*Official* England in Cricketweb Land February/March 2010

[Jarquis]

England Lineup To Face Cricketweb Land in Third Test :

In a shocking announcement England have announced that they will hand out three Test debuts in ttheir final Test match against Cricketweb Land in the hope to avoid a series whitewash. Opener Alastair Cook has been dropped after inconsistency with the willow, despite making several starts the left handers top score in the two Tests so far is just 40. His replacement Michael Carberry was in fantastic form in the warmup matches and will be hoping to make the opening spot his for the forseeable future. In the middle order Paul Collingwood has been ditched after a series of failures with 94 runs in six innings on the tour so far. His replacement is the young spinning allrounder Adil Rashid who appeared competent enough with the bat in hand in his warmup appearances but Rashid's bowling will also play a part in England's quest for victory. Whilst being expensive in the warmup games it is hoped that Rashid's leg spin may provide a handy alternative to his main four bowlers for captain Andrew Strauss. As for the bowling department itself, after two laboured Test matches from Ryan Sidebottom he has been dropped in preference for Durham seamer Mark Davies. Whilst Sidebottom's new ball partner Graham Onions has not performed particularly well so far on tour, Sidebottom was deemed to be in the worse form of the pair so it is he who makes way. The England management hope that Davies will be able to provide the quick, ear strikes with the ball that have so far deserted England.

AJ Strauss
M Carberry
IJL Trott
KP Pietersen
IR Bell
MJ Prior
AU Rashid
GP Swann
SCJ Broad
G Onions
M Davies

 

[Simon]

Cricketweb XI vs England
@ PDV Dome (3rd test)

Scorecard
Ball By Ball

Cricketweb XI came into the third and final test against England with an unchanged side as they were looking for a clean sweep of the visiting side. England had themelves made three changes with Michael Carberry, Mark Davies and Adil Rashid all gaining their first test caps and with their pride on the line they would have been hoping for an improved showing.

Andrew Strauss again won the toss and England decided to have a bat, after some poor showings with the willow in this series they would have been hoping to post a good first innings total, strauss and Michael Carberry got England off to a decent start by posting a 72 run stand and it was the skipper who fell first for 24 and he was soon followed for Johnathan Trott who struggled in making 14, the rest of the middle order produced little more than starts as Carberry stuck at his task before reaching a debut test century, his 225 ball stay at the crease ended when he holed out to Nick Borcich of Neil Pickup for 112, in amongs the fanfare of Carberry's hundred and later on Matt Prior's 97, Graeme Swann's maiden test century almost went unnoticed as the spin bowling all rounder made a mockery of the Cricketweb XI bowlers by scoring 110 not out from 98 balls. David Kennett continued his fine series with 4/106 while Neil Pickup took 3/66, England were all out for 438 in what was easily their most committed performance of the series.

The in form Cricketweb XI batsman would have fancied their chances of overhauling England's total and setting up the match, vice captain Dan Smith was first to go when his fluent innings of 30 ended with the score at 49, fellow CW Black batsman Andrew Cloete looked in excellent form as he compiled 70 before falling to Stuart Broad, Sean Fuller narrowly missed out on a maiden test century but would have been satisfied to silence the critics with a hard fought knock of 94. Chris Butler was again the star of the show though as the CW Colts star belted his way to a score of 169 and with the support of Rob Bowen who smashed 70 in super quick time, Hakon Mork who again looked at home in the lower order with 43 and Mike Wilson who made 48 had guided the home side to a huge total of 620, England debutaunt Mark Davies showed he has the ability to perform at this level by taking 4/93 while his more experienced seam partners Graham Onions and Stuart Broad went for plenty of runs.

With their hopes of a consolation victory dashed England would have been hoping to bat their way to a draw in the second innings but the Cricketweb XI bowlers had other idea's, when Nick Borcich removed Strauss in the second over the home fans could sense a collapse, but with some determined batting from the top order it seemed likely that England could perhaps save the game. But as per usual in this series once the home sides bowlers got on a roll there was little that England could do about it, Carberry, Trott and Bell all looked likely but couldnt convert while Pietersen and Prior did little after going to half centuries, the one highlight though for England was the second debutaunt in the game to score a century as Adil Rashid made a calm 109 after his first innings golden duck. Stuart Broad smashed 38 late on as David Kennett completed a fine game by taking 3/73 while Mike Wilson, Sean Fuller and Neil Pickup all took 2 each, England were all out for 366.

It was always going to be a comfortable chase for Cricketweb XI to complete their 3-0 series whitewash. Chasing 185 to win the game there was little the English bowlers could do to prevent the home side easily knocking off the runs, Dan Smith completed what was another successful series personally by making 63 not out while Andrew Cloete played his best knock of the summer in scoring 77, Chris Butler joined Dan Smith to hit the winning runs and the match was over in little over 35 overs, an 8 wickets win to Cricketweb XI.

England First Innings 438
MA Carberry 112, GP Swann 110*, MJ Prior 97, DM Kennett 4/106, NS Pickup 3/66

Cricketweb XI First Innings 620
CR Butler 169, SE Fuller 94, AP Cloete 70, RF Bowen 70, M Davies 4/93

England Second Innings 366
AU Rashid 109, MJ Prior 54, KP Pietersen 51, DM Kennett 3/73

Cricketweb XI Second Innings 187/2
AP Cloete 77, DP Smith 63*, SCJ Broad 1/28

Cricketweb XI won by 8 wickets
Man of the Match: DM Kennett (CW XI)

 

[Agent TBY]

Rashid..

 

[Jarquis]

**** me Rashid, Bryce McGain 2.0
Getting trounced in all three Tests is a bit of a joke tbh.
Chance of some stats Simon?

 

[Simon]

Yes they'll be coming very soon, be patient. These things take time.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah, apologies. I didn't mean right here right now, just wasn't sure if England's stats would be posted.

 

[Travis_Teh]

Hah, Butler robbed of MotM, I reckon. Kinda weird Kennett nightwatchmen decision, too.

Well done Sean, almost the ton

Whitewash for CW, good times.

 

[Simon]

Hah, Butler robbed of MotM, I reckon. Kinda weird Kennett nightwatchmen decision, too.

Well done Sean, almost the ton

Whitewash for CW, good times.

Kennett taking 7/179 on that deck when most other bowlers struggled is a good effort.

I stand by the Kennett nightwatchman decision too, was about 10 minutes before stumps, no point risking Bowen, given how they both went it seems the right call.

 

[Simon]

Cricketweb XI Batting

Player                     T     I   NO    Runs   Avge  HS   100   50   Ct  St
C.R. Butler                3     4    1     316 105.33 169     1    1    3   0
H. Mørk                    3     3    1     200 100.00  95     0    2    7   0
M.W. Wilson                3     3    1     180  90.00 100     1    0    4   0
D.P. Smith                 3     5    1     342  85.50 157     1    2    3   0
A.P. Cloete                3     5    1     329  82.25 129     1    2    2   0
R.F. Bowen                 3     3    0     209  69.67 105     1    1    2   0
RGEWS Cribb                1     1    0      49  49.00  49     0    0    2   0
S.E. Fuller                3     5    1     161  40.25  94     0    1    1   0
W.A. Kerr                  2     2    0      77  38.50  65     0    1    2   0
D.M. Kennett               3     2    1      30  30.00  28     0    0    7   0
N.A. Borcich               3     2    1      25  25.00  16*    0    0    1   0

Cricketweb XI Bowling

                                                                          5 10
Player                     T        O     M    Runs  Wkts   Avge  Best   wI wM
D.M. Kennett               3    122.0    15     389    17  22.88  4-36    0  0
N.S. Pickup                3    113.4    20     343    12  28.58  3-66    0  0
S.E. Fuller                3     99.3    11     322    10  32.20  3-61    0  0
M.W. Wilson                3    112.0    33     280     8  35.00  3-34    0  0
D.P. Smith                 3      8.0     0      43     1  43.00  1-29    0  0
N.A. Borcich               3    134.2    21     493    10  49.30  5-76    1  0

England Batting

Player                     T     I   NO    Runs   Avge  HS   100   50   Ct  St
M.A. Carberry              1     2    0     138  69.00 112     1    0    0   0
A.U. Rashid                1     2    0     109  54.50 109     1    0    1   0
G.P. Swann                 3     6    2     197  49.25 110*    1    1    3   0
M.J. Prior                 3     6    0     248  41.33  97     0    3    5   0
K.P. Pietersen             3     6    0     235  39.17  82     0    2    0   0
I.R. Bell                  3     6    0     180  30.00 101     1    0    0   0
S.C.J. Broad               3     6    1     143  28.60  44     0    0    3   0
I.J.L. Trott               3     6    0     160  26.67  75     0    1    3   0
A.J. Strauss               3     6    0     158  26.33  80     0    1    1   0
A.N. Cook                  2     4    0      88  22.00  40     0    0    0   0
P.D. Collingwood           2     4    0      73  18.25  25     0    0    1   0
G. Onions                  3     6    2      40  10.00  17     0    0    2   0
R.J. Sidebottom            2     4    0      29   7.25  16     0    0    2   0
M. Davies                  1     2    1       4   4.00   4     0    0    0   0

England Bowling

                                                                          5 10
Player                     T        O     M    Runs  Wkts   Avge  Best   wI wM
M. Davies                  1     49.0    13     128     4  32.00  4-93    0  0
K.P. Pietersen             3      8.0     0      38     1  38.00  1-17    0  0
G. Onions                  3    106.1    13     452     8  56.50  4-115   0  0
R.J. Sidebottom            2     72.1     7     277     4  69.25  2-144   0  0
S.C.J. Broad               3    111.3    14     429     6  71.50  2-113   0  0
G.P. Swann                 3    124.1    32     390     5  78.00  2-104   0  0
P.D. Collingwood           2     28.0     8      90     1  90.00  1-33    0  0
A.U. Rashid                1     26.0     2     154     0         0-16    0  0

 

[Simon]

Player of the series would be between Smith, Butler and Kennett.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Personally, reasonably happy. Contributed a bit in each game, and I can't really complain about a whitewash in my debut series.

 

[NUFAN]

Awesome, what a great win! Fantastic series to be a part of. SImon, I agree about the nightwatchman call also, fantastic move IMO.

Loving the stats, reckon that batting strike rate should also be included though

 

[NZTailender]

What a pasting! Whatever England can do, we can do better.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Loving being the top scorer for the series. Also, test wickets? I'm a gun.

 

[readie]

Fingers crossed my great OD Form will see me selected in the T20's and ODI's, whether or not I get the gloves I should make it through my batting tbh

 

[Simon]

The incumbents from the NZ tour are hardly in bad form, I mean Dauth is coming off three straight 150+ not outs. But yes you will be right in there during the discussions.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

pickmepickmepickme

 

[cbuts]

great result! two whitewash series results in a row!

Few milestones from that test aswell,
believe that was Cloetes 100th test match
and i moved up to 3rd on the run leaders list - overtaking Young and Goff

 

[GIMH]

When is the ODI squad announcement, just out of interest?

 

[Simon]

When is the ODI squad announcement, just out of interest?

Early next week, T20 squad will be announced hopefully tomorrow.