Story International Cricket - 1992 World Test Championship

[Slowcoach]

Using Owat Games International Cricket, and with the help of IC Helper, I'm going to be staging a World Test Championship in 1992 between the Test nations playing at the time.
This seemed a good point to start because South Africa had just returned, and Zimbabwe were granted Test status that year, bringing the total number of Test nations to 9.
It is also a good point in time as far as official player cards go, with many one Test wonders carded.

Each team will be play the other twice, one home, one away, with each team playing a total of 16 games.
Matches will last 5 days, and points will be awarded as follows:
Win: 12 pts
Draw: 4 pts
Tie: 4 pts
First Innings Lead: 4 pts
Bonus Points achieved for after first 100 overs of first innings:
Batting:
200 runs: 1 pt
250 runs: 2 pts
300 runs: 3 pts
350 runs: 4 pts
Bowling:
3,4 wickets: 1 pt
5,6 wickets: 2 pts
7,8 wickets: 3 pts
9,10 wickets: 4 pts

I randomly created a draw, with teams to play home fixtures at a suitable time of the year (England playing 8 home Tests in the middle of the year, etc).
Lineups will be as per team in 1992, with players playing in the correct ratio of Tests (for example, if Ian Botham played 50% of England's Tests in 1992, he will play 50% of England's 16 matches in this replay).
I will make changes to the teams in the sequence they were made in real life to ensure each player plays the correct ratio of games, and as such each lineup may not always be optimized for the pitch and weather conditions.
This should ensure each team's performance over the season is reflective of their overall squad strength and depth at the time, and not any particular best XI for that year.
The length of the season will result in players playing a lot more Tests than they did in real life, but I wanted the chance to build up some County Championship like stats over 16 matches, and I wanted the competition to be fair on all teams with home and away fixtures against each team.
Am wondering if any of the bowlers can crack the 100 wicket mark, or if any batsmen can pass 2000 runs for the season.
It should be fascinating to see which team comes out on top over the course of the season.

Draw for the First Round is as follows:
West Indies v England
India v Sri Lanka
Australia v Zimbabwe
New Zealand v Pakistan
South Africa bye

 

[Slowcoach]

West Indies v England, World Test Championship 1992, Round 1, Georgetown, Guyana


Guyana plays host to the first Test of the World Championship in 1992, between one of the competition favourites West Indies, and an England side made up of a majority of players who lead them to the World Cup finals in 1992.
West Indies play their first Test since the retirement of Sir Vivian Richards, but still have a core of class players and will be hard to beat for the title.
England had a mixed year in real life in 1992, and missing from their strongest lineup at the time in this match is great allrounder Ian Botham, who was in and out of the team during the final year of his international career.

West Indies lineup:
D.L.Haynes, P.V.Simmons, B.C.Lara, R.B.Richardson (c), K.L.T.Arthurton, J.C.Adams, D.Williams (wk), C.E.L.Ambrose, K.C.G.Benjamin, C.A.Walsh, B.P.Patterson

England lineup:
G.A.Gooch (c), A.J.Stewart, G.A.Hick, R.A.Smith, A.J.Lamb, D.A.Reeve, C.C.Lewis, R.C.Russell (wk), D.R.Pringle, P.A.J.DeFreitas, P.C.R.Tufnell

Pitch: 19 - Hard and bumpy, this pitch will always give the faster bowlers a chance. There is also the prospect that it will not stand up to 5 (or even 4) day's play, and batting could become a nightmare in the later stages. It is doubtful whether this wicket is really up to Test standard.

Day 1 Conditions:
Pitch: 7A - Hard pitch with excessive bounce
Weather: 9 - Rain forecast.

Toss: West Indies

West Indies won the toss, and with the wicket expected to help the fast bowlers throughout, and to get very difficult to bat on late in the match, elected to bat first.
With the England attack lacking any genuine fast bowlers to take advantage of pitch conditions, and the West Indies containing no less than 4, it seemed an important toss to win for West Indies, and it could be an uphill battle for the England batsmen as this match progresses.

 

[Slowcoach]

I find it too hard to attach neat scorecards on this site, the copy and paste function of from Cricket Statz not working properly here.
I have posted scorecards from the 1st Round of the Test World Championship on a blog instead.
Here is the link if anyone is interested

International Cricket - Dice and Cards

If someone can help me find a method of printing neat scorecards here on Planet Cricket I will continue, but otherwise I will continue on the blog, and over at Delphi's British Sports Replay Forum.

 

[Slowcoach]

I will continue to post short potted scores and reports of the matches played here, but full scorecards and full innings reports will remain on my blog for now.

 

[Slowcoach]

West Indies v England - 1992 World Test Championship - 1st Round - Georgetown, Guyana - Match Report

Lead by twin hundreds to young left handed batsman Brian Lara, and a brutal display of fast bowling by Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, West Indies won the first match of the tournament, defeating England by 223 runs.
At various stages the West Indies were under pressure with the bat, but Lara's innings of 139 and 123, and a debut hundred to Adams meant the West Indies had enough runs to play with.
Set 322 to win on an uneven pitch showing signs of variable bounce, England were gunned down for 98, Courtney Walsh taking 5-28 and finishing with 9 wickets for the match.
Ambrose was not far behind, the West Indian pair being a class above the plucky but ultimately outclassed England attack.
Gooch top scored for England in the first innings in a brutal counterattack, but England would be disappointed their batsmen overall didn't show the pluck and fight lower order pair Russell and Pringle displayed in the first innings.

Toss: West Indies
Pitch: 19

West Indies 326 all out (105.4 overs)
(D.L.Haynes 32, B.C.Lara 139, R.B.Richardson 46, K.L.T.Arthurton 35, C.E.L.Ambrose 44; D.A.Reeve 3-53, D.R.Pringle 3-55, P.C.R.Tufnell 2-72)

England 319 all out (79.4 overs)
(G.A.Gooch 86, R.A.Smith 46, R.C.Russell 51, D.R.Pringle 56; C.E.L.Ambrose 3-88, C.A.Walsh 4-87)

West Indies 314 all out (77.5 overs)
(B.C.Lara 123, K.L.T.Arthurton 26, J.C.Adams 128*; D.A.Reeve 2-56, D.R.Pringle 2-53, P.C.R.Tufnell 4-103)

England 98 all out (42.4 overs)
(A.J.Lamb 20; C.E.L.Ambrose 4-18, C.A.Walsh 5-28)

West Indies won by 223 runs.

Man of the Match: B.C.Lara

Points: West Indies 23 pts (3 Bat, 4 Bowl), England 6 pts (3 Bat, 3 Bowl)