England under DaveK

[DaveK93]

ODI SQUADS

The ODI squads are in, and two very strong squads have been selected for this series!

England:



A strong squad for the English, with 4 keepers selected by England. A team with a mix of experience and youth, the only person missing really is Alex Hales, who is still sidelined with a hamstring injury. He'll get his place back though, although I'm not sure who for yet.

New Zealand:



The Kiwis don't appear to have changed their squad at all.

A new feature!

Apart from an extended use of screenshots, I'm going to introduce the Man to Watch feature for each series, for each country. I could do with a bit more detail added, and this seems like a nice, fun-filled idea!


Man To Watch:

England:
For England, the man to watch will be Chris Woakes I reckon. He's been superb in the 50 over format for me, and I expect this will continue here.

NZ:
Jesse Ryder: The thorn in my side when playing NZ so far. A talented performer, the Black Caps will be relying on him to perform.

[DaveK93]

With the test series done, it’s time for the stats! Look at them in all their glory!

[DaveK93]

Second Test:

England:[/B]
A Strauss
V Chopra
I Bell
K Pietersen
J Trott
M Prior
C Woakes
R Topley
J Tredwell
T Roland-Jones
J Dernbach

Harris is rested, as Woakes needs to prove he can play at test level. The Kiwis bring in Gillespie for Wagner.

Toss: NZ win the toss and bowl.

Match Report:

Day 1:
It would appear Strauss has no intention of being dropped again. He hit another century as we got to 300-4. Ian Bell dropped 7 runs short of another, but has hit 400 runs this series, a great achievement. Chopra failed, as did Trott, and Pietersen couldn’t build on a decent start.

Day 2:
We finished on 531, but I’m not entirely sure how I can drop Strauss. On his 100th Test for England, he hit 242, and led the innings from the front. It completely alters my plans for the ashes, and I can see him and Cook opening, Hales at 3, Bell 4, Taylor 5, Bairstow 6, Prior 7. We end up with 4 bowlers, but if Strauss continues like this, we’ll have plenty of runs to cover us.

NZ got to 69-0 by the end of play.

Day 3:
NZ finished on 337, after some fine work by the bowlers. Ryder infuriated me once again, but Tredwell bowled well, and Woakes got a couple of wickets. Taylor also got some runs, but we missed out on the follow on by 6 runs, so we will have to push for the win. We finished on 2-0 by the end of play.

Day 4:
We put on a quick-fire 300-8, before declaring. Pietersen and Strauss hit runs quickly and there were useful contributions from the rest of the order, as we made sure that we had a total to defend, and potentially win the match with. We gave the Kiwis 4 sessions to chase.

New Zealand face an uphill struggle to save the match, as they lost 5 wickets for 82 in the last session. Woakes and Roland Jones took 2 wickets each as New Zealand looked to be falling to a heavy defeat.

Day 5:
Despite the resistance of De Grandhomme and Williamson, New Zealand crumbled, and we bowled them out for 217. R-J and Woakes both picked up 4 wickets in an impressive performance by England.



Batting Award: Andrew Strauss, continues his good form with a second double century.
Bowling Award: Toby Roland-Jones, a respectable performance on debut.

[DaveK93]

Sorry I've not posted for a little while folks, I've not been able to find the time! Still, I move back to university next week, so before term starts, I should have some time

[DaveK93]

Second Test Squad:

We can’t lose the series, so I’m ringing the changes.

England:
A Strauss
V Chopra
I Bell
K Pietersen
J Trott
M Prior
C Woakes
R Topley
J Tredwell
J Harris
T Roland-Jones
J Dernbach

Rather than fielding an inexperienced squad, I decided to bring back some of the original England batsmen. Bowling wise, Tredwell, and R-J get their chance to shine. Harris and Topley battle for the last seamer place.

[DaveK93]

First Test:

Teams:

England:
A Strauss
A Cook
I Bell
E Morgan
M Prior
S Broad
G Swann
J Harris
J Anderson
S Finn

James Taylor misses out, as I want to have another look at Eoin Morgan.

New Zealand:
B Watling
B McCullum
R Taylor
J Ryder
D Brownlie
K Williamson
N Wagner
D Bracewell
M Henry
C De Grandhomme
T Boult

Toss:
Match Report: England lose the toss and bowl.

Day 1:
We bowled out NZ for 239, after some good work from the seam bowlers. McCullum and Williamson were the main performers of the innings, but Broad took 4 wickets, and Anderson took 3, as we skittled them.
We then battled through to 18-0 by the end of play, Cook already showing attacking intent by hitting Bracewell for 6 in the first over.

Day 2:
We finished the day on 297-1 after some good, sensible batting. Cook fell for 48, hitting 3 sixes in the process (!), but Strauss and Bell were still in at the close of play, Strauss on 157*, Bell 86*. 10 sixes had been hit on day 2, 4 to Strauss, in what was one of the more aggressive test innings I’ve seen by England.

Day 3:
We finished today on 584-7, as both Strauss and Bell got double centuries. NZ for a while had no answer to either of them, and it’s a shame the rest of the batting order kept getting out. Bell is still at the crease though, so we look to him to push the total higher.

Day 4:
We finally finished on 679, after Bell finally fell for 307. This left us 5 sessions to remove NZ, which should be plenty of time. There will also be a screenshot of Bell’s stats for his 307 accompanying this post.
New Zealand were left with a fight to avoid an innings defeat, after they finished on 182-5, Harris getting 3 wickets. Ryder, Watling and Williamson have all gone, which is good considering the problems they caused me in New Zealand earlier this year.

Day 5:
Game over. Harris and Anderson cleaned up despite some late resistance from the tail-enders. A comfortable win, and we now hold a 1-0 lead in the two match series. So, at least we cannot lose the series, which will be morale boosting ahead of the Ashes.



Batting Award: Ian Bell. Do I really have to explain why? But just in case you do want an explanation, here are his stats:



Bowling Award: James Harris. Bowled very well in the second innings, and is starting to become a very good bowler.

[DaveK93]

As requested, here are the England averages across all three formats for last season. I'll try remember to put them in the actual stats post next time!

England Test Stats:



England ODI Stats:



England T20I Stats:

[DaveK93]

yeah top 5's would be fine

On the basis that I ended up with more time than I thought, the full averages for each format will soon be available. Unfortunately, I haven't got the World Rankings available, due to the fact a series has been played since I did the stats post.

[UTBash]

Would the top 5 English players from each category I've previously used be ok? Otherwise it could be a very time consuming process. I'm quite happy to post screenshots of players though, if there are any particular ones.

yeah top 5's would be fine

[DaveK93]

Hey mate is there any chance you could post overall england averages from first season?

Would the top 5 English players from each category I've previously used be ok? Otherwise it could be a very time consuming process. I'm quite happy to post screenshots of players though, if there are any particular ones.

[DaveK93]

Hey mate is there any chance you could post overall england averages from first season?

I'll see what I can sort out, they should be up later on.

[UTBash]

Hey mate is there any chance you could post overall england averages from first season?

[DaveK93]

England vs New Zealand Test Series

Squads:

England:
A Strauss
A Cook
I Bell
J Taylor
E Morgan
M Prior
S Broad
G Swann
J Harris
J Anderson
S Finn

Strauss returns as Hales is injured. Harris gets into the squad ahead of Bresnan.

New Zealand Touring Squad:
B Watling
B McCullum
R Taylor
J Ryder
D Brownlie
K Williamson
M Guptill
N Wagner
D Bracewell
M Henry
M Gillespie
D De Boorder
C De Grandhomme
D Vettori
I Butler
T Boult
B Small
B Arnel

A strong squad, but we should be able to win in home conditions.

[DaveK93]

2013-2014 SEASON

Schedule:
New Zealand (Home), 2 tests, 3 ODIs, 1 T20I
Australia (Home) 5 Tests, 5 ODIs, 2 T20s
Australia (Away) 5 Tests, Triangular ODI series inc. Zimbabwe, 2 T20s
West Indies (Away) 3 Tests, 3 ODIs, 1 T20
T20 World Cup in Bangladesh

I’m going to be bored of Australia by the end of this season I think. But a couple of easier series against NZ and WI will make life a bit simpler. My T20 WC group is Pakistan and Scotland, so I will be expecting to qualify comfortably.

[DaveK93]

T20

World Rankings:



Highest Run Scorers:
H Amla (SA) 456 runs @ 45.6 (12 innings)
D Bravo (WI) 387 runs @ 38.7 (11 innings)
A Hales (ENG) 368 runs @ 30.67 (13 innings)
J Kallis (SA) 342 runs @ 31.09 (12 Innings)
J Bairstow (ENG) 336 runs @ 33.6 (12 innings)

Highest Scores:
M Shahzad (AFG) 103*
H Amla (SA) 95
A Hales (ENG) 89*
A Mathews (SL) 89*
J Kallis (SA) 85

Most Wickets:
S Finn (ENG) 35 wickets @ 10.74
D Steyn (SA) 27 wickets @ 10.96
S Broad (ENG) 24 wickets @ 13.62
I Pathan (IND) 21 wickets @ 17.48
V Philander (SA) 20 wickets @ 15.90

Best Bowling Figures:
V Philander (SA) 6-18
S Watson (AUS) 6-23
T Southee (NZ) 6-24
S Finn (ENG) 6-25
D Steyn (SA) 6-29

End of Season Rankings:

Batting:
H Amla (SA) 907
D Bravo (WI) 812
J Kallis (SA) 745
G Smith (SA) 729
S Chanderpaul (WI) 725

Bowling:
S Finn (ENG) 1062
D Steyn (SA) 887
V Philander (SA) 852
S Broad (ENG) 756
I Pathan (IND) 573