T2M2 Draft

[stephen]

Ponsford is opening for Mags though.

I of course meant Woodfull. Nice pickup.

 

[stephen]

Sangakkara didn't get picked! Amazing! I was close to picking him but went for Waugh's captaincy and bowling.

Also interesting how many quality 100+ openers were left unpicked.

Most of the best middle order batsmen played 100+ tests. Proportionally there were more gun openers than middle order batsmen who played less than 100 tests. There was a time where I had to look through three bands to find a good enough middle order batsman!

 

[Teuton]

R11:
Only 1 person per category up at a time.
1s @Line and Length > Hb > stephenza > Michael
30s: @ataraxia > fuller > himanv > me
@AndrewB & @trundler can finish any time

 

[Line and Length]

A lot of 'keepers to choose from. I'm taking Ben Foakes (5) please.

 

[mr_mister]

You love picking Benny Foakes in these things

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I would've picked Tom Blundell instead of Foakes. Equally good keeper but much better batsman.

 

[AndrewB]

Zaheer Abbas (78)

Final XI:
Jack Hobbs
David Warner
Jonathan Trott
Zaheer Abbas
Clyde Walcott+
Aubrey Faulkner
Shaun Pollock
Frank Foster*
Maurice Tate
Albert Trott
Curtly Ambrose

Maybe not the strongest middle order, but bats deep - all of 8, 9 and 10 managed the season double (Tate and Trott being 2 of the 3 to score 1000 runs and take *200* wickets).
I think the bowling speaks for itself.

 

[Line and Length]

Pretty hard to compare Blundell and Foakes purely on their Test performance where they both have performed (ave over 40) well. Looking at their first class batting averages there is nothing between them. Foakes marginally ahead.

 

[trundler]

Phil Mead

Lawry
Gavaskar
Weekes
Mead
Matthews
Armstrong*
Knott+
Fazal
O'Reilly
Donald
Ferris

Epic top order, bowling covers all bases. Quite happy.

 

[mr_mister]

I hate picking 19th century bowlers but its a good side otherwise

 

[trundler]

Had to rejig plans once Donnelly went. Ferris gives me a left arm swing variety so that's cool.

 

[mr_mister]

At 90kmph off 2 steps haha

 

[Teuton]

I lost track of time but Fuller can jump in now

1s @honestbharani > stephenza > Michael
30s: @ataraxia & @Fuller Pilch > himannv > me

Hopefully finish today

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Mark Richardson 38

 

[Teuton]

I was hoping he would sneak through

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Final team

1) Glenn Turner 44.64
2) Mark Richardson 44.77
3) George Headley 60.83
4) Mohammed Yousuf 52.29
5) Steve Waugh * 51.06; 37.44
6) Andy Flower + 51.54; 151c 9 s
7) Shakib Al Hasan 39.40; 31.12
8) Ravi Ashwin 28.10; 25.43
9) Malcolm Marshall 18.85; 20.94
10) Jack Cowie 10.00; 21.53
11) Jasprit Bumrah 2.90; 20.33

Very happy with this side. Strong and deep batting, superb pace trio, good spin options, and led by a great captain who would lead from the front.

 

[Line and Length]

My team has a solid batting line-up that includes 3 all-rounders to support new ball bowlers Philander and Shoaib Akhtar.
Blythe's slow left arm orthodox is the ideal foil for Muralitharan.
Foakes is relatively inexperienced at Test level but his CV will undoubtedly grow over the coming years.

Herschelle Gibbs - 90 Tests; 6167 runs @ 41.95
Eddie Barlow - 30 Tests; 2516 runs @ 45.75; 40 wickets @ 34.05
Neil Harvey - 79 Tests; 6149 runs @ 48.42
Walter Hammond (c) - 85 Tests; 7249 runs @ 58.46; 83 wickets @ 37.81
Eddie Paynter - 20 Tests; 1540 runs @ 59.23;
Tony Greig - 58 Tests; 3599 runs @ 40.44; 141 wickets @ 32.21
Ben Foakes (wkp) - 5 Tests; 332 runs @ 41.50; (10 catches 2 stumpings)
Vern Philander - 64 Tests; 1779 runs @ 24.04; 224 wickets @ 22.32
Mutiah Muralitharan - 133 Tests; 1261 runs @ 11.68; 800 wickets @ 22.73
Shoaib Akhtar - 46 Tests; 544 runs @ 10.07; 178 wickets @ 25.70
Colin Blythe - 19 Tests; 183 runs @ 9.63; 100 wickets @ 18.63

 

[Teuton]

@Himannv

 

[trundler]

So the majority of sides are more or less identical as always

 

[srbhkshk]

I am just surprised everyone is very happy with their team, surely some of us gotta be very sad just because of the law of averages or something.