My England story.

[Ash2134]

Both sides name the same team for the 2nd match.

First Innings: Root and pietersen provide us with a solid start and we find ourselves on 72-1 after 10 overs. There start is then supported by some hard hitting from the other batsmen and we end up with a decent total of 154-7.

Second Innings: They start off strongly until we bring on patel and swann who rip through them taking wickets and despite them keeping a high strike rate they just run out of wickets.


Batting Award: Root, a really good innings to give us a good start.

Bowling Award: Patel, bowled very well.

Series State: We win 2-0.

[Ash2134]

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of an update but there is a good reason. Next up was the triangular series with India and Australia and then the World cup in Pakistan and I played through both of these tournaments and took my pictures and wrote my summaries down (as I write them all in word as I play each match). However I had been in America whilst writing this story hence the unusual upload times and on my flight back the external hard drive was damaged which stored all of the pictures etc whilst in my case!! I have been unable to retrieve any of the data on it. This made me really unmotivated to continue with the story for the last week however I have decided that I will carry on as I can at least show the tables of how the cup and series finished up as my save game is at the end of the year in preparation for me to do the yearly summaries. I'm sorry that this is all I have but it is the best I can make out of the situation.

[Ash2134]

We struggled a bit in this series against 2 strong teams. We brought in stokes who made his debut and was quite impressive with the ball. We only just managed to scrape through to the final but once we were in the final we found some form and won the last two games with strong performances.



Here we were very lucky to actually get through to the knockout stages and we only did because we were able to beat the lesser teams by huge margins to give ourselves a good NRR. Then we got a lot stronger throughout the knockout stages and we played better match after match.

[Ash2134]

First up was the tri series with India and Australia. This was a very up and down tournament for us as we did win it but we had some very poor performances in some of the games too.



The world cup was another mixed performance from us as we were lucky to actually get through the group stages however we then performed very well in the knockout stages and managed to finish off another strong year of cricket for England.

[Ash2134]

Test Match Summary for 2014/15

Batsmen of the Year: Cook, He batted well all year with some exceptional centuries including a brilliant 300*. He will remain a key aspect of this side for the years to come.

Bowler of the Year: Anderson, He bowled consistently in every game this year and took key wickets whenever we needed some.

Test Ranking: 2nd on 29 points. Despite winning each series again we haven't managed to knock South Africa off their perch.

[Ash2134]

ODI Summary for 2014/15

Batsmen of the Year: Root, He was superb this year and showed a great temperament with his batting as when needed he can crack some quick runs but can also play the holding innings when required to.

Bowler Of the Year: Woakes, He has been brilliant at taking wickets and slowing down a fast progressing opposition. He also bowled some great death bowling.

ODI Ranking: 1st with 32 points.

[Ash2134]

T20 Summary for 2014/15

Batsmen of the Year: Pietersen, Batted well in the games we had at a good strike rate.

Bowler of the Year: Finn, Took wickets and had a great economy rate of just over 6 an over.

T20 Ranking: 3rd place with 19 points. We haven't moved but have managed to pick up an extra 2 points.

[Ash2134]

To start off the next year we have a 2 match test series against New Zealand, He are the teams for the first match:

Cook is injured so we push Bell up to opener and use woakes at number 6 and go with 5 bowling options.

Day 1: We win the toss and decide to bat on a slightly overcast day but with the forecast predicting this for all 5 days. We have a dodgy start by losing bell and root early on but Pietersen looks in good nick and races to a century off just 117 balls. We end the day on 337-5 with trott making a century before falling just before the end of the day and then woakes following quickly after.

Day 2: Ballance then becomes our 3rd centurion early on and we end up on 498 with prior getting to 67 before running out of partners. We then fail to make any real inroads before the end of the day and they end up on 167-1 with rutherford not out on 97.

Day 3: We manage to get them all out for 339 with finn picking up 5 wickets. We now have just under 1 session left to bat in the day. We struggle though and end up getting to 86-4 at the end of the day with all of our top 4 out.

Day 4: We end up all out for 182 mainly thanks to a good 70 from Ballance. We set them a target of 342 which we should be able to defend. They end the day on 181-2 after some poor bowling and we are in danger of possibly losing this match.

Day 5: We have a struggle throughout the day and they find themselves needing 88 to win with 4 wickets remaining but we picked up the wicket of rutherford for just over 100. We manage to bowl well and finish them off. Swann and anderson really disappointed in this test after being so reliable in the last 2 years.

Batting Award: Ballance, Both innings were brilliant and the one in the second innings was vital.

Bowling Award: Woakes, Bowled well in both innings and took vital wickets in the 2nd innings.

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

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the second match:

We make 1 change by bringing in Compton for Swann. Compton was one of the leading run scorers last year and averaged over 50 and earns his place in a team of mine for the first time.They Bring in Watling for Guptill.

Day 1: We win the toss and decide to bat on a good pitch with slightly overcast conditions. We have a nightmare start and at the end of the second session we are 181-6 with Pietersen contributing 81 of those runs before being dismissed. We ended the day on 238-7 after losing the last 45 minutes to bad light.

Day 2: We end up with 317 all out just into the second session thanks to a unbeaten century from prior and a solid 44 from Harris. They end the day on 210-5 with honours about even.

Day 3: We manage to finish them off for 312 with all the bowlers sharing the wickets. We finish the day on 189-3 with Ballance and Root not out on 72 and 73 respectively.

Day 4: Root and Ballance carry on going strongly until we lose Root just after he makes his century. We declare at the beginning with Ballance making 179 and us setting them a target of 383 to win. We start off brilliantly and have them 64-4 at the end of the day with each bowler picking up 1 wicket, We should win comfortably from here.

Day 5: We finish them off a lot easier this match than the last one.

Batting Award: Ballance, He played a great innings of 179.

Bowling Award: Woakes, Bowled well in both innings and took key wickets in both.

Series State: We win 2-0.

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batting Award: Ballance, Performed in 3 out of 4 of his innings.

Bowling Award: Woakes, Bowled well and was the leading wicket taker.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have a 3 match ODI series against New Zealand and here is the squad that has been selected:

We bring in Stokes who played in the last world cup and tri series and leave out taylor/morgan and have woakes there as his batting has been very impressive in recent ODI's and tests. Cook returns to the side after recovering from his injury.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the first match:


First Innings: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl first on a cracker of a batting pitch. They start strongly and are 46-0 after 10 overs with Rutherford causing us problems again. Swann them came on and slowed them down whilst picking up wickets too and broad managed to pick off rutherford before he reached 50. They head into the last 10 overs on 184-4 with Ryder there on 75* and we need to get him out quickly as he is looking to push on. We managed to pick up Ryder straight away and they finished off with 235-9 which shouldn't be too hard to chase on this pitch.

Second Innings: Things don't start well as we lose root and cook straight away. Things just get worst from there and after 10 overs we are 46-5 with Woakes and Buttler at the crease. We go down with very little fight, this was an embarrassing performance with the bat.

Batting Award: Buttler, best of a bad bunch.

Bowling Award: Swann, Bowled a top notch spell of economic bowling.

Series State: 1-0 down with 2 matches remaining.

[Ash2134]

Here are the teams for the second match:

We bring back in Kieswetter for Bell who's not been in good form this year. We also push him to the top of the order and hopefully he can do some early power hitting.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are put into bat this time on another good batting pitch. We get a good start and find ourselves 50-0 after the first 10. We lose them shortly after but things go well for us and we head into the last 10 overs on 244-2 with Pietersen and Trott on 82 and 65 not out respectively. We manage to finish up on 312-4 a great batting performance compared to our last one.

Second Innings: New Zealand start off scoring quickly but we pick up the wickets of their top 3 and they find themselves 50-3 after 8 overs. They carried on blasting away but we kept picking up wickets and had them all out for below 200.

Batting Award: Pietersen, played a great innings at a strike rate of over 100.

Bowling Award: Anderson, picked up 3 key wickets at the start of their innings.

Series State: 1-1 with 1 match remaining.

[Ash2134]

Both teams stick with the same teams for the deciding match.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are put into bat in overcast conditions which are predicted for the whole day. We have an okay start but struggle to score quickly and are 33-0 after 10 overs. We then push through the overs scoring runs but losing wickets along the way. We reach 35 overs in and take our powerplay but we lose the only batsmen to stay there for us as cook goes for 81. We manage to reach 243-8 with some decent hitting from broad at the end.

Second Innings: We start off really well with Anderson doing what he does best in overcast conditions and we have them at 54-4 after 15 overs. We then continue to take wickets with Swann picking up a couple and then Anderson and Finn return to finish off the match with them just under 100 short of our total.

Batting Award: Cook, Only batsmen to move on from his start.

Bowling Award: Anderson, Tore them apart at the start again.

Series State: We win 2-1

[Ash2134]

Series Summary


Batting Award: Cook, He played 3 decent innings, its not easy to decide after just 3 ODI games but he scored a 80 a 40 and a 30.

Bowling Award: Anderson, Took wickets at an amazing average.