Story First Class Challenge

[Jamee999]

The ICC have announced that all eligable to play FC/Test Cricket and have been ranked over 70/100 by some inspectors will take place in the First Class Challenge, an International Tournament. The 42 teams will compete in 7 groups of 6. The groups will be seeded so that all groups will be almost equal in quality. The top 2 from each group will go into the Second Round, 2 groups of 7 and then the top 4 will go into a semi-final and then the Final at a neutral venue(not in either teams country).

The 42 competing teams are:

Australia*
Australia A
Border
Canterbury
Derbyshire
Durham
England*
Essex
Gauteng
Glamorgan
Gloucestershire
Hampshire
India*
India A
Kent
Kenya
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Middlesex
New South Wales
New Zealand*
Northamptonshire
Northern Districts
Nottinghamshire
Pakistan*
Pakistan A
Queensland
Somerset
South Africa*
South Africa A
South Australia
Sri Lanka*
Surrey
Sussex
Tasmania
Victoria
Warwickshire
West Indies*
Western Australia
Worcestershire
Yorkshire
Zimbabwe*

*=Test playing Nation

The teams have now been allocated into their groups.

Group A

Australia
Sussex
Kent
Lancashire
Middlesex
Derbyshire

Group B

South Africa
Victoria
Somerset
Northamptonshire
Northern Districts
Pakistan A

Group C

New South Wales
Sri Lanka
Canterbury
Warwickshire
Leicestershire
Durham

Group D

India
Pakistan
South Africa A
Yorkshire
Gloucestershire
Glamorgan

Group E

New Zealand
Western Australia
West Indies
India A
Hampshire
Kenya

Group F

Australia A
South Australia
Surrey
Worcestershire
Essex
Gauteng

Group G

England
Queensland
Zimbabwe
Tasmania
Border
Nottinghamshire

Notes: Group A has 5 English teams. Group B sees Somerset and Northamptonshire match up. Group D sees India and Pakistan match up along with 3 English teams. Group E sees Australia A playing South Australia and had 3 English teams. Group G sees Tasmania playing Queensland.

There will be 70 matches in the First Round.

The First fixture is from Group A.
Australia vs Lancashire at Melbourne.

Coming soon.

 

[Pak_cricketer]

wow thats aot of matches!

 

[The Champ]

Surely a big schedule, best of luck mate

 

[MWaugh]

thats heaps long. but good luck with it. found it interesting that pakistan and india found themselves in the same group (D) while in group (F) there is no actual test playing nation, only australia A. who will you be playing as? or will it simulated. good luck with it all. happy cricketing

 

[Jamee999]

MWaugh: Interestingly Australia A were ranked in the top 7, below India but above Pakistan.

My PC crashed last night when I was 10 overs into the first match

 

[fardin]

MWaugh: Interestingly Australia A were ranked in the top 7, below India but above Pakistan.

My PC crashed last night when I was 10 overs into the first match

HA Ha stupid computer crashes. :happy

 

[Jamee999]

Hi Fardin, you are Cricketplayer on CW.net right?

 

[Jamee999]

Australia vs Lancashire

Hello and welcome to the MCG for First Class Challenge Cricket. The best test team in the world, Australia against one of the strongest county teams, Lancashire. The skies are overcast today and, by Australian standards, it's a mild day. The pitch is very dry and bowlers running on the pitch will be really obvious and will hopefully be clamped down on. Now the 2 teams:

Lancashire

A Swann
M Chilton
S Law
M Loye
C Hooper*
A Flintoff
I Sutcliffe
C Schofield
W Hegg+
D Cork
J Anderson

Australia

J Langer
M Hayden
R Ponting
D Martyn
S Waugh*
D Lehmann
A Gilchrist+
B Lee
J Gillespie
G McGrath
S MacGill

Steve Waugh has won the toss and elected to field.

 

[Jamee999]

0.1 McGrath to Swann: First ball of the tournament, left outside off stump.
0.6 McGrath to Chilton: Drifting down the legside, no excuse for that, glanced to the fine leg boundary FOUR runs scored!
1.5 Gillespie to Chilton: Driven, edged and OUT! Caught by Martyn, no need to play at that ball. M Chilton c.Martyn b.Gillespie 10(10)
Stuart Law is the next man in.
2.4 McGrath to Swann: Edged! Past the slips nothing any of the Aussies could do, FOUR runs!
2.5 McGrath to Swann: Action replay! Edged through the slips, FOUR runs once again, nothing any of the slips could do
3.1 Gillespie to Law: Thin edge, Gilchrist isn't going to let that get away, caught behind! S Law c.Gilchrist b.Gillespie 0(2) DUCK!!!
Loye is in now.
3.3 Gillespie to Swann: Cover drive, missed! BOWLED HIM!!! A Swann b. Gillespie 14(13)
Lancashire 38/3. Carl Hooper comes to the crease.
5.2 Gillespie to Loye:Cut over the slips for FOUR runs, it was in the air but hit very hard. Lancashire bring up the 50.
5.3 Gillespie to Loye: Fabulous leg glance, Gillespie underestimating the Englishman's ability, FOUR runs.
6.3 McGrath to Loye: Fantastic ball, edged, gully dives, but it's past him, FOUR runs through gully
6.5 McGrath to Loye: Brilliant cover drive, McGrath can only watch and wish he could bat like that, FOUR runs.
7.5 Gillespie to Hooper: Poor ball, played past the square leg umpire for FOUR runs.
8.6 McGrath to Loye: Edged to second slip, he'd just got his innings going, Hayden takes the catch, what a poor shot. M Loye c.Hayden b.McGrath 21(22)
9.5 Gillespie to Hooper: Great cover drive by the West Indies international, nobody to stop the ball, FOUR runs.

That's the end of the special first 10 over coverage of this match with Lancashire rebuilding on 94/4 with Flintoff and Hooper at the crease.

 

[m_vaughan]

Nice comprehensive coverage mate.

But a few screenies would do.

 

[Jamee999]

Live from the MCG!

Lunch on Day 1

Lancashire 182/9 (Carl Hooper 38, Andrew Flintoff 30*, Jason Gillespie 6-0-33-3, Darren Lehmann 6-3-13-2)

Lancashire haven't batted well this morning, Chris Schofield(below) left Darren Lehmann's wrong-un.

Just when it looked like Flintoff and Cork were rebuilding, the penultimate ball before lunch got Cork swinging, and he edged it to the slips.

Cork's stats

The scorecard.

The batting stats. (Note that Anderson whacked McGrath over his head in to the top tier of the MCG with his only ball.)

The Australia bowling stats.

Flintoff and Anderson will try to stay in for as long as possible and hopefully edge- literally - their way to 200.

 

[barmyarmy]

Looks good and yes, Fardin is CP.

 

[Jamee999]

Close of play on Day 1

Lancashire 204 all out(Andrew Flintoff 43*, Carl Hooper 38) (Jason Gillespie 7.3-1-43-4)
Australia 3/0

With James Anderson falling in the 4th over after lunch, things were looking good for Australia until rain started pouring before they could get out to bat. Only 3 overs were managed before the close of play, this puts Australia in a tricky position as of to how to play with world-class bowlers like Andrew Flintoff, Jimmy Anderson and the part-timer Chris Gayle ready for Lancashire.

No screenshots for these 2 sessions due to the fact that only 7 overs were bowled.

 

[The Champ]

Surely AUS will get a big lead

 

[m_vaughan]

Yes I too expect a good lead for Australia, especially after Lancashire have such a low 1st innings total.