World Club Knockout (WCK)

[Jamee999]

On May Day the ICC announced there would be a World Club Knockout, to be held in Kolkatta, featuring 2 teams from England, Australia and South Africa and 1 team each from New Zealand and the West Indies. It will be a 25 Over Competition, and it will be sponsered by LG.

The teams will be, in alphabetical order:

Border
Gauteng
Leicestershire
Northern Districts
Queensland
South Australia
Trinidad
Warwickshire.

The draw has also been made for the 1st Round:

South Australia vs Northern Districts
Gauteng vs Trinidad
Leicestershire vs Border
Queensland vs Warwickshire.

Coming up soon are the squads and the 1st innings of the 1st match!

[Jamee999]

The squads were today announced for the WCK, all the teams also name their captains.

Border Bears:

M Boucher*
M Bruyn
B De Wett
C Langveldt
L Gaimet
L Graham
T Henderson
W Henkel
J Kreusch
I Mitchell
S Nelani
M Ntini
S Pope
P Strydom
C Sugden
M Zondeki
B Bennett
M Maketa
A Pringle
A Sodumo

Gauteng Lions:

A Bacher*
U Abrahams
C Eksteen
J Mafa
S Ndima
M Street
S Cook
M Elliot
M Otto
D Terberugge
S Burger
H Ackerman
G Kruger
S Andrews
M Harris
E Nkwe
A Mohammed
W Dugmore
J Sharma
S Conrad

Leicestershire Foxes:

D Robinson
D Maddy
A Habib
J Maunders
H Ackerman*
J Snape
P Nixon
O Gibson
P DeFreitas
D Masters
C Henderson
J Dakin
C Dagnall
J Sadler
D Mongia
D Brignull
C Willoughby
T Ward
M Whiley
T New

Northern Districts Knights

R Hart
G Aldrige
M Orchard
S Styris
I Butler
M Hart
G Robinson
N Horsely
J Marshall
H Marshall
B Martin
G West
D Vettori*
J Yovich
D Tuffey
G Irwin
M Bailey
J Hatwell
D Kelly
S Andrews

Queensland Bulls:

J Maher*
C Hartley
A Bichel
S Grant
L Carsledine
N Kruger
J Dawes
N Hauritz
J Hopes
M Kasprowicz
S Watson
M Love
D McKensie
B Nash
A Noffke
S McGoffin
C Perren
W Seccombe
A Symonds
M Hayden

South Australia Redbacks

D Lehman
G Blewett*
C Davies
J Davidson
S Dietz
D Fitzgerald
A Flower
S Harris
J Gillespie
M Higgs
B Johnson
M Cleary
P Rofe
M Cosgrove
S Tait
G Manou
M Miller
C Ferguson
T Kelly
B Cameron

Trinidad Thunderbolts:

D Ganga
I Jan
A Jackson
D Bravo
Z Ali
L Roberts
R Rampaul
D Ramnarine
M Black
M Persad
T Modeste
B Lara*
D Mohamed
M Dillon
A Kanhai
R Smith
S Badree
D Brown
N Chan

Warwickshire Bears:

N Knight*
M Wagh
I Bell
J Trott
M Powell
D Brown
A Giles
H Streak
N Warren
K Piper
N Carter
T Frost
A Loudon
J Anyon
J Troughton
D Pretorious
A Shantray
T Penney
N Tahir
T Mees

The 8 captains, Nick Knight, Brian Lara, Gregory Blewett, Jimmy Maher , Hylton Ackerman, Daniel Vettori, Adam Bacher and Mark Boucher.










The first match: Northern Districts vs South Australia is coming soon!

[Kweek]

Cool idea Jamee!

[Jamee999]

Hello and welcome to the opening match of the LG 25Smash Knockout!

The match today is South Australia vs Northern Districts, live from Eden Gardens, Kolkatta. The 2 captains, Greg Blewett and Daniel Vettori met to do the toss and exchange teamsheets earlier so let's have a look at the lineups.

South Australia Redbacks
G Blewett*
J Davidson
A Flower
D Lehmann
B Johnson
M Higgs
C Ferguson
G Manou+
M Cleary
J Gillespie
P Rofe

Northern Districts Knights
J Marshall
H Marshall
N Horsely
S Styris
M Hart
D Kelly
J Yovich
R Hart+
D Vettori*
D Tuffey
I Butler

It's 6pm here at Kolkatta so it'll be interesting, as the lights may come on before the end of the 1st inning. The pitch is dusty and will take spin from the start.

Daniel Vettori has won the toss and elected to bowl first.

[Kweek]

Robbie is playing, good to see mate

[Jamee999]

After 10 overs, South Australia have progressed well going at 7-an-over, the 2 openers Davidson and Blewett are gone but Lehmann and Andy Flower are going well.
Blewett was run out after just 2 balls


Davidson hit 2 big sixes before getting out trying for a 3rd off the slower ball of Butler

Davidson hitting out, and getting out.



Lehmann started really getting down to buisness, this pull came off the bowling of Scott Styris.
Lehmann starting to smack the Kiwi's around


Here we have the Scorecard, Batting Stats and Bowling Stats, Daryl Tuffey is obviously being saved up for the later overs.





Now we move onto a new feature for this tournament, as it is the drinks break we will do a short interview with the next man up for South Australia, Ben Johnson, the batsman who has a good record with the ball. Richie Benaud(RB) will be conducting the interview with Ben(BJ).

RB: Good afternoon, Ben, I hope your at peak fitness for the innings you may have coming up.

BJ: Yes Richie, I'm feeling well today and I'm looking forward to my first competitve game of 25Smash.

RB: Do you think the boys have got off to a good start?

BJ: Well obviously it wasn't the best start with skipper going first ball but if we can keep this run rate up we'll be on track for nearly 180, which is obviously a good score in Smash.

RB: How is it down on the bench, for those that don't know this is a dugout down by the pavillion stairs where the next batsman in waits, this keeps the game moving,?

BJ: It's a great innovation, every so often the coach or one of the player comes down and just chats with me or motivates me and what not, the only worrying thing so far has been, Johnny Davidson's 2nd six and how close it was to hitting me! *laughs* It really keeps up the pace and I've been talking to one or 2 of the spectators as well.

RB: It's been good talking to you Ben, but the players look ready to resume so let's go back to the commentary box.

[Kweek]

Go on mate!