England under DaveK

[DaveK93]

Third T20I:

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
R Hamilton-Brown
J Bairstow
J Buttler
J Vince
S Broad
J Overton
C Overton
R Whiteley
S Finn

No changes for me, so I get a proper look at people.

SAfrica:
G Smith
H Amla
J Kallis
A B De Villiers
I Tahir
A Peterson
V Philander
T Tsolekile
R Peterson
D Steyn
M Morkel

Toss: England lose it and bowl.

Match Report:
A tie was probably the fairest way to end the series between two evenly matched teams. South Africa started out the blocks well, but good bowling from Craig Overton and Ross Whiteley limited them, Whiteley picking up 4 wickets. 159 would have been disappointing for the South Africans, given their start, but it was still defendable.

We started well too, Hales and Buttler going strong. Hamilton-Brown also did well, but after that we struggled, before Whiteley and C Overton tried to push us towards the line. In the end we didn’t make it, but the team can be more than proud of itself, the young, inexperienced squad proving it can compete.



Batting Award: Buttler, finally got a good start at the top of the order in the shortest format.
Bowling Award: Ross Whiteley, 4 wickets for him, and that just about seals his place in the squad.

England Stats:



South Africa Stats:

[DaveK93]

T20 World Cup Squad Announcement

The 15 men selected to go to Sri Lanka are: (Caps in Brackets)

A Hales (8)
J Taylor (4)
J Bairstow (10)
R Hamilton-Brown (4)
J Buttler (10)
C Woakes (5)
S Broad (37)
R Whiteley (3)
J Anderson (20)
G Swann (30)
S Finn (8)
D Briggs (1)
J Overton (2)
C Overton (2)
J Vince (2)

It’s an inexperienced squad that goes to defend our T20 title. Cook, Bell, Bopara, Bresnan and Dernbach are all injured, which doesn’t help, but I am satisfied that we can mount a decent challenge, even if we don’t win it. I’m not expecting anything major from the team, but getting out of our group would be nice.

South Africa are the favourites for the tournament, and I expect them to win it. I’m setting the semi-finals as an acceptable target for us. Without injuries, I think we can get there, starting against Afghanistan.

[DaveK93]

England vs Afghanistan T20 WC

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
R Hamilton-Brown
J Buttler
R Whiteley
G Swann
D Briggs
J Overton
C Overton
J Vince

England rest their 4 frontline bowlers, so that they are fresh for the vital match against India.

Afghanistan:
N Ali Zadran
K Sadiq
M Shahzad
N Mangal
S Shenwari
M Nabi
M Sami
M Ashraf
A Mazari
S Zadran
H Hossain

Toss: England lost the toss and were told to bowl.

Match Report:
Knowing a win would guarantee qualification after Afghanistan lost to India by 5 runs, we rested our pace attack for the top of the group clash. Really, we let them get too many runs. They milked the Overtons, and the spinners to an extent, only Whiteley getting on top of the batsmen. They reached 179-9, a respectable score for a full international team, never mind an associate.
Hales and Taylor opened the batting for us, and got to 97, before Taylor departed for 40. We lost a couple more quick wickets, but Hales persevered and got us safely through to the next round, his 89* being his best T20I score. For India, we will need to provide a much sterner test, but this result will do for now.



Batting Award: Alex Hales; an unbeaten 89 won the match for us.
Bowling Award: Swann, the most economical of the wicket takers.

[DaveK93]

Eng vs India T20 World Cup

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
C Woakes
J Buttler
R Whiteley
J Overton
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

Briggs, Broad and Woakes replace Swann, C Overton and Hamilton-Brown.

India:
V Sehwag
A Mukund
V Kohli
M Sidana
R Jadeja
MS Dhoni
Y Singh
Y Pathan
I Pathan
R Ashwin
P Kumar

Toss: England lost the toss and bowl.

Match Report:
We snuck through with a ball to spare to top the group in this one. We bowled well at the start, removing Sehwag fairly cheaply, but Mukund and Yuvraj managed to get themselves settled,both getting half centuries, as India finished up on a good 163-5.
Once again, we looked to Alex Hales to guide us through this one, as he got another half century to get us near the target. We needed 10 from the last over, but lost Broad and Whiteley in the first two balls, before Danny Briggs hit the runs needed to get us over the line. Woakes played a key part as well, an explosive 22 getting us near to the needed run-rate near the end.



Batting Award: Hales, another great opening performance. He’s proving to be a key member of the T20 team.
Bowling Award: Broad; three wickets against India is a good achievement.

[UTBash]

Good to see you doing as good as/better than me with normally a weaker side! I'm starting to wonder when you'll lose your form! Keep it up!

[UTBash]

Also if I could bat as well as you in T20's with my bowling, I'd be unstoppable :P

[DaveK93]

Good to see you doing as good as/better than me with normally a weaker side! I'm starting to wonder when you'll lose your form! Keep it up!

I'm starting to wonder as well! We have India next if I remember correctly, so hopefully the good form will continue until then at least.

[DaveK93]

Also if I could bat as well as you in T20's with my bowling, I'd be unstoppable :P

Yeah, my bowling leaves a lot to be desired sometimes, but fortunately,my batsmen seem to be doing a good job. Hales is a really good T20 player for me, so I'll probably build the batting line-up around him.

[UTBash]

Yeah, my bowling leaves a lot to be desired sometimes, but fortunately,my batsmen seem to be doing a good job. Hales is a really good T20 player for me, so I'll probably build the batting line-up around him.

Hales was a bit disappointing when he opened for me but Kieswetter has done amazing in the 3 games he's played and with Cook's form Hales might not be our opener for a while!

[DaveK93]

Hales was a bit disappointing when he opened for me but Kieswetter has done amazing in the 3 games he's played and with Cook's form Hales might not be our opener for a while!

Kiesweter is missing out at the minute, as both Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow have put themselves ahead in the batting order. Not had Cook in the T20 team yet, he was due to join the squad for this tournament, but suffered a fracture and missed out

[DaveK93]

Group Round Up.

Group A:
India beat Afghanistan by 5 runs
England beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets
England beat India by 2 wickets

England top the group, India come in second. A fairly standard result for the group.

Group B:
Australia beat Ireland by 54 runs
West Indies beat Australia by 7 wickets
West Indies beat Ireland by 38 runs.

In a surprise result, the West Indies top the group after crushing the Aussies. This is bad for us though, we get Australia in our Super 8 group.

Group C:

Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by 3 wickets
South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 8 wickets
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 48 runs

Stand result from this group, I expected nothing less.

Group D:

Bangladesh beat New Zealand by 31 runs
Pakistan beat New Zealand by 33 runs
Bangladesh beat Pakistan by 2 runs

Probably the shock group out the lot, Bangladesh topping a weak group. New Zealand underperform, and bow out of the tournament.

Super 8 Groups

Group A:
England
Australia
South Africa
Pakistan

Group B:
India
West Indies
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh

The super 8’s will be difficult. It would have almost been easier to lose to India. Still,I’ve ridden my luck so far this tournament, can it hold out?

[Imager36]

I don't like that the West Indies are doing so well. Makes me feel less special.

[DaveK93]

I don't like that the West Indies are doing so well. Makes me feel less special.

If it's any consolation, they failed miserably when they toured England

[UTBash]

If it's any consolation, they failed miserably when they toured England

And to add to that, in my game I scored over a thousand against them

[DaveK93]

And to add to that, in my game I scored over a thousand against them

Going well for the West Indies then