My England story.

[Ash2134]

Saw a few of these stories, so i thought i would have a try at one. This was the first ICC i had played since ICC 3 and its good to see how the game has improved since then.

The first series of the year will be New Zealand on tour, and it will begin with a two game test series. My squad for the first game will be:

Batsmen
Joe Root
Alistair Cook
Jonathon Trott
Ian Bell
Gary Ballance

All Rounders
Ravi Bopara
Stuart Broad
Tim Bresnan

Wicketkeepers
Matt Prior

Bowlers
James Anderson
Steven Finn
Graeme Swann

Kevin Pietersen is excluded from the squad due to a knee injury, Gary Ballance could make his test debut if selected for the team.

[Ash2134]

The teams for the first test will be as follows:

England: Root, Cook, Trott, Ballance, Bell, Bopara, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn

New Zealand: Rutherford, Fulton, Taylor, Williamson, McCullum,Watling, Guptill, Bracewell, Southee,Gillespie, Boult,

Bresnan has missed out and theres a debut for Ballance.

[Ash2134]

Day 1: We win the toss and decide to bat on a pitch which looks like a beauty. Cook starts off strong but we lose Root quite early for just 20, trott gets a start of 40 but then hes gone to, and then bell makes a decent 60 but is then gone and we end the day with cook on a century and ballance not out 53.

Day 2: We finish our innings on 461, with cook making 142, ballance failing to reach his century and a good half century from bopara, however disaster strikes as swann has to retire hurt, which damages our bowling lineup and will mean that bopara will have to do some extra bowling. We bowl quite decently and manage to have them 7 down by the end of the day with bopara taking 2 wickets and anderson on 3. Unbelievably though New Zealand have Watling forced to retire hurt aswell.

Day 3: We wrap up their innings for 344 with anderson taking 4 wickets, only fulton put up a real fight as he got into the nineties before getting out. We then go out with a lead of 117 to build on and hopefuly can set a target for new zealand that will make victory easy for us. However we lose 2 and a half hours of the day due to rain. But end the the day 65-1 with cook continuing his good form from the first innings and losing root relatively cheaply again.

Day 4: we finish our second innings with a declaration on 270 for 3 with trott making a century and then begin the task of bowling new zealand out i believe we have enough time to bowl then out and we have a good lead of 387. They end the day on 57-2 with finn and broad each getting one of the openers.

Day 5: New zealand put up a good fight but we manage to get them all out on 311 and win the test by 76 runs, with broad taking 4 wickets in the second innings.



Batting Award: this will go to cook since he made a good century in the first innings and then another good 75 in the second innings.

Bowling Award: this was tough as both anderson and broad did well but Anderson just edges it as he took key wickets in both innings.

[Ash2134]

After a pretty solid first test im hoping that we can go on and win the next test convincingly to. The only change to the squad is that onions comes into the team for the injured swann ( who is out for 4 weeks). The teams for this next match are the same except onions replaces swann for england and brownlie replaces watling for new zealand.

Day 1: We lose the toss and new zealand ask us to bowl first, on a pitch which offers a little for the seamers but still looks like a good batting pitch. We have a tough beginning to the day but we manage to bowl new zealand out in the last few overs for 320 all out with them having rutherford make a good century before finn dismissed him for 105 and then taylor and williamson made 72 and 86 respectively but once we got through these batsmen the rest of the team put up little fight. Anderson takes 4 again, onions doesnt justify his placement in the team ahead of bresnan as he takes no wickets.

Day 2: We then begin our innings and the top of our order crumbles with the exception of root who was impressive and managed to put 90 on before being caught behind off a beaut of a ball and getting out 10 short of his maiden test century. Ballance supported him well and got to 50 before getting out and broad got to his fifty and we ended the day 270-8.

Day 3: We barely add to the total the next day and end up with 287 all out with broad on 56*. New Zealand head out to bat with a lead of 33, the plan is to try and bowl them out as quickly as possible as the wicket is getting increasingly better for bowling and our chances of chasing down a sizeable target would be decreased drastically if we have to bat for the majority of day 5. We manage to contain them to 260, with none of there batsmen going on to make any real scores with taylor being the best by making 70, williamson and rutherford threatened to make scores but onions dismissed them both with a few great balls. Anderson and finn both took 3 wickets and onions had 2. the day ended with us facing one over and scoring 1 run.

Day 4: We go out to bat needing 294 to win the test and we did it easily with root making 144* and cook also making a century and then trott and root seeing out the end and we win the series 2-0.


Batting Award: This has to go to root who played two superb innings, If not for his first innings we could have easily lost this match and then Chased down the total to win with a amazing 144*.

Bowling Award: Has to go to anderson for his consistent bowling throughout both innings.

[Ash2134]

Series Summary:

Batsmen
Cook 360 runs @ 90.00
Root 266 runs @ 88.67
Trott 181 runs @ 90.50


Bowling
Anderson 12 wickets @ 26.83
Finn 10 wickets @ 34.40

Series Awards:
Batting: Cook, he batted superbly both games and really showcased his talent at the top of the order.
Bowling: Our bowling was generally quite poor but anderson did bowl well but the entire bowling attack will need to improve in order to beat the aussies.

on a side note if anyone knows how to make it so the images are larger and you dont have to click on them to view them and could let me know. id appreciate it.

[Ash2134]

Now we Have the ODI series against New Zealand and this is probably going to be a tougher series than the test series was.

England Squad:

Batsmen:
Root
Cook
Bell
Trott
Ballance
Morgan
All Rounders
Bopara
Broad
Woakes
Wicket Keepers
Kieswetter
Prior
Buttler
Bowlers:
Anderson
Finn
Tredwell

[Ash2134]

England XI: Root, Cook, Trott, Bell, Morgan, Prior, Bopara, Woakes, Broad, Tredwell, Anderson

New Zealand XI: Guptill, Taylor, Williamson, Monchi, Munroe, McCullum, Franklin, vettori, Mills, Southee, Boult.

I mix up my team for the first one day match from the team that was being used in the test series, with morgan playing and tredwell brought into the team as swann is still injured. New Zealand Have a strong team with a lot of all rounders in it which gives them a lot of bowling options.

New Zealand win the toss and choose to bat. The pitch is a good batting pitch but there is a lot of overcast weather forecast for the day so this could be a pretty low scoring game.

First Innings: They start off scoring quite quickly but broad comes out pumped up and is able to dismiss both openers and after the first 10 overs, they are 48-2. We continue to bowl quite well and are picking up wickets at regular intervals. However McCullum is able to start a good innnings and they use the powerplay probably hoping that McCullum is able to hit them some quick runs before the 40 over mark. So i bring finn back into the attack and he rips through there bastmen, dismissing McCullum immediately and picking up another two wickets. They then move along slowly and we finish off the innings with them making 206 all out at the end of their innings.

Second Innings: We came out and batted superbly to win the match easily, we lost cook for just 9 but Root bats superbly and trott supports him brilliantly. A superb start to the series.


Batting Award:Root, he played an outstanding innings at a great strike rate.

Bowling Award: Finn, he came on and bowled brilliantly and helped stop new zealand when they looked like they could have gone onto a bigger score.

Series State: 1-0 up with 2 games remaining

[Ash2134]

Both teams are unchanged for the second game of the series.

This time we win the toss and choose to bat with the intention of setting a big target. The conditions are the same as the last match and it will be overcast for the entire day.

First Innings:

We start off very strongly and manage to get 60-0 after the first 10 overs however our scoring rate slows down a bit after the first 10 but we do continue to score consistently and didnt lose a wicket until root got out on 80 during the 34th over during the first over of our powerplay and then two overs later cook got to his hundred but unfortunately go out a few balls after. We were then 201-2 with 13 overs left and we made good use of our wickets in hand to end up with 274-6.

Second Innings:
We make a very good start to their innings by taking 3 early wickets which was just the start we needs but then they start to improve and are let by Taylor who was looking very good but wasnt supported. Then tredwell came on and just ripped through there team and although he had a poor economy rate he took 5-45 in 5.4 overs and new zealand were then all out for 182 but untill tredwell came on and took a lot of wickets new zealand were scoring at a very threatening rate.


Batting Award: Cook, he played a great innings which set us up well.

Bowling Award: Tredwell, who else? he took a great 5 wickets and effectively ended the match.

Series State: 2-0 up with 1 remaining.

[Ash2134]

Since we have already won the series i bring in kieswetter and ballance into the team and new zealand play the same team. This is Ballance's ODI debut and hes made a good start to his test career, hopefully he can do the same in his ODI debut.

First innings:
We start very poorly and lose root, cook, morgan and ballance within the first 20 overs and are on 71-4 with a lot of work to do to salvage a good score. But Kieswetter and Prior come together and do brilliantly scoring 105 and 72 respectively and then bopara manages to add 31-20 at the end to give us a relatively competitive score of 264-6

Second Innings:
They started off scoring at a strong rate but we were picking up wickets quite consistently as well however McCullum caused us some problems again and managed to get 72 from 72 before tredwell was able to get him out. However we were leaking runs at a much too high rate and therefore lost with just over an over left in the game.


Batting Award: Has to go to kieswetter, he played a simply brilliant innings and helped us build a good score after a terrible start to the match.

Bowling Award: Tredwell, bowled well again and managed to to pick up another 4 wickets. He has the potential to be a strong ODI bowler if he can just improve his economy rate.

Series State: England win the series 2-1

[Ash2134]

Series Summary
Batting:
Root 212 runs @106.00
Cook 132 runs @44.00
Kieswetter 105 runs @105.00

Bowling:
Tredwell 10 wickets @12.40
Broad 5 wickets @24.80
Finn 4 wickets @32.50

Series Awards
Batting: Root, great batting in the 3 games and his inning in the first game was absolutely brilliant.
Bowling: Tredwell, took a lot of wickets and helped wrap up the 2nd game when it was looking like new zealand could win it.

[Ash2134]

Next up is the ICC champions trophy. I am aiming to at least get to the semi finals in this tournament, it would be nice to win it but i feel that it could be difficult to overcome some of the teams like india in the knockout stages.

England Squad:

Batsmen:
Root
Cook
Bell
Trott
Ballance
Morgan

All Rounders:
Bopara
Broad
Woakes

Wicket Keepers
Kieswetter
Prior
Buttler

Bowlers:
Anderson
Finn
Tredwell

I have decided to continue with the squad that has just beaten New Zealand, i have kept faith in tredwell instead of bring swann back into the team, this is a decision i could end up regretting but i felt tredwell had earnt his chance in the tournament and swann would have been injured for the first week of the tournament as well.

[Ash2134]

Our first Game of the tournament is against Australia and heres the teams for the game:


Both teams have a long batting line up, so some high scores could be on the card for this game.

First Innings:
We win the toss and decide to bat hoping to put a high score up. The weather conditions are very overcast for the entire day. We lose cook early on unfortunately and then we manage to progress to 51-1 from the first 10 overs. Root made a brilliant 103 before getting out. We end up 263-8 and didnt really make the most out of the start provided to us by root.

Second Innings:
Australia came out very attacking to begin their innings but broad was able to pick up the wickets of warner and watson and they ended the first 10 overs at 63-2. Tredwell then comes on a performs brilliantly for us once again and bowls straight through his overs for 2-28 and puts us in a much stronger position. It looked as if a easy win was on the cards as my bowlers were regulary picking up wickets and we had then 9 down and requiring 6.5 per over for the last 7 overs and then johnson and mckay got stuck in untill broad was able to get mckay out caught and bowled and we were able to win by 11 runs.


Batting Award:Root, his score really set us up to put on a total which put us in a good position to win the match.
Bowling Award:Tredwell, His bowling in the middle of the game was superb. He was able to slow down the aussies scoring rate and take a couple of key wickets.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have sri lanka against us, we decide to field the same team as the previous game.


Sri Lanka have quite a strong lineup with a good choice of bowlers but the key thing for us will be getting the wicket of sangakarra when he comes in to bat.

First Innings:
We lose the toss and are asked to bowl on what looks like an average day and average weather conditions. we started off strongly and had them 86-4 off 17 overs with a wicket each for my bowlers except bopara. however mendis and matthews put on a strong partnership before we were able to get mendis just after he made his 50. However broad and anderson return and take two wickets each with anderson taking two wickets in just 4 balls to end their innings on 211 all out.

Second Innings:
So now we need to go at just over 4 runs an over so this shouldn't be too difficult to win. Honours were even after the first 10 overs with us being 45-2 with malinga getting both root and trott cheaply. however our batting really crumbles and only bopara was batting well and he got to 85* with us needing 17 runs off the last 3 overs with just one wicket remaining. Now with just 6 balls remaining we need 4 runs to win but tredwell was on strike AND tredwell gets out first ball with us losing by just 3 runs. That was a tough one to take but hopefully we can make a strong comeback in the next game.


Batting Award: Bopara, He put in a great effort to help us come close to winning, if he had have been on strike for the last over we probably would have won.

Bowling Award: Broad, Him and anderson both bowled well but broad took more key wickets at key times.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have new zealand and which ever team wins will go through to the semi finals, we make one change by bringing finn in for woakes.

First Innings:
We win the toss and decide to bowl first and things go very well for us and we end up being able to bowl them out for 152. With finn destroying the top of the order with 3 key wickets and bopara bowled an outstanding spell by taking 3-13 off 7 overs.

Second Innings:
We chase down the target with little struggle and reach the target without losing a wicket to earn a really convincing win and some more momentum heading into the semi final.

Batting Award:Could have gone to either cook or root but root scored the higher innings so he gets it.

Bowling Award:Bopara, he bowled what has to be the best spell of the tournament

[Ash2134]

In the semi finals we meet south africa for what will surely be a very tough game. We stick with the same team that beat new zealand and can hopefully perform as well as they did in that game.

First Innings:
We lose the toss and are asked to bat first in some poor batting conditions but on a good batting pitch. However we are not able to get any sort of momentum going in the entire match and entire with a mere 209-9 and with just a few 40s between all of our batsmen.

Second Innings:
We go into the second innings knowing that we need a really good bowling performance to be able to win this game. Broad and finn are able to pick up a wicket each at the beginning but de villiers is able to settle in and is scoring at a solid rate. We are able to pick up the odd wicket throughout the innings but de villiers is able to stay in and do what none of our batsmen were able to do and because of this south africa are able to beat us without too much trouble.


Batting Award:None of my batsmen really deserve this but i guess it will go to kieswetter just because he was able to get the most runs.

Bowling Award: Has to go to broad as he took 3 good wickets and gave us a slight chance to win the match.