Story Oceania Premier League:***End of Story!***

Who are you backing in the OPL Grand Final?


  • Total voters
    13

6ry4nj

International Coach
Joined
Sep 19, 2010
Location
Brisbane
Online Cricket Games Owned
Mate, I love your work, really, and lots of people clearly do too, and it probably deserves another award or two, but you do realize this is already the longest T20 game in history by something like three weeks!! :p
 

Gaurav_7

Executive member
CSK
RR
X Rebels
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Profile Flag
India
JC, man I love you! Exceptional use of those pulse pics. I wish you could somehow bring back Test Cricket medal.
 

just_cricket

Club Captain
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
New Zealand
Online Cricket Games Owned
Grand Final: Eagles Innings(Overs 1-7)

OPLTV.png

Oceania Premier League
Sponsored by Coca Cola
Grand Final
Southern Stallions v Northern Eagles
AMI Stadium, Christchurch


Overs 1-7: Eagles make solid start

Akmal and Tendulkar get Eagles off to a flier
1.png

Akmal late cuts the first boundary; masterful back foot drive from Tendulkar; Umar Akmal on the charge again


Shane Bond opened the bowling for the Stallions and seemed to have things under control as Tendulkar could only keep the first couple of balls out, before hitting one out to well placed sweeper. However Akmal backed away and late cut him superbly for 4, and then glanced one more which allowed Tendulkar to cap the over off with a fine back foot drive for four more.

Neil Wagner turned on the heat at the other end, bowling absolutely flat out, and even managed to tighten things up a bit, as just 5 runs came from his over - however things were looking ominous - Umar Akmal was charging down the pitch and smacked one straight four, his usual audacious self.


Crazy Akmal lets shocking lbw go
2.png

Hit on the pad well forward and leg side-ish; looks on in disgust but doesn't refer; Hawkeye says it would have easily missed

And for the first few balls of his next over, the battle continued to play out evenly - the batsmen were well on the attack but Bond was up to the challenge, and one of the few bowlers in the world in the same class as the batsmen - he was good enough to limit them to just singles.

Then, with his last ball, he had an appeal for an lbw against Akmal. The ball seemed to be slipping well down the leg side as it was a big inswinger but surprisingly the umpire had a long look and then gave it. Akmal looked stunned and disgusted with the decision, but for reasons unknown to anyone, he didn't refer it - maybe he was so stunned he forgot he could? Whatever happened in his head, it went down in the scorebook as lbw Bond.


Guptill keeps things moving as Tendulkar gets a chance
3.png

Guptill swivels and pulls elegantly for 4; goes over point for another boundary; Harbhajan drops Tendulkar

But even with the loss of one of their key batsmen, the Eagles still recognised that they couldn't afford to mess around - Martin Guptill strode out to the wicket and pulled his first ball from Wagner for six - against the angle of the left armer. However once again Wagner was up to the task and looking for a war - he hit Guptill on the body and even forced a false stroke from Tendulkar, although it went harmlessly through to the keeper.

So even though the batsmen were trying their best to get on top, the bowler bowled well enough to prevent them from getting totally on top. Of course there were the odd boundaries- some absolutely cracking shots - but a lot of quick singles as the bowlers either found the spot with yorkers and bowled throat-hunting bouncers which even two of the finer players of the short ball could not do much with.


After 7 Overs
Northern Eagles: 53/1
Tendulkar 11 off 13, Guptill 26 off 18
Bond 4-0-32-1
 

Aditya

ICC Board Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2009
Location
Delhi
Online Cricket Games Owned
  1. Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Steam PC
Guptill is not giving enough strike to Tendulkar, not good on his side. :p It's a fine start, 20 to 25 runs in the next 3 overs will do wonders to the run rate.
 

riz7khan12

Panel of Selectors
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Location
Auckland
Online Cricket Games Owned
things are looking ominous, tendulkar and guptill are building themselves up for a big bash later on in the innings and with bond bowled out it'll be even more tough for the stallions.
 

CG123

Chairman of Selectors
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Location
Auckland
Online Cricket Games Owned
Pretty good going from the Eagles so far. The RRR is almost up at nine, but Bond's bowled out and they've still got nine wickets remaining.
 

Haarithan

Chairman of Selectors
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Location
India
Damn, it'll need some special bowling from the Stallions to defend their total. Bond's done with his quota as well, Eagles pretty much look the favorites to win this now.
 

just_cricket

Club Captain
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
New Zealand
Online Cricket Games Owned
Grand Final: Eagles Innings, Overs 8-10

OPLTV.png

Oceania Premier League
Sponsored by Coca Cola
Grand Final
Southern Stallions v Northern Eagles
AMI Stadium, Christchurch


Overs 8-10: Eagles lose Guptill and are just behind at halfway mark

1-1.png

Tendulkar goes big against Wagner; lifts McCullum over cover for 4; Guptill is bowled by Mishra


Neil Wagner bowled the 8th over and somewhat ruined what had been a good spell up to that point. However it wasn't really his fault - Tendulkar saw the need to lift the scoring rate and when such a player decides to do something, he very rarely fails. A good shot over mid on followed by a six over the leg side meant Wagner ended up going wicketless at 8 an over - not overly expensive but more so than he had been.

Amit Mishra was turned to for the 9th over, and rewarded his captain with the valuable wicket of Guptill for 26 - after Tendulkar played cautiously against the leggie's first few balls, Guptill just seemed to lose his head and charged mindlessly down the pitch and was bowled.

Stallions' captain Brendon McCullum then turned to his older brother Nathan for the 10th over, who was welcomed to the bowling crease by new batsman Lou Vincent with a boundary over cover. Nevertheless, he kept it tight and managed to still give the ball flight while giving little away, and only a further 3 runs came from the over, meaning that the Eagles would require just over 9 an over from the remaining 10 overs to overhaul the total...


NorthernEaglesBattingCard.png

Wickets in hand but still plenty to score - pretty much sums up the state of the Eagles' innings after 10 overs

SouthernStallionsBowlingCard.png

The bowling stats don't quite sum up as aptly the opening overs- there was some fiery bowling from the openers

Worm.png

The Worm displays the situation perfectly though - not far from where the opposition was, but the Eagles will need a good finish
 

AkshayS

Chairman of Selectors
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Location
New Delhi, India
Online Cricket Games Owned
You're awesome JC.
Eagles look well set to chase it down with Wagner and Bond already finished their quotas. Go Eagles.
 

Meet

Chairman of Selectors
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Location
Bhavnagar, Gujarat
Great write up and presentation is great as always.:clap
Great bowling from Mishra as well (and his economy is 2.0:p), to get rid of Guptill and it also gave away just couple of runs, which is very rare in T20's.
Go Stallions go!
 
Last edited:

just_cricket

Club Captain
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Location
New Zealand
Online Cricket Games Owned
I made the face for Cricket 04 using paint.net but then imported it into the game (so it's ingame but only because I used it to replace a default EA face)...
 

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