My England story.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have a 2 match T20 series against New Zealand. He are the teams for the first match:

We bring in a new player to make his debut called Tong, he is 22 and averages 52 in domestic T20s at a strike rate of 163 and has scored 2 centuries as well. He also averages 80 in first class cricket and 84 in domestic One day cricket, he could be one for the future for us.

First Innings: They win the toss and decide to bat. However they just don't turn up and our bowlers decimate them, this is one of the best bowling performances we have had under my management, we get them all out for 59.

Second Innings: This was an easy total to chase down however we do make it a bit harder than it should have been but we get there.

Batting Award: Pietersen, took us home.

Bowling Award: Finn, his bowling was brilliant.

Series State: 1-0 up with 1 match remaining.

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The teams remain the same for the next match.

First Innings: We win the toss and select to bowl first. They start off well and give anderson and finn a bit of a smack but then Swann and Woakes come on a take a couple of wickets and slow their scoring down. We keep taking wickets but each of their batsmen contributes a solid 20 or 30. They end up with 156-8, a decent total but one we should be able to chase down.

Second Innings: We start off really well with tong and hales going at strong scoring rates and we reach 10 overs in on 86-0. We then lose hales straight way but Tong pushes on and is supported by some decent performances from our other batsmen and we make our good start count and chase down their total.

Batting Award: Tong, Performed well in his second international match with a solid 68 at a strike rate of 150.

Bowling Award: Woakes, Picked up key wickets which slowed them down.

Series State: We win 2-0.

[Ash2134]

Next up is another Ashes series and we are hoping that we can retain them and start a period of dominance over the old enemy. Here are the teams for the first test:

We play what is probably our best team with Cook returning to the side in the place of Harris as we return to 6 out and out batsmen.

Day 1: We win the toss and decide to bat first on a pitch which offers a little to the bowlers. We start poorly by losing Root and Cook cheaply at the start and then Trott is the only batsmen to get past the 50 mark with Pietersen and Ballance getting starts but failing to make them count. We end the day on 254-6 with Prior on 42*.

Day 2: We end up all out for 363 ,thanks to Prior making a century, just after the start of the second session. They end the day on 157-2 with us getting the wickets of Watson and Clarke but Khawaja is at the crease on 57.

Day 3: They end up making 408 all out thanks to a century from Khawaja and half centuries from Doolan and Warner. We bowled poorly especially Swann, he has been so effective the last 2 years but this year he hasn't had much of an effect yet and Briggs our third choice spinner is having a good year in county cricket. We had 1 over to face at the end of the day and Cook blocks it out.

Day 4: We lose Root early on again and nearly lose Pietersen for a duck but he is dropped. Half way through the day we find ourselves at 129-6 with Bell and Woakes at the crease and are now looking to try and fight for a draw. We finish off the day on 229-9 with Swann on 34* and will be looking for him to last as long as possible.

Day 5: We end up just lasting 30 minutes and they need 190 to win. They head into the last session on 127-2 and it looks like we are going to lose the first test. They chase it down easily as we manage to pick up a couple more wickets.

Batting Award: Prior, scored a great century in the first innings when we really needed him to.

Bowling Award: Finn, without his bowling in the first innings they would have scored a lot more.

Series State: 1-0 down with 4 games remaining.

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The teams remain the same for the second test.

Day 1: We win the toss and are asked to bowl first on a good batting pitch but with overcast conditions. The conditions help us and after the first session we have them 99-4 with Woakes doing most of the damage. We manage to get them all out for 227 an hour into the last session. Woakes was destructive and took 7 wickets! We end the day on 85-0 and things are looking much better for us in this match.

Day 2: We bat throughout the day in tough conditions are end up on 354-5 mainly thanks to a hard working innings from Root who ended the day on 154*. He was supported by 61 from Cook and Prior was not out on 57 at the end of the day.

Day 3: We lose root straight away the next day but Prior is able to carry on and make another century! We end up all out 30 minutes into the second session with a total of 474. They end the day on 164-5 thanks to some great fast bowling from Finn, Khawaja made another half century, he is having a good series for them so far.

Day 4: We finish them off fairly easily today and wrap up a dominant victory to tie the series up.

Batting Award: Root, he played an amazing innings in difficult conditions.

Bowling Award: Woakes, His bowling in the first innings was lethal.

Series State: 1-1 with 3 games remaining.

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We make 1 change by bringing in taylor for the out of form Bell. We choose Taylor over Delaney as Taylor is having a good year in county cricket.

Day 1: We win the toss and select to bat first as overcast conditions are predicted for all 5 days so we may as well bat first and try to make a decent total. We finish the day on 276-7 after a tough start with losing the top 5 all for small scores. Taylor rewards the selectors for bringing him in and ends the day on 76*.

Day 2: We end up all out for 292 thanks mainly to the partnership between taylor and Swann. They end the day on 213-8 with Khawaja making yet another half century, If we can finish them off quickly we can get a small lead to build on.

Day 3: We finish them off quickly and have them all out for 229. We find batting in the conditions tricky again and we finish up 174-8 in a day where we lose 1 and a half hours of play because of rain.

Day 4: We manage to add some runs on today but we lose 4 hours due to rain and finish the day with a lead of 294 mainly due to a great innings from Swann.

Day 5: We lose our last wicket straight away and set them a target of 295 to win. Australia end the first session on 78-2 and all 3 finishs are still possible. They finish off the second session needing 112 to win with just 5 wi. ckets left. We bowl really well though and manage to finish them 66 runs short.


Batting Award: Swann, Two brilliant innings which we need after our batsmen failed us.

Bowling Award: Finn, took key wicket in both innings.

Series State: 2-1 up with 2 games remaining.

[Ash2134]

We stick with the same team as the previous test and Australia stick with the same team.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl first on a good batting pitch with good conditions. We have a good day considering they chose to bat first and have them at 272-9 at the end of it with not one of their batsmen making a half century thanks to some great bowling from Finn and Anderson in particular.

Day 2: We finish them off straight away the next day for 273 and now if we can do well with the bat we will be firmly in the drivers seat. We finish the day on 275-4 with Pietersen making a century and all the other batsmen making starts but not carrying on.

Day 3: We manage to get to 376 and give ourselves a lead of 103 with Pietersen being the mainstay of our innings with a brilliant 177. We then bowl well and manage to do a lot of damage and have them at 176-5 at the end of day but with Clarke at the crease on 56*.

Day 4: We bowl very well and have them all out just over an hour into the second session and we need to chase down 114 to win. Australia's bowling attack come out all guns blazing and we find ourselves 72-5 and struggling more than we should with this low of a total to chase. We get there thanks to some careful batting from Trott and Woakes.


Batting Award: Pietersen, His innings was brilliant and without it the result of this match would have been different.

Bowling Award: Woakes, His bowling was superb in the second innings and without it the chase would have been a lot trickier.

Series State: 3-1 up with 1 match remaining. We retain the Ashes.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the next match as we make a lot changes since we have already won the test and their are a lot of players who have been impressive at county level over the last year or so.

We bring back in Harris who has been impressive so far in his test career and is next in line when one of our bowlers stops performing. Delaney returns after have a mixed start to his career last year. Stokes is brought into the test side after averaging just over 30 with the bat and just over 20 with the ball in the last 2 county seasons. Topley is brought in as he is leading wicket taker in the CC. Tong and Thakor are the two leading run scorers in the CC and Tong averages just under 80 over the last 2 years and Thakor averages 55 this year, they are 22 and 21 respectively. Arkwright returns to the side after being quite impressive last year in the tests he played. Bairstow returns to try and cement his place as our 2nd choice wicket keeper as Buttler has had a good CC year averaging just under 50.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bat first on a decent batting pitch in overcast conditions. We have a decent start with Cook and Root both getting into the 40s before getting out something which has been happening a lot to our batsmen lately. We end the day on 217-3 after a tough day of batting in overcast conditions with Thakor at the crease on 63 after making his maiden half century in his first test.

Day 2: Thakor gets out 17 short of his maiden century but Delaney is able to carry on and make his maiden test century. Bairstow also contributes a half century and we end up all out for 487 with 1 over left in the day. Khawaja blocks out the over from Topley and we head into tomorrow hoping to take some early wickets.

Day 3: Khawaja yet again proved to be our main problem as he batted throughout the day but we didn't let any of their batsmen get in with him and Topley managed to get Khawaja in the second from last over for his maiden test wicket. Stokes was impressive by getting Clarke and Watson early on. They are 324-8 at stumps.

Day 4: Arkwright finishes them off the next morning for 340 and to get a 5a for him. We lose Cook and Taylor both for ducks within the first 2 overs and batting looks like it could be a struggle. We declare at the end of the days play with a lead of 392 thanks to a great century from Root and some quick scoring from Thakor, Bairstow and Tong.

Day 5: The first session starts well for us as topley gets both openers quite quickly and then stokes gets clarke and Warner and they end the first session on 103-4. Things get even better for us in the second session as Arkwright makes the most of a spinning wicket and we have them 8 down at the end of the session. We finish them off fairly easily in the last session for a good victory for us after some strong performances from our young players.

Batting Award: Thakor, he played two good innings on his debut.

Bowling Award: Arkwright, Took 8 wickets across the match and was impressive. We are touring Pakistan next and Arkwright could feature as a 2nd spinner.

Series State: We win 4-1

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batting Award: Root, make a couple of good centuries and had a good series as a whole.

Bowling Award: Woakes, Bowled well all series and had two standout games where he took 7 and 6 wickets in a innings.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have the 2 match T20 series against Australia, here are the teams for the first match:

We make two forced changes as Patel and Morgan are injured for the series so we bring back Bell and we call up Rashid who has been performing well in T20 matches the last 2 years.

First Innings:
We lose the toss and are asked to bat first in overcast conditions which could make batting tough. We start off very badly and find ourselves 45-5 after the first 6 overs and it is looking tough to post a big score from this bad of a start. We continue to struggle with only Buttler being able to really fight back and he posts a vital 48* as we reach 132-7 after our 20 overs.

Second Innings: Finn and Broad put us in with a chance after some good bowling and we have them on 41-4 after the first 6 overs. We continue to bowl well and they need 39 from the last 5 overs with 3 wickets remaining. Woakes come on for his last over and picks up another 2 wickets and they end up needing 16 from the last over which will be bowled by Broad with 1 wicket in hand. Broad gets him out with the 2nd ball and we pick up the win.

Batting Award: Buttler, A valiant effort that wasn't supported by the rest of the team.

Bowling Award: Woakes, He decimated their middle order.

Series State: 1-0 up with 1 match remaining.

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Both teams remain unchanged for the second match too.

First Innings: We win the toss and decide to bat first. We lose root and Hales immediately again but then Pietersen and Tong get going and form a little partnership which ends when we lose Tong in the 10th over for 33 and we are 78-3 after 10 overs. We then lose Pietersen almost straight after. Bell is then able to add some runs at a good strike rate but the rest of our batting collapses around him and we finish up with 139 all out.

Second Innings: Finn is able to pick up a couple of early wickets and we have them on 40-2 after 6 overs but then Khawaja and Warner start forming a dangerous partnership. It was looking like we would lose until we bring on Rashid who destroys the rest of their batting lineup and take 6 wickets allowing us to win our first T20 series against Australia under my management.

Batting Award: Bell, His quickfire 39 was a great knock.

Bowling Award: Rashid, just amazing bowling has certainly put himself into the T20 setup.

Series State: We win 2-0

[Ash2134]

Next up is the 5 match ODI series against the Aussies and we name the same squad as we did against New Zealand. Here are the teams for the first match:

Swann will miss the first ODI due to injury and there is very overcast weather forecast for the day so we decide to bring in Bopara instead of Stokes in what will be his first ODI in over a year.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are asked to bat first. We lose a couple of wickets in the first 10 but are able to get some runs on the board and reach 45-2 at the end of the first powerplay. We struggle but are able to keep the scoreboard ticking and at the 40 over mark we are 177-6 with Bopara and Woakes at the crease. Bopara and Woakes crash some runs before getting out and we end up with 219. Hopefully our bowlers can make the most of the conditions and put us in with a chance of defending our score.

Second Innings: Australia start off steadily and get to 50 off the first 15 overs for the loss of just 1 wicket. Australia end up needing 51 from the last 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand and they have Clarke at the crease on 60 and we need to get him out as quickly as possible. And Finn comes on and does just that with his 2nd ball! Anderson then showcases some outstanding death bowling and we end up winning quite comfortably.

Batting Award: Woakes, Score a really fast 30 at the end which helped boost our score whilst wickets were falling around him.

Bowling Award: Anderson, Amazing bowling at the death.

Series State: 1-0 up with 4 matches remaining.

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They name the same team and we make 1 change by bringing in Swann for Bopara.

First Innings: We win the toss and decide to bat first on a good wicket. Cook starts off strongly but we lose kieswetter quickly and then lose pietersen after he makes 34 and we find ourselves on 89-2 after 20 overs. Cook and Trott then build a good partnership until we lose trott in the 36th over for 61 with Cook on 103. Cook then is able to smash some more runs and we end up with a good total of 286-5.

Second Innings: Finn manages to pick up a couple of early wickets and they are on 54-2 after 10 overs. Then Anderson and Broad take a really smack and they power on. Then Clarke, Maxwell and Hussey all bat well and they look well set to win needing 41 from the last 10 overs. Finn then bowls some good economic death bowling however Anderson in complete contrast to the last match bowls some terrible death bowling and Australia are able to get over the finish mark. Although we lose this was a good match.

Batting Award: Cook, played a really great innings and was unlucky to be on the losing side.

Bowling Award: Finn, bowled a great 10 overs at a good economy rate.

Series State: 1-1 with 3 matches remaining.

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We name the same team and Australia bring in Agar and Khawaja for Henriques and Hughes.

First innings: They win the toss and decide to bat first. We start off well again with Finn picking up 2 early wickets again and they are 36-2 after 10 overs. Clarke then sticks around again but we continue to pick up wickets until Hussey hits the crease and scores well for them again. However we continue to bowl well and keep things tight and they end up with 226-8 a score that we should be able to chase down.

Second Innings: We lose Kieswetter straight away yet again however Cook and Pietersen press on well until we lose pietersen for 40 and after 25 overs we are 121-2. Trott then comes to the crease and continues batting well like the previous matches and he leads us on to the finish line in a superb innings to retake the lead in the series.

Batting Award: |Trott, A solid innings which would have certainly been a century had he enough runs to chase.

Bowling Award: Broad, Bowled well and kept things tight in the middle of the innings.

Series State: 2-1 up with 2 matches remaining.

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Both teams select the same side for the 4th ODI.

First Innings: We win the toss and select to bowl in very overcast conditions. We start off strongly and have them at 27-3 after the first 10 overs with Anderson and Finn sharing the wickets. We continue to bowl very well and restrict them to under 3 an over and get them all out to 140, it would have been less but Voges scored 43 in a gritty innings.

Second Innings: We start off well and after 10 overs we are 44-1 and looking certain to win the series in this match. We continue going well with all of our top 4 chipping in with 30/20s and then we lose a quick flurry of wickets but are able to get over the finish line quite comfortably in the end.

Batting Award: Pietersen, He played the best of the innings and looked the most fluent.

Bowling Award: Finn, took early wickets and kept it very tight.

Series State: 3-1 up with 1 match remaining.

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This last match is a dead rubber and i don't have any players to trial so I wont provide much detail. The teams have remained the same.

First Innings: We bat poorly with only Trott actually carrying on to make a decent total and Buttler provides a fast scoring 29 too but none of our other batsmen were really able to even get out of the teens.

Second Innings: Considering how well we bowled in the last game its unbelievable how badly we bowled in this match they were 143-0 before we finally took a wicket and Warner in particular took apart our bowlers expecially Anderson.

Batting Award: Trott, He's had a good series.

Bowling Award: Finn, Bowled the most economical.

Series State: We win 3-2.