Story New Zealand in ICC 2005

[woosaah]

1st April 2005

Woosaah named new coach of New Zealand for the September tour of Zimbabwe which starts on 28th September and consists of 2 Tests and 3 One Day Internationals.

Woosaah was unavailable for comment today but is understood to be looking forward to the challenge and will be commenting closer to when the team leaves in September.

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This is my first story, if you have any suggestions post away, ill get better but if i don't i don't care

 

[woosaah]

24th September -
International News
Ashes Series -

England claim the Ashes for the first time in god knows how long (i think its 17 years but eh i don't know really) with a 3-1 win over the aussies.

Graeme Thorpe scored 3 centeries for England while Katich and Gilchrist couldn't save face with 2 centeries a piece. While Matthew Hoggard took 44 wickets at 22.77 and was well backed up by Steven Harmison with 35 wickets at 26.23. The stand-out bowler for Australia was the consistant McGrath with 26 wickets at 30.08 and Shane Warne only picked up 9!

So England now have the Ashes!!!

Woosaah has announced his team for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe

A few surprises thrown in there. Chris Cairns may come in and play one of the tests. Shane Bond is back from injury and rearing to go. Also a callup for S Alexandre (me) who may get the first practice match against Mashonaland on the 28th. He is a very good left hand opening batsman and hopefully will take over from the solid Mark Richardson after his retirement late last year.
A nice balance with 5 bowlers, 6 all rounders including cairns and vettori and a few people who can take the stumps if Brendon McCullum gets injured. With Sinclair, Vincent, H Marshall and Alexandre who are all able to handle the gloves.

All in all its a very strong team and will test Zimbabwe who have been declining lately.

Before they left for Zimbabwe Woosaah had a quick interview with the media.

"I am looking forward to my first tour and hopefully I can stamp my mark on this team. We are looking to be unbeaten in this tour and to out perform Zimbabwe and aim for the kill. I will not be happy if we lose or draw either of the tests and I will be ruthless in my decisions. I hope I can do New Zealand Proud"

 

[woosaah]

28th September - Mashonaland v New Zealand - Three day match Bulawayo Cricket Ground

New Zealand lost the toss and on a good pitch Mashonaland elected to bat first.
The weather forcast for the 3 days shows a bit of cloud cover on the first morning with it being bright and sunny the rest of the day. On the second day it may cloud over and rain in the evening. Day 3 looks to be a cracker of a day. The pitch is in very good condition where they outfield is a bit average.

Day One
Mashonaland 322 for 8
L Matyambizi 78 D Vettori 2-66
G Barrett 76 S Bond 2-81

Mashonaland batted very well on the first day with some sloppy bowling and fielding by the New Zealand team. It showed that they havn't been together for long, only a few days and have just touched down in Zimbabwe. Shane Bond picked up 2 late wickets to make the game look more respectable with Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram picking up the first four. For Mashonaland Luther Matyambizi compiled a very good 78 from 145 balls which his team will be very happy with. He was supported well by Glen Barrett who hit a very controled 76 from 136 and giving up only 2 chances.
New Zealand will need to pick up their game in the next two days if they want any chance of getting some valuable practice in.

End of Day Two
Mashonaland 352 all out
New Zealand 288 for 5
S Fleming 78 D Mutendera 4-85
H Marshall 60 A Blignaut 1-57
Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond both picking up 3 wickets a piece and Mashonaland only making 30 more runs before New Zealand bowled them out. Then New Zealand took the attack to Mashonaland but ended up 288 for 5 with Steven Fleming scoring a very risky 78 giving up 6 chances off 126 balls. Hamish Marshall scored a very good 60 and S Alexandre on debut for New Zealand scoring a nice 33. The best bowler for Mashonaland was David Mutendera who picked up for for 85 with the wickets of everyone except Marshall who was out by Blignaut.

Day Three
New Zealand explode in the morning session to declare 1/2 an hour before lunch on 429 for 6 scoring 141 and losing oram for 88. Astle scored a very good 107 not out off only 149 balls, he looks ready for the test. Blignaut picking up the only wicket of Oram but Mutendera was still the best bowler with 4 for 136.

New Zealand then tried to bowl them out but only managing to get 8 wickets in the afternoon with Chris Martin and Daniel Vettori picking up 3 wickets each and Shane Bond picking up the other two. Mashonaland had one batter of Keith Kulinga who had any innings of note scoring 80 off 155 balls mostly scoring his runs on the off side. Astle was Man of the Match with his 107 not out

New Zealand will be happy with the way they bowled in the second inning and their batting wasn't to bad everyone made a start but only Astle and Oram really looked like they were dominating. Woosaah will be looking for at least someone else in the top order to fire and get a big score against Zimbabwe in the upcoming test.

 

[ramesh1986]

Good going. Nice coverage woosah

 

[duffarama]

Good to see some ICC 2005 stories sprouting up. Well done woosah.

 

[woosaah]

2 October 2005
Welcome to the first day of the first test between New Zealand and Zimbabwe. The two captains Steven Fleming and Heath Streak met in the middle for the coin toss. The surveyed the conditions and they were as follows.

The pitch looks pretty good to start with but it may deteriate over the next few days. The weather looks perfect maybe a little cloud on the 3rd day and heavy cloud on the fourth morning. Heath Streak tossed the coin Steven Fleming called Tails and it fell Heads. Streak chose to bat and they gave each other the team list.

New Zealand have dropped Alexandre for this game, as the only change from their first game against Mashonaland and Shane Bond comes back for his first test in over 2 years. Looking at getting his 50th test wicket in only his 11th Test.

 

[woosaah]

Cheers Guys
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End of Day One

New Zealand well on top here even after losing 2 wickets at the end of the day. Both openers failing. Shane Bond and Chris Martin picking up 3 wickets a piece to finish off the Zimbabweans for 192.

End of Day Two

A shocking day for New Zealand only scoring around 220 runs. Mbagwa and Streak both bowling very well to restrict them for the day and McMillian scoring a very good and determined 113 Not Out. Wickets fell throughout the day without any partnerships of real note. McCullum scored a well compiled 43 but couldn't convert it into a 50. Tomorrow McMillian will need to push on and score some quick runs with only two wickets in hand.

 

[woosaah]

End of Day Three

New Zealand ended their innings 115 runs ahead of Zimbabwe scoring 37 runs in the morning. Craig McMillan scoring 28 of those runs pretty quickly. Leaving most of the third day to their bowlers to see if they could get some assistance from the wicket.

Zimbabwe fought back well during the day with Murray Goodwin posting a 97 not out and was well supported by Stuart Carlisle with a suppurb 55. None of the New Zealand bowlers looked threatning with only Nathan Astle and Chris Martin looking dangerous but only picking up a wicket each. The fourth day will be very interesting especially if Zimbabwe can add to their lead of 137.

End of Day Four

New Zealand well on top after bowling Zimbabwe out for an impressive 369 and moving to 142 without loss chasing 255 to win and needing only 113 on the last day with all 10 wickets in hand looks like it will be an easy win.

The fourth day didn't start well for Zimbabwe at all with Murray Goodwin out with a great delivery from Bond in the first over of the day not adding to his overnight score of 97. Later in the day only Niel Ferreria with a galant 43 not out.

New Zealand bowled a tight length all day and attacked the Zimbabwe batsmen. Chris Martin being the most dangerous picking up 4 important wickets. The last day will show if New Zealand have the chance to put the Zimbabwe team away and see how good this batting top order of New Zealand really is.

 

[woosaah]

New Zealand finish up the losing just the one wicket of Lou Vincent for 68 early in the day which threatened the an innings colapse but that wasn't going to happen. Matthew Sinclair completing a fine hundred and well backed up with Fleming who scored 44 not out.

Below is a comparason between McMillans first innings and Sinclairs second innings. Both innings are very similar with McMillan being more all round the wicket and being a bit slower. That was due to the fact that New Zealand were losing alot of wickets early on and he ended up carrying the innings> Sinclairs innings was of patience but wasn't slow. He gave a few chances but Zimbabwe couldn't take them.

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Any comments on my story? and sugestions?

 

[woosaah]

9th Ocotober 2005
Its been a tough build up to the game for New Zealand with Jacob Oram being ruled out because of injury. Woosaah has anounced two changes for the second test with Oram and his side strain Chris Cairns coming back from retirement to play this game. He is only here because her turned up early for the one day series. Hamish Marshall woke up with the flu and has been replaced by Stuart Alexandre who will be playing in his first test.

Alexandre's First Class record is pretty good scoring 8 centuries and 10 fifties with a high score of 182. He is an opening batsman for Auckland but will be coming in at number four for his first test.

 

[woosaah]

The conditions for the second test look pretty good, except for a chance of rain on the first morning. The pitch looks good but may deteriorate later in the innings.

The two captains, Fleming and Streak met in the middle ready for the toss.

Steven Fleming won the toss and chose to bat. Both captains then exchanged team lists.

The two changes for New Zealand were Alexandre and Cairns coming in for the out of form Hamish Marshall and the injured Jacob Oram. For Zimbabwe Andy Blignaut comes in for Gripper which should bolster the batting a bit as well as adding an extra bowling option.

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will update the rest tomorrow... hope people are injoying it

 

[jhnnyby000]

i think this is good could be a good story keep it up

 

[woosaah]

The second test started with New Zealand batting on a flat track. With Matthew Sinclair and Lou Vincent opening up for New Zealand it would take alot for the Zimbabwean bowlers to get them out. They had a good solid partnership at the start with both players scoring a fifty. Sinclair was 70 until getting a sharp rising ball and got a glove to the keeper Fierra. Vincent just scored his 50 when he prodded forward to a ball took the outside edge and it went to first slip where Stuart Carlise was standing who took a dolly of a catch both fell to Heath Streak.

Steven Fleming at first drop also scored a very good 68 and Nathan Astle a well compiled 62. The only player in the top 5 who failed was Stuart Alexandre in his first test who got a duck. He faced only 7 balls and failed to hit any of them before he was out LBW to Streak. It was a dodgy decision but the umpire gave it probably thinking he shouldn't be there when he couldn't hit the ball.

New Zealand ended up on a respectable score of 334 for 7 but could have been so much better if one of the top order stayed at the crease to score a big score.

Day 2 went to New Zealands way again. After they were bowled out for 414 with some little partnerships at the end by Bond and Vettori New Zealand went out to bowl and took the early wicket of Stuart Carlisle who edged an early one to fleming at first slip off Martin. Then Ewing and Vermeulen had a small partnership until Ewing edged an enocuous deleivery to Sinclair at second slip off the bowling of Astle. It was a short one and he tried to hook the ball but it ended up coming off the back of his bat where Sinclair took a sharp catch in his right hand not thinking that the ball was coming his way.

By the end of the day Zimbabwe were on 210 for five, showing that it is a good pitch. Vermeulen scored 79 off 127 balls before leaving the arm ball from Daniel Vettori and it taking the off stump. Murray Goodwin also scored 43 before being LBW to Bond from a fast inswinging yorker right on the toe. Day Three is going to be an interesting one, with the balance slightly in New Zealands favour.