My England story.

[Ash2134]

We made a decent attempt at winning the tournament, i feel like we need to improve on the consistenty of our batting lineup as we werent able to score enough higher scores.

South Africa won the tournament beating sri lanka in the final by 108 runs.

Tournament Summary

Batsmen
Root 245 @ 81.67
Bopara 122 @ 61.00
Cook 114 @ 38.00

Bowling
Broad 11 @ 17.36
Tredwell 5 @ 24.40
Finn 4 @ 20.75

Batting Award: Root, he was our best batsmen by far.

Bowling Award: Broad, took the most wickets and took a lot of key wickets.

[Ash2134]

Next up we have a 2 game t20 series against new zealand, and heres the squad thats been selected for them:


Pietersen has returned from injury and has been immediately placed into the t20 team and swann has been placed into the team now he has returned from injury aswell

[Ash2134]

We make a few changes from the teams used in the ODI's. Hopefully this lineup will be able to score fast enough to put up a solid score.


First Innings:
We win the toss and decide to bat with the intention of putting on a big score. We end up making 171-6 which is mainly due to two superb innings from root and pietersen who both score at strike rates of over 150. The rest of the team failed to really add any runs though once root and pietersen were out because if they did we could have pushed 200.

Second Innings:
New Zealand were scoring at the required rate however they lost a couple of wickets early on and then swann came on and bowled a superb 4 over spell in which he took four wickets. It then left the kiwis needing 18 from 12 with 1 over from anderson and 1 over from finn left. Anderson bowled a great over taking a wicket and just conceding 3 runs. leaving them needing 13 from the last over and with 2 wickets in hand. They then hit 7 from the first 5 leaving them needing 6 from the last ball but then finn came in and got him out for the last ball! and we win by 5 runs!


Batting Award:Pietersen, What a great return from injury he played a great innings.

Bowling Award: Swann, He bowled greatly and pretty much put us in a winning position.

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

[Ash2134]

The teams remain the same for the next game.

First Innings:
New Zealand win the toss and select to bat first and they start off quite strongly and continue going at a decent rate however anderson comes on and really slows them down from a couple of overs and then manages to do the same at the end. They end up on 174-8 mainly due to a outstanding performance from rutherford which lasted nearly the entire innnings.

Second Innings:
We lose kieswetter and pietersen immediately which made things not look good from the start but then root and trott start destroying the bowling from new zealand and put us in a good position to win before both getting out in successive overs but they had already done most of the hard work and we are able to win with a over spare.



Batting Award: Root, this could have gone to either him or trott but root just edged it due to his superior strike rate of nearly 200.

Bowling Award: Anderson, had a superb economy rate and took some key wickets.

Series State: 2-0 win to England.

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batting:
Root 127 @ 63.50
Pietersen 82 @ 41.50
Trott 77 @ 38.50

Bowling:
Swann 6 @ 11.83
Anderson 4 @ 17.00
Finn 4 @ 16.85

[Ash2134]

Next up we have the first of two ashes series, Here's my squad for the test against Australia:
Root, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Ballance, Bopara, Prior, Broad, Finn, Anderson, Swann.

Teams for the first test:


We decide to play Ballance over bopara as Ballance has been in better form that bopara recently.
Day 1: We won the toss and elected to bowl and things were going very well and we had them 6 down and that was when haddin and starc were brought to the crease who put on a big partnership and ended up on 111* and 49*. which put them on 311-6 at the end of play. We really need to get these pair out early next day.

Day 2: This day was really affected by rain as we lost 4 and a half hours of play but the day ended on 379-9, we didn't manage to get haddin out until the last over of the day and he did some damage throughout the day.

Day 3:We manage to take the last wicket very early on and have them all out for 381. We then go onto a strong day and end it with both root and trott not out on a century leaving us on 292-2 and giving us the chance to try and push on to a big total to try and get a chance to bowl the aussies out on the last day.

Day 4: We lose Root early on for 131 putting us on 301-3 and then we lose trott for 111 a few overs later with us just under 50 behind. We end up on 430 all out with our last 6 wickets going for just under 100 runs with ballance and prior getting starts but failing to carry on. They go quite strongly with clarke making 87 from 95 after we dropped him on 6 and they end the day on 220-3, with this game have draw written all over it.

Day 5:Warner managed to blast 85 and they declared with a lead of 277 and us having 1 and a half sessions to try and chase it down. Our bowling was quite poor but swann and finn managed to pick up 3 a piece. We decide to have a go and try and chase it down! We do brilliantly and go into the last session on 138-1 with cook and pietersen both going strongly and putting us in a good position to get a unlikely win. And we manage to chase it down with a outstanding innings from pietersen.

Batting Award: Pietersen, he hit 130 from 94 in a match winning innings.

Bowling Award: Swann, Just because he took the most wickets across the two innings and got clarke in both innings.

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

[Ash2134]

Moving on to the second game we choose the same squad for the second game.

Teams for the second test:

They make one change by bringing hughes in for cowan

Day 1: We win the toss and elect to bat first on what looks like a great batting pitch and the forecast for all five days is good. We end the day on 288-2 with cook and root batting brilliantly with them scoring 128 and 81 before each of them getting out before the end of the day. Now we have a great start and will be looking to push on and bat australia out of the game tomorrow.

Day 2: We have a strong 2nd day aswell and end up on 589-8 and declare at the end of the day with trott making 171 and broad scoring a very fast half century not out in the last session. We have a solid base now to go out and attack australia with the ball.

Day 3: We bowl well and are able to get them all out for 268 but the only negative was that clarke managed to make a century against us and we are really struggling to get him out cheaply so far in this series. Swann bowled brilliantly and picked up 4 wickets and Finn took a couple of early wickets which gave us a good start to the day. We enforce the follow on with 40 minutes left in the day and a lead of 321 and the win looks certain from here. Australia end the day 38-1 with finn picking up watson.

Day 4: And we manage to win the test today by an innings and 14 runs, Australia put up a little bit of fight but it was mainly due to clarke who managed to score 149 before finn dismissed him with a great ball but really need to find a way to stop clarke from scoring so many runs. Our bowlers share the wickets with 3 for finn and broad and 2 for swann and anderson.



Batting Award: Trott, He played a great innings and scored at a good rate to.

Bowling Award: Finn, He took almost all of the key wickets throughout the two innings and was really impressive in this match.

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

[Ash2134]

For the 3rd test i once again announce the same squad but i decide to make one change to my team by dropping the out of form bell and bringing in bopara which also gives me a extra bowling option to. They bring cowan back in for hughes.

Teams for the test:


Day 1: We win the toss and select to bowl in very overcast conditions which have been forecast for the entire first 2 days. The first session goes quite well for us as we get them 97-3 including the wicket of clarke in the last over of the session! We get them 342-8 at the end of the day and we could have had them for much cheaper if it wasn't for warner who managed to get a century and we couldnt get him out until the last over of the day.

Day 2: We manage to rap up their innings quite quickly in the morning and get them all out for 372 with finn picking up the last two wickets in successive balls to leave him on a hat-trick for the next innings. Bopara picked up 3 wickets aswel and bowled quite impressively in conditions suiting his bowling style. We end the day on 261-6 with root making 109, we lost our middle order very quickly leaving us in a worst position than we should have been in as we were 180-2.

Day 3: We end up only getting to 312 all out as we lost bopara on the first ball of the day but swann and broad were able to smash us some runs though and we end up 60 behind and now need to try and bowl australia out as cheaply as possible. Anderson picks up both openers cheaply but then clarke gets stuck in yet again and makes another century before finn gets him out on 102. Australia end the day on 252-7 with a lead of 312.

Day 4: We manage to get them all out for 305 with broad and anderson finishing off the innings with the new ball. We know need 366 to win. We do well for the day despite losing root early on and end the day with pietersen 96* and are in position to win the game and the series.

Day 5: Pietersen pushes on early but is out for 140 and we also lose a couple other wickets but trott holds up his end and bats brilliantly and leads us to victory!


Batting Award: Pietersen, He made a brilliant 140 and pushed us into a great position to win the match.

Bowling Award: Finn, although all my bowlers took wickets finn just about edged the others to get this award.

Series State 3-0 up with 2 games to play. England win the series.

[Ash2134]

Now going onto the 4th match as we have already won the series i'm going to bring in some of the younger players and give them a chance to show me what they've got.
So my squad for this game is : Root, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Taylor, Bairstow, Prior, Woakes, Finn, Anderson, Briggs, Harris.
So taylor and bairstow could play their first game of this season and woakes, briggs and harris could make their test debuts if selected for the team.

Heres the teams for the game:

We leave anderson out and now 3 out of our 4 bowlers are making their test debuts. Australia name an unchanged team but move rogers down the order and open with khawaja.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl on what is a superb batting pitch and with a forecast of clear skys for the entire day, this could be hard work for my bowlers. The day does not go well at all, it ends with australia on 320-3 with watson on 156*, the only good thing to come for us was that harris and woakes got their maiden test wickets.

Day 2: After another rough day we finally bowl them out at the start of the last session for 594, briggs who had a terrible first day ended up taking 5 wickets including the wicket of watson for a big 204 but harris gets injured which means we will just have 3 bowlers left for the second innings. We end the day being 82-2 after losing both cook and root cheaply.

Day 3: We have a great day 3 and don't lose a wicket until the last over when we lose trott for 152. We end the day on 370-3 and with pietersen on 181*. It looks like we will draw this test until our batting lineup crumbles.

Day 4: Pietersen gets out quite soon and then bairstow and prior follow him and they should have had taylor as well but they drop him twice before hes even into double figures. Taylor goes on to make 89 and we end up all for 558 which leaves us 36 behind. Woakes bowles a great first over and gets watson and clarke out for a duck. Australia then end the day 35-5 thanks to finn getting a further 3 wickets. This great bowling has actually put us in with a chance of getting a highly suprising victory!

Day 5: But then haddin and warner managed to scored 80 runs each before australia declared with a lead of 232 and leaving us with a session and a half to get them. I decided to bat aggressively and try to chase the runs down. We didnt get near winning, we ended up on 167-7 we lost most our middle order in a few overs and after that we were never going to win.


Batting Award: Pietersen, his innings was just that bit better than the innings of trott.

Bowling Award: Briggs, His 5 for in the first innings saved us from letting australia get a innings of 600+

Series State: 3-0 up, 1 game remaining

[Ash2134]

The squad for the last test has two changes with me bringing ballance back in for bairstow and onions in for the injured harris. Heres the teams for the next game:


The aussies name an unchanged team and we leave out briggs for this match, with anderson replacing him.

Day 1: We lose the toss and are asked to bat in very overcast conditions but on a solid batting pitch. We get skittled out for 212 in just over the first two sessions. Australia end the day 61-1 with onions picking up the wicket but the conditions are forecast to be good for tomorrow.

Day 2: Australia finished the day 337-7 with warner on 95*, Onions was the pick of our bowlers picking up 3 wickets. Also Haddin was forced to retire hurt which could damage them in our next innnings. We need to take the last couple of wickets quickly to stop them from pushing too far ahead this early on.

Day 3: As hoped for we got them out quickly and had them all out for 349, with anderson taking both wickets! We lost cook early on but were going well with root and pietersen on 62 and 82 until starc dismissed them both within 3 balls of each other! We then crumble again and end up on 297 all out and leave them a small target to chase down. They end the day on 10-0 needing just 151 to win.

Day 4: They then reach 161-4 and win quite easily with us giving them little trouble really. These last two tests showed the difference between the players on the fringe on my team and the players actually in the team expecially the bowlers who need some more time before they are ready to play for us yet.


Batting Award: Pietersen, He had the best score accross both innings.

Bowling Award: Anderson, He bowled the best and showed the difference between him and the younger bowlers played in the last two tests.

Series State: England win 3-1 and retain the Ashes

[Ash2134]

Series Summary

Batsmen:
Pietersen 654 @ 81.75
Trott 632 @ 79.00
Root 470 @ 52.22

Bowling:
Finn 22 @ 33.45
Anderson 19 @ 32.68
Swann 14 @ 34.64

Batting Award: Pietersen, He batted oustanding all series and posted consistent high scores.

Bowling Award: Anderson, He bowled the best however our bowling needs to improve in following games as none of our bowlers averaged below 30...

[Ash2134]

Next up we have the 2 match t20 series against Australia and heres the squad selected for the series:

[Ash2134]

Teams:


Australia and us play quite different teams to the teams used in the test series.

First Innings: We lose the toss and are asked to bowl and we bowl well and are able to restrict them to just 132-7 with swann bowling his 4 overs for figures of 2-12 and with finn and broad taking some early wickets to slow the run rate in the first 6 overs.

Second Innings: We bat just as poorly though and end up needing 38 from the last 4 overs with 6 wickets in hand. We end up losing by 9 runs after so many dot balls, this was a really poor batting performance chasing down what should have been an easy target.


Batting Award: Hales, he gave us a pretty decent start.

Bowling Award: Swann, Simply brilliant bowling figures.

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

[Ash2134]

The teams remain the same for the second game with us giving the same players another chance.

First Innings: We lose the toss again and are asked to bowl. We bowl pretty well and are able to contain them to 134-8 and i feel we should be able to chase that score despite the very overcast conditions.

Second Innings: We bat shockingly and find ourselves 56-7 but broad and swann fight hard and give us a chance but we end up falling short by 8 runs.



batting Award: Swann, he batted amazing and put us in with a chance when it seemed we had no chance at all.

Bowling Award:Broad, He bowled brilliantly at the beginning and stopped them from scoring quickly in the first 6 overs.

Series State: 2-0 win to Australia, this was really poor from us and we need to look to improve in upcoming series'.

[Ash2134]

Now we move on to the 5 match ODI series against Australia, Heres the squad im going to use for the series: