How Are You Doing in ICC 2009?

[6ry4nj]

Playing as England, I lost only two matches in the T20 World Cup - both to Australia and unfortunately one being the Final.

I have one save as each of the county sides, which is why I haven't got very far chronologically. Nine of them are paired with the nine countries.

My best '09 Challenge Trophy performance so far is as Sussex where I've got to the quarters (haven't played it yet). My Somerset haven't finished their group games yet but they're 5 wins & no losses. My worst team Glamorgan is 0 & 4, but they've been mostly played by the vice-captain because it's a Glamorgan-West Indies save and the tests are on.

In the County Championship, my Worcestershire have 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss and lead their division. I have three other saves (Northants, Middlesex and Gloucestershire) who are also leading their respective divisions. My worst are Derbyshire and Durham who are last in their tables. Derbyshire have no excuse, but Durham are paired up with England so I have not been able to captain them much.

I also have one save on Easy, as Essex, although I can't say I've found it particularly easy at all. Still, they are leading their division and in the Challenge Trophy semis, so they are performing best of all my county save sides.

Only three of my saves (including the easy one) have played domestic T20s yet. Essex on Easy are last in the group on 1&2. Essex on Normal are 4th on 2 wins/2 losses. The only one of the three with a positive net run rate is Worcestershire, who are also in 4th with 3 wins/4 losses.

[6ry4nj]

One down, just 17 to go!

It's taken me nearly a year, but I've finally completed a season in one of my domestic saves. The lucky county is Worcestershire. We even managed to walk off with the Pro League. We came second in the County Championship, got as far as the quarters of the 50-over comp whatever it was called, and got nowhere in the T20s.

We had no outstanding players, and even though I've accepted back the England job that I resigned during the year cos my county was going to the dogs, I don't think any of my squad will play for their country any time soon. (Correction – not for England anyway. I think Kervezee’s a regular in the Dutch side. Nor am I the man to ask re Mr. Noffke’s chances of a callup, although I will say he had an underwhelming season)

Still, I suppose I better have a little awards ceremony for my best and brightest.
Stephen Moore was the star with the bat, with the following stats:
FC: 32 inns, 1no, 1291 at 41.64, 4 hundreds, 6 fifties, HS 139
T20: 10 inns, 2no, 306 at 38.25, 2 fifties, HS 76no.
OD: 13 inns, 351 at 27.00, 2 fifties, HS 69

Two others deserve mentions having achieved 1000 first-class runs in the season. They are:
Steve Davies: 26 inns, 1no, 1011 at 40.44, 2 hundreds, 9 fifties, HS 142
Ben Smith: 28 inns, 3no, 1001 at 40.04, 8 fifties, HS 98

Steve Davies was also the top-scorer in the one-dayers (40 and 50 over combined) with:
17 inns, 2no, 677 at 45.13, 2 hundreds, 3 fifties, HS 106no.

One last batsman who deserves an honourable mention is Daryl Mitchell, who had our season high individual score of 162 not out.

In the bowling stakes it was Kabir Ali by several lengths. His figures:
FC: 14 matches, 558 overs, 74 wickets at 28.70, 2 5fers, best bowl 6-54
This was also our season's best innings bowling performance.
OD: 17 matches, 141 ovrs, 33 wkts at 19.18, 1 5fer: b/bowl 5-24, 4.48 rpo
His 5 for 24 was also a career best for him. Nice one son!
But with only 11 wickets at 20.18 in T20 (6.97rpo, b/bl 5-13 - 1 5fer), he was pipped by Imran Arif who had:
9 matches, 31 overs, 13 at 16.31, best bowl 4-24, 6.77rpo

One last bowler to mention is Simon Jones, who took out the best match bowling figures and our only 10 wicket match of the year with his 10-152 against Notts. It is with a certain regret that we celebrate this achievement, as we have parted ways with the young man in question, and he appears to have prematurely retired at age 30.

If you've got a favourite player in the Worcestershire '09 lineup and want to know how he did, drop me a line. I'll be back soon with my silly-season England squad for the South Africa tour.

[6ry4nj]

November 2009: England Squad for South Africa

So I've accepted the England job back, and am confronted with this selection task. Frankly I didn't know what kind of tour it was when I selected the team. Plus every conceivable England batsman I looked at seemed to be out of form.

Anyway I suppose I ought to tell you who I picked. You'd probably prefer me to start with how I picked them, but I'm afraid I don't remember much about that...

Captains: Andrew Flintoff (Tests), Paul Collingwood (ODIs), Kevin Pietersen (T20s)

(I know there's at least one T20I, I'm assuming there's going to be Tests and ODIs as well. Planning ahead is overrated...)

Openers: Andrew Strauss, Paul Horton, Alastair Cook, Scott Newman

Other specialist batsmen: Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara

Pace All-rounders: see above under 'Captains'...

Spin All-rounders: Samit Patel, Murtaza Hussain

Bowlers: Ryan Sidebottom, Alex Wharf, Stuart Broad

Keeper: Geraint Jones

I dare say the omissions are more shocking than any of the actual inclusions. Although who have I left out? Anderson for one. Swann? Prior and Ambrose? I suppose Anderson, Swann, Prior and Onions are the shock omissions, at least they are judging by the rankings in my game. Still, Anderson, Swann and Prior are out of form, and I always thought Onions a somewhat arbitrary selection to begin with.

Now for the shock inclusions. Who surprises you the most? I suppose Scott Newman. Everyone's terribly out of form you see. Even among the players I've selected, Strauss is a long way off his game, and the only batsmen on above-average form are Freddy, Patel, Trott and Bopara. Hence the high proportion of all-rounders.

Paul Collingwood has been our highest Test scorer this year (with 678 at 56.5), followed by Bopara, Prior, Pietersen, Strauss, Cook, Flintoff and Swann.
In ODIs it's been: Pietersen, Flintoff, Prior, Strauss, Bopara, Swann and Cook.
The batting stars of the T20 internationals were Steve Davies and Anthony McGrath, followed by Horton, Pietersen and Trott.

So, as I said, I've no idea why I didn't pick Prior. Hope I don't come to regret it any more than I already am.

The bulk of England's Test wickets this year have come from Anderson and Swann (oops...), followed by Flintoff, Onions (gulp!) and Sidebottom.

In ODIs it's been Flintoff, Bresnan, Broad and Woakes. I still think Bresnan and Woakes would have been difficult to pick, especially on current overall form.

Finally to T20I bowling, where it has been Dimitri Mascarenhas sharing the wickets with Anderson, Flintoff and Swann. And he's totally out of form too!

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I never really wanted this job anyway! I'm already looking forward to next season at New Road!

In the next instalment, I'll tell you who I picked for the first T20 international.

If you're good, I might even tell you why!...

[6ry4nj]

Nov 2009: South Africa Tour - Team for 1st T20

My team for the first T20 in South Africa is:
P Horton
A Strauss
G Jones
J Trott
R Bopara
S Patel
K Pietersen
P Collingwood
A Flintoff
R Sidebottom
S Broad

Reasons: I have 6 relatively in-form bowlers: I've picked 4 of them in Patel, Collingwood, Sidebottom and Broad. I'm confident that Flintoff, Pietersen, Trott and Bopara can handle the remaining overs between them. I didn't pick my other two in-form bowlers (Wharf and Hussain) because I wanted to limit myself to one international T20 debutant (ie. Patel).

In batting it's simpler: Newman and Cook missed out due to having the weakest T20 records.

You can imagine how hard it is to pick a 15-man squad suitable for all forms of the game. Perhaps I get another shot at selection later in the tour, but I doubt it.

Why are Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff so far down the order, I hear you ask. Well it's basically because I've only two specialist bowlers, so I'm necessarily going to have someone who can bat - at 9. It could have been Jones or Patel, but it's Freddie.

The two other reasons are mutually contradictory:
1. I'm hoping not to need them.
2. They're there to bolster the bottom of the order.

[6ry4nj]

For the first time in my life, I've managed to get a save 'up to date' vis-a-vis real life. In my Essex save I'm about to play our match on July 27, 2011. It happens to be quite an important one, the quarter-final of the T20 comp, in which we are away to Surrey. We've had a considerable slice of luck in that we've just beaten Surrey in the County Championship, so we're feeling nice and smug and su-perior like . My team for the match will be:

Mark Pettini, Stephen Moore, Mal Loye (vc), Jamie Foster (wk), Matt Walker, Freddie Klokker, Graham Napier (c), Paul Welch, Maurice Chambers, Dave Masters, Paul Harris.

I got Stephen Moore, Mal Loye and Paul Harris (the South African slow-left-armer) this year. I picked up Frederik (Freddie) Klokker (Danish keeper/batsman) at the start of the game. Paul Welch is a right-arm medium-fast bowler who I got as a mid-year regen in '09.

The pundits tell me I've got little chance with this lineup. They're probably right. We'll see...