Story Asian Test Championship 2004

Asian Test Championships 2004


Welcome to the Asian Test Championships 2004. This gruelling tournament pits together the 4 test-playing nations from the continent of Asia against each other--in a competition for Asian supremacy. Live and exclusive coverage is brought to you by Unreal Sports, along with the daily analysis from our expert panel.

Farce Shah Bhogle (FSB): Let us first take a look at the schedule. As you can see the first match is between two heavyweights--India and Sri Lanka, coming to you live from Mumbai. That is bound to be a long and hard-fought contest.



FSB: As you can see, a team gains points even if they lose a match. The magnitude of a teams win (innings or otherwise) will determine how many points they get from a contest. This makes sure that the matches stay close. Let us now get live action from the Wankhede Stadium, where our match is about to begin.

PS: If anyone could help me with attaching images using the forum it would be very helpful. At the moment I'm using an external host! Please PM me!

India vs Sri Lanka (Wankhede)

Cowtom Bhimani (CB): And here we are at the Wankhede Stadium. The atmosphere is...not quite electric but what do you expect from the first day of a test match? I have with me the captain of India, Sourav Ganguly, who will be having a little chat with me. Sourav, confident about your chances?

Sourav Ganguly (Dada): Yes Cowtom, I think we have been consistently playing good cricket for the last 2-3 years and I think we have a fair chance. I'm particularly glad that this tournament is being revived as it is important that the Asian countries play neighborly Tests too, not just ODIs.

CB: And what is your team selection for the game today?

Dada: Pretty much what we have been playing with for the last few months. We are going to be starting out with Chopra and Viru. The middle order is as normal--Rahul, myself, Sachin, and Laxman. Parthiv will be keeping and we are taking both Harbhajan and Anil into this game. The two seamers will be Ajit and Irfan.

CB: Must have been a hard choice taking in a two seamer-two spinner bowling attack.

Dada: Definitely but we assessed the pitch conditions and decided this was best. It was also difficult choosing the seamers. Irfan has been playing consistently well in both Tests and ODIs whilst Ajit played very well in English County Cricket, recently. We are also looking at Ajit to play some knocks with the bat.

CB: Well good luck then for the match. I hope your ATC career is off to a good start.

Dada: Thanks!

CB: Back to you, Farcy!

looking forward to this asian test championship mate!

Thanks! Is there anyway to change the oppositions team? I mean the side still has Tillekeratne and Lokuarachi for Sri Lanka. I updated the team using the lineup editor but all it changed was Test Team 1. Apparently the comp got smart and used test 2 or 3.

You should replace 1,2 and 3 to be on the safe side.

Day One's Play

FSB: Thank you Cowtom. And now, viewers, we are ready for the toss. Let's go down to Dean Bones who's with the captains and match referee.

Dean Bones (DB): Thank you, FSB. Well here we are with the captains. Sourav, as the home team captain, will toss the coin. Here we go, folks!

Marvan Atapattu: Heads!

DB: And heads it is! Well Marvan, what are you going to do?



Marvan Atapattu: Yes, uh, we'll have a bat. It looks like a good batting pitch which will hold up most of the match. We will look to put up maybe 400-500 on the board and then toss it to Murali and Upul to bowl us the match.

DB: So playing two spinners. Who else is in the team?

Marvan: Well myself and Sanath will open. Kumar, Mahela and Thilan make up the middle order. Dilshan and Arnold bring along the lower order. The two seamers are Zoysa and Vaas.

DB: Well good luck, then! Sourav, would have liked to bat first on this pitch?

Sourav: Dean-o, I don't think it really matters who bats first on this pitch. There are no first-day conditions that will help. The pitch should hold up and there should be plenty of spin the whole time. The team that plays the best cricket for 5 days will win this match.

DB: Good luck to you to, Sourav. And back to the studio.

FSB: Thank you! Let's have a look at the team line-ups at this stage.



FSB: Well we are all set to begin the coverage then. Our expert team will be back at the end of the day's play to sum up everything and provide analysis. Thank you!

Sri Lanka's Innings

FSB: Well we are back earlier than we expected. The Sri Lankans have put in a very horrid batting performance...or rather the Indians have bowled superbly well. Let's just have a look at their scorecard, along with our expert panel.





Ravi Smashtri (RS): Yes Farce Shah, a really bad batting performance from the Sri Lankans. We can see that no one really applied themselves save for Sangakkara, Dilshan and Arnold. Sangakkara was the top scorer with 41. You can expect to win matches if only 3 of your batsmen reach double figures.

FSB: Well to India's credit, they put in a beautiful bowling performance. Let's just look at the bowler's analyses.



RS: Yes, a great bowling performance from the Indians, especially Anil Kumble. Even Sachin chipped in with a couple of wickets.

FSB: Irfan bowled a long first spell, didn't he?

RS: Well yes, but he was in top form. You could see he was getting consistent in-swing and was putting the batsmen in a quandary. I thought he was unlucky not to pick up more wickets.

FSB: How about Harbhajan, didn't he deserve more overs?

RS: Maybe if the Sri Lankans had applied themselves for longer Harbhajan would have been used more. As it happens the Bombay Lads (Ajit and Sachin) were firing on home turf so Ganguly persevered with them.

FSB: Well that's all we have for the moment. Let's head back towards the Indian innings. They really have a chance to grab hold of this first match of the Asian Test Championships. Thank you, and it is Vaas bowling to Chopra.

Day One Wrap-Up

FSB: Well here we are and we have seen the end of an enthralling day of Test cricket. A total of 373 runs were scored for the loss of 14 wickets on this first day, in 93 overs of spectacular cricket. Another world record was also created, with Sri Lanka giving away 102 extras in the one and half odd hours of play we had, including 96 byes. I have with me Ravi Smashtri and Fanjit Fernando (FF).

RS: Yes it was quite appalling to see the wicket-keeping today...96 byes is no mean feat. I think Sangakkara was feeling guilty at being the top run scorer in his innings so he gave away plenty more.

FF: Sangakkara's wicket-keeping has been a questionable factor for a long time. Today was a perfect demonstration of that.

FSB: Well there were lots of positives today from Sri Lanka's point of view. It looked to be getting away from them when the openers put on a 160-run first wicket partnership, with the help of the extras, of course.

RS: Yes, Sehwag looked in blistering form and Chopra was his stable self. Let's just have a look at the scorecard, for the viewers understanding.



FF: Yes, both Chopra and Sehwag getting off to good starts, but then giving it away. Sehwag played an over-aggressive shot and was snapped up at cover-point by Samaraweera. Chopra was Muralitharan's first victim and it really turned the tide of the match.

RS: Chopra was immensely unlucky to be given out LBW because the ball clearly hit his glove. I think that could be one of the turning points of the match because he was starting to play a few good shots.

FSB: The other turning point obviously Sachin Tendulkar's first ball duck!

RS: Definitely, a snorter of a delivery to receive first up. That really turned and bounced and took off Tendulkar's off stump. I believe if Tendulkar had got stuck in on this pitch, in front of his home crowd, Sri lanka could forget about this match.

FF: Yes, Muralitharan has been coming up with the goods for Sri Lanka for many years now. He single-handedly turned the course of this match and has made it a little more even.

FSB: How about Dravid, he's looking very strong indeed, isn't he?

RS: Well Dravid is obviously Mr. Dependable for India and their hopes reside on him and Laxman. Ganguly was too cautious early on and was done in by a nice delivery from Chandana. Laxman was just looking to survive the last few overs, so we haven't yet seen the best of him.

FSB: Let's look at the bowling figures for Sri Lanka.



FF: Look at Chandana's figures! 6 overs, 4 maidens, 2 runs and the prized wicket of the Indian captain. He was spinning it consistently and really putting pressure on the Indian batsmen.

FSB: I particularly liked the Ganguly vs Chandana battle. Sourav could have gone down the pitch at any time but Chandana kept him quite and really frustrated him. Finally he got the delivery that was a little quicker and caught the Indian captain on the back-foot. Plumb in front of the stumps.



RS: Ganguly didn't look comfortable out there at all, facing 17 deliveries for his single run. Chandana and Vaas were really going up his nose, especially with a few bouncers from the latter.

FF: You can see there even Chopra was quite slow in his 35, coming from almost 100 balls. The Sri Lankan new ball bowlers were really keeping it tight, and they were just let down by their keeper.

FSB: Yes, India maintaining a run rate of almost 6, but you can see no one there is batting at over a run-a-ball. Everyone's Strike Rate is below 70. This match could have been far different had the keeping been a little tighter.

FF: I think this performance from Sangakkara also questions his dual duties as wicket-keeper and batsmen. He obviously had a long and arduous innings, and was quite tired. I think it brings Romesh Kaluwitharana back into the picture. A specialist keeper is a must in test cricket. You can see this by the fact that Parthiv is in the team for wicket-keeping.

RS: Apart from that, Kumara Sangakkara is one of Sri Lanka's main batsmen and they really need to protect him. Kalu could probably replace someone like Arnold, who we have yet to see bowling in this match.

FSB: Thank you for joining us folks, that's all we have to offer for now. Sri Lanka being bottled out for 150 runs after they won the toss and chose to bat. India have moved on to 223/4 in 40 overs, with Dravid looking in exceptional form. We'll be back tomorrow with Day 2! To finish off, here are a few of the highlights of the day.

Nice layout of the images mate:cool:

why have you autoplayed the sri lankan inning?. if you find bowling difficult then you might want to try some of the ai patches, which make bowling easy and batting difficult.

which patch do you suggest. any patch i try to use tells me that my gob file is the wrong version because its already been changed. although i've made a backup of it i did it after the first modification.

that apart i'm not sure how many more days i can play the game because i have to reformat the laptop after which i won't be able to install antyhign again (stupid school rule).

i may still try a patch though, if you suggest one that uses just cfg files. perhaps that will work.

try ravi's (crick4life) new patch. thought thats a one day patch. for test matches you may want to try koala's (sac2k4pt) v1.3a.

will i need an unmodified gob file for these?

now you will need cfg editor version 2

Lunchtime Update

FSB: Hello, dear viewers. Welcome to a lunch time update, as news from the Wankhede filters in. No Shaz & Waz Show here, just a plain update. India have built on their overnight lead of 73 runs and taken it on to 211. This came in the event of a prolific run scoring session between Dravid and Laxman.

The two of them put on an 84 run partnership before Dravid was adjudged LBW from a dipping Muralitharan delivery. This was Muralitharan's 3rd wicket as Dravid departed for a well-played 73.

Laxman, meanwhile, has scored 71 runs in the session to take his score on to 72. He has been peppering the boundary boards with beautifully timed shots of the two seamers, Vaas and Zoysa.

Sri Lanka looked to stifle India's progress when both Muralitharan and Chandana were bowling in conjunction, but for some unknown reason Atapattu broke this partnership and brought back Vaas and Zoysa. These bowling changes saw a steep increase in the run rate.

Parthiv Patel is currently batting on 19* after being bowled a plethora of short deliveries. The Sri Lankans only hope in coming back into this match now is to produce some Murali Magic. Please join us at the end of day's play for a comprehensive analaysis. Thank you, and back to the play!

[[[SCOREBOX]]]
Sri Lanka, 1st Innings: 150 all out (53 overs)
K Sangakkara 41
R Arnold 35
A Kumble 3/25
India, 1st Innings: 361/5 (68 overs, Lunch Day 2)
R Dravid 73
VVS Laxman 72*
M Muralitharan 3/39