England under UTBash

[UTBash]

1st ODI vs New Zealand

Teams
England - Cook, Kieswetter, Trott, Bell, Bairstow, Morgan, Woakes, Broad, Swann, Kerrigan, Topley.

NZ - Ryder, Rutherford, Taylor, Williamson, Brownlie, De Boorder, Wagner, Bracewell, Gillespie, Boult, Henry.

We won the toss and batted first.

Very much an under par batting performance, the tone was set when Cook and Kieswetter were gone for 0 and 1. Trott and Bairstow provided decent innings but we struggled as a team.

We started very well, taking 3 wickets in the first 10 overs! Despite a 91 partnership between Williamson and Brownlie, New Zealand were never at the races. Not after being "toppled by Topley" anyway (see what i did there). An impressive debut by him. Kerrigan bowled well also, going for 26 from 10 overs and picking a wicket up!



Series State: England lead 1-0 with 4 games left.

Batting Award: Jonathan Trott. An entertaining and useful innings for us.

Bowling Award: Reece Topley. A great debut for the young seamer, and only the 2nd Englishman to take a 5 for in ODI's this season. We have missed a wicket taker, with our bowlers being in bad form a lot of the time.

[UTBash]

I realise I've missed out the test stats, these will be posted after the ODI series now.

[UTBash]

2nd ODI vs NZ

Team News: No changes. Arnel for Gillespie for NZ.

We lost the toss and were asked to bat.

Cook failed once again, falling early for just 5 runs. However we started steadily, hitting 45 from the first 10 overs, losing just the one wicket. Kieswetter fell just short of 50 in the 15th over after batting very well. The innings panned out in a similar fashion to the first ODI, with Trott once again being our stand out batsman. Others played handy knocks but just weren't good enough.

New Zealand had a star in Jesse Ryder, who scored more than half the runs. We didn't really bowl badly, but they had learnt their lessons and made sure to conserve wickets. Our more experienced men Broad and Swann struggled to keep the run rate down, while Topley and Kerrigan bowled well again. No win this time but I'm confident we will win the series.



Series State: 1-1 with 3 games remaining.

Batting Award: Jonathan Trott. Once again he stood out by a mile.

Bowling Award: Reece Topley. Very economical in this game! Massive prospect for us.

[UTBash]

3rd ODI vs NZ

Team News: Broad misses out for Samit Patel. Gillespie comes back in for Arnel for NZ.

We won the toss and chose to bowl.

Ryder once again led the way with a somewhat slow 65 from 110 balls. He fell in the 35th as we managed to keep it pretty tight. They were 137-3 from 35 overs. We continued to frustate the Kiwi's batsmen and that resulted in a late flurry of wickets as we restricted them to 222-8, Topley looked to have secured his 3rd bowling award in 3 games!

I'm afraid to say we did struggle once again, but we pulled through at least! Maybe it's just hard to bat in New Zealand, I don't know! There isn't much to say about this apart from Woakes hitting a six from the final ball to win the game, but it wasn't as close as that makes it sound, a poor game for batsmen all round.



Series State: England lead 2-1 with 2 games left.

Batting Award: Jonny Bairstow. He batted okay I suppose....

Bowling Award: Reece Topley. Another excellent performance and he showed that he is a talented death bowler too, I can't say a bad word about the lad thus yet!

[UTBash]

4th ODI vs NZ

Team News: None.

We won the toss and bowled first again.

We sprung a surprise on our opponents, opening up with Swann and Samit, who bowled 10 each straight through. They kept it pretty tight and picked up the wicket of in form Ryder. 20 overs had gone and NZ were 83-1. Swann had figures of 0-28 from his 10. Mainly, I wanted to see how our youngsters coped without having an experienced bowler from the other end. Only young Topley coped well, taking 4-48 from his 10. Kerrigan and Woakes both went for more than 6 an over, struggling to put pressure on NZ, who made the highest score of the series with 267-7.

A poor start left us 40-3. Bell and Bairstow started to rebuild and the required rate had reached sevens, when Bairstow tried pushing on, he failed and fell for just 23, a slow one at that. Morgan then hit 27 off 23 before being caught at mid off. We collapsed dreadfully to fall under 200 for the first time this year.



Series State: 2-2 with one game to play.

Batting Award: Ian Bell. He batted very well, nobody else did.

Bowling Award: Reece Topley. He is a future England sensation, 4 in 4 awards now for him! Can he make it a full house?

[cricfan1]

See Topley Did it, Very good bowler England got

Now He should be given chance against High Ranked Team

[UTBash]

5th ODI vs NZ

Team News: Hales, Taylor, Broad and Anderson for Cook, Woakes, Morgan and Kerrigan.

We lost the toss and were put in to bat.

We took a more conservative approach for a change, and this tactic worked well for Hales, who went through to 50, but not so much for Kieswetter, who scored low. Trott was unfortunately ran out for 41. The wickets in hand gave us chance to push on at the end, which we did reasonably well, but not as well as we could've done, as we lost a few wickets in the process. Bell finished well with 73 from 63 and with that strike rate may have outshone young Hales who has finally performed for me.

Very nearly not good enough!! At 190-2 they were absolutely cruising, we left it so late to take the wickets we did, and it was a good job we did too!



Series Result: England win 3-2

Batting Award: Ian Bell. He edges it due to his strike rate, without his late hitting we may have lost.

Bowling Award: James Anderson. I'd have loved to give it to Topley but he was a bit too expensive for my liking. Maybe I'm being harsh though.

UPDATE
We don't take number one spot due to australia winning another one day series. But we do move to second.

[DaveK93]

Hales finally performed! Our games have been a contrast in terms of player performance, Hales has gone ahead of Strauss in the pecking order comfortably this season on mine

[UTBash]

Test series vs NZ (STATISTICS)

Top 5 English Batsmen (Runs & AVG)
1. A Cook - 518 runs @ 103.60
2. J Taylor - 340 runs @ 68.00
3. I Bell - 292 runs @ 73.00
4. J Trott - 271 runs @ 45.17
5. C Woakes - 136 runs @ 34.00

Top 5 NZ Batsmen (Runs & AVG)
1. K Williamson - 380 runs @ 126.67
2. D Brownlie - 330 runs @ 66.00
3. BJ Watling - 324 runs @ 54.00
4. R Taylor - 195 runs @ 32.50
5. D Vettori - 172 runs @ 34.40

Top 5 English Bowlers (Wickets & AVG)
1. J Anderson - 17 wickets @ 26.35
2. S Kerrigan - 11 wickets @ 38.36
3. C Woakes - 10 wickets @ 43.40
4. G Swann - 4 wickets @ 54.75
5. S Meaker - 4 wickets @ 69.00

Top 5 NZ Bowlers (Wickets & AVG)
1. M Henry - 18 wickets @ 31.78
2. D Bracewell - 12 wickets @ 49.67
3. M Gillespie - 10 wickets @ 43.90
4. N Wagner - 7 wickets @ 43.14
5. D Vettori - 2 wickets @ 83.50


Series Awards

Batting Award: Alastair Cook. Once again our stand out man, such an important player for us, he needed more help from the other batsmen in a bad series for us.

Bowling Award: James Anderson. The Burnley lad was way ahead of the rest of our boys with the ball

[UTBash]

Hales finally performed! Our games have been a contrast in terms of player performance, Hales has gone ahead of Strauss in the pecking order comfortably this season on mine

I know! It's strange, our batting stats are really good though as you'll see in the season review sometime next week! But our results have been poor for some reason. Our bowling has been pretty bad come to think of it, we have just 4 bowlers averaging between 30 and 40, nobody under 30 and many over 40. I have a feeling next year will be better!

[DaveK93]

I know! It's strange, our batting stats are really good though as you'll see in the season review sometime next week! But our results have been poor for some reason. Our bowling has been pretty bad come to think of it, we have just 4 bowlers averaging between 30 and 40, nobody under 30 and many over 40. I have a feeling next year will be better!

A lot of my results have been a little too close for comfort at times, which, whilst it makes the game so much more entertaining, does nothing for my nerves! I'm not overly sure of averages at the minutes, as I have still have the Kiwis to play, but I'm hoping to make inroads into that in the next couple of days Hopefully the new year will be better, and you get a couple of good regens!

[UTBash]

ODI Series vs NZ (STATISTICS)

Top 5 English Batsmen (Runs & AVG)
1. J Trott - 259 runs @ 64.75
2. I Bell - 224 runs @ 74.67
3. J Bairstow - 166 runs @ 33.20
4. E Morgan - 104 runs @ 26.00
5. C Kieswetter - 95 runs @ 19.00

Top 5 NZ Batsmen (Runs & AVG)
1. J Ryder - 251 runs @ 62.75
2. H Rutherford - 204 runs @ 40.80
3. R Taylor - 191 runs @ 38.20
4. D Brownlie - 121 runs @ 24.20
5. K Williamson - 109 runs @ 21.80

Top 5 English Bowlers (Wickets & AVG)
1. R Topley - 16 wickets @ 14.25
2. S Broad - 6 wickets @ 22.17
3. G Swann - 5 wickets @ 39.60
4. S Patel - 3 wickets @ 51.67
5. C Woakes - 3 wickets @ 62.67

Top 5 NZ Bowlers (Wickets & AVG)
1. N Wagner - 9 wickets @ 25.11
2. D Bracewell - 7 wickets @ 31.57
3. M Henry - 7 wickets @ 32.43
4. T Boult - 6 wickets @ 37.83
5. M Gillespie - 5 wickets @ 32.60


Series Awards

Batting Award: Ian Bell. He came good at the end of the series when it really mattered!!

Bowling Award: You guessed it, Reece Topley. I'm so overwhelmed with how well he performed, he's just 19! Sensational series for him.

[UTBash]

A lot of my results have been a little too close for comfort at times, which, whilst it makes the game so much more entertaining, does nothing for my nerves! I'm not overly sure of averages at the minutes, as I have still have the Kiwis to play, but I'm hoping to make inroads into that in the next couple of days Hopefully the new year will be better, and you get a couple of good regens!

Well for next year, I can't imagine we would do much worse fielding a less experienced side with potential, so a change in policy may be in order!

[DaveK93]

Well for next year, I can't imagine we would do much worse fielding a less experienced side with potential, so a change in policy may be in order!

I quite enjoy playing the younger players, it means it looks more like my team, rather than a generic England one.

[UTBash]

I quite enjoy playing the younger players, it means it looks more like my team, rather than a generic England one.

I know what you mean, but the problem had been for me that none of them were performing! Haha, Taylor finally came good against new zealand though in the test series. A new season is what we need I think. Strauss won't be returning to the side and a few other batsmen will be gone too.