England Story

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Just purchased the game and only played a bit of the demo due to crashing. So this is my first save, I'm gonna start an England story as I did last year! This one should last longer than last years which lasted just over an in game season. I haven't had much time to test out the new match engine etc so this could be a learning experience if there's a big difference, I'm looking forward to it and hope you're looking forward to my story

Here goes with the fixtures.

2013/14 fixtures:

New Zealand in England (2 Tests, 3 ODI's)
Champions Trophy in England.
New Zealand in England (2 T20i's)
Australia in England (5 Tests, 5 ODI's, 2 T20i's)
England in Australia (5 Tests, 5 ODI's, 3 T20i's)
England in West Indies (3 Tests, 3 ODI's, 1 T20i)
World Cup 20 in Bangladesh.

What a campaign to start! Champions trophy which is effectively a world cup, 2 ashes series' and a t20 world cup!!

English Rankings as of 1st April 2013

Test Ranking: 2nd, 26pts.
ODI Ranking: 1st, 28pts.
T20 Ranking: 2nd, 17pts.

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New Zealand Touring Squad

New Zealand have travelled with a 15 man squad. Their side is bowler heavy and includes 3 wicket keepers. 21 year old Tom Latham could make his test debut although it is unlikely as he would have to push in front of McCullum and Watling.

New Zealand Squad

Batsmen
Dean Brownlie
Peter Fulton
Martin Guptill
Hamish Rutherford
Ross Taylor

All Rounders
Kane Williamson

Wicket Keepers
Brendon McCullum
BJ Watling
Tom Latham

Bowlers
Trent Boult
Doug Bracewell
Mark Gillespie
Bruce Martin
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner

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England Squad

Jonny Bairstow misses out to James Taylor as I go with a pretty safe and non experimental squad in the hope of stamping the authority on New Zealand.

England 1st Test Squad

Batsmen
Alastair Cook
Joe Root
Jonathan Trott
Ian Bell
James Taylor

All Rounders
Ravi Bopara (ALL ROUNDER!!)
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad

Wicket Keepers
Matt Prior

Bowlers
Graeme Swann
Steven Finn
James Anderson

[DaveK93]

Good to see you back with England! Good luck

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1st Test Teams

Bresnan misses out as we use a four man bowling attack with the options of Trott and Bopara.

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Good to see you back with England! Good luck

Thanks mate!

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1st Test vs NZ

We won the toss and chose to bat.

Day 1
Despite the initial struggle of losing Root for 0 and being 93-3, Cook played a gritty innings to get us out of the rough whilst being supported by Bell. They finished the day on 124 and 89 and the day was ended with England on 272-3.

Day 2
A few quick wickets left us needing a mini revival, and revival we got! Prior and Broad passed the all time England 6th wicket partnership of 201 as they put on 204 before we declared on 521-6 with half a session left in the day. New Zealand finished on 72-2 with Finn picking up 2 wickets and Broad getting SMASHED for 42 off just 4 overs.

Day 3
Williamson led the way with a great 118 before the part time medium pace of Bopara cause a loss of concentration with NZ falling to 227-5. Keepers Watling and McCullum reached 50 and bowlers Bracewell and Southee provided lower order resistance before NZ were 366 all out late in the day. We finished the day with a lead of 157.

Day 4
A good day for us, we declared with an hour left in the day and a lead of 378. Although there is a chance they can win, there shouldn't be much of a problem bowling them out from here, unless of course ICC takes control....

Day 5
Coming into the day 2 down, NZ were always going to struggle, and they did, massively. Bopara was thrown into the mix in the cloudy conditions for a return of 3-9 off 11 overs with the other pacemen sharing wickets.



Batting Award: Alastair Cook. A recurring theme in 2012!!! Captain Cook scored a century and half century this game and although it was equalled by Bell, Cook battled hard on the first day when we struggled early on.

Bowling Award: Ravi Bopara. A surprise yes, but a justified choice. Ravi dismissed centurion Williamson in the first innings and took 3-9 in the second. Overall match figures of 4-10 off 13.4 overs. Finn and Anderson both bowled well.

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2nd Test vs NZ

Squad and Team News: No changes as we look to secure the series. Boring maybe but I need to win my first series haha!

New Zealand make no changes, they'll be hungry.

Once again we won the toss and batted.

Day 1
A strange day, a good start with a stumble in the middle and a massive drop in the rate. Followed by another revival by that man Ian Bell partnered by James Taylor as they started from where they left off in the first test.

Day 2
A Bell and Taylor destruction led us to a great platform and we ended up declaring late in the day on 513-7. NZ replied well though finishing the day none down.

Day 3
NZ seemed to have learnt their lesson as Taylor and Rutherford took them to 186-1. However Swann and Broad showed their class and NZ collapsed with only a stand of 90 between McCullum and Southee saving them from the follow on.

Day 4
NZ once again failed to take even 10 wickets in a test match as we declared late in day 4 with only the loss of 2 wickets and a mammoth 421 for NZ to chase. This was such a similar game to the last so far!

Day 5
They provided a better resistance this time but Anderson and Swann ended up ripping through their line up, sharing the wickets and injuring Southee in the process!!



Batting Award: Ian Bell. A mammoth innings made the award worth it.

Bowling Award: Graeme Swann. Two excellent four wicket hauls after a disappointing first test.

Series Result: England win 2-0

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Series Summary

Top 3 Batsmen
Ian Bell - 361 runs @ 180.5
Alastair Cook - 337 runs @ 84.25
James Taylor - 209 runs @ 104.5

Top 3 Bowlers
James Anderson - 10 wickets @ 29.4
Graeme Swann - 9 wickets @ 28.44
Steven Finn - 9 wickets @ 28.67

Series Awards:

Batting Award: Ian Bell. Two centuries and a fifty in 3 innings is outstanding, although not so outstanding compared to Cook, an unlucky runner up!

Bowling Award: James Anderson. Took most wickets and was consistent over 2 tests taking the only 5 fer!

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NZ ODI Squad

New Zealand travel with an array of all rounders, selecting only 2 recognised batsmen!

NZ ODI Squad

Batsmen
Martin Guptill
Ross Taylor

All Rounders
Daniel Vettori
James Franklin
Grant Elliot
Andrew Ellis
Nathan McCullum
Colin Munro
Kane Williamson

Wicket Keepers
Brendan McCullum
Luke Ronchi

Bowlers
Trent Boult
Mitch McClenaghan
Kyle Mills
Tim Southee

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England ODI Squad

Our 15 man squad includes youth and experience with Hales just missing out on selection. Reece Topley is included and set to make his debut in the series.

England ODI Squad

Batsmen
Alastair Cook
Joe Root
Jonathan Trott
Ian Bell
James Taylor

All Rounders
Ravi Bopara
Stuart Broad
Tim Bresnan

Wicket Keepers
Craig Kieswetter
Jos Buttler
Jonny Bairstow

Bowlers
Graeme Swann
James Anderson
Steven Finn
Reece Topley

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1st ODI vs NZ Teams

Buttler and Kieswetter make the cut ahead of Bairstow and Taylor and our bowling attack remains very stable. New Zealand field an explosive batting line up with many players able to bowl a few overs.

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1st ODI vs NZ

We lost the toss and batted first.

The first ten overs saw the loss of 3 England wickets, although the rate was healthy, a partnership was needed with Bell and Bopara new to the crease. Both had reached 50 at decent rates by the 30th over as a platform was set at 158-3! The late introduction of Kyle Mills provided some entertainment before Bopara nicked off for 63. Root supported Bell well who reached a century and went late on hitting out. Broad and Buttler then proceeded to smash their bowlers hitting 34 runs between them from just 15 balls.

Our attacking approach in the first 10 proved worthwhile as we had them 48-2. The second powerplay brought us more wickets with Bopara picking up 3 more and Swann taking one for himself. At 96-6 from 20 their task seemed impossible but there was the dangerous Williamson still at the crease and their depth was decent. Our foot stepped off the gas and Williamson scored a quickfire 33, destroying Swann's figures, but the damage was done and they never really recovered.



Series State: England lead 1-0

Batting Award: Ian Bell, who else?! Carried on his great form here.

Bowling Award: Ravi Bopara. He pops up again with the bowling award with the most economical bowling and 3 wickets. Batted well also!

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2nd ODI vs NZ

Team News: No changes for either side.

NZ won the toss and choose to bat.


We struck early on dismissing Ronchi cheaply, but Guptill and Munro saw off the powerplay ready for a rebuild. Bopara and Swann shared the next 10 overs without taking a wicket as the two set men looked to push on on this hard deck. The introduction of Broad saw NZ lose their second wicket, that of Munro for 52 and Guptill shortly followed, bowled by Swann. From here we began to turn the screw, with some good depth bowling from Anderson and Broad. We bowled them out on the final ball of the innings.

Alastair Cook fired us off to an explosive start despite Kieswetter going early. Trott continued to disappoint, also going cheaply for just 6. The 2 in form men Bell and Cook rebuilt, taking us to 108-2 at the halfway point with Cook reaching 50. We continued to control the game before decided to take a real hold and going for broke, and despite losing Cook, Bell and Bopara saw us home with plenty to spare.



Series State: England lead 2-0

Batting Award: Ian Bell. Once again shows his class. 5 innings', 3 hundreds, 2 fifties. And one of the fifties was this 99*.

Bowling Award: Jimmy Anderson. Set the tone early on and took a couple of big wickets.

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3rd ODI vs NZ

Team News: Taylor, Bairstow, Bresnan and Topley in for Trott, Root, Broad and Finn. 19 year old Reece Topley to make his ODI debut.
No changes for NZ.

NZ won the toss and chose to bat first!

NZ Innings
The in form Guptill and Luke Ronchi got NZ off to a steady start with a wicketless first powerplay. Swann took the first wicket of Ronchi who was stumped by Kieswetter for 50 in the 14th over, a big wicket! The wicket was proving good though as Guptill and Munro continued to score runs at a good rate. However it took just 2 more overs before Topley picked up his first ODI wicket and it was that of Guptill. NZ had finally got themselves set being 152-2 after 30 overs, a great platform. The NZ batsmen really asserted themselves, all chipping in with 40's, 50's and 60's to compile a score at over 6 an over, a tough task for us.

England Innings
The tone was set in the first powerplay as we were 47-0, a position from which we can really try to push on. However Kieswetter fell next ball, only for Bell to smash a huge maximum first ball. However he failed for the first time, falling to Munro for just 16. The rate of scoring was still high and Bopara and Taylor were starting to take over. At the 30 over mark we required 8 an over with Taylor and Bopara both nearing the half century. Taylor fell shortly after and we ended up needing 97 off 10 overs, we would struggle from here! Despite a valiant effort from our boys, we failed to step up and fell 20 short. For the last 15 overs we batted in overcast conditions though.



Series Result: England win 2-1

Batting Award: Ravi Bopara. Set himself well but couldn't finish the job, still a good effort.

Bowling Award: Jimmy Anderson. The best figures from an average bunch.