England League and Cup Discussion

[Atko]

Yep -

Egham Town CC won by 6 wickets

Match Ratings
Egham Town CC The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,498 14,772
Batting - Middle Order 11,730 11,096
Batting - Tail 5,247 4,480
Bowling - Seam 14,627 (30) 14,593 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,793 (20) 15,212 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,181 18,601
Overall 243,666 246,921

I think it's fair to say I've screwed up the tactics in my last two games...must do better ...

[spark]

Ruff Royals All Leeds Aren't We
Batting - Top Order 13,828 13,363
Batting - Middle Order 12,266 10,327
Batting - Tail 4,866 5,785
Bowling - Seam 14,411 (30) 12,958 (50)
Bowling - Spin 13,338 (20) 0 (0)
Fielding/Keeping 17,288 16,878
Overall 240,751 227,540

Ruff Royals won by 7 wickets

It turned out to be a comfortable win in the end. 59 runs for Mills got us off to a good start, 38 runs for Dickerson helped, but House was the best with 69 not out from 71 balls as we won with about 12 overs to spare.

[casperj]

Windy / Green is the new Overcast / Sticky!! 137 all out versus 138/6.

Papa Pneumatic Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 11,363 11,426
Batting - Middle Order 9,450 12,518
Batting - Tail 4,260 6,735
Bowling - Seam 11,831 (50) 12,044 (40)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 14,519 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 13,830 15,772
Overall 196,680 225,995

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 4 wickets

Playing the top of the table team next week. Will be back in the running for promotion if we can win that!

[Atko]

Cricket Allstars vs The Raging Speed Horns
Cup Matt Krevs Memorial Cup

Weather Cloudy
Pitch Crumbling

In the wee small hours we visited Bangladesh to take on Cricket Allstars. I mentioned last week that I saw this match as a gimme, and accordingly dispensed my B Team to Cricket Allstars CG to do the business. Being a bit of a night owl, I was around to watch the first few overs. At this juncture -

End of over 16 (9 runs) - Cricket Allstars(70-1) RR 4.38

- I was all , and went to bed thinking, what a stinking week it had been for The Horns.

However, the morning brought sunshine and happiness -

Result : The Raging Speed Horns won by 6 wickets

I'm glad I didn't watch. Although we restricted them to 167-10, we managed to lose our top 3 (best) batsmen for 63 runs. With three actual batsmen remaining, aged 22, 21 and 21, I would have been all again, only dialled up to 11. In the end, it was those three youngsters who brought it home .

The ratings suggest it should have been a walk in the park anyway -

Match Ratings
Cricket Allstars The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 7,418 11,656
Batting - Middle Order 5,308 8,105
Batting - Tail 4,383 5,192
Bowling - Seam 7,406 (36) 10,419 (40)
Bowling - Spin 6,197 (14) 10,064 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 8,328 14,130
Overall 124,376 188,753

- but we were, early on, a wicket or two from disaster.

To be playing a side as weak as this in round 3 underlines the great fortune we've had with our cup route this year. However, and here's the rub, all matches have been away, and as you can guess, at tiny gounds. The main reason I play the cup is for income, so this has not been a profitable start.

Ah well, mustn't grumble. We've finally got a big fish next week, and with an appropriately sized ground. (Insert three choruses of We're in The Money.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 4 wickets

S.A Coyote's Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 10,615 9,080
Batting - Middle Order 8,702 11,130
Batting - Tail 4,414 6,178
Bowling - Seam 10,721 (40) 10,297 (37)
Bowling - Spin 10,029 (10) 10,763 (13)
Fielding/Keeping 13,516 14,017
Overall 183,972 193,520

They rated a little higher than I was expecting but I wouldn't have changed the team I picked anyway. We were made to bowl first on a green pitch and didn't bowl well with my pacier bowlers being a bit too expensive for my liking. That meant we had a considerable total of 273 to chase.

It wasn't the best of starts with the bat either as we were reduced to 3-45 although my best bats were in positions four to five. It was those better bats that got the bulk of the runs with Durham managing 46, Schwartz 53, and Laurence 72.

This win was quite possibly my last win in the MKMC this season as I've no intention of getting my players too fatigued so I'll probably rate about the same next week.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Mohun Bagan
Batting - Top Order 11,054 12,682
Batting - Middle Order 11,404 10,723
Batting - Tail 6,052 5,574
Bowling - Seam 13,097 (30) 12,023 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,766 (20) 11,898 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 14,571 14,908
Overall 218,532 214,812

Very tough draw for the 3rd round. Not helped by my opponet having walkover match on Friday, and spending £500k on a spin allrounder earlier in the week.Had to go pretty strong with the line up, and even then wasn;t sure of the victory.

They set 235 on an overcast/dry which I thought would be more than enough, but their bowling attacked proved strangely ineffective, and recent signing Bunworth FINALLY got a score (127*) to get us home surprisingly comfortably

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Egham Town CC
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League Youth Twenty20 1.1
Date 13 May 24 10:00
Crowd 10,297
Weather Windy
Pitch Uneven

It's going to be another tough game. A loss and we could slip into the relegation zone but win and we could start giving ourselves a touch of breathing space.

[wolfberries]

Home wolfberries
Away The Spitfires
Ground wolfberries CG
League Youth Twenty20 3.2
Date 13 May 24 10:00
Crowd 7,679
Weather Windy
Pitch Slow

Toss: wolfberries won the toss and elected to bowl.

The curtain falls on the innings of The Spitfires. Now, the spotlight shifts to wolfberries, who will be tasked with chasing a target of 123. Let the chase begin!

Happy enough chasing that total, whether we do only time will tell. Playing top who are unbeaten so it won't be easy.

[spark]

R. Reynolds (rfm) 4-0-32-0, J. Huddlestone 67 (44b), B. Brownlie 45 (36b)
End of over 20 (12 runs) - Egham Town CC(171-4) RR 8.55

That's going to be too much for us to chase.

J. O'Leary (rf) 1-0-6-3, L. Foot 1 (1b), D. Howe 5 (2b)
End of over 2 (6 runs) - Ruff Royals(12-3). 160 runs required from 18 overs. RR 6.00 RRR 8.89

Especially after having my 3 best batters taken out in just 1 over.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks hindy12
Batting - Top Order 4,875 4,293
Batting - Middle Order 4,210 4,575
Batting - Tail 2,972 3,203
Bowling - Seam 5,468 (12) 3,874 (16)
Bowling - Spin 5,279 (8) 5,836 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 6,230 8,219
Overall 90,909 91,073

Second sucussive tied match in youth T20!! Looked like we were going to register our first win, but conceded 21 off the last over on a slow wicket!!!

[spark]

Egham Town CC won by 47 runs


Ruff Royals Egham Town CC
Batting - Top Order 8,366 7,800
Batting - Middle Order 4,806 5,161
Batting - Tail 3,707 3,948
Bowling - Seam 6,307 (16) 7,214 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,437 (4) 5,966 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 9,607 9,104
Overall 124,299 124,580

Not great. We didn't bowl well enough especially towards the end. Then O'Leary took out our 3 best batters in one over to kill any chance we had to chase a too big total. The positives are that Foot put in his best T20 batting performance with 54 and so did Fuls with 36. Also we didn't drop in to the relegation zone but only just.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries The Spitfires
Batting - Top Order 7,959 7,065
Batting - Middle Order 5,340 5,644
Batting - Tail 3,271 3,263
Bowling - Seam 6,702 (8) 7,211 (14)
Bowling - Spin 6,173 (12) 5,658 (6)
Fielding/Keeping 9,895 7,137
Overall 124,626 115,768

Result: wolfberries won by 4 wickets

Coasted to victory in the end, we really need to promote from division 3 this season.

[spark]

M. Patterson (rfs) 3-0-20-1, A. Ford 10 (12b), J. O'Sullivan 20 (22b)
End of over 13 (5 runs) - YorkshireTykes(57-3) RR 4.38

Slow pitch. Rush was great and finished with 2 wickets for 3 runs from his 4 overs.

[casperj]

This is why I dislike batting first..

V. Lester (rf) 2-0-16-0, J. Wambua 45 (47b), B. Luckmini 36 (26b)
End of over 12 (8 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(83-0) RR 6.92

H. Simpson (rfm) 4-0-19-2, L. Royes 7 (7b), D. Snider 1 (1b)
End of over 20 (3 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(132-4) RR 6.60

Going at nearly 7 an over, with all wickets in hand, but then mysterioulsy de-celerate through the remainder of the innings. Wickets weren't a problem (2 of the 4 to fall only went down it the last over) but end up with a under-par score despite not really ever being at risk of getting bowled out. Last 8 overs only realised 3 boundaries, and one of those was off a misfield!

[spark]

We were expensive towards the end even on a slow pitch. A 13-run over followed by a 21-run over followed by a 14-run over. This total is still chaseable but it's just going to be harder than it looked like it was going to be.

J. Westerveld (rfs) 4-0-39-1, S. Rana 44 (26b), T. Farnsworth 0 (2b)
End of over 20 (3 runs) - YorkshireTykes(122-5) RR 6.10