Story England's Journey To The ASHES 09 - Natwest Tri-Series: ENG v IND FINAL!

[Punk_Sk8r]

WEST INDIES TAKE THE FIRST TEST!

We knew it would only be a matter of time until the West Indies would win this match, and now they finally have won it, the opening test match in England and at Lord's. Many doubed the Windies but they seen to have what it took to topple this England side with ease. There were scenes of triumph and delight after the match took place, and all we can say is that England side did not look good, a turn around is needed at Manchester in a few days time.

Although the Windies took the match, they didn't do it without a scare, England got a two breakthroughs via leg-befor-wicket but of course it would never be enough to win that match. The English team were all over the place, with nothing they could do, a simple thing that will be looked at is how they lost complete control of the match very early on. They will need to go into the next match with confidence and determination in order to save this series!

WEST INDIES WIN THE 1st npower TEST BY 8 WICKETS - PRESENTATION UP NEXT!

 

[surendar]

That's an unexpected performance from Windies to win a test... Well, good that atleast in EA games, Windies are having fortune breeze blowing in their direction

Awesome work with the presentation as usual, Punk

 

[treva]

Shocking from England. West Indies are a poor side, and if they can't beat them, they'll never beat Australia.

 

[Pakistani Army]

A very dismal performance there. They will have to sharpen up for the Old Trafford test.

Fantastic presentation Punk

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

1st npower Test, Match Presentation Ceremony!

Hello their viewers, it's time for our much awaited match presentation, will be a tough one for the man of the match award as we have seen some truley stunning performances in this test series already, and hopefully there is more to come!

Were going to get a few words with the two capitains now, surley both have a lot to take from this match up, positives and negatives, as we have seen the good and the ugly of both teams in this first test match at Lord's. Anyway lets give it away to Mark Nicholas, to interview the losing capitain Michael Vaughan...

Interview with Michael Vaughan!

Mark Nicholas: Well, Michael this has been a well a match which no one expected, you came in to bat on that lovley sunday morning, scored a good total, and then after that you lost complete control of the innings, how do you bounce back from this?

Michael Vaughan: Well, I have to admit it's been a poor performance from us, from all of us, as you said after the first innings we lost control of the match and didn't know how to bounce back...We have a lot to take away from this match up and that we shouldnt underestimate a side like the West Indies as they have some tough players, and it showed in this test match, we were simply outplayed.

Mark Nicholas: Well there were a few dissapointing performances from the bowlers, do you think they let the side down?

Michael Vaughan: I wouldn't say it was primarly the bowlers that were our downfall, although we were bowling nowhere near our best, all our bowlers took a hammering and we couldn't answer the West Indies aggresive nature. But our batting also let us down in our second innings, we failed to chase down and then score on a realativly average total, so we let ourselves down with bat and ball.

Mark Nicholas: Talking about letting yourselves down with bat and ball, what about with the gloves? Solanki spilled two catches which in the end cost you the match, as Smith and Sarwan went to big hundreds?

Michael Vaughan: Yeah were aware of that, but Solanki has proved himself with the bat in this test match and he's kept wicket perfectly fine over in South Africa which is a much more intense atmosphere, the boys have faith in him and he's just had an off game.

Mark Nicholas: Thanks for talking to us Michael, hopefully we'll see an upturn of luck at Old Trafford.

So the England camp seem pretty down and all over the place at this moment, but will this be the case in a few days time? They need to pick themselves up and get back to the drawing board. Suprise that Vaughan wants to stick with Solanki but I guess we can see where he is coming from as he did bat really well and saved England a little bit of pride. These next few weeks for England will be tough if they don't perform!

Interview with Chris Gayle!

Mark Nicholas: I would like to give a warm welcome to the winning capitain, the leader of this new West Indian side, Chris Gayle!

Chris Gayle: Why thank you Mark, it's a pleasure being up here.

Mark Nicholas: Yes, well I say new side even though it remains pretty much the same, of course Dewayne Bravo one of your key players is injured, but you guys performed magnificently, how have you come so well prepared?

Chris Gayle: It was a simple task for us to get prepared, we sat down with management and said befor we go England lets go out there to enjoy our cricket we have nothing to lose. So we played in a relaxed manor and didn't let anything that was going on effect us, just played. If we lost we lost, but amazingly we performed well and I am very happy with the guys.

Mark Nicholas: The atmosphere in your camp must be estatic at this moment, to simply destroy England by such a large margin must feel great?

Chris Gayle: Yeah it has been a great moment, as I said we werent expecting much as our last few months have not gone too well in test cricket, but we managed to pull it off and in our eyes this is the oppertunity we needed to set ourselves up for this summer!

Mark Nicholas: Well, I'm sure you guys will be willing to pick up more wins for the rest of this summer and we look forward to the challange, give a round of aplause for the winning capitain Chris Gayle!

Natwest Man of the Match Ceromony!

So this will be a toughie won't it, so many great performances, KP's century, Sarwans century and Smiths, also not to forget Butlers amazing bowling performance, and his 6fer which destroyed the English batsmen. Well lets find out who is our man of the match!

Natwest Man of the Match: Ramnaresh Sarwan!

So on that note were nearly done with our presentation ceremony, it's been a tough one for England and a good one for the Caribbean crunchers, as they are refered to in the media nowdays. What more is to come of this series? We'll find out very soon, for now we give thanks to Channel 4 and it's wonderful members, stay tuned, goodbye for now!

Oh dear, England are really struggling, although good to see Broad being impressive. Also please drop Solanki and get Prior in there.

Awesome presentation mate :cool:

Great presentation and story punk. You should definatly be a nominee for SOTM.

WI looking good, England need to get a high score to draw or even win this match.

Thats a really good lead for Windies. Should be interesting to see how England bat now.

Nice stuff! Love the scorecard and you banner on the first post!! KUTGW!

That's an unexpected performance from Windies to win a test... Well, good that atleast in EA games, Windies are having fortune breeze blowing in their direction

Awesome work with the presentation as usual, Punk

Shocking from England. West Indies are a poor side, and if they can't beat them, they'll never beat Australia.

A very dismal performance there. They will have to sharpen up for the Old Trafford test.

Fantastic presentation Punk

Big thanks to all these people and everyone else who has posted in this thread to keep it going, wouldn't be anywhere without your comments and replies, thanks for follwing and supporting this story, hope your enjoying it so far!

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

Lol .....England lost to Windies Congrats to Sarwan for being the MOM nice prsentation Punk

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Good easy win for Windies and they deserved the win!

Nice presentation! KUTGW!

 

[MacWorld]

WI doing well, keep up this great prez punk. This story is great

 

[Highlander999]

Gutted to see England lose to Windies. Maybe crank the difficulty level down to balance out the patch?

Great work with the GFX. I was watching highlights of the Ashes on youtube and when a scorecard came up, I paused, opened this and it was exactly alike. So good job with that

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

Second npower Test Match - Team Situations!

With the first test match out of the way, the hype for the second test is begining. England have not been having the best of times off the pitch with the media slowley crawling up their backs they know they have to perform in this next test match, or they will have suffered a dissapointing loss to the hands of the West Indies, who aren't really seen as a threatening test match cricket nation. Were going to catch up on how the two teams have been preparing, and see if there are any lineup changes!

ENGLAND TALK OF MAKING NO CHANGE

Despite everybody saying that Solanki lost them the match by dropping two chances that were very costly to them, the ECB have given a hint that the team might be unchanged, and that Solanki will be kept in the side, as he played two good, solid innings in the first test match, hopefully theres more to come. He has also been practicing very hard with the gloves, and especially with the bat as his contributions could be vital up in Manchester.

Vikram Solanki hits out!

On the other hand the England players especially the bowlers have been having a long time of it in the nets. Freddie Flintoff in particular spoke out that his role in these matches will be vital and he was dissapointed how he performed in the first test, heres what he had to say;

"I think I played bad in the first test, level of response and urgency wasn't there, especially my bowling I couldn't find an answer to the batsman, which happens in cricket occasionally, but not for 20-30 overs straight"

Freddie has a good long bowl!

Whilst thats all going on, we think that England have a good chance of winning this match, we've seen in series befor where the first test starts of slow but then momentum is picked up and we walk away with convincing wins. The English team know what to expect know all they have to do is hit the nail on the head when the day comes!

WINDIES CONFIDENT!

The West Indies have made it clear in the papers that, they are confident and boosted going into this second test match. They think Manchester has a hard track that will support their style of play, which is a valid point. Capitain Chris Gayle had a few words to share with us about the second test already, here they are;

"We don't expect an easy win this time, heck the last match wasn't easy at all only for the latter part things cooled off a bit, but apart from that, that match-up was a roller coaster. We looked to try and dominate in this match, and take the the game to the England boys right from the start"

With that said, the Windies also have no line-up changes, and you can't complain, their batsmen are on magical form, and can't stop scoring runs. There is still no news about their talismen Dwayne Bravo, who has been out of the game for sometime. We'll try to get news on him as soon as we can. For now we can only wait until Day One of the second npower test match, stay tuned!

West Indies have a chillout session!

SECOND TEST, OLD TRAFFORD, COMING SOON...

 

[Karachi Xpress]

The second ODI should be interesting to watch. West Indies surely have the upper hand with a win in the last test.

Nice presentation! Good work with the writing! KUTGW!

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

The second ODI should be interesting to watch. West Indies surely have the upper hand with a win in the last test.

Nice presentation! Good work with the writing! KUTGW!

The second test match...

 

[Karachi Xpress]

The second test match...

Yea...you got it right??

 

[Highlander999]

Get Monty, Jimmy and Prior/Foster in there. Solanki is not a good enough keeper at this level.

Nice work mate

 

[gutterman]

nice update mate. England need to make their own confidence in order to win this one