[Draft 2] The Playoffs -- Season Two

[foreignfield]

Quarterfinal 4

Crimson Tide sweeps into semis as FF batsmen are left to bat in a corner of a foreign field

CrimsonAvenger 263 all out (43.4 overs) beats foreignfield 228/3 (50 overs) by 35 runs.

They say that sometimes you can be too lucky, or that you can have too much of a good thing. If you offered a Test or FC captain 536 runs from the bats of his top 7 at a SR of 92.9 he would take it any day, but this being an ODI, and a simulation game at that, not only the runs and RR count but also the batting order, and this is where it all went horribly wrong for foreignfield on a day when he was decisively out-batted and out-bowled by the fresh troops of CrimsonAvenger.

Batting first, Crimson’s Best of the Rest XI kept up a brisk pace throughout their innings despite loosing wickets at regular intervals. Veteran Virender Sehwag (13 off 8) set the tone when he hit three fours in Shaun Tait’s (0/46) first over. Fellow opener Gautam Gambhir (52 off 52), unperturbed by the loss of his partner and the coming and going of Ian Bell (13/16), kept up the momentum with Shreyas Iyer, the Brahmin Thrasher (53 off 32), joining the fun. The pair feasted on some uncharacteristically loose bowling by Shakib (0/43 off 7 overs), before Iyer holed out to Mohammad Hafeez (1/11 off 3). Gambhir walked when he got a faint edge to a brute of a ball by Shane Bond (2/42), fair-play the order of the day after umpires hhm — suspended for an unqualified tussle with the administrators – and anusha gamage – unable to resist the lucrative offer to coach Marondera High’s 3rd XI in the Zim Schools Superleague Div. 4 B – had not appeared on the field. When Bailey (10) and Carey (21), eager to push the score along, fell prey to Jacob Oram’s (2/37) medium pace, the innings was perilously placed at 162/6 in the 22nd over. In walked Dwayne Bravo and Chris Woakes with ample time to consolidate against a FF bowling attack which lacked its usual venom. Misbah’s decision to persist with Shakib instead of bringing back Hafeez raised a few eyebrows, and when the captain brought back his quicks Bravo (77 off 82) and Woakes (37/42) were motoring along nicely towards their century stand. All of a sudden 300 looked on the cards. Ngidi (3/68) finally provided the breakthrough, and with the tailenders only adding another eight runs, the innings came to a close in the 44th over with 284 runs on the board. In the quarterfinals FF’s bowlers had reduced an even better batting performance to ashes, but today’s 247/8, i.e. 242 runs conceded, left CrimsonAvenger with a very healthy total of 263.

After lunch, the required run rate soon started to climb up, CrimsonAvenger’s fresh pacers bowling fast and with good control, Chris Woakes leading the way with 4/52, Lockie Ferguson (3/46) and Anrich Nortje (3/54) taking three wickets each. When Dwayne Bravo came on and took some flak (0/42 off 7 overs), captain George Bailey threw the ball first to Sehwag (0/17 off 2) and then to Shreyas Iyer to try his occasional leg-breaks, the over disappearing for 13 runs. This was only a temporary respite for the batting side, though, Amit Mishra having settled down at the other end and bowling like it was HSC 2013 all over again (4/47). 14 wickets for 271 translated into 216 runs conceded, and all of a sudden FF needed 311 to win.

Mathematically, statistically and random-innings wise such an outstanding batting feat was still possible for FF’s experienced batsmen, much to the surprise of the team’s ever-defeatist manager. But out on the field it was a step too far. Tendulkar scored one of the most irrelevant tons of his illustrious career (114 off 147 balls), Hafeez narrowly missed his ‘Zimbo ton’ (49 off 65) when he walked after a confident lbw shout by Mishra, and Dravid was solidity personified in his chanceless 69 off 79 balls. It was all pretty to watch, and polite applause greeted each immaculate push for two or elegant drive to the fence, but when captain Misbah came in, intent on the half century he thought was rightfully his own, there were only nine balls remaining off which he plundered eight runs as the batting innings closed on 240. FF had slumped to a resounding defeat while up on the balcony the players waxed lyrically about the day when Oram had blasted the Bangladesh attack for 83 runs off 40 balls and Chanderpaul had knocked Shingi and co. around for an effortless run-a-ball 70. Shiv brought up the day in Guyana when Shakib had fallen just three short of his century, but that had been another slow affair. The ‘Professor’, Mohammad Hafeez, had his pocket calculator out and insisted that it was all the manager’s fault and that he should have rearranged the batting order, but that talk was soon dismissed as pure fantasy and the defeat toasted by most players as the moment to finally hang up their boots, put away their bats and enjoy their retirement.

MOM
Chris Woakes

[CrimsonAvenger]

Wow! What a great read! And I never thought the "draft discards" could sail to a win like that! Fresh legs and having a point to prove obviously. The team felt like the Zimbabwean team of the 90s against the "big guns". Although this was the last team I would have wanted to beat, given that it even had one of my favorites in it, Rahul Dravid.

[foreignfield]

With Bravo and Woakes at 7 and 8 your team bats really deep which came in handy under the circumstances. You are missing a big name or two, but so far many of the big names (Kohli, AB, Sangakkara ...) have gone missing in this competition.

The wonderful thing with my innings was that I had Kriterion's link to the 2010+ batting stats open on page two. I already knew that my batsmen would have to perform pretty well to beat you, and so I first turned to Oram, then to Chanderpaul and was getting a little nervous, thinking, "No one's gonna believe I randomly picked their two best available innings out of the hat" ...

[ZIMDOGGY]

Are you all just pretending to have an imaginary cricket tournament?

A0E05B74-CE8D-4DAF-88F7-CD88F09BCFB0.jpeg (39.86 KiB) Viewed 2151 times

[jaybro]

Are you all just pretending to have an imaginary cricket tournament?

A0E05B74-CE8D-4DAF-88F7-CD88F09BCFB0.jpeg

Beats the boring chat in the Corona Thread

[CrimsonAvenger]

Are you all just pretending to have an imaginary cricket tournament?

A0E05B74-CE8D-4DAF-88F7-CD88F09BCFB0.jpeg

Beats the boring chat in the Corona Thread

+1.

[CrimsonAvenger]

With Bravo and Woakes at 7 and 8 your team bats really deep which came in handy under the circumstances. You are missing a big name or two, but so far many of the big names (Kohli, AB, Sangakkara ...) have gone missing in this competition.

The wonderful thing with my innings was that I had Kriterion's link to the 2010+ batting stats open on page two. I already knew that my batsmen would have to perform pretty well to beat you, and so I first turned to Oram, then to Chanderpaul and was getting a little nervous, thinking, "No one's gonna believe I randomly picked their two best available innings out of the hat" ...

Just a matter of time, I'm guessing, for them to come good. I was in fact shocked when no one picked Woakes and Gambhir in particular.

[foreignfield]

Right, the semifinals are:

CrimsonAvenger
rusty17

grant
jaybro

[jaybro]

Right, the semifinals are:

CrimsonAvenger
rusty17

grant
jaybro

This will be a great challenge

[rusty17]

Right, the semifinals are:

CrimsonAvenger
rusty17

grant
jaybro

This will be a great challenge

Clash of the titans ?