My England story.

[Ash2134]

Teams for the 1st game:


We go with two spinners as throughout the year Tredwell and Swann have bowled well for us in the limited over formats.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl first and the forecast for the day has overcast weather for the entire day so this could be a low scoring match. We get watson early on and they manage to end the first 10 on 44-1. They end up getting 258-7 due to a large partnership between clarke and warner. Broad and anderson bowled superbly at the death and were able to keep the scoring below 6 a over for the last 10.

Second Innings: We go out with a attacking approach by opening with kieswetter and root with the hope kieswetter can smash some quick runs. We end the first 10 overs on 72-2 with kieswetter hitting 49 including 6 sixes before getting out. We then fell apart with none of our batsmen being able to make more than 40 and noone sticking around to hold together the innings and then we were all out for 216. This was a really dissapointing result after the start we had.


Batting Award: Kieswetter, smashed their bowlers around at the start of the innings.

Bowling Award: Broad, he bowled brilliantly at the start and at the death.

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

[Ash2134]

Teams are the same for the second game as the two spinners did well.

First Innings:We win the toss and elect to bat in good conditions. We make a pretty good total of 275-7 with pietersen and kieswetter being our main source of runs and then the lower order chipped in with some fast runs with broad hitting 32 from 12.

Second Innings: We bowl well and are able to get australia all out for 216 with watson scoring 97 for them but noone else in their team supporting him mainly due to broad bowling brilliantly and taking 6 wickets and swann taking 3 key wickets in the middle order of batsmen who looked quite threatening.


Batting Award: Pietersen, His innings was just a bit better than kieswetter.

Bowling Award: Broad, He bowled amazing.

Series State: 1-1 with 3 games remaining.

[Ash2134]

Teams remain the same for 3rd game as well except hughes comes in for bailey for australia.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl in good conditions for batting, we start off quite well by taking two early wickets but a couple of 50's and 40's from their batsmen in the middle order get them a reasonable total of 243-8. They could have made a higher total but swann bowled a great 10 over spell of 4-36 which really slowed them down.

Second Innings: We lose Kieswetter early on but cook and root settle in and leave us at 51-1 off the first 10 overs but then we lost root shortly after but cook played a good innings of 82 before getting out and then our middle order and lower order were able to knock off the runs with just over a over spare.


Batting Award: Cook, our best batsmen by far

Bowling Award: Swann, He bowled another brilliant spell in the middle of the game.

Series State: 2-1 up with 3 games remaining.

[Ash2134]

The teams remain the same for the 4th game.

First Innings: We go well for the first ten overs and are 48-2 with just Kieswetter and root out but cook and pietersen going strongly. Cook manages to make 61 before getting out and pietersen goes on to make a century and with some hard hitting from broad and bopara we manage to post a respectable total of 269-7.

Second Innings: We bowl shockingly though and they chase down the total easily in 43 overs with warner and watson making high scores with good strike rates.

Batting Award: Pietersen, another great innings from him.

Bowling Award: Broad, only one who got wickets.

Series State: 2-2, with one game remaining.

[Ash2134]

We stick with the same team and australia make one change by bringing starc in for johnson.

First Innings: We win the toss and decide to bat first and try to set a big target. We end the first 10 overs on 51-1 with root out cheaply but then we lose cook a couple overs later. Kieswetter goes on to make a good 50 but then gets out and pietersen is also going well to. Pietersen goes on to make 78 but no one else in the team is able to score any runs and we end up all out for 224, We are going to need a good bowling performance to be able to win this game and the series.

Second Innings: We bowl superbly though and have them 38-3 at the end of the first 10 overs but watson is there and looks like he may continue to form from the previous game. We continue to bowl well and all our bowlers take wickets and we manage to get them all out 14 runs of our total. This was a great performance from our bowling unit.


Batting Award: Pietersen, yet again is our best batsman. What a summer he is having lets hope he can continue this form into the tour of australia.

Bowling Award: Tredwell, He bowled really economically and took a few wickets to.

Series State: England win 3-2, this has been a really enjoyable series.

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batting:
Pietersen 305 @ 76.25
Cook 248 @ 49.60
Kieswetter 196 @ 39.20

Bowling:
Broad 11 @ 24.47
Swann 9 @ 23.00
Anderson 9 @ 30.56

Batting Award: Pietersen, He had a great series.

Bowling Award: Broad, His bowling was good but he went at poor economy rates in a few of the games.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have the ashes in australia and here is the squad i have selected to take:

We take some young players like harris, ballance, Taylor, woakes and hales who had a brilliant first class season and could make his test debut. Tredwell is included as cover for swann after impressing me in the limited over formats this year.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the first test:

We have used the same team as we did for the first test of the last Ashes series, which is the team i feel is our strongest current team although prior has been in bad nick this year and bairstow has averaged 70+ in this last first class season and could replace him if his form doesn't improve.

Day 1: We win the toss and elect to bat on a good pitch which does offer something for the bowlers though. The conditions are forecast to be sunny for all 5 days. They get cook out for 42 and root manages to get 82 before getting out after he was dropped on just 15. Pietersen has continued his great form and ends the day on 119*. We finish the day on 294-2 and will look to push on to a score of at least 500+ after such a good start.

Day 2: Trott manages to get a 50 as well before getting out and then bell and ballance both get out for single digit scores. Pietersen is lost then for 183 and broad follows him for a duck in the same over. Then swann and anderson get out for ducks aswell and prior gets caught on the boundary trying to hit some quick runs and we end up all out for 435, which is a good score as the pitch is deteriorating quite quickly. Australia end the day 119-5 after some great bowling with anderson getting both openers out cheaply and finn taking the key wicket of clarke for just 13 and we are in a very good position to win this game!

Day 3: Australia end up all out for just 200 with khawaja being the only batsmen who made a score, finn was brilliant and took a 5 for. We decide to enforce the follow on with them still 235 from here. Things start very good with finn getting watson and then getting clarke for a first ball duck!! Broad then came on and took 3 very quick wickets and we had them 64-6, with the win looking a certainty from here! Australia end the day on 136-6 with cowan on 47 and pattinson on 30.

Day 4: We manage to bowl them out in the second session for 210 and win by an innings and 25 runs with broad taking 5 wickets in this innings.


Batting Award: Pietersen, another great innings. Australia just haven't had an answer to him this year.

Bowling Award: Finn, although he and broad got a 5 for, Finn took more key wickets.

Series State: 1-0 up with 4 games remaining. Winning the toss really helped us win this match as the pitch deteriorated really quickly and made bowling at them a lot easier than it was for them to bowl at us.

[Ash2134]

Teams for the next game:
Both teams are unchanged for this game.

Day 1: We win the toss on a pitch identical to the one from the last game and with pretty good conditions forecast for the 5 days. We lose root, pietersen and trott all in the first session but cook goes onto to make 72 and was looking like he was going to make a huge score until he was forced to retire hurt! Bell makes 57 and gets out but then ballance follows him for just 17. We end the day on 303-7 with prior making 72 and broad making 41 which saved us from possibly getting out for below 300.

Day 2: We end up 347 all out after swann made a brilliant 44 to boost our score. They end the day on 243-7 all thanks to some great bowling by anderson who has 5 wickets already!

Day 3: There tail wags and they end up on 312 all out and we have a small lead. We end the day on 199-2 with trott on 62 and bell on 87.

Day 4: Bell goes on to make 109 which is his first test century of the year but trott gets out in the 70s. We declare at tea on 371-5 with a lead of 405 and hopefully we take some wickets in the last session. They end the day on 77-3 with one of the wickets being clarke.

Day 5: Australia end up all out for 243 with swann taking 4 wickets and anderson taking 3. Cowan was also forced to retire hurt, i'm seeing a lot of people retiring hurt considering its normally a very rare thing to see in cricket.


Batting Award: Bell, he made a 50 and a good century.

Bowling Award: Anderson, He bowled brilliantly especially in the first innings.

Series State: 2-0 up with 3 games remaining.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the next game:

We decide to give hales a test debut as cook is out injured for 3 weeks and they bring in smith and star in for the injured cowan and hilfenhaus.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl on what is a perfect batting wicket which offers a little bit of spin but nothing for the seamers. They end the day on 286-7 with swann taking a incredible 6 wickets in the best spell hes bowled under me so far.

Day 2: We get them all out for 358 with starc making a fustrating 82, Swann ends up with 8 wickets! We lose hales early for just 9, a dissapointing start to his test career. We end the day 247-2 with pietersen not out on 110 and root making 68 before getting out.

Day 3: We have a mini collapse and find ourselves on 301-6, with prior and broad at the crease. We end up 407 all out with broad on 51* and a lead of 49 leaving the test more or less at evens. They end the day on 132-2 with watson on 79* and looking good, he hasn't gave us a single chance yet. Anderson and broad pick up a wicket each.

Day 4: Australia bat very well this innings and end up with 408-8 with watson making 169 and khawaja making 96, swann takes 2-128 a drastic change from his figures from the first innings. They set us a target of 360 to win, we will start off batting aggressive to try and reach the target and win the series in the first 3 games.

Day 5: We end up on 268-7 after losing prior and broad in the last over of the session and all 3 results are still possible at the moment with us needing 92 to win. We end up needing 16 from the last 2 overs with ballance at the crease on 105* ( his maiden test century) and anderson on 2 from 27 holding up the other end. We end up on 346-8 and draw the match, we put in a good effort to try and win with ballance playing a great innings.


Batting Award: Ballance. Although pietersen played two good innings, Ballance's saved us from losing and nearly won us the game.

Bowling Award: Swann, Took 10 wickets in the match and nearly single handedly bowled them all out in the first innings.

Series State:We retain the ashes and are 2-0 up with 2 games remaining.

[Ash2134]

Heres the teams for the 4th test:

We bring in Harris for Finn to give harris another chance after he got injured in his first game. He took 68 first class wickets this year at an average of 22.38. Australia make one change by bringing in Coulter-Nile for Starc, its also his test debut.

Day 1: We win the toss and decide to bat on what looks to be a great batting pitch and with sunny conditions forecast for the day. We end the day on 291-4 with pietersen making another great century before getting out in the second from last over. Hales made his maiden test 50 and root also got a 50.

Day 2: We really fall apart and end up all out for 339, this was a shocking collapse which has been happening a little too often. On this pitch and with the start we had we should have been looking at a score of at least 400+. Australia end up on 255-5 with smith and warner going well, harris picked up a couple of wickets and bowled pretty well and then anderson, broad and swann take 1 each.

Day 3: Australia end up on 356 with a small lead, harris and swann pick up 3 wickets each. We have a really good batting day though and end up on 190-1 with root on 90* and pietersen on 76* and now will hope to carry on like this tomorrow and gain a big lead.

Day 4: We declare at tea on 407-5 with a lead of 390. Root and pietersen went on to make 165 and 161 respectively. They end the day on 62-3 with anderson getting watson and then swann getting rogers and clarke. This leaves them needing 323 to win and with all 3 results possible, day 5 looks like it will be very interesting.

Day 5: We end up bowling them out for just 116 with swann bowling amazing again and ripping through there team and taking 8 wickets in a innings for the second game in a row.


Batting Award: Pietersen, yet again our best batsmen.

Bowling Award: Swann, 11 wickets what more can i say.

Series State: 3-0 up with 1 game remaining.

[Ash2134]

Teams for the last test:

We make a few changes as we have already won the series, hales is out and bell moves up to open and taylor comes in. Ballance is out and Bairstow is in and harris comes out and tredwell comes in as we give him another chance at playing for the test side although i'm unsure hes upto it. They bring in starc for coulter-nile.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl on a pitch that is great for batting but offers a bit for the spinners and in conditions that are very sunny, this could be hard work for my bowlers. We start well and have them 44-4 off the first 16 overs due to some great bowling from anderson who took 3 wickets. We get them all out for 209 with swann taking 4 wickets and tredwell taking the other 2. We end the day on 84-0 and things are looking good for us.

Day 2: We end the day on 425-5 and had a great day with pietersen making 155 and taylor making 73 and is really pushing for a place in the test side on a more regular basis. We are now looking to push on to a really high score tomorrow and then win the game in the last couple of days.

Day 3: We end up with 574 all out with bairstow, prior and broad all making 50's. Giving us a lead of 365. They end the day on 171-5 with swann taking 4 wickets and anderson getting the other one. Swann has really bowled amazing in the last 3 tests and we look certain to win this test and the series 4-0.

Day 4: We manage to get them all out for 266 with swann picking up 6 wickets and his 3rd 10 wicket game in a row.


Batting Award: Pietersen, playing out of his skin this year.

Bowling Award: Swann, another 10 wicket game.

series State: We win the series 4-0 and retain the ashes.

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batting:
Pietersen 855 @ 106.87
Root 488 @ 61.00
Bell 303 @ 43.29

Bowling:
Swann 40 @ 22.32
Anderson 22 @ 27.55
Broad 15 @ 35.53

Batting Award: Pietersen, he had an unreal series where he averaged over 100.

Bowling Award: Swann, took 3 10 wicket hauls in a row, that has to be some kind of record?

[Ash2134]

Now after a successful test series we move on to a 5 game ODI series and are looking to beat them here just like back in england. Heres the squad we name for the series:


Bairstow comes in to the squad in the place of morgan who has been really dissapointing this year and bairstow had a great county year.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the first game:

We leave tredwell out this time and bring finn back into the ODI setup and Bell returns to the side in the place of morgan from the previous ODI series. I also switch up the batting order and move cook down to number 5. They also field a very different team to the series in england with hussey, white and henriques. They also give a debut to Nevill.

First Innings: We win the toss and are 45-1 after 10 overs with just root out. Kieswetter blasts a 50 and is then out caught on the boundary, with pietersen at the crease on 33*. Trott and pietersen have a good partnership until pietersen gets out in the 60's and then cook comes in and joins trott at the crease and blasts a quick 51 with trott pushing on to end up unbeaten with a century and we end up with a final score of 277-3 which we should be able to defend.

Second Innings: Australia set off to a blistering start and are 68-0 after the first ten however we make a recovery and get them to 111-3 after 22 overs. Then a combination of good bowling from bopara, swann and finn are able to finish off australia for 200 all out.


Batting Award: Trott, played a good innings and pushed on well at the end.

Bowling Award: Bopara, he turned the game around with a great spell of bowling.

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