Senior NAT Discussion

A place for players in the West Indies to communicate.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Wed Sep 15, 2021 8:03 pm

West Indies NAT One Day World Cup- Summaries
West Indies vs Canada
The second day of the tourney and West Indies were up against the Canadian outfit. Leading the West Indies side was Archie O'Connor, a left-arm quick who was bowling amongst the quickest deliveries in the World Cup. He chose to bowl first and took control of the new ball. The pitch very soon showed that the seamers would get no help on this dry deck and the sunny weather wasn't making things any easier. 13 wicketless overs started the day off and Canada raced off to 65 runs before Troy Joseph's classic off-spinner came to the rescue and got West Indies the opening wicket. The other two spinners in Eldine Jones and Jason Hislop added a wicket each to the tally. Opener Gabriel Greene was trying to battle this tough phase against the spinners but a brain fade from him and his partner led to him being foolishly run out. The next 12 overs after the first 13 had calmed the run flow as Canada looked slightly unsettled at 102/4 at drinks.

The drinks reignited the Canadian passion for the next 12 overs after drinks, West Indies could barely manage a wicket but Canada raced off to 152, getting 50 in that period of time. It required a special effort from skipper Archie O'Connor to bring back the West Indies into the game and his effort was easily the clip of the day. He got the boundary-smacking Deedat out off yet another 150kph delivery before a slower one got rid of Monroe. All of a sudden Canada had slid to 158/7, but some resistance from the tail allowed them to cross 200 with Jonas Sewell getting his fifty as well, before Jason Hislop got the final three wickets. West Indies were looking at a target of 205 runs to chase down at halftime.

The chase did not start off in absolutely splendid fashion, with Steve Wall got rid of Troy Joseph pretty early. Audrey Anthony and Vivalyn Hector made sure the powerplay went decently well, getting the scorecard to 49 at the end of 10 overs before Anthony was stumped in the eleventh. Vivalyn Hector hit a decent fifty after this, getting into decent partnerships with Reynold Nero and Melford Griffith before Aidyn Broussard got rid of all 3, leaving West Indies at 149/5 after 38. Broussard's next over was his tenth and he managed to get his fourth wicket and get rid of Len Thomas in single digits and West Indies now needed 47 off the next 10 overs. The two new batters in keeper-batter Henry Harragin and debutant Eldine Jones were under immense pressure.

But luckily enough, Jones smartly kept giving strike to Harragin who was playing on an absolutely different level, smashing 38 runs off of 23 balls and getting West Indies the win with three overs and 4 wickets to spare.

West Indies vs New Zealand
In one of the closest games West Indies have ever played, one which had all possibilities open till the very last minute of cricketing action, it was very interesting to see West Indies get all out in lesser time than my pizza order gets delivered. A very narrow 178-run loss as the West Indian side played out of their skins to challenge one of the best sides in this World Cup, was an absolutely thrilling encounter to witness. Also, did I mention how so very much FUN the match was? It was so fun to watch this beautiful cricketing display.

A lost toss on a dry deck with humid weather meant that West Indies were bowling first to the Kiwis. The Kiwis were in entire control of the proceedings throughout with Shayne Bulow's 89 leading the way. A mammoth 260 was put on the board with the entire lower middle order getting some quick twenties. A four-fer for Jason Hislop was probably the highlight but the 66 runs he leaked were not doing West Indies any favours.

The batting began in a rather decent fashion, as Henry Harragin and Hubern King smacked 25 runs off the first four overs. Captain Red de Ranger got rid of Harragin to start off the spectacular part of the innings. Spin was introduced in the eighth over and Morvin Maclean got rid of Andy Thomas. Over 12, Maclean got rid of Hubern King, West Indies began to struggle with 45/3 on the board after 12. Len Thomas was runout in the fourteenth, 47/4. Van Spooge was dismissed leg-before in sixteenth, 51/5. Aaron Munilall, Audrey Anthony and Eldine Jones were dismissed off of successive overs and the West Indian innings had been reduced to 74/8 at drinks. West Indies needed 187 runs off of 25 overs with a requisite run rate of 7.48 and had just two wickets in the bag, the chase was as easy for the West Indian lads as it could've been, I mean.

Jason Hislop was soon enough run out and Sugrim Hughes top edged one into the hands of the fielder at square leg and West Indies were done for 82, a very narrow 7 runs less than Shayne Bulow.

Other Results in Group 1
India beat Bermuda by 65 runs.
New Zealand beat Kenya by 49 runs.
Bermuda beat Kenya by 3 wickets.
India beat Canada by 93 runs.

Fixture on September 16: Bermuda
Day 4 of the cup sees West Indies face Bermuda on a slow deck and under very hot weather. With both sides having a shot at qualifying to the semi finals, this match promises to be a thriller, and hopefully it is lesser fun than the absolute thriller today's fixture against New Zealand was.

Scenarios
A heavy amount of scenarios possible for the second spot, but it seems more than likely that New Zealand will head to the semi-finals with this powerful net run rate that they are boasting, because some side lost to them by 178 runs. I wonder why anyone'd let that happen! With this fall in net run rate for West Indies, it seems winning both their fixtures might more than likely be West Indies' only shot at qualification. India have a decent net run rate alongside eight points at this stage, and the second semi final spot seems theirs to lose. The other two sides still in contention are Bermuda and Canada, and they will have to win both their fixtures and get to twelve points, and manage to beat anybody else on net run rate that comes their way. Both of these sides play New Zealand, and have the power to beat them by massive margins to bring the Kiwi's net run rate down. This promises to be an exciting couple of days in this race to the semi-finals.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:59 pm

West Indies NAT One Day World Cup- Summaries
West Indies vs Bermuda
A brand new day and a brand new opponent, West Indies were up against Bermuda as both sides realised that a loss here could heavily butcher there chances of qualifying to the semi-finals. A slowish surface was laid out in Scotland as the hot weather was warming the nervous fans in the furnace. Andy Thomas, the West Indian skipper won the toss and put the Bermudan lads into bat. Alfonso Van Spooge started the game off really well, picking apart every weak delivery from the seamers. He scored a blitzing 26 runs off 31 balls in a 55 run stand off of 59 balls. Melford Griffith joined the already-set Vivalyn Hector as the two carefully tackled the spinners, getting into a 41-run stand before Vivalyn Hector attempted to go big but instead had to go home, or actually to the pavilion, which was prepared really well by the Scottish facilities giving it a homely feel. This homely feel attracted more batters than the West Indian side would've liked.

After 96/2, West Indies lost two more wickets in the next 5 overs, being 119/4 at drinks. A few lousy singles, and a classic Len Thomas ramp-shot maximum later, West Indies went down 131/5. Hubern King and Troy Joseph tried sticking around a few more overs, but sooner rather than later, King made a mistake. Clarence Skeete followed it up with Troy Joseph and Wilfred Austin's wickets, off of consecutive deliveries to get his four wicket haul. Apart from Eldine Jones showing his mettle with a beaut of a maximum, the final few overs were a dominoes of cluttering shots causing wickets. A modest total of 160 was on the board, and despite the absolutely tired lads owing to the high levels of humidity in Scotland over the past week, odds were heavily placed in the Bermudan's favour.

The chase started off with Wilfred Austin taking control of the new ball, and over Austin's years of club and national level cricket, there has been nothing that cheers him as much as the brand new Dukes ball. A pronounced seam, an absolutely shiny nut, and the easy-flowing swing the ball produces, Wilfred Austin was a happy man holding the ball from the Lifeline End that day. He generated some swing the very first ball, but it was bottom-edged allowing the batters to steal a single. Three more of the next five, and Austin had leaked 4 off his first. Satish Phillips took control of the other end, and if there is one thing Phillips knew, it was to bait the batter. A slower bouncer caused a mistimed and top-edged pull shot falling straight into Troy Joseph's hands. Bermuda were 5/1 within the first eleven balls. And then Austin did what he is good at, and pitched the ball on the off stump, not too short, not too full, hit the sweet spot on the pitch. The visible inswing made the batter want to play a cross batted shot and Wilfred Austin had laid out his bait. And Malcolm Parris fell for it, missing the ball entirely as it crashed into his pads, and he crashed onto one of those comfy chairs in the dugout. Wilfred Austin then repeated the same thing, only bowling from around the stumps and into the left-hander and Robert Harris could learn nothing from his partner's mistake. Azib Barnett stepping out and smashing the ball into the stands off of Satish Phillips aside, West Indies were safely the happier team at the end of the powerplay, as the scorecard read 42/3. But they knew the job was far from done.

Bermuda were trying to ease back into scoring as the spinners were getting introduced, and they were trying to steal as many runs as they could run to make up for the dot balls the spinners forced, but Azib Barnett got a little too greedy one ball and Andy Thomas ended with a runout credited next to his name. Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin's rival back from the early days, knew that the entire West Indian setup wanted his wicket more than anything else and he had to go ahead and hit a boundary ball one to one-up Peter Griffin. And it was Peter Griffin...'s mate, Troy Joseph that got Homer Simpson out for a golden duck and Griffin had a few expletives to shout from the stands. Henry Kennedy and Keith Browne were the two final hopes for the Bermudans who had been reduced to 55/5. The two got 19 runs in their stand before Troy Joseph played deceit with Henry Kennedy, as his slower one went onto break Kennedy's stumps. 74/6 and all six batters that Bermuda had were back in the hut. West Indian skipper Andy Thomas realised the pressure Bermuda was under and he wanted to beat them as convincingly as he could to make up for yesterday's thrilling 178-run loss (ah, fun memories). Six runs were scored off 17 balls but the ball before drinks, Eldine Jones tweaked one slightly as he forced the ball to come into the right-hander, and Keith Browne handed a bat-pad catch to Andy Thomas, and Bermuda fell 80/7 with just the tail to go. 37 balls of tail wag, produced nine more runs before the three final wickets fell giving West Indies a 71 run victory.

Other Results in Division 2
Kenya beat India by 4 wickets.
New Zealand beat Canada by 4 wickets.

Fixture on September 17: India
Why are all our games against India somehow always the big ones? Simply why? West Indies next face India on a hard deck and with humid weather for a virtual knockout affair as the winner of the match heads to the semi-finals with the Kiwis. It is very likely that New Zealand end first and the winner of the fixture ends second, given New Zealand's very high net run rate, West Indies' very low net run rate, and the fact that India cannot manage sixteen points with a win tomorrow and will qualify thanks to West Indies' very poor net run rate. Also:
-Division 2 Season 47: West Indies and India play decider on final day to decide which side wins Division 2.
-World T20 Group Stage: West Indies had to beat India to qualify for the semi-finals on the final day of the league stage
-World T20 Finals: Ah yes, the slippery slope we slid from 50/2 to 80/10
-Division 1 Season 48: West Indies lost to India on the final day and were handed a demotion to Division 2
-World Cup Group Stage: West Indies and India play a virtual knockout affair with a semi-final spot dangling in the air, swinging like a crazy pendulum.


Scenarios
Losses for Bermuda and Canada knock them out of the race for the semi-finals. New Zealand win and lock in a spot in the semi-finals, infact their highly superior net run rate and the sixteen points almost guarantee them a top-place finish. West Indies and India play each other for the second spot in the semi-finals. Will India will get to twelve points but beat the hapless West Indians on net run rate or will West Indies get their fourth win of the league stage to book themselves into the semi-finals? All to play for on the final day, hope we'll have a few fans cheering:)
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:20 pm

West Indies NAT One Day World Cup- Summaries
West Indies vs India
The final day of the league stage of the World Cup saw West Indies and India vying for the second semi-final spot. West Indies have had a habit of playing India in well-hyped qualification-deciding games that would favour either side's fortune. It was another one of those, and this was a time that skipper Andy Thomas knew winning the toss would be crucial. But, India won the toss, opted to bat first on a hard deck with humid weather, and it was all looking up India from thereon.

Wilfred Austin got rid of Ghanshyam Moni in the second over but Ike Ironjaw picked the West Indian opening bowling duo apart. On the other hand, Sourabh Mohieman kept knocking balls over in preparation of brewing something special. Sugrim Hughes got rid of Ike Ironjaw at the end of the powerplay and Wilfred Austin trapped Chaitanya Grover from the other end. Archie O'Connor got skipper Parimal Shrestha out, and India were 72/4, and the game was wide open. A wicket and West Indies would have had a significant lead, but instead things went south. Mihir Bardoliya and Mohieman got into a massive partnership and the score was 140/5 by Bardoliya's wicket in the 33rd over. The Indian lower order attempted to go hard and get runs quick, but were reduced to 186/8 in the process, with Mohieman getting out for a brilliant 80. A few quiet overs of blocks and knocks from the two tail got India to 198 with 4 overs to go. The two overs that followed were pure madness, with Troy Joseph and Aaron Munilall being smacked for 3 fours and 2 sixes respectively as Sunil Waghela's little boundary-fest at the end gave India a fifty run ninth-wicket stand and a well over par 240 on the board.

A quiet first over and a raging Andy Thomas in the next had West Indies start off with 14 off the first two. After which the scoring slowed, Jagjit Phadnis got rid of Melford Griffith and West Indies just managed 47 off the first ten. Andy Thomas was out, caught in the deep in search of a boundary and Audrey Anthony and Reynold Nero were out off of successive balls to Akhilendra Gahlot as West Indies fell 80/4. Henry Harragin fell to Phadnis before drinks as well, as West Indies looked in a tough position with 110/5 on the board after 25.

Len Thomas was out soon after drinks and West Indies were looking at a monumental target of 128 runs from the next 136 balls with 4 wickets in hand. It was Troy Joseph and Aaron Munilall on the crease and the two got a 58 run stand, pushing the equation to 70 from 70 balls at Munilall's wicket. Joseph hit a couple more boundaries, got his fifty, but the final three wickets fell in quick succession and West Indies folded 45 runs under the target and failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

Other Results in Group 1:
Bermuda beat New Zealand by 123 runs.
Kenya beat Canada by 7 wickets.

Aftermath of the League Stage
The league stage saw the Kiwis and the Indians qualify for the semi-finals, both of which sides were knocked out there by Bangladesh and Netherlands. The Dutch went onto beat Bangladesh and retained their crown, winning two World Cups in a row. Congratulations Netherlands, that is quite the feat!

Quite like the previous season, there'd be a Player of The Season Poll, that includes the three tours plus this World Cup, and it'll be up sometime soon, hopefully.

Elections:
The Senior Elections begin tomorrow and the team of the four of us, Maiden50, Bustergut, MmmmToast and myself, quirkilyalive are looking to continue our time. The only change will be that Maiden is stepping down to the assistant's post and I'll be taking duties on as the manager. I hope I'd get support from all of you and garner a few votes as well. I'd love to get us back up from Division 3 after a rather poor Season 48. (Also, I don't know if mentioning the elections here is against the rules, but if it is, I'll happily remove this section from the post)

Yet again, thank you for letting us tour your players, and we hope for a better Season 49 than this one. Cheers:)
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sat Sep 25, 2021 11:39 am

West Indies Season 48: Fan's Player of The Season
After Len Thomas bagged the highest honour bestowed on any West Indian lad on the debut season of the award, the second season of the Fan's Player of The Season award covers fixtures from the first tour after the Twenty-20 World Cup to the One-Day World Cup in the previous week. The players who have performed better than the other lads in the prescribed time frame have been put forth by the writer and the fans have the final choice to make. Which one of these five will get crowned the new Fan's Player of The Season? The poll will be setup in a separate thread in the West Indies forum like the previous season.

Vivalyn Hector Al Khobar Falcons >> Mypo Tigers
In a rather poor season for the West Indies, especially with the batters consistently finding it tough to muster runs, Hector topped the runs charts on 3 of the 4 occasions, only falling second to Audrey Anthony on the first One-Day Tour. A fifty against the Kiwis, albeit in a lost cause and a masterful century against Australia that was easily the highlight of the season for the West Indian campaign were a few of Hector's classics. In the World Cup campaign, he hit a fifty against Canada and 48 runs against Bermuda helping West Indies get wins in both of those fixtures. Easily the best batter for the season, Hector is also the only batter that has earnt the nomination for this season's awards.

Troy Joseph Maiden Over CC
Troy Joseph, a batter, a bowler, a fielder and a skipper, Joseph really knows how to do it all. He had played a few memorable innings last time, but this season was where he really chose to shine. Joseph played four really memorable knocks where he tried to pull West Indies out of tough situations. Unfortunately, he couldn't change the result to West Indies' favour in any of them, but his 2 fifties and 2 forties in the One-Dayers, 1 each against English and Kenya and 2 against India gave West Indies a final hope and a slightly lower net run rate deficit in the leagues. But, Joseph's real excellence was with the ball this season, being West Indies' highest wicket taker on the Twenty-20 tour with seven wickets.

Jason Hislop Space Wolves
The chinaman was always going to be a legend for the West Indies and it was just the chance of when exactly the thunder would strike. After an iffy season last time, Hislop ruled the bowling charts for this season. Ending as the highest wicket taker for the West Indies on two tours, Jason Hislop got 21 wickets in 8 50-over fixtures with two 10-wicket tours. A fifer against India, his second at the highest level, and consecutive four-wicket hauls against the Canadians and the Kiwis in the World Cup really allowed him to show his excellence as West Indies' up-and-coming spinner to aid the legend Peter Griffin who has held the bowling together for quite some time.

Archie O'Connor Antiguan Golden Cats >> Groundboys
In his debut season with the One-Day side, Archie O'Connor performed very well for the side as he gradually replaces Carl Beresford as the left-arm quick for West Indies. Plus, as a backup skipper, young lad O'Connor was up to the task whensoever prompted, and with his victory against Canada in the final fixture of the Twenty-20 Tour to ensure survival where he used his 5-pronged pace attack really well proved his worth. 8 wickets in the first One-Day Tour, 9 in the last, he got 21 wickets across 9 fixtures and became the guy who constantly got the side breakthroughs. The Twenty-20 Tour saw Archie O'Connor grab six wickets for 45 runs across three fixtures and with 27 wickets across the season, he overtook Hislop on wicket-takers charts and made himself a fine candidate for the Fan's Player of the Season award with a few wickets every game, if not for a mammoth four or five wicket haul.

Aaron Munilall Golden Hacks CC
Aaron Munilall, it wouldn't be wrong to call the guy Mr.Dependable as he makes it to the Top 5 list for the second season in a row. Munilall with the bat wasn't as good this season, but the finisher in him made sure he finished chases off the West Indian side this season as well, with a 34* against Australia to pull off a fantastic chase after Hector's marvellous ton. He played shorter hands in a few more games getting West Indies to a rather respectable totals once the batters collapsed. Now, the ball. Munilall had a 10-wicket tour with 2 four-wicket hauls against sides like Australia and Zimbabwe. 16 wickets in 9 One-Dayers and 4 in three T20I's alongside Munilall's escapades with the bat made him another candidate for the award.

These were the five candidates and I'd request all of you to vote on the poll. This has been a rather poor season for the West Indians, but the performances by these lads deserve highlighting. The poll has been setup here. Cheers:)

Elections
After an unopposed run at the elections, I have been elected for my first tenure of tyranny. Maiden, Buster and MmmmToast are all sticking on as assistants to make sure my stupidity does not dictate what happens in the West Indies setup. As always, in case anybody here has any questions for me, I'm open to answering them via private messages, forums or the discord. Hope we have a good run and garner support from y'all. Thank you:)
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by desert7 » Sun Sep 26, 2021 2:59 pm

Good luck with the job as WI national manager quirky :thumbsup

Keep up the great work with tour writeups and lets hope you can guide us back into Div 1 in both formats :think
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sun Sep 26, 2021 5:44 pm

Thanks mate:)

The main aim is to get the side back to the top Division. We had a rather poor Season 48, washing away the fantastic tour that saw us promoting to Division 1 in Season 47. The player pool and quality hasn't been as good as we'd like and it is getting better slowly, and I'm hoping we get luckier this season.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:55 am

West Indies NAT One Day Tour 1: Division 3 Squad Announcement
The first tour of Season 49, and the first one that will be supervised by the new manager, and the writer-editor of this absolutely off-schedule blog, quirkilyalive begins the following Monday, on October 18. The 18 men that will make Canada their abode for the week have been announced as the United States of America have laid out some splendid cash in the preparations of slow, dry and crumblers at their Northern neighbours land.

Aaron Munilall Golden Hacks CC Right-arm Fast Medium/ Right-hand Bat

Alfonso Van Spooge The Sultans of Spooge Left-hand Keeper Bat

Andy Edwards John Peters Espionage PLC Left-arm Medium [DEBUT]

Andy Thomas Aotearoa Left-hand Bat

Archie O'Connor Groundboys Left-arm Fast

Eldine Jones Boundary Boys Left-arm Finger Spin

Hemraj Walsh Aaa Firangi Aaa Right-hand Bat

Henry Harragin BgUINNES RAMs Right-hand Keeper Bat

Hubern King Mohito's Mohican XI Left-hand Bat

Jason Hislop Space Wolves Left-arm Wrist Spin

Len Thomas Caribbean Pirates Right-hand Bat

Melford Griffith Crni Zmajevi Cricket Club Right-hand Bat

Michael Stewart Herosnzeros Right-arm Fast Medium [DEBUT]

Peter Griffin Caribbean Pirates Right-arm Finger Spin

Reynold Nero Queens Park Cricket Club Left-hand Bat

Satish Phillips ChePu 206 Right-arm Medium

Troy Joseph Maiden Over CC Right-arm Finger Spin/ Right-hand Bat

Vivalyn Hector Mypo Tigers Right-hand Bat

The five fixtures for this tour are:

October 18- West Indies vs United States of America Slow

October 19- West Indies vs Pakistan Green

October 20- West Indies vs United Arab Emirates Dry

October 21- West Indies vs South Africa Dry

October 22- West Indies vs Ireland Dry

Three dry decks in a row is a far from ideal pitch combination for this side, but it appears West Indies will simply have to salvage this situation. 2 debutants seamers head for this tour as veterans Wilfred Austin and Carl Beresford have been snubbed from the selection process. The tour begins October 18 and the games will start at 1600 FTP Time for any interested viewers. As always, it is highly appreciated that you lads train West Indian players and loan them to the National Side whenever asked. Thank you:)

West Indies Fan's Player of The Season
It appears we've ended up with a tie in this season's award after a disappointing voter turnout decided that Vivalyn Hector and Troy Joseph have ended up with equal number of votes and are joint-winners of the prize!

West Indies will play 2 friendlies against Australia and United Arab Emirates in the following week, on Wednesday and Saturday before heading for the tour.
Last edited by MOD-quirkilyalive on Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:56 pm

West Indies NAT One Day Tour 1- Division 3 Summaries
West Indies vs United States of America
The first tour of the new season started off in Canada today. United States of America had chosen Canada to host the games, and they were the side pitted against us, the West Indians, for Game 1 of the season. A slow deck was laid out, and the weather was cloudy. Skipper Michael Stewart, who was also making his international debut, lost the toss, and the West Indians were put into bat. Things did not start off well for West Indies as both openers were back in the hut for single digits. Alfonso Van Spooge muddled around, but mishit a drive and fell right after the powerplay. West Indies were reduced to 33/3 after 12. A decent 87-run stand saw Hemraj Walsh and Vivalyn Hector restore the innings. Walsh was runout for 29 when Brian Gentry's slight misfield caused confusion between the two partners, leaving Walsh stranded in the middle of the pitch. 120/4 after 30 overs and Hector realised the need to pick the slack up. Reynold Nero and Hector combined in a nifty 44-run stand with Nero hitting a quick and crisp knock of 22 runs off 30 balls, as West Indies were 167/5 after 40 overs.The setup was laid out for a great finish, either with USA enforcing a collapse or with the West Indians smacking a few runs.

Well, thank luck that it was the latter of the two options as Troy Joseph played one of the bravest innings in recent while. 51 runs in 38 balls, he showed clear intent with the bat, and so did Hector in the final 10 overs, finishing his ton and ending with 113 runs off 133 balls. Marshawn Lynch bowled Joseph on the final ball of the innings, but West Indies had a decent total of 254/6 on the board after fifty, giving the bowlers certain freedom and room to work around with.

Wayne Ashley hit debutant Andy Edwards for a maximum right over his head in the very first over as the chase started off on the wrong foot for West Indies. A beautiful effort from Jason Hislop at point meant that Craig Hansen's stay at the crease was shortened with a direct hit from the chinaman's magical arm. The rest of the powerplay was pretty standard with the ball and bat consistently equating each other. USA ended 36/1 after 10. Over number 12, skipper Michael Stewart had Everett Harrison dropped by Vivalyn Hector in the slips ball 3. Ball five, Wayne Ashely smacked him for a four, and the bravehearted lad did not give up his spirit and grunted up an effort ball for Ball Six of the over, knocking Ashley's middle stump over. Keeper Ronald Burton had a short stay, which was still pretty impactful as his aggressive attitude got him 14 runs with the help of two fours and a six, before the aggression wasn't fine-tuned well enough and he was caught on the fence. Whilst on one end, Troy Joseph got smacked for a few runs, Michael Stewart was wrecking up hell from the other. He also demolished Everett Harrison's stumps for his third scalp in the day. A 17-run nightmarish over 20 from Joseph that saw Ulysses de la Cruz II smack him for two maximums later, USA were 108/4 after 20. The four wickets were a slight bother as the rally of fours and sixes had put them decently above the requisite run rate.

The two medium pacers were reintroduced in the 22nd over and West Indies began an emphatic trouncing back. Edwards got a couple wickets, whilst Satish Phillips got one right before the drinks break, as USA were a sad bunch heading towards their drinks with 116/7 on the board after 25. 2 runs came off the next 3 overs after drinks as Troy Joseph and Jason Hislop choked the Americans allowing Hislop to attack. And he attacked well as he bowled a double-wicket over to get rid of the final batter Brian Gentry. 119/9 after Over 29 and the two bowlers tried to strut along as far as they could with the bat in hand and they were helped by a few byes and misfields from our outfit but 150 was all USA could get to as West Indies started off the season with a 104-run victory.

Other Results in Division 3
United Arab Emirates beat South Africa by 8 wickets.
Ireland beat Pakistan by 3 wickets.

Fixture on October 19- Pakistan
West Indies next play Pakistan on a green top with the clouds making their presence felt yet again.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:57 pm

West Indies NAT One Day Tour 1- Division 3 Summaries
West Indies vs Pakistan
Day 2 of the tour saw a green top and the cloudy lords await us and the Pakistani squad. Skipper Peter Griffin witnessed his counterpart from Pakistan get the call right and put the West Indian lads into bat. The innings never got going is the apt way to describe it. A decent powerplay as the two openers survived the new ball, but Hemraj Walsh was out in Over Ten, and Hubern King a couple overs later, with both going off to bad balls, as they looked to get a boundary. Unconverted starts with both of them getting out for 19 and 18 respectively. Andy Thomas and Melford Griffith repeated the script word-by-word so to say, as both of them threw away decent starts as well, miffing up the fans with rather soft dismissals. Andy scored 26 whilst Griffith had 16 under his name as the two lads' dismissals left West Indies at 86/4 after 22. A six from Henry Harragin and a boundary from Len Thomas pushed West Indies to triple digits by drinks. Henry Harragin seemed to bat on a different deck, as he hit boundaries out of free will. 54 runs with 2 fours and 2 sixes made for Harragin's first fifty across 10 International One-Dayers and five Twenty-20I's. His 65 run stand with Len Thomas pushed West Indies' total to 186 before they were all out, owing to a Amir Masroor fifer getting the entire lower order home in single digits.

Defending 187 was no easy ask, but after Pakistan flew off to a fantastic start with an unbeaten powerplay, West Indies were left trying to pull the game back all while, never having a shot at dominating the Pakistani lineup. Andy Edwards got a wicket in the eleventh over and Satish Phillips plucked two before drinks but 27 and 37 from both of the openers had done enough damage. 116 after 25 overs meant Pakistan had to chase just 71 from the next 25, and keeper Nasim Rahim made sure they chased it off smoothly and easily, staying not out till the end, despite the two mediums pushing a flurry of wickets very close to the finish line. Pakistan had handed West Indies their first defeat of the tour, and the season, by chasing down 187 with 3 wickets to spare, finishing the job off in the 42nd over.

Other Results in Division 3:
Ireland beat United Arab Emirates by 47 runs.
South Africa beat United States of America by 4 wickets.

Fixture on October 20: United Arab Emirates
The fixture is currently ongoing as West Indies face United Arab Emirates on a dry deck with the sun shining bright.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:48 am

West Indies NAT One Day Tour 1- Division 3 Summaries
West Indies vs United Arab Emirates
Day 3 of the tour and the first of the trioka of dry decks was prepared for West Indies. UAE won the coin flip and asked for the new ball. The West Indian batters, Reynold Nero and Len Thomas walked onto the field and early nerves began to show for both sides. Medium pacer Kaliq Aziz bowled a full toss on the head within the first over whilst an edge from Nero gratefully ended on a patch of grass. Over 2 was where West Indies started feeling more comfortable owing to a beautiful swinger from Nawfal Shadi deflecting off Len Thomas' thigh and heading towards fine leg for a four. A couple balls later, Len Thomas freed his arms and shot a maximum over the cover fielder. That started off a 104-ball stand as the openers accumulated 91 runs before Nero's sweep went all wrong and the Amir Alam Doosra thudded on his front pad. Len Thomas struck his fifty but fell to Alam a couple overs later, smacking the ball right into Alam's palms. 120/2 and the two new batter Vivalyn Hector and Henry Harragin used the stage to push West Indies' score further. 79 from 78 for Hector, 69 from 80 for Harragin, a 141-run stand between the two, followed by a decent finish from Andy Thomas and Troy Joseph, allowed West Indies to strike 295, a total that proved to be well enough.

Things did not seem to go so well for UAE. Jaul Ghayth, a very celebrated batter across the world was adjudged LBW over one. By the end of the powerplay, Archie O'Connor got the other opener out as well. Eldine Jones got another wicket, reducing UAE to 40/3 before Cemal Ma'mun and Abu Reda got a few runs. As UAE got into triple digits, disaster struck. Reda was facing Michael Stewart, whose slower one made Reda falter as he tried to go for another hit on the ball after the first one didn't strike. This did not fly well with the umpires as he fell in the rather unfortunate of ways. West Indies got lucky there, they knew it and they followed it up with really discipled bowling. Michael Stewart getting rid of Ma'mun with his bowling and Khayri Salah with his mastery in fielding. The talented and graceful Jason Hislop just plucked three wickets out of the UAE tail as if it was side job, but it was his witty riffs at the flailing UAE batting lineup that really hit well. Eldine Jones also got his second wicket, as the young lad was showing maturity at a very early stage of his career, leading West Indies to pick up their second win for the season, this one by a mammoth 126 runs.

West Indies vs South Africa
Day 4, Dry Deck, Cloudy Weather, two teams with two wins after 3 games, both having picked up massive wins on Day 3, both having relegated together last season, both under new managerial setups with the old managers still providing a helping hand. The two sides were starkly similar and were desperate for wins. The game's biggest moment was in Over 3. Alfonso Van Spooge came down the pitch and smacked Joseph Makunara for a four and six. And, queue him dissing Makunara after that six with a joke that did not really land, but as the editor and somebody in the same dugout as that muscular mass of a man, I have to say, that was the funniest joke I have ever heard. Regardless, Van Spooge managed to incite Makunara, and unfortunately Makunara was a man of action, and not words. Makunara really does not fit in well with people like me. Who does stuff anymore, c'mon? Over 5 and Makunara's away-swinger pulls a Hemraj Walsh edge and buh-bye Wicket 1. Over 7, Andy Thomas edges Makunara to gully and a couple balls later, Van Spooge edges him to the keeper. West Indies slid from 21/0 to 23/3, so I guess Van Spooge's joke landed somewhere at least, it landed straight in Makunara's heart. Reynold Nero and Melford Griffith amended the innings but the wristy-trident that South Africa brought in their back-pocket stabbed Nero's innings to death.(well, it wasn't THAT dramatic, but, I mean.) Hubern King contributed for a little while but succumbed to a Babu Goche special. And then the man was back, the one who had shun a reign of terror over the field. Makunara then said tata to Aaron Munilall, as Munilall gave Hashim Amla the easiest of catches. A couple balls later, Melford Griffith committed a grave mistake and hit Makunara for a six. As the laws go, as the rules dictate, as the nature tells, Griffith was out to Howell in no time. He did hit a decent 53 though. And then Makunara got rid of Jason Hislop and Peter Griffin to kind of round off his six-wicket haul, but Eldine Jones did a decent tail's job and was an irritating pest for South Africa, pushing West Indies to a decent 190.

South Africa's move to send Ben Simmons to smack runs against the new ball did not pan out for them with Satish Phillips getting rid of him. Eldine Jones got rid of Steven Kaseke to end the powerplay. Post the powerplay, Elton Devereux played his innings, scoring a decent fifty while Peter Griffin and Jason Hislop nicking three of his partners away. Satish Phillips got rid of Devereux as South Africa's trouble began. 140/6 in the 37th over. Eldine Jones was proving his worth as a member of the eleven, as the young lad got rid of Tshedi Mutizwa and Babu Goche and managed three wickets in the day. And amidst all the chaos stood a Deon Gessner. Gessner was playing his own knock, feeling none of the pressure during the game. Ignoring the ongoing battle of words and wits between Van Spooge and Joseph Makunara. Hmm, Van Spooge really needs to work on his insults by the way, but again, shared dugout, so, Van Spooge could go on stage with that material. Just the stage shouldn't have people anywhere near it. Haha, I'm worse than Van Spooge at insults, so maybe I'm not the right person to call him out there. Oh, and we also had a game to cover...

...so yeah, Deon Gessner was smacking runs and he got to his fifty smacking at nearly a run-a-ball before Aaron Munilall's low full-toss made Gessner make an error. The easiest of pies that Muniall could have delivered, and Gessner hit it to Griffith at mid wicket. South Africa, six runs from the target were 185/9. Howell and Makunara ran a single each and South Africa were 187/9 after 45 overs. Jason Hislop started with a dot ball. Then a Makunara single and ended with 4 dots to Howell. 46 overs, 188/9, 3 more needed. Three dots from Munilall before Makunara got a single. Howell edged one into the gap earning a loud groan from Munilall as the scores were tied. 47 overs done. 190/9- South Africa, the exact score that West Indies finished their fifty overs on. 1 run or 1 wicket. The atmosphere was dead quiet, and the fans were nervous as this movie had turned out to be an on-point thriller. Jason Hislop pitched the ball on leg stump, sorta between short and good length. The old ball had its weaves open as it flew and struck the pitch. The flight landed on the ground and off came a bolting quick ball aimed for the imginary offside fourth stump. Howell got some bat on it, practically hitting the ball out of Van Spooge's hands. The entire fielding unit was inside the thirty-yard circle but somehow Howell managed to bisect the keeper and slip and run a single, or rather fly that single with those arms wide open. West Indies had almost pulled it back, they had almost choked the South Africans, but it wasn't to be. A 1 wicket-loss saw West Indies go 2 wins, 2 losses into Day 5.

West Indies vs Ireland
The final day of the tour had the stage set up for a grand finish. South Africa stood on top with three wins in four games, but a loss could pull them back to the third spot. West Indies and Ireland, and UAE and USA, played each other as the four sides with two wins each knew they needed a win to be in contention for promotion with net run rate being the final decider. Sunny weather on a dry deck was up for the fixture and West Indian skipper Troy Joseph opted to bat first.

The innings did not start well with Melford Griffith being clean bowled inside the second over for a duck. Henry Harragin came in at three and attempted a rescue for the innings, but the express pace of Jamie Brady saw his end. Reynold Nero and Vivalyn Hector got into a decent partnership but Karl Mulcahy got rid of Nero for 44 to make the score 70/3 in the eighteenth over. Hubern King seemed to have a tough time in the middle with the spinners really bothering him. His 30 ball innings returned 12 runs before a mammoth stride outside the stumps saw him being stumped from behind. For his third wicket, Mulcahy got Hemraj Walsh to nick one to the keeper and the West Indian wagon was hitting the tough roads at 112/5. Jamie Brady came back into the attack next over and got rid of Hector, who managed 33 runs of his own, and West Indies were 114/6. The two all-rounders in Aaron Munilall and Troy Joseph got some runs but West Indies still ended with a very mediocre total of 165.

Aaron Munilall started off fantastically with the ball, getting rid of Jake Donaghy and skipper Paul Stirling in no time. Anderson Silva and Ciaran Dempsey got into their thirties but the three-spinner attack for West Indies did its job at stopping them. A couple for Jones and one each wicket for Joseph and Hislop reduced Ireland to 96/6 by drinks. Eldine Jones took little time to get his third wicket for the day whilst Joseph and Archie O'Connor made sure to get rid of the Irish wagging tail. Ireland were cleaned for 136 and West Indies had won this fixture to earn their promotion to Division 2. Young lad Eldine Jones had earned his first Player of The Match award on his second tour with his beautiful spell of 7-2-17-3.

Other Results in Division 3
South Africa beat Ireland by 142 runs.
United States of America beat Pakistan by 3 wickets.

United Arab Emirates beat Pakistan by 4 wickets.
United States of America beat Ireland by 5 wickets.

Pakistan beat South Africa by 6 wickets.
United States of America beat United Arab Emirates by 15 runs.

Performers of the Tour
This tour was a decent coming of age for the West Indian batters who had a return to form with quite a few lads getting runs this tour. Vivalyn Hector continued the performances that made him Fan's-Player-of-the-Season last fall, scoring 229 runs this tour to end the tour's highest run getter. His 113 in Game 1 against USA was also the tour's highest innings score by a batter. Reynold Nero and Henry Harragin also had their names in the top ten batters with Harragin hitting two fifties this tour. Another fantastic stat from the batting camp was Troy Joseph being the batter with the highest strike rate across the tour amongst the players that played more than ten balls. He played quite the finisher this tour.

The bowling camp had Jason Hislop and Eldine Jones lead the effort. 8/89 for Hislop in 24.3 overs and 8/101 in 25 overs for Jones had them tied for the second highest wicket-taker across the tour. The two left-arm spinners played all three final games on the dry decks and the physios get equal appreciation for making sure the two spinners could walk onto the field three days in a row.

This ends the first tour for my managerial term. A far from ideal pitch combination saw us get lucky with the manner of our victories. The fact that we did not bowl our full quota of fifty overs in any of the five games really helped the side with Jason Hislop playing 4 games this tour, and the Old-Ball expert still had to bowl shy of 25 overs in the tour. A promotion means that Tour 3 of the season would see West Indies in Division 2 with South Africa, the fellow promoting side, Bangladesh and Scotland, the Division 2 survivors, and Kenya and Netherlands, the Division 1 demoters. Before that, the Twenty-20 Tour will start in a few weeks, a tour that sees West Indies play against United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Bermuda, India and Scotland. Also, I'm very grateful to my three assistants in Buster, Maiden and MmmmToast for helping me with the tour and the management job. Thank you for allowing us to pluck your players for the tour and until the next tour, cheer for Maddog and his lads in their Division 2 Tour here.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sun Oct 31, 2021 7:42 pm

West Indies NAT Twenty-20 Tour: Division 2 Squad Announcement
The Twenty-20 Tour of the season begins the following week as the United Arab Emirates have set camp in South Africa for the 15 matches in Division 2. The UAE management picked Dry, Crumbling and Flat decks as the three decks for the groundsmen to wield their magic from. The tour will begin November 8 and the eighteen players heading to South Africa are as follows:

Aaron Munilall Golden Hacks CC Right-arm Fast Medium/ Right-hand Bat

Archie O'Connor Groundboys Left-arm Fast

Eldine Jones Boundary Boys Left-arm Finger Spin

Giles Williams Maiden Over CC Right-hand Bat

Hemraj Walsh Aaa Firangi Aaa Right-hand Bat

Henry Harragin BgUINNES RAMs Right-hand Keeper Bat

Hubern King Mohito's Mohican XI Left-hand Bat

Jason Hislop Space Wolves Left-arm Wrist Spin

Kieron Mendonca Stafford rangers reborn Right-arm Wrist Spin [DEBUT]

Leon Jumadeen High Risk High Return Right-hand Keeper Bat [DEBUT]

Leonard Arthur Married Eleven Right-hand Bat [DEBUT]

Melford Griffith Crni Zmajevi Cricket Club Right-hand Bat

Nizam Menzies Kuakata Kings Right-hand Bat [DEBUT]

Peter Griffin Caribbean Pirates Right-arm Finger Spin

Reynold Nero Queens Park Cricket Club Left-hand Bat

Satish Phillips ChePu 206 Right-arm Medium

Thornton Ishmael Mewtwo Strikes Back Right-arm Fast

Troy Joseph Maiden Over CC Right-arm Finger Spin/ Right-hand Bat

The Twenty-20 Tour sees West Indies hand debuts to 4 players as young lads Kieron Mendonca and Leon Jumadeen head for their first tours whilst domestic legends like Leonard Arthur and Nizam Menzies finally get their turn to represent West Indies at the international level. Twenty-20 Legend, the man, the myth, the scary quick Thornton Ishmael returns back to the side. Giles Williams heads for his first tour in the shortest format of the game. This tour will also be the final one before the Twenty-20 World Cup at the end of this season. Currently placed ninth with nine points, a couple of wins on this tour might very well guarantee West Indies' participation in the biennial tournament.

The five fixtures for this tour start off on November 8 and will start at 0800 Game Time for the next 5 days after that.

November 8- West Indies vs United Arab Emirates Flat

November 9- West Indies vs Scotland Crumbling

November 10- West Indies vs India Flat

November 11- West Indies vs United States of America Flat

November 12- West Indies vs Bermuda Crumbling

3 of the third preference pitch and 2 of the second preference are far from what we wanted or expected. Zero dry decks and 3 flat decks does mean we'll have to hope for decent weather throughout the tour and use our five spin-bowling options very carefully. The funny thing is that we came in with 4 spinners for the One Day Tour and got shafted with 3 dry pitches, and to worsen stuff, those three were back-to-back. So, we'll still have to go out there, and hope the lads bat well, bowl well and field well, and my cursed luck with these pitches for every tour ends soon!

West Indies play the Kiwis in a One-Dayer and England for T20 bash before heading for the tour if folks would like to tune in for our friendlies.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:13 pm

West Indies NAT Twenty-20 Tour- Division 2 Summaries
The previous week saw the West Indian side head to South Africa for a Twenty-20 Tour as they were pitted against India, United States of America, Bermuda, Scotland and the hosts United Arab Emirates for 5 games. The tour ended with 2 wins and 3 losses as West Indies barely survived Division 2 for another season and Season 50 would see them facing Bermuda, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya in the same division. Also, the couple of wins confirmed West Indies' participation in the Twenty-20 World Cup at the end of season as it will be a challenge to continue my predecessor Maiden50's success in the tournament as he took the side to the finals on both attempts, winning one of those two tries as well. Also, I'd like to apologise for not being regular with the summaries throughout the week.

West Indies vs United Arab Emirates
A horridly hot day brought out a horrid affair for us as we saw a West Indian specialty record of 100% success in chasing on flat decks break. Winning the toss, skipper Troy Joseph opted to field and the 6'11'' legend who has scared people with his bumpers that break jaws, Thornton Ishmael, got a wicket first over. Troy Joseph effected a run out in the next and UAE were two down in a couple of overs. Then Jaul Ghayth came in and began counter-attacking as the road of a pitch allowed him to smack boundaries out of sheer will. A 117 run stand over the next 57 balls saw Ghayth score 71 runs off 34 balls, whilst Sharad Hossein played the second fiddle, before Eldine Jones bowled a quicker, flatter one that thudded onto his pads and he was adjudged leg-before. The highlight of this partnership was the over when West Indies' top player Jason Hislop went for 21 runs in a single over. Sharad Hossein took charge once Ghayth was dismissed as he ended with a 90* whilst Jason Hislop nitpicked three wickets and bowled an over for barely a run that saw UAE get 206, probably 10-20 less that what they'd have targeted when Ghayth was blasting the ball everywhere around the park.

Skipper Troy Joseph came in himself to start the powerplay off well and he scored 30 runs off just 14 balls doing exactly that whilst southpaw Hubern King assisted him in that. Unfortunately, both the batters were out before the end of the powerplay and West Indies ended the first six with the score 54/2. A partnership struck between two quality batters from Barbados as Reynold Nero and Melford Griffith played decent knocks. The two lads settled in and then began smashing the ball, but it seemed like they were rather too late to pull the trigger as the required run rate was asking too much by that time. Kaliq Aziz got rid of Griffith and then the reintroduction of old-ball expert Hud Sam saw him picking out a three wicket over. The next few overs seemed bare formalities as Hud Sam got his fifer and West Indies tried to swim their last mile before eventually drowning 30 runs away from shore.

In other games, Bermuda defeated USA as a Brian Joseph's 5 wicket over grabbed all the headlines that day in one of the most deadly overs in the game and Scotland took the win over India.

West Indies vs Scotland
A crumbling deck was laid out as skipper Peter Griffin opted to bowl first. Archie O'Connor responded with a wicket on the first ball of the innings but the Scottish batters made a comeback during the rest of the powerplay. The next wicket fell on 46 runs and Jason Hislop got his first of the night. Kieron Mendonca got the first wicket of his international career from the other end following that. After this the game was always in control of the two wristies as Mendonca and Hislop got the next 8 wickets, 4 each, before O'Connor bowled the last tailender as West Indies cleaned the Scots up for 82.

Debutant Leon Jumadeen had a poor start, as he was out for a duck on ball two but Reynold Nero played a well-crafted 43 at number 3. Nizam Menzies and Leonard Arthur contributed a few runs as well as West Indies cruised to a 5 wicket victory after the absolute domination from the two wrist spinners.

After 2 rounds, all sides had 1 win and 1 loss as the tour promised to get spicy and close-fought on the final day.

West Indies vs India
Day 3 saw West Indies face the team that beat them toward their goal of defending the Twenty-20 Crown, as the Indians and West Indians had a flat deck and humid weather in the background for the day. West Indies opted to bat first and as the proceedings always go, Thornton Ishmael got a quick first wicket. The problem began to occur when they simply could not get the second wicket. Sourabh Mohaiemen blasted 73 with 4 fours and 3 sixes before he fell in a manner identical to Jaul Ghayth from UAE a couple days back as the Eldine Jones flatter one sped through the ill-timed swing. Godric Godhammer hit 67 before Satish Phillips got rid of him in the 17th over but Arpan Chuwaliya gave a beautiful finishing touch with 30* off 11 balls getting the Indian total to 199.

West Indian openers Giles Williams and Nizam Menzies started off with fifties. At the halfway stage West Indies had gotten to 103/1 as Menzies fell to Taj D'Argento. Things slowed down slightly post Menzies' dismissal and Melford Griffith and Giles Williams went onto get dismissed off of consecutive balls to D'Argento and Jagjit Phadnis. With two new batters in Hubern King and Hemraj Walsh, West Indies needed 65 to win off of 29 balls.

The next 5 balls from Phadnis were pretty standard stuff, the normal touch and run as West Indies now had a mountain-sized task of chasing 58 from 4 overs. Zakirhusain Ghemawat had the ball and King hit him for two fours to start the over and Walsh hit him for one at the end. 43 more were needed from 3 and another right-arm finger spinner in Rupak Chidamber took the ball. 4 singles and 2 boundaries from King resulted in 12 runs from the over which meant that over was still bad for the West Indies lads as they needed 31 from the next 2 overs. Ghemawat was bowling the nineteenth and he started off with a dot ball and bowled 5 further decent balls, leaking barely ten from the over. Left-arm pacer Monish Madan had 21 to defend from six balls, as King stood having scored 31 runs off 14 balls, smacking the two finger spinners for easy fours. Ball one was a slower one that King drove through covers in the gap but the slow outfield and some athletic display from the Indian fielders meant that was just 3 runs. 18 from 5 balls. Madan overstepped and Walsh got 2 runs off the ball as the equation reduced to 15 from 5 balls. Ball 3 was a length ball outside off that went off Walsh's top edge to third man as Taj D'Argento made sure to throw the ball as quick as possible. But his throw missed the keeper by a wide margin and Walsh was way out of his crease had that throw gone into the keeper's hands. Around the wicket now, and a yorker on middle stump, as Walsh plays that towards long on and runs two. 11 from 3 balls needed now. Wide yorker from around the stumps flies off Walsh's toe end of the bat. Godric Godhammer, the keeper started chasing the ball. Walsh and King ran two and Walsh was chasing the bowler's end for the third but Godhammer, not only reached the ball in the outfield but managed to nail a direct hit at the bowler's end. Unfortunately it was later revealed that Walsh had failed to complete his first run implying West Indies just got one run off the ball. Now it was 10 off 2 and Hubern King was on strike. Over the wicket again as King again smacks the ball through covers for 3 and Troy Joseph just managed two off the last one as West Indies ended 4 runs short and were handed defeat number 2.

West Indies vs United States of America
Another flat deck. Another toss win for West Indies. Another game where West Indies bowl first. Another game where the first opposition wicket falls very soon, but this time so did the second. USA were 19/2 after two overs. And well, the rest of the game just went south. The de la Cruz heritage was done proud as Ulysses de la Cruz smacked 125 runs off of 68 balls as he hit the ball in every corner of the park and in one of those corners was the crying West Indian manager left appalled at the dismay that this bowling effort had been. USA managed to post 205 at the end of their twenty as a few wickets from Kieron Mendonca and Peter Griffin kept them 10-20 short of what they were threatening at some stage in the game.

The chase was like one of those "Top 10 Fails" YouTube Video as the batters struggled to time balls on a flat deck and if they seemed to get settled in, they went ahead and threw their starts, as zero players played a big innings to lead the chase. The top scorers were Leonard Arthur's 30(14) and Kieron Mendonca, a bowler, who hit 30*(23) at the end decreasing the net run rate damp as West Indies lost by 39 runs.

West Indies vs Bermuda
Before we get into the final game, a little bit of look back on the situation at that time. West Indies, Scotland and UAE were tied at 1 win and 3 losses, with the net run rate ranking them in the same order, and the top three had Bermuda, USA and India, again with net run rate in the same order at 3 wins and 1 loss. For West Indies to survive, West Indies needed to win against Bermuda for sure, but they were also closely watching the Scotland vs UAE game. Given UAE's net run rate was in the -1's, West Indies were rooting for their victory as the chances of them topping West Indies on nrr was low. But at the same time, the result wouldn't matter if only Scotland and UAE could play a very close game, and this was all if West Indies win their final match.

After being put into bat by the Bermudan skipper, West Indies lost two early wickets. Leonard Arthur played a thirty and Giles Williams was his support act as they managed to stage a comeback with Aaron Munilall providing some blasts at the end allowing West Indies to get to 119 in their twenty.

The chase started very poorly for Bermuda as they were reduced to 33/4 at the end of the powerplay. Whilst skipper Arthur Dwarika played a beautiful fifty for Bermuda, the rest of the order kept falling. Mendonca got rid of the veteran Henry Kennedy with a good leg-spinner being edged to gully. Troy Joseph got rid of both Bermuda all-rounders for golden ducks, Melford Griffith ran Dwarika out and Hislop sneaked through the defences of two tailenders as Bermuda were wrapped up for 100 runs and West Indies won by 19.

A close win for Scotland over UAE meant that West Indies managed to survive Division 2, barely might I add, as the Scots and Emiratis head to Division 3 whilst the Proteas and the Kenyans come up to Division 2. Bermuda will be stuck in Division 2 for another season as the demotees in the Kiwis and the Dutch wrap up the six-team league for Season 50 Twenty-20 Tour.

Performances of the Tour
The recently concluded tour wasn't upto the mark for the West Indies Board as West Indian batters failed to chase down totals thrice in three tries on flat decks, something they had never failed before. Thankfully, the two crumbling decks allowed our two legendary wrist spinners to attack and that saw us barely survive. Yet, in a tour with a rather big negative, a rather big question mark, there, like always, were a few performances and a few players that deserved to be cherished.

As mentioned earlier, the two highlights were the two wrist spinners. Jason Hislop ended with nine wickets across three fixtures, leaking 69 off the 10 completed overs he bowled whilst debut-tourer Kieron Mendonca ended the tour with 7 wickets, leaking 80 off of 12 overs. Four-fers from both lads against Scotland were absolutely fantastic. Troy Joseph's three-fer against Bermuda also helped West Indies clinch victory and survival in the tour. Also, equivalent praise should go to Archie O'Connor and Thornton Ishmael who made sure that they always were able to get an early wicket even if the side did not capitalise on that every game. Batters-wise, Reynold Nero hit a fantastic fifty and ended as West Indies' highest run scorer and Hubern King showcased some fantastic exploits with the bat with his superb hitting, ending with the best strike rate for West Indies with his 166.

The next Twenty-20 assignment would be the World Cup but a One-Day Tour would be soon to begin. Pitches and the tour location will be announced by tomorrow here. The squad will be announced in the following week in the forums. Before that, West Indies will be playing a few friendlies and it is always appreciated if you wanna support the side there or see the lads who are being given trial runs, as the matches will be added to the schedule on the West Indies team page here. Yet again, thanks for loaning your players for the tour and go support the West Indies U20 lads here.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:20 pm

West Indies NAT One Day 2- Division 2 Squad Announcement
As the lads were on the return flight from the previous assignment in the Twenty-20 Tour, mails were dropped informing them on their next assignment which is again in South Africa. It is rumoured that a few lads dropped a few curses in the mails of the department that arranges flights for these guys. They were much more interested in spending a few days enjoying themselves in Capetown rather than coming back and going again to play their club cricket. As any smart management board, we've blamed it all on the management party above us and the players were told this is all Crowfan's mistake;)

In more actual life and important news that my head didn't build up, South Africa have opted for Uneven, Hard and Green decks for the upcoming tour, in that order, wherein the 4 teams playing alongside them as hosts and ourselves would be Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland and Bangladesh. After 3 wins in Division 3 in the previous tour, a good tour here will heavily boost us on the ranking table leading to eventual World Cup qualification during Season 50's EOS. The 18 lads that'll get to experience luxury class on a private jet to South Africa, that has been booked to soothe their anger will be the following:

Aaron Munilall Golden Hacks CC Right-arm Fast Medium/ Right-hand Bat

Archie O'Connor Groundboys Left-arm Fast

Colin Ocsopy Middle Stump Lubricators Right-arm Fast [DEBUT]

Giles Williams Maiden Over CC Right-hand Bat

Hemraj Walsh Asterix & Obelix Right-hand Bat

Henry Harragin BgUINNES RAMs Right-hand Keeper Bat

Hubern King Mohito's Mohican XI Left-hand Bat

Jason Hislop Space Wolves Left-arm Wrist Spin

Len Thomas Caribbean Pirates Right-hand Bat

Leon Jumadeen High Risk High Return Right-hand Keeper Bat

Leonard Arthur Married Eleven Right-hand Bat

Melford Griffith Crni Zmajevi Cricket Club Right-hand Bat

Michael Stewart Herosnzeros Right-arm Fast Medium

Reynold Nero Queens Park Cricket Club Left-hand Bat

Satish Phillips ChePu 206 Right-arm Medium

Sugrim Hughes Queens Park Cricket Club Right-arm Fast

Thornton Ishmael Mewtwo Strikes Back Right-arm Fast

Troy Joseph Maiden Over CC Right-arm Finger Spin/ Right-hand Bat

The eighteen player squad includes a debut for right-arm quick Colin Oscopy whilst Sugrim Hughes gets his first international assignment for this season. Three spinners that toured in the Twenty-20 tour have been dropped with two quicks coming in for the young guys and Michael Stewart replacing Peter Griffin as a captaincy option. Leon Jumadeen and Leonard Arthur head for their first fifty over assignments with the former settling into the squad as his veteran counterpart Alfonso Van Spooge's international chapter looks to come to a close.

The fixtures have been released for the week as matches will begin on November 29 at 0800 Game Time with West Indies scheduled to play on 5 uneven decks in a row.

November 29- West Indies vs Bangladesh Uneven

November 30- West Indies vs South Africa Uneven

December 1- West Indies vs Netherlands Uneven

December 2- West Indies vs Kenya Uneven

December 3- West Indies vs Scotland Uneven

The tour can be followed via the link attached here. The final 5 matches of this season before we head to the World T20 and manager quirkilyalive is put to the tough task of continuing Maiden50's legacy in the tournament. Well, West Indies will be playing a couple of friendlies before heading off to South Africa once again, as we face the Bermudans and the Pakistanis for what we hope would be enthralling contests where we get all the bad luck out of our system.
Last edited by MOD-quirkilyalive on Tue Nov 30, 2021 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Senior NAT Discussion

Post by MOD-quirkilyalive » Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:24 pm

West Indies NAT One Day Tour 2- Division 2 Summaries
West Indies vs Bangladesh
To start the final tour of the season off, West Indies were facing Bangladesh on an uneven deck and the temperatures were on a cruising high. Skipper Giles Williams won the toss, and asked the Bangladeshis to bat first. Openers Ambathi Binny and Ehsanul Monir walked out and Thornton Ishmael started things off with a maiden as the nasty uneven pitch was making batting seem a scary task with the cracks on the surface allowing the ball to spook out of nowhere. Over 2, Archie O'Connor got rid of Monir for a duck as Bangladesh lost their first wicket before they got their first run. Over 3, Ishmael got two wickets and the Bangladeshis were staring at some struggle with the score being 9/3 after 3 overs. Thornton Ishmael got a fourth wicket as well, but opener Ambathi Binny stayed unbeaten throughout the powerplay, attempting to prod along as his mates got nitpicked by the West Indian quicks. Bangladesh were 31/4 after 10 as Binny and Amit Tendulkar were trying to build a partnership. Skipper Williams dropped Tendulkar in the 12th over, and if real cricket is any indication, dropping lads named Tendulkar hasn't gone down well for bowling sides. Giles Williams made amends for that mistake as Archie O'Connor got Binny's edge the first ball of his next spell and Williams held a soft catch at mid-on to send him packing as Bangladesh stared at 50/5. Then, Reynold Nero dropped Tendulkar the next over off of Munilall, a very similar catch to the first one infact. But, fortunately for the West Indian side, the introduction of Jason Hislop allowed him to get rid of Tendulkar as Tendulkar looked to attack Hislop and fell victim to some flash-quick stumping from Henry Harragin's gloves. 25 overs in, Bangladesh were 76/6 at drinks.

Thornton Ishmael was reintroduced post drinks and he got a wicket the very over he came back. Archie O'Connor got two from the other end next over, as both quicks had earned their four-wicket hauls. The Bangladeshis were 78/9 and the two quicks were racing to see which could get their fifer, but as fate would have it, it was neither, and it instead was Aaron Munilall, who got his first wicket after the two earlier drops with Reynold Nero making amends for the earlier drop with a clean catch at fine leg.

The 95-run chase started off with a flick from Hubern King that yielded three runs, but things went haywire moments later. Two overs in, both openers were gone and West Indies were 7/2. Giles Williams and Leonard Arthur calmed things down, but Williams fell towards the end of the powerplay and Arthur was run out post the powerplay. West Indies were put down to 36/4 after 10.1 overs as they seemed to be heading toward the same path of failing batters as their counterparts. Two decent lads that have come through the drill and have become decent mainstays of the current lineup in Reynold Nero and Henry Harragin changed the flow with a few boundaries as their counter-aggression put West Indies on top again. Harragin was dismissed to a slider from the Bangladeshi finger spinner Amit Argal, but he had pushed the side to 73/5 by the time he was gone, and Nero and Aaron Munilall pushed a few balls along and jogged a few singles for an easy chase, that ended before drinks, giving West Indies a decent net run rate boost as well

Other Results in Division 2
South Africa beat Scotland by 1 wicket.
Kenya beat Netherlands by 6 wickets.

Fixture on November 30: South Africa
Next game sees the second of five uneven decks alongside humid weather welcome South Africa and West Indies in the second round of the tour as both sides look to continue their good form.
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