England League and Cup Discussion

[wolfberries]

Home Fiery's XI
Away wolfberries
Ground Fiery's XI CG
League Youth Twenty20 3.2
Date 10 Jul 23 10:00
Crowd 7,885
Weather Windy
Pitch Slow

Toss: wolfberries won the toss and elected to bat.

Going to be another tough day for our youths!

[spark]

Ruff Royals Ffoh
Batting - Top Order 8,049 7,655
Batting - Middle Order 6,599 6,191
Batting - Tail 4,748 4,315
Bowling - Seam 6,352 (12) 6,610 (12)
Bowling - Spin 7,705 (8) 6,727 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,581 9,021
Overall 133,047 128,680

Ruff Royals won by 1 run

Closer than I would have liked. They needed 16 from their final over and scored 14 which ruined Bennett's economy a bit as he'd only conceded 16 from his previous 3 overs.

[wolfberries]

Fiery's XI wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 7,021 5,197
Batting - Middle Order 5,264 4,003
Batting - Tail 4,284 3,162
Bowling - Seam 5,894 (8) 6,059 (12)
Bowling - Spin 5,435 (12) 3,414 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,030 7,952
Overall 114,181 95,151

Result: Fiery's XI won by 6 wickets

Division 4 here we come!

[spark]

Trevor Francis Tracksuit won by 50 runs

Trevor Francis Tracksuit Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,219 13,577
Batting - Middle Order 11,531 10,990
Batting - Tail 5,736 4,187
Bowling - Seam 14,326 (20) 11,946 (16)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 12,365 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 17,986 16,302
Overall 245,798 219,882

The defeat always felt pretty inevitable with 2 players away on international duty and 1 player in desperate need of a game off but I would have liked it not to have affected my NRR as much as it has done.

That's some impressive fielding ratings from Trevor Francis Tracksuit (perhaps mine is surprisingly low? maybe because of power?) considering I've only got 1 player with less than exceptional fielding (my allrounder is a spectacular fielder).

[wolfberries]

wolfberries YorkshireTykes
Batting - Top Order 13,871 7,810
Batting - Middle Order 11,284 6,610
Batting - Tail 5,289 4,910
Bowling - Seam 13,660 (12) 12,328 (12)
Bowling - Spin 12,554 (8) 13,419 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 16,468 11,618
Overall 231,979 171,087

Result: wolfberries won by 5 wickets

Opponents threw the game today, will take that.

[aarong]

Trevor Francis Tracksuit won by 50 runs

Trevor Francis Tracksuit Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,219 13,577
Batting - Middle Order 11,531 10,990
Batting - Tail 5,736 4,187
Bowling - Seam 14,326 (20) 11,946 (16)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 12,365 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 17,986 16,302
Overall 245,798 219,882

The defeat always felt pretty inevitable with 2 players away on international duty and 1 player in desperate need of a game off but I would have liked it not to have affected my NRR as much as it has done.

That's some impressive fielding ratings from Trevor Francis Tracksuit (perhaps mine is surprisingly low? maybe because of power?) considering I've only got 1 player with less than exceptional fielding (my allrounder is a spectacular fielder).

Ive not had chance to look properly but had wondered why you had rated lower than norm.
The top 3 all losing has made it ridiculously close!
Fielding wise I’ve had better, 18,800 towards the end of last season, today 9 were exceptional and 2 spec, but one is World Class keeping.

[spark]

Trevor Francis Tracksuit won by 50 runs

Trevor Francis Tracksuit Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,219 13,577
Batting - Middle Order 11,531 10,990
Batting - Tail 5,736 4,187
Bowling - Seam 14,326 (20) 11,946 (16)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 12,365 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 17,986 16,302
Overall 245,798 219,882

The defeat always felt pretty inevitable with 2 players away on international duty and 1 player in desperate need of a game off but I would have liked it not to have affected my NRR as much as it has done.

That's some impressive fielding ratings from Trevor Francis Tracksuit (perhaps mine is surprisingly low? maybe because of power?) considering I've only got 1 player with less than exceptional fielding (my allrounder is a spectacular fielder).

Ive not had chance to look properly but had wondered why you had rated lower than norm.
The top 3 all losing has made it ridiculously close!
Fielding wise I’ve had better, 18,800 towards the end of last season, today 9 were exceptional and 2 spec, but one is World Class keeping.

Must be factors other than fielding and keeping (presumably mainly power) as I had 10 exceptional fielders, 1 spectacular and my keeper also has world class keeping (only capable power though).

I'll be happy just to survive this season as I see the next couple of seasons as being a bit of a transition with another 3 or 4 players not being a million miles away from retirement. Batting (and apparently fielding) seems to really suffer from that little bit of a dip in power when introducing younger players into the team or it does for me anyway.

[spark]

St. Marks Hill Strollers Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 7,365 7,703
Batting - Middle Order 5,011 7,054
Batting - Tail 3,363 4,754
Bowling - Seam 5,613 (25) 6,175 (32)
Bowling - Spin 6,771 (15) 8,989 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,642 8,547
Overall 112,757 132,620

Ruff Royals won by 7 wickets

Hard pitch and we lost the toss so we bowled first. It was a pretty good bowling display and we restricted them to 210. Bennett had the best figures of 2-26 but I'd argue Pithey's 2-40 was better as he took out arguably their 2 key players.

It was reasonably comfortable for us with the bat Mitchell scored 66, Obuya 54, and Schwartz 58 not out. Schwartz currently averaging 253 with 4 not outs in 5 innings; that's only the 2nd highest average rating in the league.

We're joint top of the league.

[wolfberries]

Leyland Lions wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 8,342 5,176
Batting - Middle Order 5,738 4,431
Batting - Tail 3,421 3,251
Bowling - Seam 6,357 (32) 5,595 (32)
Bowling - Spin 8,697 (8) 3,156 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,505 8,052
Overall 126,226 97,876

Result: Leyland Lions won by 3 wickets

Another expected loss for our youths.

[spark]

Snakey's Kent Stars Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 12,470 13,860
Batting - Middle Order 12,446 11,426
Batting - Tail 5,921 4,308
Bowling - Seam 12,565 (30) 14,132 (20)
Bowling - Spin 12,991 (20) 12,771 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 15,327 16,586
Overall 227,089 230,406

Snakey's Kent Stars won by 113 runs

With it being international week, I'd have much preferred to have faced one of the top sides in the league rather than the team who were bottom. Losing to the bottom side is going to be much more costly than losing to a top side would have been.

Alternatively, we could have played well and won and then that would have been okay too. We were dreadful though and they scored far too many with my reserve keeper guilty of missed chances including their top scorer when he was on 7 (that cost about 52 runs). The batting was also terrible Schmidt was okay with 38 but the rest need to hang their heads in shame. House and Dennehy have been competing with each other to see who gets the nod for the final batting place in the team; I guess this nudges House ahead as his 0 came from 2 balls rather than 1 (or is that actually worse?).

That NRR damage could end up being the key factor in our relegation battle. We're equal points with third place but we're down to seventh place.

[wolfberries]

Zippys Rainbow Destroyers wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 5,801 11,739
Batting - Middle Order 4,163 9,539
Batting - Tail 3,070 4,186
Bowling - Seam 6,834 (30) 10,168 (30)
Bowling - Spin 7,120 (20) 10,772 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 6,040 14,719
Overall 101,930 193,877

Result: wolfberries won by 322 runs

Just sneaked over the line, our opponents have previously sold off all the old men to start from the youths again.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 8 wickets

Ruff Royals Staindrop Lordies
Batting - Top Order 7,973 6,709
Batting - Middle Order 6,649 6,474
Batting - Tail 4,723 3,324
Bowling - Seam 6,335 (12) 6,121 (8)
Bowling - Spin 7,615 (8) 7,194 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 8,558 9,023
Overall 132,571 123,600

Schwartz goes to the senior squad next week so scoring 79 not out from 60 balls to win us the match on a crumbling pitch is a great way to say goodbye to the YT20s. The bowlers did quite well earlier to restrict them to 115 with Delap excelling with 4-15 and Pithey weighing in with 2-8 from his 2 overs.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries bigsexybarry
Batting - Top Order 5,247 7,602
Batting - Middle Order 3,932 5,434
Batting - Tail 3,139 3,859
Bowling - Seam 4,457 (12) 6,331 (12)
Bowling - Spin 3,425 (8) 4,734 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,750 6,683
Overall 89,606 112,233

Result: bigsexybarry won by 8 wickets

Another expected loss, especially with our best bowler away with the England U20's.

[eagles123]

away on a humid crumbler today, fatigue a real issue now with a surprising run to round 6 of the cup, so had to rotate quite a bit. A little worried about hitting the 180K minimum for sponsorship given we're playing two youth batters, but hopefully we should get up to around the 190K mark. Not expecting a win, but hopefully be good experience for some of the kids.

[spark]

W. Shahanah (rfs) 3.2-0-11-2, C. Rush 0 (1b)
End of over 20 (maiden) - Ruff Royals(71-10) RR 3.55

A crumbling pitch but still an absolutely awful batting display which is becoming something of a speciality this season.

C. Rush (lm) 2-0-7-0, P. Shariki 2 (3b), P. Musalia 4 (8b)
End of over 3 (4 runs) - Danger Hotspurs(11-2). 61 runs required from 17 overs. RR 3.67 RRR 3.59

I can pretend all I want that this start gives us a chance but it really doesn't.