England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

L. da Vinci (rm) 1-0-7-2, T. Liberatore 1 (1b), B. Issa 0 (1b)
End of over 2 (7 runs) - Ruff Royals(13-2). 163 runs required from 18 overs. RR 6.50 RRR 9.06

It looks like I had good reason to not be confident. That's a terrible start.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries If theres grass on the Wicket
Batting - Top Order 11,856 11,814
Batting - Middle Order 11,023 8,139
Batting - Tail 4,929 4,563
Bowling - Seam 13,449 (8) 9,580 (12)
Bowling - Spin 12,306 (12) 8,543 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,989 10,934
Overall 218,087 172,134

Result: wolfberries won by 101 runs

Destroyed our opponents, yet it looks like we will miss out on 4th spot because of the result from another game!

[casperj]

Fell well short of returning to Div 2 this season, but this final day win at least ensures me 2nd place in Div 3. My 3rd spinner did surprisingly well bowling at the death with 33/2, although some sloppy overs at the end made it closer than it might have been.

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 23 runs
A. Idroos (rfm) 4-0-32-1, W. Vandike 0 (0b), R. Burdett 27 (16b)
End of over 20 (19 runs) - Bathaloner(149-4). 24 runs required from 0 overs. RR 7.45 RRR 0.00

Crestfallen Sidekicks Bathaloner
Batting - Top Order 13,750 12,920
Batting - Middle Order 10,428 10,928
Batting - Tail 4,755 7,952
Bowling - Seam 12,435 (8) 12,794 (12)
Bowling - Spin 12,480 (12) 12,911 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,060 15,654
Overall 218,471 230,419

[spark]

We needed 7 runs from the last over to win the match although we only needed 6 runs to win the title. With 2 balls left we only needed 2 runs to win but we wanted to make it more exciting so Clarke was run out off the penultimate ball. So we still need 2 runs to win the match and 1 run to win the title.

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets and win the title!

Inchigeela Angels Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,832 15,302
Batting - Middle Order 13,453 12,599
Batting - Tail 7,479 4,700
Bowling - Seam 14,517 (8) 14,077 (8)
Bowling - Spin 14,628 (12) 15,320 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 16,602 17,432
Overall 258,308 252,119

Looks like I rated a bit higher than I expected.

Moses took 3-32 for the best figures. There was some excellent batting by Liberatore (52 from 33 balls), and Issa (72 from 48 balls).

[wolfberries]

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets and win the title!

Well done

Winning two senior titles in a season is great work, even when we won the three division one titles on the run, there was no way we could compete in both senior leagues.

Must be a great squad.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets and win the title!

Well done

Winning two senior titles in a season is great work, even when we won the three division one titles on the run, there was no way we could compete in both senior leagues.

Must be a great squad.

Thanks.

It's not a bad squad. It's a little larger than I can afford in the long term although that's mostly because of youngsters.The prize money should pretty much make up for losing a bit more weekly and I'm contemplating trimming the squad by about 60k next season. We're far from being in any trouble financially though.

It helped getting knocked out of the MKMC quite early and I've not had as many international call-ups as usual. There's a few who were close to touring but just missed out and a few americans who might make it soon.

I feel like the main thing compared with previous unsuccessful attempts to win something (like the 3 you won in a row where we had good ratings but didn't really come close) is that all my batters were much closer to finishing their power training; it really felt like that was the key. I might be wrong and maybe we were just a bit luckier than previously.

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Danger Hotspurs
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League Youth 2.2
Date 21 Jul 22 10:00
Crowd 10,764
Weather Sunny
Pitch Sticky

Last youth game of the season.

M. Mau (rfs) 3-0-18-0, F. Bullock 43 (60b), B. Jupp 29 (28b)
End of over 17 (5 runs) - Ruff Royals(79-1) RR 4.65

It's going quite well but I think Danger Hotspurs have picked some younger bowlers.

[spark]

J. Uma (lm) 8-0-47-0, B. Jupp 62 (76b), C. Schwartz 14 (19b)
End of over 40 (7 runs) - Ruff Royals(178-4) RR 4.45

I'm not sure about this title. It seems decent but perhaps we've scored too slowly.

B. Williams (rfm) 1-0-1-0, C. Kiplagat 2 (5b), D. Vadher 5 (7b)
End of over 2 (1 run) - Danger Hotspurs(7-0). 172 runs required from 38 overs. RR 3.50 RRR 4.53

[spark]

M. Patterson (rfs) 4-0-17-1, D. Vadher 47 (64b), S. Mac Oburu 6 (3b)
End of over 20 (7 runs) - Danger Hotspurs(84-1). 95 runs required from 20 overs. RR 4.20 RRR 4.75

It looks like once again we can't take enough wickets on a sticky pitch so it doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence for next season. Looks like I might as well play on a flat pitch.

[spark]

Danger Hotspurs won by 6 wickets

Ruff Royals Danger Hotspurs
Batting - Top Order 7,299 8,407
Batting - Middle Order 6,049 5,977
Batting - Tail 3,791 4,057
Bowling - Seam 6,763 (16) 5,525 (24)
Bowling - Spin 6,639 (24) 7,539 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 8,864 7,678
Overall 124,802 124,398

We lost but finished 4th so that was good. I'm expecting it to be a tough season next time. The good thing is that we only lose 1 player from the team played today and that will be fairly late in the season.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Knight Watchmen
Batting - Top Order 6,578 7,591
Batting - Middle Order 6,489 5,617
Batting - Tail 3,470 4,400
Bowling - Seam 5,617 (24) 7,871 (24)
Bowling - Spin 7,794 (16) 8,172 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 9,407 8,655
Overall 123,341 131,957

Result: wolfberries won by 6 wickets

Avoided relegation.

[wolfberries]

Home OU812
Away wolfberries
Ground OU812 CG
League One Day 3.3
Date 22 Jul 22 10:00
Crowd 14,500
Weather Humid
Pitch Uneven

Toss: wolfberries won the toss and elected to bat.

Win and we could promote, lose and we could end up 4th!

[casperj]

Looked like I might post a decent total on a Crumbling wicket at 188/5, but another collapse left us 196 all out, and likely 25 short of having a chance. Relying on other results going my way to stay up in all likelihood.

R. Dalkin (rws) 9.3-1-46-6, L. Crossan 16 (16b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(196-10) RR 3.92

[wolfberries]

147 for 2 to 201ao

Last weeks collapse was embarrassing and this one wasn't great, if we lose today it's going to cost us a lot of prize money!

Last weeks loss basically ensured we didn't promote, and today's game is for second spot, a loss and we finish 4th!

[casperj]

Looked like I might post a decent total on a Crumbling wicket at 188/5, but another collapse left us 196 all out, and likely 25 short of having a chance. Relying on other results going my way to stay up in all likelihood.

R. Dalkin (rws) 9.3-1-46-6, L. Crossan 16 (16b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(196-10) RR 3.92

bluekipper8878 Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 13,856 11,878
Batting - Middle Order 12,953 12,500
Batting - Tail 7,331 5,012
Bowling - Seam 13,005 (20) 12,650 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,827 (30) 12,865 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 15,608 15,163
Overall 243,546 221,721

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 9 runs
G. Breese (rm) 9.1-0-36-2, S. Jadeja 3 (7b)
End of over 49 (maiden) - bluekipper8878(187-10). 10 runs required from 1 overs. RR 3.82 RRR 10.00

Survived! Other result didn't go my way but managed to skittle them out. Looked a dead cert at 145-8, but their tailenders can actually bat (unlike ine) which made it a close thing.