ICC 2005 Super Challenge

[Noble One]

Rise of the Tiger?

Remember 18 July 2005? An exciting team from Bangladesh shocked the cricketing world by beating Australia, thanks to an incredible innings from Mohammad Ashraful. Fast-forward nearly six years and Bangladesh have only seen minimal improvement from this point.

The challenge? Using International Cricket Captain 2005, take charge of Bangladesh and lead the team to cricketing glory. Bangladesh begin ICC2005 at the start of a largely disastrous tour of England (ignoring 18 July), and face an upcoming season of cricket including a tour of Sri Lanka and finishing the year in the less challenging home series against Zimbabwe.

Anyone who owns a copy of ICC2005 is free to join the challenge, and we will play up to the end of the 2007 World Cup in West Indies. No ultimate goal is currently planned, other than to prove yourself an able 'Cricket Captain' by guiding Bangladesh over the next two years and potentially achieving World Cup glory.

Please feel free to provide an update on the progress of Bangladesh at the conclusion of each tour.

[Chewie]

A reminder that a copy of ICC2005 can be had for free by liking the Childish Things Facebook page and following the instructions there

[Noble One]

For anyone without a copy of ICC2005.

Childish Things :: International Cricket Captain - Downloads

[_Ed_]

This is going to be awesome.

[Chewie]

Played my first Test against England and managed to draw it. Could have gone either way if the weather hadn't intervened.

Scored 369 in the first innings, but no outstanding individual efforts - Giles did take a 5-fer against us though.

Managed to bowl them out for 311 in the second innings with Aminul Islam and Mohammad Rafique taking four wickets each.

In my second innings manage to scrape my way to 218 early on the fifth day, before rain ruins their chase, leaving them on 163/5.

[Noble One]

Bangladesh tour of England 2005

Combined Univs v Bangladesh - Draw
Bangladesh: 585 (Abedin 110, Rahman 94)
Combined Univs: 152 (Mortaza 5/42, E Sunny 4/62)
Combined Univs: 8/227 (Rafique 5/71, M Islam 2/70)

Sussex v Bangladesh - Draw
Bangladesh: 398 (Rahman 91, Bashrr 63)
Sussex: 322 (M Islam 5/81, Mortaza 4/81)
Bangladesh: 1/128 (Abedin 51*, Bashar 44*)

Northamptonshire v Bangladesh - Draw
Northamptonshire: 254 (Rafique 3/57, A Sunny 3/63)
Bangladesh: 9/589 (Abedin 199, Nuruzzaman 59)

Started the tour with three drawn matches. The major weakness with this Bangladesh team is batting, so my aim was to find form for all key batsmen. Abedin was incredible in the tour games, and justified his selection as a 39 year old. The bowling attack looked sharp, unfortunately Elias Sunny suffered a fracture in the Sussex game and will miss three weeks. His namesake Arafat Sunny secured the spare spinner-spot in the final tour game.

1st Test - England v Bangladesh - Bangladesh defeated England by 141 runs
Bangladesh: 357 (Abedin 102, Ahmed 69)
England: 339 (M Islam 6/94, Rashid 2/51)
Bangladesh: 4/339 dec (Bashar 161*, M Islam 112)
England: 216 (A Sunny 5/56, M Islam 3/76)

Victory in the first Test! At 3/62 in the second innings, the inevitable Bangladesh failure looked the likely result. Bashar and Islam then combined for a 222 run partnership, and suddenly a rare win looked a possibility. Sunny on debut and Islam destroyed the England lineup on the final day to secure a great win.

Abedin suffered a fracture and will miss two weeks. Azam Iqbal to replace him at the opening position.

2nd Test - England v Bangladesh - Draw
England: 517 (Rafique 6/151, Rashid 2/78)
Bangladesh: 385 (Ahmed 107, A Sunny 52)
England: 5/221 dec (Rafique 4/67, Rashid 1/33)
Bangladesh: 6/245 (M Islam 73*, A Ahmed 56)

Secured a draw, and hence victory in the two match series over England. The bowlers struggled on a perfect batting wicket, as England compiled partnership after partnership. The pitch never improved, and wickets proved hard to take in quick succession for the remainder of the match.

ODI series to follow at a later date.

[Howe_zat]

Damn, noble, setting the bar high. Played.

[Marcuss]

Easy or Normal?

[_Ed_]

Just trying to pick my squad at the moment. The pace bowling ranks are pretty thin! Tempted to go really spin-heavy.

After this, we should do a county one.

[Marcuss]

Originally Posted by _Ed_

After this, we should do a county one.

Still using 2005? Or...
I'd nominate Glamorgan anyway, they've been terrible since the beginning of time

[Noble One]

Pace is a tough choice. Plenty of first-class bowlers with decent averages, but I have no idea if any are decent. I played with Mortaza and a guy named Rashid. They both struggled, but I hardly give them a chance once new ball duties finish.

Selecting a spinner is tough too. Must be 20+ bowlers with an average south of 30.

[_Ed_]

Originally Posted by Marcuss

Still using 2005? Or...
I'd nominate Glamorgan anyway, they've been terrible since the beginning of time

Yeah probably 2005, since it's now free for people who don't have it.

Glamorgan's a good call.

[_Ed_]

Abedin is incredible! Two tons in the first two warm-up games so far.

I've only picked two pace bowlers in my whole Bangladesh squad - Shahzada and a young bloke called Samad who has only played one FC game but has good second team stats. My main spinners are Hasan, Razzak and Rafique, but I ended up picking a few others in the squad.

Keepers are a problem as well. I chose two in the squad - Raju Parvez and Golam Mabud. Parvez looks good in FC and terrible in one-day games, while Mabud is the other way around.

Started with an innings win against Combined Universities - but they're always a bit poo, so that's not necessarily great. Doing well in my first innings against Sussex at the moment.

[Mike5181]

Won my first 3 day friendly vs Combined University by an innings and 45 runs.

[_Ed_]

Jeepers - bowled out for 100 in the second innings by Sussex, and lost by 10 wickets.