Story Three Lions on the Shirt? - Match Day: Northamptonshire fight back!!!

[Cricketdude]

Eagerly awaiting the update.

 

[Highlander999]

Thanks for the comments guys but my school have now helpfully blocked off all photo and pictures sites so I can't acess photobucket till I get home :

 

[Cricketdude]

Thanks for the comments guys but my school have now helpfully blocked off all photo and pictures sites so I can't acess photobucket till I get home :

Your trying to access the wrong file, gay porn is not allowed.

 

[Highlander999]

Tuesday 9th April

"Come on guys, let's do this!!!"

This was my cry as we broke up from the team huddle. We were all fired up. You could see the passion and determination on everyone's face. We were out there to win this match. The Gloucester batsmen would have no idea what had hit them. Even Cooky who had been very quiet recently and not particularly focused was shouting his support from point. Spearman and Weston were the opening pair and they slowly walked out doing lunges, stretches and practice shots. Andy was was opening the bowling as he is definetly the best bowler in this side, plus he senior guy The Gloucestershire boys would have a hard time against his swing. I had a perfect view from first slip.

Andy's first ball was a leg-bye bringing Spearman on strike. Andy came thundering in and bowled a fullish ball. It seamed towards Spearman who tried to play it of his legs but mis-judged it. It thumped into his pads.

"HOWZAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

....we all screamed. The umpire swiftly lifted his finger up. We had got the first wicket :happy Everyone went running in to celebrate with Andy who had his arms raised in the air like a Demi-God. What a great start. Windows was the new batsman and he would have a tricky time with the team so fired up.

Unfortunately for us, we got no more wickets in that over. Still it was an excellent start as we wanted a couple of quick wickets. However now it was my turn. Andy threw me the ball,

"Come on Tom, you can do this. You are one of the best 18 year old seamers in County Cricket. Keep a good line and length and let the new ball do the rest of the work. Keep them guessing but don't do too much variation."

I took this all on board. Such advice from a legend of the game like Andy would be very useful. I spent the next few minutes perfecting my field. I ended up with 4 slips, a point and a bat pad, so there were plenty of chances for catches. It was a risky field as there were plenty of gaps in the field and there were runs to be taken. Therfore I had to bowl well.

Disappointingly I could not find a brekathrough early on I did exactly what I had planned, bowling a tight line and a good length. But I just could not get a wicket. I was getting frustrated at the stubborn defence the batsmen were putting up. However I need not have worried. Andy at the other end was slicing through the Gloucestershire top order. He picked up a further 2 wickets. When he got the wicket of Chandana we all went running in. That was the big wicket and to get him for only 4 was a great result,

"Great stuff mate. Hopefully I can get a few wickets as well soon."

"You will Tom, don't worry. You've been unlucky so far. Just keep your present line and length and it'll happen."

Andy was right. I had started well and so soon I would hopefully get a wicket. However for the time being, Andy was the star of the show

Taylor and Windows were the two batsmen who were now at the crease. They had a mammoth task ahead of them . They needed to not only score some runs but they now had to contend with a fired up South African and a passionate Scot. I seriously did pity them. There was a lot of banter out there aimed at the two batsmen including,

"Anyone fancy getting a "window cleaner" to clean Windows face so he can see the ball better?"

"Shame these two boys are too scared to go after our bowlers. Someone send them back to mummy"

That last taunt seemed to get to Windows, and I was the guy who had to bowl to him I dragged it down slightly and it was a wee bit wide. Windows went right after it, trying to drive it off the back-foot. However this moment of agression was a big mistake. He completely mucked it up and it took a massive edge all the way too Cooky at point. My first wicket!!! :happy

"COME ON!!!!"

"That's the stuff Tom. Show them what you've got!"

I was really pleased to get my first wicket of the innings as I had been bowling really well. It was however ironic that my worse ball had got me my wicket I was willing to take them in any shape of form though

My first wicket :happy (Animated)

The team were really fired up now. Taylor was just standing there looking furious with himself. He slowly turned around and trudged of. We were all like mad men let loose out of a mental asylum. You'd have thought we had won a piece of silverware. Slowly we returned to behaving more like sane human beings. We had so far had half an hour of play this morning and we had taken 4 wickets with only 16 runs being scored. That left us with a lead of 218 runs!!! This match was now looking to be heavily in our favour. The question was. Could we keep up our momentum?

Brief Bowling Stats

A. Hall: 4.0 - 0 - 14 - 3
T. Baker: 4.0 - 1 - 10 - 1

 

[Manly]

Bad balls always get them!

 

[Left_Hander]

You are well on top here. Suprised to hear you open the bowling. You should all go back to your mental ayslum now

 

[vaibhav mehta]

Good to see your 1st wicket.
I Hope You loved to open the Bowling..
Great Update and Great Story going on.
Keep Up The Great Work.

 

[Kiko_97]

Well done Tom you're in a great position to win this match KUTGW

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Good work Tom! Should be an easy win from here!

 

[Cricketman]

Don't let them get away with this, now. Knowing your story writing skills they'll probably claw back, you bowling the last over, claiming a wicket, and being a hero or getting a heart breaking loss.

Whatever it be, it makes for good reading so hurry up and update!

 

[Cricketdude]

If you dont update soon i swear im going to get Mike Tyson on you.

 

[Highlander999]

Thanks everyone for commenting. I figured I better update to stop CDM getting me attacked

Tuesday 9th April

We had Gloucestershire at 16/4. We were almost there. We could sense that victory was just around the corner. All we had to do was grab it, in getting another couple of wickets. I was however beginning to tire. I was now beginning my seventh over and although that might not seem like very many overs, I had been giving it my all!!! However the batsmen survived my over. I was soon told by David that, that was the end of my spell. I had only got 1 wicket but I still had good figures

My replacement was Amjad. Amjad had been recovering from a knee op from the summer and was still not fully fit. However he was pushing for a permanent place in the team and today's bowling would certainly help him. He absolutely destroyed the batsmen, picking up 4 wickets!!!! He had been told to take it easy but he was bowling in the mid eighties and getting it to swing all over the place. I did pity those batsmen as each one came out and then soon had to walk back. Finally he got the big wicket of Windows who had been providing a bit of resistance. The team all came running in to celebrate,

"You are the man AJ. Keep this up and you'll be Number 1!!!"

"Cheers Tommy. You ain't done too bad either!"

The team were completely fired up now. Victory was certain. It was only a matter of time. We were all joking around and having a good time. This is one of the perks of putting in the hard work on the first few days. It means you get this great feeling. A sense of.... I'd call it deep satisfaction. That warm glow you get when you know you have done a good job.

Eventually it was Jimmy who got the last wicket when he bowled Averis. Everyone came running in and high fives were all exchanged. We all shook hands with the Gloucestershire boys. They had given it their all but to be honest they just weren't up to it in the batting department. We slowly trooped of, all chatting and laughing with each other. It had been a great team performance.

In the changing room we slowly got dressed back into our trackies. Everyone was talking about how well Amjad had bowled and how myself and Andy had saved us in the second innings. It's good to know that you are appreciated sometimes We had a look at the stats for that innings. Gloucesterhsire had been bowled out for a pathetic 74 Only Windows had provided any resistance and that had soon come to an end. Amjad had got 4 wickets while Andy had got 3. Myself, Jimmy and Cooky had all chipped in with one apiece. It was good to see Cooky getting back in amongst the wickets after a relative dry patch. And to make it better we had done it with a day and a half to spare

As everyone else clustered around Amjad and Andy, I slipped away. I wanted to look over my figures by myself. Ironically I had bowled better in the First Innings but batted much better in the Second Innings. However I wasn't too worried about one bad score. It had been an excellent match for me and I was satisfied. My only regret was that I had missed out on my 100, but there would be other chances. I suddenly heard David speak,

"So who do you think is going to get Man of the Match?"

Everyone suddenly turned around at looked at me.

"What?"

"Come on Tom, that was a match saving knock you had plus you got 4 wickets. Your a definite candidate."

I hadn't really thought about it. I suppose I was. However for the mean time I was concentrating on my stats. I was just making sure I enjoyed every moment of it

David was soon approcahed by the match referee. Everyone knew it was about the Man of the Match. The question was, had I got it?

 

[Spoobir]

Wow... Gloucestershire were awful. Good luck with MotM anyway

 

[Kiko_97]

I hope you get MOTM KUTGW Tom

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Awesome win! Yet another cliffhanger...Damn you Tom:

Great update!