Stumped!

[SillyCowCorner1]

To quote Eminem, "palms are sweaty".

This is some end to a game... the same feeling I felt when Roach and Seales took us home earlier a few months ago against Pakistan.

 

[StephenZA]

Reid dropping the match? Pressure telling.

 

[StephenZA]

@SillyCowCorner1 Nice from GG cc. Good game. Congrats.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Kasun Obeysekere punching above his weight. GG CC punching above their class.

They got there in the end with a cool head.

It was a classic game of cricket. TMO's were blazing in the first 40 overs in the match. They looked set for a 300+ score, but as soon as Reid completed his century, the wickets came tumbling down due to some disciplined bowling in the last 10 overs. A total of 257 seemed under-par.

All GG's batsmen had to do was keep up with the required rate...and at no point in the chase did it went past 6 an over; it was manageable.

TMO's trio of genuine fast bowlers (Viljoen, Ncanana, and Nsuzuka) caused panic. We saw Ncanana bowling with fire. His top speed was clocked at 104.4 mph! They were able to ruffle the feathers of the middle order batsmen..., but at the expense of pace, there was waywardness. Nsuzuka bowled 9 wides; Viljoen bowled 2 wides and 2 no-balls. The spinners took advantage of the fact that the batsmen were shaken up by the pace and fire...

The 21-run De Klerk over was the gamechanger.
And I am happy to see (1.5 million dollar-man) Ijaz getting stuck in and supported his fellow bowler Obeysekere.


All in all, a great game of cricket it was. I am delighted.
Thanks for the match, @StephenZA

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Good win for FHK in the end, just too many runs on the board.

Time for another ranking update

***** CC 2163 (=)
Free HK 2139 (=)
Dynamo Morpork 2133 (=)
Jura 2043 (=)
Dynamo Schmaltzberg 2007 (+2)
Winton 1957 (+2)
Ashgrove Astronauts 1951 (-1)
GG 1942 (+3)
ataraXIa 1937 (-4)
The Merry Orangutans 1921 (=)
Honest Hunks 1916 (-2)
Moooo 1892 (=)



(the rankings might not agree with the published rankings at the time, this is due to improvements in the ranking method)

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Mooo’s worm looks so good!

 

[ataraxia]

Peter Sutherland gets another captaincy cap today against the 52K rated TMO’s. GG are 5K lower than them.
Nevertheless, I expect a close contest.

Quite some stuff from TMO. I believe that that's the highest rating achieved by a CW team outside the big three (FHK, ZCC, Morpork).

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Congrats on the win, @ataraxia

Your guys played an all-round game. Kudos to them.

 

[ataraxia]

Congrats on the win, @ataraxia

Your guys played an all-round game. Kudos to them.

A close low-scoring match. Sublime stuff from Jasper Davey, routing the GG top order en route to 5-33. Resistance was offered by the Human brothers, notably Cornelius (55 off 85), but 168 looked below par. Nicky Clift, shuffled around to open, guided the innings with 70 (119) - that bore major resemblance to his 71 (118), also against GG CC. Jan du Preez stretched out a positive start into a fifty before falling for 51 (59), and Michael Winton saw off a somewhat anticlimactic death period with 23* (51) to ensure victory. 4 wickets, 3.5 overs remaining.

Disappointingly, Rusty Frost (see below) fell again for a low score. But he has a good excuse this time: the bowler was Babar Ijaz. (The GG opening bowlers remarkably reccorded combined figures of 20-2-59-1.)



Depressing stuff for an opener. His 9 defence pot looks to be working against him. Dunno how much longer I can reasonably have him opening in my SOD side.

 

[ataraxia]

irrelevant but some lolz Babar Ijaz facts

• Babar has only been dismissed only 5 times in 14 GG innings
• after 14 games, his batting (fr. 50) average is higher than his HS
• oh and by the way he has 34 wickets at 14

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

A close low-scoring match. Sublime stuff from Jasper Davey, routing the GG top order en route to 5-33. Resistance was offered by the Human brothers, notably Cornelius (55 off 85), but 168 looked below par. Nicky Clift, shuffled around to open, guided the innings with 70 (119) - that bore major resemblance to his 71 (118), also against GG CC. Jan du Preez stretched out a positive start into a fifty before falling for 51 (59), and Michael Winton saw off a somewhat anticlimactic death period with 23* (51) to ensure victory. 4 wickets, 3.5 overs remaining.

Disappointingly, Rusty Frost (see below) fell again for a low score. But he has a good excuse this time: the bowler was Babar Ijaz. (The GG opening bowlers remarkably reccorded combined figures of 20-2-59-1.)

View attachment 29582

Depressing stuff for an opener. His 9 defence pot looks to be working against him. Dunno how much longer I can reasonably have him opening in my SOD side.

Have you ever tried him down the order?

 

[ataraxia]

Have you ever tried him down the order?

I have, but his Opener trait works against him.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

irrelevant but some lolz Babar Ijaz facts

• Babar has only been dismissed only 5 times in 14 GG innings
• after 14 games, his batting (fr. 50) average is higher than his HS
• oh and by the way he has 34 wickets at 14

When you buy a guy for over a million and a half, you'd expect to see him stepping up in crucial games and make substantial contributions.

He's no Chris Morris lol

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I have, but his Opener trait works against him.

Still, it's no worrying to see him producing low score after low score....he needs some time in the nets!

 

[ataraxia]

Defence!

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Defense is what win you championships.

 

[ataraxia]

Season 29 preview:

I've been promoted to division 2 in T20 and Dev! However, I was facing only one human opponent in each, and my previous Dev league hasn't got any humans now as The Clay went bot.

In Dev 2.3 the focus will be squarely on IGT, with winning matches just a small aside. I'll have a better idea of the strength of my opponents after the first couple of matches.

In T20 2.1 I'll be looking to stay in division 2. That will be tough with only 2 of the other teams being below or at my level, but I'll be hoping I can squeeze out enough wins and bonus points to get to 5th. I'll be establishing my best side in the Big Bash friendly competition.

In SOD 3.2 the number 68 in the world has dropped into my division. Facing up against a 60+K team does not look good. And as there's another 50K team in my league promotion looks unlikely. Hope for the best.

Wages have been updated and my squad will cost a lot more. A bit scary that Frans Potgieter has suddenly leapfrogged my senior players in recording a $2.5k wage increase. I'm probably going to cull a senior player when I get knocked out of the Cup. Got a bot bash up in that first, yay.

I'm also looking at getting a homegrown affiliate in time for CWC4.

 

[JOJOXI]

I had 19/20 skilled coaches for a while. Had to let them go this season because i couldn't handle the wages.

What level of potential are you looking for?

Just anyone half decent tbh who is 20 or younger and has at least some room to grow. Got 9 players with 40+ bowling potential. Although only 1 of them was brought in recently who has the highest potential at 47.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

What are we gonna do with this one?




His bowling average showed 6.58, so I didn't hesitate to grab him.

 

[ataraxia]

SOD against FHK: they batted first, scoring 246-8 on the back of a tremendous 126 (112) 5th-wicket partnership between Tin Yau (84 off 104) and Nathan Law (69 off 51). Clinical bowling from the top quicks, Davey and Ludlow, 20-2-62-4. Not so much from the spinners, 22-1-135-2.

Will be an interesting chase.