4 Way Cup

[Rich2001]

The 4 Way Cup inculding Kent, Hamps, Lancs and ND, Kicked of today with Kent playing Lancs in both home and away games (only because nobody else had sumited their team yet).


ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE GAME, SO IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE SCORECARD FIRST PLEASE SKIP TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST, Don't forget to come back though







Lancashire Struggle In Kent Opener

In the first game the Kent boys travled North with a second string bowling attack, with the aim of practice and seeing the new boys in action rather than fielding the same X1 for every game.

Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat first on the new track (named the demon pitch by Graham 6-6-6) and he was about to see the demon released onto his batsman as Lancashire never really got going throughout the inngs, with wickets falling all over the place, former Kent batsman R.Dravid was the only stand out hitting a very soild 43* (102). None of other batsman got passed 24.

The second string bowling of Kent had a fantastic day and all the bowlers contributed with the left arm bowling of Sheriyar casuing all sorts of trouble for the batsman in a fine opening display (12 - 1 - 38 - 3) and Indian spinner H.Singh also had the batsman in a spin (sorry coundn't help the pun) finishing with fine figures of (10 - 2 - 26 - 3).

Lancashire's 1st Inngs - 176ao - 57 Overs

In reply Kent were suffering the same as Lancashire's batsman with the top 3 falling with only 42 on the board, however new signing VVS Laxman and Andy Flower resuced the inngs in style and both guys made their 50's in the same over. With the Kent taking a 3 run lead VVS Laxman fell for a well worked 64, M.Rice picking his 3rd wicket up for the inngs.... Dan Marsh walked to the middle to accompany Andy Flower and was clean bowled for a 3 ball duck, M.Rice again the bowler. The inngs was heading for a free fall from a very strong positson of 179/4 to 179/5 and only one reconzied batsman really remaining in the hut. South African internation N.McKenzie a close season signing from Lancashire rivals Yorkshire was keen to impress and went about supporting the free scoring Flower. The pair were looking good until young rookie sensation S.Harwood was bought back into the attack first he claimed the vital wicket of Flower for 78 and in his next over taking McKenzie trapped right infront. Hutton (4) and Singh (7) didn't hang around either and giving Sullivan his first wicket in Lancashire colours and Harwood his 4th. McCague offered some resistance to the bowling hitting a defient 11 (18) and Sheriyar hanging in their to offer support.

Altogeter Kent fell away from a strong positson of 179/4 to 237ao

S Harwood was easily the standout of the bowling taking fine figures of 17 - 8 - 40 - 5 with good support from M.Rice (22 - 4 - 65 - 4)

Kent's 1st Inngs - 237ao - 79 Overs

Lancashire required a big 2nd inngs to offer themselves any chance of a win, and yet again the batting failed in an identical copy of the 1st, everyone got starts but all got themselves out. This time it was yet another former Kent player who saved the inngs, M.Walker hit a quickfire 30 (39) and K.Sullivan 37 (57) hang around to give the inngs some respectablity, however the last wicket fell with only 182 on the board.

The bowling figures were nearly identical with both Sheriyar and Singh again taking 3 wickets each

A Sheriyar (9 - 2 - 33 - 3)
H Singh (7- 2 - 24 - 3)

With McCague and Hutton offering very handy support each taking 2 wickets.

Lancashire's 2nd Inngs - 182ao - 45 Overs

Kent's openers M.Wood and H.Gibbs went in knowing that 121 was the target on this tough batting pitch, but the pair stuck at the task and easied the scoring along. As the Lancashire bowlers seemed to be giving up any hope the batsman up'ed the tempo and Gibbs bought his 50 up with only 20 runs needed. M.Wood not to be out done let fly with a monster 6 to bring up his soild 50 (105) and Gibbs hit the winning runs with a super cover drive.

M.Wood 50* (105) -- H.Gibbs 62* (84)

Kent's 2nd Inngs - 123/0 - 32 Overs


Kent Won By 10 Wickets - H.Singh Was Named The MOM













Report on the return match soon

(If the scorecards just appear as continual text, just save it and re-open from your computer)

 

[Rich2001]

ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE GAME, SO IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE SCORECARD FIRST PLEASE SKIP TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST, Don't forget to come back though
















Allen / Laxman Give Lancashire A Scare In A Batting Masterclass


As the Lancashire coach came rolling up the drive, all the Kent faithfull felt that with a 2nd string attack destorying a strong Lancashire side, what would they do today with a nearly first X1 side.

As the two captain's meeting in the middle, yet again the Lancashire called correct and once again decided to bat first on a track that looked like an perfect pitch for everyone.

Lancashire 1st Inngs

Lancashire had memories flooding back from earlier in the week when S.Hutton was thrown the new ball and destoryed the top order, reducing them to 46/4 in no time at all (Schiller, Ramprakash, Baumgarner & Beasley) all back having a cup of coffee in the hut. Unfortunatly the Kent bowlers couldn't keep the pressure on and the hugely experinced Indian duo R.Dravid and J.Madanagopal lead a massive fight back. R.Dravid played one of his tipical inngs long and slow, but the main thing was he hung in there and kept the scoring ticking over while Madanagopal played a more attacking inngs and taking bigger risks. After a fine stand of 88, the young super spinner was introduced into the attack for immeditate success having Madanagopal stummped behind by the ever-safe Andy Flower - (132/5)

Mendis was the new batsman and Hawkins turned the game back into the favour of Kent when he had him caught behind for just 2 in his very next over. With Dravid keeping one end tight Lancashire were desprate for someone to hang around and offer him some support, however strike bowler Saggers was thrown the ball and struck stright away removing Kellar for a nicly worked 12 (24). Just when Kent had the felling of dissmissing the tail with ease, Lancashire found a unlikly hero with the bat, Pushpakumara came to the middle and played a fantastic know that was just what the Red Roses needed. The pair added a monster 153 for the 8th wicket and gave the Lancashire a much better looking score, Pushpakumara just reached his 50 before the spinner Hawkins accounted for him and fellow part-time spinner Dan Marsh soon accounted for the main wicket of Dravid before he did anymore damage and Hawkins just finished of the tail with ease.

Hutton (22 - 4 - 91 - 4) & Hawkins (13 - 1 - 53 - 4) the star bolwers


Lancashire's 1st Inngs - 312 - 60 Overs


Kent's 1st Inngs

M.Wood and H.Gibbs came out to bat with that 2nd inngs in the last match still fresh in everyones minds, the pair started in simalar fashion with Gibbs going out of the blocks at a fighting pace, Woods again content to play a solid inngs was unluckly when he miss timed a hook and it went stright down the neck of 3rd man for just 10 (23) - 35/1

Gibbs was joined by star batsman B.Allen who was yet to hit top gear so far, he started well and the pair formed a fine parternship and were finding the spaces with ease, Gibbs then ficked a leg side ball off his pads to take the easy single to register his 2nd 50 in a row, unfortunatly for Kent soon after B.Allen edged to 2nd slip were the stand-in WK was waiting for a regulation catch of the bowling of Kellar - 102/2

Kellar's first wicket was about to be the start of something very very special, with Laxman arriving at the middle Gibbs was about to head the other way when A.Dale had him caught on the ropes. 150/3

Flower (5), Laxman (25), McKenzine (12), Marsh (7), Hutton (10), Hawkins (4), Murtagh (4*) and Saggers (0) - All fell quicker than Adam Gillchirst's batting! With ALL but Marsh being vitmins of Kellar's bowling :O

Without a doubt Lancashire's star man was Kellar (22 - 5 - 71 - 7)

Kent's 1st Inngs - 199ao - 64 Overs

Lancashire's 2nd Inngs - Lead by 113 Runs

Well at this point the manager was forced to leave the ground and when returned Kent had won, thanks and good night

No? Oh well if iam forced to write this iam going to keep it short :!(

A Schiller run out 58 (117)
M Ramprakash c V Laxman b T Hawkins 47 (72)
K Baumgarner c T Hawkins b T Murtagh 11 (28)
R Dravid b S Hutton 82 (103)
O Beasley not out 118 (177)
J Madanagopal b M Saggers 3 (3)
M Mendis not out 63 (88)
Extras ( w3 nb1 b2 lb10 ) 16

Lancashire's 2nd Inng - 398/5 dec - 98 Overs - Sorry Graham, but that's just not on

Kent's 2nd Inngs - Req 511 to Win (from about 157 overs)

Well with little chance of a win for the Kent lads, batting for pratice and a draw was maybe the order of the day. (HAHA That's not the Kent attidtue )

Wood and Gibbs strolled out to the middle, feeling about 25 overs should be enough to kncok the runs off @ about 20 rpo

Wood once again failed for a painfully slow 8 (34) Kellar carrying on where he left off in the first inngs - 1/14

But maybe that was in the best intrest of Kent as it bought the star batsman to the middle and he and Gibbs well to be honest destoryed the Lancashire attack to all parts of the Canterbury ground. The 100 stand came and went and the Lancashire attack was looking desprate for a wicket and were going up for everything that was even remotly close to the pad. With the stand on 135 Lancashire finally got a underseved break through when Gibbs who had just recorded his 3rd 50 in a row (out of 4) fell to the highly experianced Pushpakumara for 60. - 149/2

Any hope that another mass wicket fall would come were dissmissed when Laxman stright away went after the attack and continued his fine form from the last inngs, both men pummpled the attack and both reached their 50's inside a few overs of each others, they continued to dominate the game and continued to score freely and the only competition was which batsman could outdo the other ..... the pair went past the 50, 100, 150 stands before B.Allen made it to the 100* mark first, not to be out done Laxman also reached his milestone just a few overs later. The pair reach the 200* stand and were looking aweson, not only that but with the 350/2 reached the target of 512 was looking like it could well be reached before the overs ran out. Another 32 runs were added to the stand (232) before VVS Laxman (126) lost consentration and edged to his Indian team mate (Dravid) in the slips. - 381/3

After such a fantastic display of batting Andy Flower musthave been rubbing his hands with the chance to get out there and among all those runs, YOU WOULD THINK!!!!! Andy Flower took the game with him falling for a 2 ball duck. - 381/4

Even with 6 wickets remaining the Kent lower order again falled to hit some form with McKenzine (13), Marsh (5), Hutton (8), Hawkins (2) and Saggers (6)

It was down to Allen to win the match and after a fall of wickets he only had Murtagh and Saggers to bat with, dispite a valient effort the man was left with just to much to do ending up throwing his wicket away on 165, in attempt to get the score in a close enough margin that the bowlers might be able to slogg their way to, with Allen gone for 165 it was down to Murtagh and Saggers to get the side home, and well it doesn't take much to know that a 10 & 11 are up against it at the best of times, they made the pain last a matter of mins before Saggers was yet another catch for Dravid.

Lancashire only used 4 bowlers (Beasley the 5th only bowled 5) and their figures shows, the long hard toll, the best of the bunch were

E Kellar - (35 - 9 - 103 - 3)
M Pushpakumara - (27 - 4 - 81 - 3)

Kent's 2nd Inngs - Chasing 512 To Win - 443ao - (130 Overs)

Lancashire Win By 68 Runs

R.Dravid was named MOM for his 221 Runs and 7 catches


Kent Manager would like to thank Lancashire's team/manager (Graham) for some fantastic cricket over the two games and for some very handy pre-season cricket for the side to see how the players are after the break, We look forward to seeing you again in the final (if there is one, or is it just a league?)

 

[Rich2001]

Kent vs Lancashire @ Canterbury

Scorecard attached

(If the scorecards just appear as continual text, just save it and re-open from your computer)

 

[Rich2001]

Curent Table

Lancashire - 19
Kent - 15
Hamps - 0
ND - 0

 

[Rich2001]

Lancashire vs ND

Scorecard attached

 

[Rich2001]

ND vs Lancs

Scorecard attached

 

[Rich2001]

ND vs Kent

Scorecard attached, I might get around to writting reports for these games a bit later (doubt they will be the lenght of the Lancs ones though!)

 

[Rich2001]

Kent vs ND

Scorecard attached, Report as above ^^^^^^^ post

Can you blieve that a guy who avg just 12!!! had the nerve to hit 61 against me!

Eyes iam not sure what the idea was but you had loads of good FD players in your side yet you played guys avg well under 20 from 5 downwards??? even number 4 only avg 23.

 

[Rich2001]

Current Table

Lancashire - Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1, Drawn 0, Bat 8, Bowl 10, Total 48

Kent - Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1, Drawn 0, Bat 4, Bowl 12, Total 46

ND - Played 4, Won 0, Lost 4, Drawn 0, Bat 1, Bowl 7, Total 8

Hamps - Played 0, Won 0, Lost 0, Drawn 0, Bat 0, Bowl 0, Total 0

 

[Rich2001]

ND vs Kent @ The WestPac Trust Stadium

The M.Saggers Show!

ND entered the cup, by entertaining Kent at home in New Zealand. Last season ND failed to deliver the goods and when the Kent lads arrived the batsman sat in the dressing room and were shocked to see 6 bowlers on the opposition team sheet, needless to say the bowlers were licking their lips at the oppotunity

ND 1st Inngs

The ND side got a nice looking start, however they decided to defend a bit to much and paid the price with M.Saggers removing both openers within the space of 10 runs, S Fleming 29 (80) & S Styris 41 (94). Two become 4! with Saggers getting R Hart for a golden duck and then N Pillon for a two ball duck. J Rhodes offered some resistance with a well worked 27 (37), at the other end though wickets continued to fall at regular spaces.... N.Bracken offered a solid 16 (57) before the young spinner Hawkins had him caught behind by the ever reliable Andy Flower. D Vettori went for a two ball duck to the young paceman T. Murtagh. The tail offered some resistance but nothing to concernce the Kent bowlers and they polished them off quite quickly.

M Saggers - (13 - 5 - 22 - 4)
T Hawkins - (14 - 2 - 49 - 3)
T Murtagh - (9 - 3 - 23 - 2)

ND 1st Inngs - 177 All out - 65 Overs


Kent's 1st Inngs

Matty Wood continued his fine run of form with a fantastic 1 (4), and Gibbs fine form (no really mean it this time) ended with a dissapointing 14 (26) - 2/30.

The pair that nearly saw the Kent side home vs Lancashire were forced to do another re-building job this time they only added 70 runs before Allen was dismissed for 37, falling LBW to N.Bracken.

Yet again very worrying for Kent manager one wicket ment two wickets with Laxman falling just 8 runs later for a well worked 40 (62) - 108/4

BUT this time Kent didn't crumble and Andy Flower hit a welcome return to form aided superbly by McKenzie 48 (68) in his first real score for the team. Dan Marsh also finally hit some form with a support role of 30 to back up Flower, even Hutton got some useful runs (19).

Andy Flower was finally dismissed for 95, by the standout bowler N.Bracken (18 - 7 - 43 - 4)

Kent's 1st Inngs - 312 All out - 100 Overs


ND's 2nd Inngs

ND 2nd inng's started 100% better with the opening pair putting on a fine 100 run opening stand, but when S.Fleming was dismissed for 61 (74) and S Styris 76 (104), things fell away big time with only two more players reaching double figures.

M.Saggers was the star taking (22 - 7 - 64 - 7)

ND's 2nd Inngs - 239ao - 67 Overs


Kent's 2nd Inngs - Chasing Just over 100 to win

Kent knocked of the the runs in just 26 overs, losing Wood (12) and Allen 18 (22), but it was never a worry as Gibbs 44* and Laxman 32* took Kent to the victory.

Kent 2nd Inngs - 108/2 - 26 Overs

Kent Win By 8 Wickets - MOM M.Saggers

 

[Rich2001]

Anyone else fancy posting :saint:

 

[Eyes_Only]

Kent vs ND

Scorecard attached, Report as above ^^^^^^^ post

Can you blieve that a guy who avg just 12!!! had the nerve to hit 61 against me!

Eyes iam not sure what the idea was but you had loads of good FD players in your side yet you played guys avg well under 20 from 5 downwards??? even number 4 only avg 23.

Just seeing where the players will fit in the final squad.... this will not be the final order...

 

[Eyes_Only]

Anyone else fancy posting :saint:

Not really Rich...

You have outdone yourself yet again!:P

 

[lord_of_darkness]

yea why stop when ur going so good :P

 

[Graham]

Marvellous job Rich. What else can I say except thanks! I anticipate a real scrap in Division 2 4D and these games only serve to strengthen my belief.
Roll on the games against Hampshire!

 

[Rich2001]

Marvellous job Rich. What else can I say except thanks! I anticipate a real scrap in Division 2 4D and these games only serve to strengthen my belief.
Roll on the games against Hampshire!

Thanks guys

The rest of the matches and the Final matches will be done tommorow, it's top 2 meet in a final and 3rd and 4th place meet as well.... I found out from Lord tonight.

Graham at least you wont face Laxman anymore (bar that final of course!)

 

[Eyes_Only]

Great Rich...

Look forward to it!

 

[lord_of_darkness]

yea and i think its a double round robin i said in the thread so if im right eacht team playes each other 3 times

 

[Graham]

Each team plays each other home and away only mate.

 

[Rich2001]

Hamps vs ND

Scorecard attached