lost both Simmons and Bravo early, and whilst Burton started playing well in his 36, Barath was just plodding along at the other end and the run rate required was rising rather rapidly. When Sarwan came and went the game was pretty much up, and as Barath began to do what was needed, he fell too. Alford kept it interesting with a couple of sixes in the penultimate over, but ultimately, it was over.

Series State	Pakistan lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	None given.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - No wickets, but only 23 runs from his 4, showed his class.
Team News	Imran Khan replaces the young Mark Nixon.

Aside - I bloody love Luke Wright.

wrong scorecard could you get the correct score card up plzzz (big fan by the way)

[Imager36]

And... turns out we weren't better than them!



They scored very heavily to start with, grabbing over 50 runs from the first 5, and we couldn't drag it back very well. Alam batted incredibly well for his 82 from 54 balls, but they lost late wickets to Brathwaite, Alford and 2 run outs. Alam stayed strong though and guided them to an over-par score, but one that still felt reachable.

Unfortunately, our chase never really got off the ground. We lost both Simmons and Bravo early, and whilst Burton started playing well in his 36, Barath was just plodding along at the other end and the run rate required was rising rather rapidly. When Sarwan came and went the game was pretty much up, and as Barath began to do what was needed, he fell too. Alford kept it interesting with a couple of sixes in the penultimate over, but ultimately, it was over.

Series State	Pakistan lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	None given.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - No wickets, but only 23 runs from his 4, showed his class.
Team News	Imran Khan replaces the young Mark Nixon.

Aside - I bloody love Luke Wright.

[Imager36]

When did we become better than them?!



We started at a good rate, but Barath and Simmons both fell early to limit the good work, but Bravo and Burton managed to complete a 52 partnership in order to get us right back in to the game. Unfortunately, we lost three quick wickets after that, to leave us 109/5, and despite going at a much better rate than usual, wobbling slightly. The new partnership, with Pollard and Alford at the crease, was a brisk one and was worth 116. Alford was last in and first out of the two, and made 56 from 57 balls to keep us firing. Sebastien got 17 from 12 balls, but Pollard fell for 70 from 67, the largest innings and one of his best for a while. Nixon scored 18 from 21 and was not out, trying to bat out the remainder of the overs. Holder and McClean failed, and we were left with 17 balls unused.

We'd scored a lot of runs, but we got wickets almost immediately. We reduced them to 41/4 with Mark Nixon taking 3 early wickets, and we polished off the rest of them fairly easily too. Sebastien's début didn't go exactly to plan, as he bowled 6 overs for 1/43, at over 7 runs an over. Doesn't matter, we won!

Series State	West Indies win the series 3-0.
Batting Award	Pollard/Alford - That was a fun partnership. First time we've really been in control of another side's bowling for a while.
Bowling Award	Mark Nixon - Just destroyed their top order to seal us the game.
Team News	T20s up next. I'm making that side a bit more like the ODI side. Sebastien, McClean and Sarwan in for Narine, Brathwaite and Paul.

Stat! - The man in this team with the most T20I runs and highest average is... Lendl Simmons! He beats Darren B by 202 runs and by 28.65 to 26.9. Surprising.

[Imager36]

I love a low scoring thriller!



Only fun when we win, of course... We lost the toss and got put into bat, and made a really solid start. Our opening partnership took almost 18 overs, but it was worth 75, and at just over 4 an over we were pleased with it on a tough track. Then the track showed it's true mettle. We lost our first four wickets for 10 runs, and with all our top 5 apart from Burton gone, we were going to find it tough from then. We tried to consolidate with Pollard, but he was soon out for 19 and last hope Alford followed very tamely. Nixon and Khan added 10 and 12 respectively, and Burton was still in but finding it hard to score. He took control when McClean came in, hitting 17 of a 22 partnership before he was dismissed with just over 5 overs left to bat.

We never thought we had anywhere near enough, and when they were 64/1 it felt like they'd probably just coast it. Then McClean and Alford had a little purple patch of 2 wickets each to put them to to 74/5 and we felt on top ourselves! Jamshed and Asif put on 43 together to make us feel nervous about the win, but I brought Alford back early and he did the damage, getting rid of Jamshed and his replacement Nadir in quick succession. Bhatti and Zaman had another revival when they were 8 down, but we got Zaman with 15 runs left to play with, and Bhatti couldn't protect Tanvir enough as he was got by Holder!

Series State	West Indies win the series 2-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	None given, no stand out performance.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - 3 crucial middle order wickets and 2 decent partnerships broken. He's so good now!
Team News	With nothing riding on the last match, Sebastien makes his début in place of Khan.

Stat! - My 5 man bowling unit in the next match has played 108 ODIs between them (before this). My top 5 batsmen have played 425.

[Imager36]

A few stellar performances led to a nice win.



We put them into bat, and started well, not letting them get away against the new ball and then Nixon getting a wicket and Alford two to leave them 49/3. Salahuddin and Shafiq started to rebuild, and did so well, but Salahuddin could not keep up with the pace. They put on 123 together against the spinners, who were unusually ineffective. Holder was the first quick to return, and he got Shafiq for 71 to show it was the way to go. Nixon and Alford were both sensational in the last 10 overs, sharing around the remaining wickets and not leaving any room for easy runs as we kept them down to only just over 4 an over.

We felt we should be able to chase the runs, and a fiery start from Lendl Simmons, who hit 21 of an opening partnership worth 25, put us ahead of the rate. Barath was batting at snail's pace, and when Bravo came in he did the same. It was a testing period of bowling from Nadir and Asif that kept us behind the rate, now needing over 5 an over to win the game. Bravo fell with the score on 65/2 in the 21st over, which gives you some clue as to how slow we were being! Thankfully, when Burton came in, everything improved. Before Barath fell he'd made it to a run a ball 28, and Barath had upped his scoring rate too to put us back in position. Paul came and went for 4 from 2 balls, but Pollard (14) and Alford (20) both managed to hang around for enough time for Burton to smash us into a winning position. We only needed another 10 runs by the time Nixon came in, from 5 overs, and we got them with 18 balls to spare after Burton hit his fourth maximum to end on 82* from 77.

Series State	West Indies lead 1-0 with 2 to play.
Batting Award	Shane Burton - At his best in ODIs, commanded the game from the middle order.
Bowling Award	Nixon/Alford - Both excellent at the start and death. Two real gems on our hands.
Team News	The Pakistani middle order look comfortable against spin, so Kev McClean comes in for Mr. Narine.

Stat! - Shane Burton averages 6.48 higher in ODI cricket than in Test cricket (37.84 vs. 31.36). He also has 6 more 50+ scores in only 11 more innings (7 in 46 vs. 13 in 57).

[Imager36]

My poor tactics prevented a series draw we deserved.



Edwards was out early, but Bravo and Barath built very well in a partnership of 80, and we thought we were sailing pretty high. Barath and Paul's partnership, worth 186, was exactly the sort of thing we are normally on the other end of, though. Barath's 185 was his 5th test century, and his highest test score of all. Paul looked set for his maiden century, but instead gave another example of a West Indian batsman failing to convert with his 6th test half century. Burton and Alford fell speedily, but Francis (22), Nixon (36) and McClean (35) made decent cameos, taking us well over 400 and putting us in charge of the match.

We were further in charge with Pakistan 62/5 in their first innings. Holder had two, Alford and McClean one each, with the other being a run out. Alam and Rizwan then put on one of those brilliant partnerships. This time it was 145 runs, Alam making 93 and Rizwan 54, before, after almost 3 hours of solid batting, Alam was caught and bowled by Narine. We wrapped up the tail at decent pace, though Bhatti (27) made a nuisance of himself and took them beyond the follow-on mark.

Our opening partnership this time was worth 76, but it was reduced to little importance when Bravo was out in the same over and Edwards. Barath continued, with Paul again, and in his 4 test innings this year, Adrian has gathered 370 runs. Paul was on form again, and got to setting a target for Pakistan. Burton and Alford again fell quickly, but Francis (23) and Nixon (24) hung around while Paul moved toward his maiden century again. They were told to get on with it, and this was Paul's demise in the end. We declared straight after that, with almost 5 sessions to bowl Pakistan out.

With them at 68/3, and the seamers again running riot, I thought we'd win fairly comfortably. Shafiq and Jamshed had other ideas with a partnership of 124, but even after this we felt we'd broken the back of their innings, with still 2 and a half sessions to bat out. Shafiq, Alam, Nadir and Jamshed fell in fairly quick succession too, and with 1 and a bit left, they were 7 down. Rizwan was to prove our bane though. Bhatti was out there for 2 hours for his 19 runs, and Rizwan kept the defense up too. Even when Bhatti fell with an hour to go we were favourites, but Tanvir managed to survive, and we felt foolish about our late declaration.

Series State	Pakistan win the series 1-0.
Batting Award	Barath/Paul - Both batted splendidly and almost won us the game.
Bowling Award	Jason Holder - Mr. Consistent now, and 6 more wickets for him.

Anyway... moving on, we have 3 ODIs against Pakistan up next. Here comes the usual 15 man squad.

A. Barath (O)
L. Simmons (O/K)
D. Francis (O/K)
Darren Bravo (BAT) (C)
S. Burton (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
R. Sarwan (BAT)
K. Pollard (BAT)
M. Alford (ALL)
L. Sebastien (ASP)
M. Nixon (SEAM)
I. Khan (SPIN)
J. Holder (SEAM)
K. McClean (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)

Liam Sebastian, 32 year old Off Spin bowler and lower order batsman, could make his West Indies début in the 'Hinds' role, as a containing spinner. He won't just yet though, with he, McClean, Francis and Sarwan the intial four to miss out. Before the test series, I was going to drop Barath from the ODI side for poor performance, but he'll get another series at least, being that he's in a rich vein of form at the moment.

Aside - I took victory for granted in that test. This game never fails to surprise me.

[Imager36]

A disappointing second innings batting performance led to a poor result.



We won the toss and got to bat first. Edwards fell early, but Bravo and Barath both played very well to put on 179 runs together for the second wicket to put us well on top. Neither of them reached centuries, and unfortunately after that we really did crumble to Ali Mudassar. No other batsman got more than 21, and while cameos from the lower order took us over 300, we felt that this was at best a par score against a strong Pakistani batting line-up.

We started in decent fashion, Holder getting rid of 3 of the top four as the wickets fell fairly regularly to leave them 130/4. Unfortunately, Jamshed and Umar Akmal really got going, and it was only when a bouncer from McClean felled the latter that we had any reprieve at all. Even then, Rizwan came in and gave Jamshed the strike as he made it to his first test century, in his 25th match. Trust us to be on the receiving end! After Alford had him caught behind, Holder and Narine cleaned up the tail with minimal fuss.

Then we fell apart. Trailing by about 60, our opening partnership of 47 almost took us to the point we'd have been happy at, but we lost 6 wickets for 75 runs and that basically put paid to our match. Mudassar was once again our bane, with 3 of those, and Alford was the only man who stuck around. He put on a 50 partnership with Imran Khan (26), but 9, 10 and 11 fell exceptionally quickly and he was left stranded on 42.

McClean got 2 early wickets to give us a sniff, but after that they had no problems knocking off our light total. It's a shame, but we trail in the series.

Series State	Pakistan lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Adrian Barath - 126 runs in the match, played very well.
Bowling Award	Jason Holder - Five-for in the first innings takes this!
Team News	No squad changes, but on a green-top, Nixon replaces Khan.

Aside - It's a shame to see New Zealand out of the CT. I've been enjoying watching them this last few months.