England under DaveK

[UTBash]

Going well for the West Indies then

Check the final preview on my story! Just creating some suspense when will I play the final

[DaveK93]

Check the final preview on my story! Just creating some suspense when will I play the final

Was a good read, nice way of doing it!

[DaveK93]

England vs Australia Super 8’s Group A

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
C Woakes
J Buttler
G Swann
S Finn
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

Finn and Swann come in for Overton and Whiteley. Whiteley is perhaps unfortunate to miss out, but I need a fifth bowler.

Australia:
D Warner
S Watson
D Hussey
M Hussey
C White
C Rogers
M Wade
M Marsh
L Butterworth
J Hastings
P Siddle

Toss: England win it and bat.

Match Report:
Much as I’d love to write you a match report here, I played the match a couple of days ago, and just had the chance to the report so my apologies! Suffice to say I’m pleased with the win.



Batting Award: Alex Hales
Bowling Award: G Swann

[DaveK93]

England vs Pakistan

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
C Woakes
J Buttler
G Swann
S Finn
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

No change from the team that beat Australia

Pakistan:
N Jamshed
A Shehzad
Y Khan
A Shafiq
M Ul-Haq
S Ahmed
M Hafeez
S Afridi
S Tanvir
H Azam
N Abbas

Toss: England lose the toss and bat.

Match Report:
I don’t see why people are complaining about Shahid Afridi. He won Pakistan the match. 148 was acceptable on this pitch, with credit going to Hamilton-Brown, who played a good knock at the top of the order. But an economical bowling performance, and then a strong batting performance lower down the order won Pakistan the match, and to say I am disappointed is an understatement. With that, we play South Africa next, and as everyone has 2 points, the winner goes through. Bring it on!



Batting Award: Hamilton-Brown, hopefully started to play well at the top of the order.
Bowling Award: Broad, he was the most economical.

[DaveK93]

England vs South Africa

Winner takes all. No pressure then, eh? :P

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
C Woakes
J Buttler
G Swann
S Finn
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

No change for England.

South Africa:
G Smith
H Amla
J Kallis
A B De Villiers
R McLaren
A Peterson
V Philander
D Vilas
J Kemp
D Steyn
M Morkel

Toss: England win the toss and bowl.

Match Report:
Only Steven Finn and Jos Buttler really turned up in this. Steven Finn took 4 wickets in 4 balls to hamper South Africa’s progress, when all looked lost after an expensive spell from Woakes. Swann picked up a couple of handy wickets, but we couldn’t get Graeme Smith out in time, and he made a good 85. We dropped him twice though, reminds me of England in the recent series!

We then lost wickets early, Vince and Hamilton-Brown failing. Hales didn’t do particularly well either this time, as did Bairstow, but Taylor managed to stay in, and then Jos Buttler let fly. He got a great 74 not out, to win us the match, after Finn’s efforts.



Batting Award: Jos Buttler, a great knock under pressure.
Bowling Award: Steven Finn, 6 wickets, including 4 in 4 balls stopped the South African advance in its tracks.

[DaveK93]

Super 8 Summary

Group A

England beat Australia by 41 runs
South Africa beat Pakistan by 8 wickets

Pakistan beat England by 2 wickets
Australia beat South Africa by 5 wickets

England beat South Africa by 4 wickets
Pakistan beat Australia by 4 wickets

England top the group from Pakistan on run-rate, the Aussies finish bottom.

Group B

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 1 wicket
India beat West Indies by 4 wickets

West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets
India beat Bangladesh by 58 runs

Bangladesh beat West Indies by 7 wickets
Sri Lanka beat India by 5 wickets

India top, Sri Lanka runners up. Bangladesh finish bottom.

So the semi-finals are:
England vs Sri Lanka
India vs Pakistan

The Asian teams doing well in this tournament, but we intend to beat them.

[DaveK93]

England vs Sri Lanka T20 World Cup Semi Final

Pressure on against the hosts. We are capable of winning this.

Teams:
England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
R Whiteley
J Buttler
G Swann
S Finn
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

Ross Whiteley replaces the expensive Woakes. He may be good at ODI’s, but Woakes hasn’t really adapted.

Sri Lanka:
A Perera
T Dilshan
A Mathews
D Chandimal
K Sangakkara
S Serasinghe
B Rajapaske
T Perera
K Kulasekara
R Herath
L Malinga

Toss: England won the toss and bat.

Match Report:
A lower scoring match than I expected. We didn’t particularly bat that well, and only Ross Whiteley really distinguished himself, getting an unbeaten 42. Swann also batted well, getting a sensible 21, but really, we should have got a lot more.
Fortunately, we bowled well, and reduced Sri Lanka to 48/7, after some great work from Broad and Finn. Sri Lanka did recover, but Finn returned to take the last wicket, as Sri Lanka bowed out the tournament, falling for 111.



Batting Award: Whiteley, only standout score.
Bowling Award: Broad, took the same amount of wickets as Finn, but was slightly less expensive.

We play India in the final, after they beat Pakistan. A rematch of the group stages, before we meet in a few weeks for a tour of India. Game on.

[cricfan1]

can't believe 48/7 and final score 111 srilanka manage good chase

[DaveK93]

can't believe 48/7 and final score 111 srilanka manage good chase

I got very, very worried before the last 3 fell

[GrahamB]

I got very, very worried before the last 3 fell

I can relate to situations like that!

[UTBash]

I need to try more youngsters out!

[DaveK93]

I need to try more youngsters out!

I've made the mistake of playing too many youngsters sometimes, with this squad, I seem to have found a good mix of players.

[DaveK93]

England vs India

Teams:

England:
A Hales
J Taylor
J Bairstow
R Whiteley
J Buttler
G Swann
S Finn
R Hamilton-Brown
D Briggs
S Broad
J Vince

I’m keeping faith with the team that beat Sri Lanka, Whiteley has been less expensive than Woakes so far.

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

Toss: England won the toss and bat.

England's innings to follow.

[DaveK93]

England’s Innings:

We started badly, losing Hamilton-Brown for 2 off of 4 balls. Buttler soon followed, only getting 6 from his 6 deliveries. At this point, the seemingly innocuous Alex Hales took control of the match. He played shots all around the ground, and carried on, despite the departure of James Vince, who got 13 from 14. Hales found a partner in crime in Jonny Bairstow, who joined in the fun as they started to take the Indian bowling attack apart. Hales looked in good shape, and finally fell for 82, to the bowling of Yusuf Pathan. James Taylor came in though, and continued the job, getting 20 from 10, as Bairstow continued to hit out, finishing on 64 from 36. A strong performance from the young English side, and we’ve certainly put ourselves into a great position in this final. All will depend on the bowling now though, and I will be looking to the experienced players to perform for us.

[DaveK93]

India’s Innings:

India started brightly, Mukund and Sehwag looking good, before Finn removed Mukund for 5. Broad then produced a spectacular display of pace bowling, to take 4 wickets in 4 balls, to remove Kohli for 1, and then golden ducks for Jadeja, Raina and Dhoni.



It left India at 11/5, and really struggling. Sehwag was still in, and was joined by Yuvraj Singh, a capable batsman. No more wickets fell in the powerplay, and India looked to be repairing their innings. That is, before Graeme Swann came onto bowl. Removing Yuvraj in his first over, he also removed both the Pathan brothers. By this point, Sehwag had cut loose, as he was losing partners fast. Finn came back on to remove the dangerous looking Ashwin, before Danny Briggs removed Sehwag at the end for a valiant 85.





Result: ENGLAND WIN THE T20 WORLD CUP!


We retained the World Cup, a great achievement for such an inexperienced squad.

Batting Award: Alex Hales, held the innings together, a superb innings from one of our best players.

Bowling Award: Stuart Broad, 4 wickets in 4 balls removed India’s finest, and left them teetering on the edge.

Tournament stats to follow shortly.