Round 6 match team previews and match reports

[NZTailender]

Post your team previews, match reports and anything else in this thread. This is for both First Class and One Day round 6 matches.

We expect at least 1 piece of writing from each manager...

[Coach_Pearson]

Victoria today named their 4 day 1st XI team, with Brad Hodge still suspended and Kale out injured the batting bolsterered with 2nd XI players Durrant (for the 2nd week in a row) and Rikki Clarke for his 1st senior match this season.

The 2nd XI will name their lineup later in the week, but are rumoured to include Madanagopal and Moss again.

[vic_orthdox]

Good idea!

[vic_orthdox]

Western Province have welcomed back Shane Watson to the fold, and he will regain the captaincy upon his return to the 1st XI side to take on Auckland.

Watson was dropped for a combination of reasons - qualms over his captaincy, lack of batting form, and personal reasons amongst them - but scored a delightful 100 for the 2nd XI last week and, in combination with some inconsistent batting form from the WP top order, has earned himself a recall. Watson takes the place of Pradesh Abid Ali, who has struggled at the top of the order aside from a couple of 50's, and Gautam Gambhir will move up from number 3 to open the batting.

To further enhance the batting, Andy Puttick has returned from injury, and will provide some much needed stability from number 7.

Neil McKenzie will get a chance at number 3. The side will be taking on Auckland, who gave WP a good touch-up in both divisions just last week in the OD competition, so the motivation should be high amongst the players.

The team for Round 6 FC: Morley, Gambhir, McKenzie, Hammett, Funston, Watson*, Puttick+, Porter, Ballard, Clarke, Tate

[NZTailender]

'Last chance' for struggling players
Greg Thomas today announced the first class side to take on Surrey.
Again there were no changes to the XI apart from another batting reshuffle.
"I feel the lower order is probably our weakest link at the moment. Mahela (Jayawardene) and Pete (Marsden) aren't in good form at the moment. I've decided to give Marsden a chance ahead of Mahela who will bat at six for the first time this season.
I'm also giving Roy Silva a chance to show his batting prowess by batting him one place up the order." he said.
He then confirmed that this round will be the last for the struggling players to prove themselves.
"I've been discussing with Nick (Hancock, 2nd XI manager) changes to the team and we're in agreement. After round 6 is completed, we will make a decision on dropping and promoting players. At the moment, Jayawardene, Marsden and Silva are under the microscope in the FC side while Anup Dave and W Robertson will need a big performance with either bat or ball in the next One Day match. Z Saeed & F Yashpal have been pushing for a spot in the FC 1st XI with a string of good performances and P Laker is the front runner for a spot in the One Day side."

Yorkshire XI to play Surrey (in batting order): K Agnew, M Dawn (c), M Love, W Tendulkar, P Marsden, M Jayawardene, R Silva, L Vincent (wk), F Evans, P Laker, D Kaneria (vc)

[chaminda_00]

After the surprise call up to the Vics first XI for English superstud Rikki Clarke, the Colts management team have develop Mission RC. A plan to stop the Victorian all rounder who can win you a game with one hand and loss you a game in the other hand. Mission RC has been centred around former WCC Yorkshire fast bowler Jason Lewry, who has dismissed Clarke a total of 12 times in previous meeting betweeen the two players in English county cricket, during his playing days for Sussex. Lewry call up to the first caught everyone by surprise, with many expecting either Omar Cope or Andrew Tweedie to take the last bowling spot. But after both failed to take oppurtunities during their 1st XI debuts, the Colts management opted for man who has Clarke number.

With Lewry selection in the first XI, its expected that Colts may play a three man spin attack in the 2nds lead by Omar Cope. It is yet to be decided whether the 2nds will opt of the 2nd seamer in Farhan Abbasi, who hasn't set world on fire in grade cricket or the extra batsmen in Salman Butt, who has scored two hundreds this season in grade cricket.

[cricketboy29]

The Queensland Board admitted to sorely missing Gibbs, but said they could get through this tough period without one of their stalwart openers. As well as this, Manager Gaurav Nayak reminded his players that wanted 100% commitment from his players out in the middle, and to try and draw strength from their od victories, and translate that into fc form as well.

[superkingdave]

Shape up or Ship out, Lancs boss gets em told



Whilst Lancashire boss Dave Richards kept faith with the team which failed to defeat ACT in the last round, he unleashed a vitriolic attack on the 'undercurrent of mediocrity coarsing through the squad' condemning the 'diabolical fitness levels and Blackwellesque work ethic.' Richards continued his assualt for a full 5 minutes before finishing up with 'a lot of the squad seem pretty comfortable with lazing around, well they'll be doing that on the dole next year if they're not careful'

Lancashire sit mid table in both forms of the game but face table topping Tamil Nadu this week and could be dragged into the relegation dogfight.

[Jamee999]

Surrey ****.

[Jamee999]

Bennett promoted!

Jason Bennett, Surrey Second XI captain, has been given a shot at the big leagues. The West Indian fast bowler was promoted to be part of the first xi bowling attack, with young Kevin Straw dropping into the Second XI.

William Denny will take over Second XI captaincy for this week.

[cometer]

Leicestershire to tackle ACT at Manuka infront of the Leicestershire manager's home town during the offseason is on paper shaping to be a fairly comfortable victory to the hosts. However, funnier things have happened and I will certainly be hoping it is a fairly competitive match despite what really should be an ACT victory. Considering Leicestershire were in division 5 in FC in season 6 it is an achievement to the team to be up near the top of the division 1 table despite having played the majority of the bottom placed sides. Certainly, coming away with a result would be an astonishing achievement but realistically ACT seem too strong. The manager has told his players not to worry about the outcome and just go out there and show the rest of the WCC community and fans that they can play cricket and deserve to stay in division 1 for next season (which baring a huge mid-season to end of season collapse, should be obtainable). Will Vaughan continue with his big run hitting or will someone else stand up like E Sellars or F Platt (who i'm sure will be looking forward to playing against his former side). Only time will tell but I believe that Vaughan will be targetted by ACT as one of the key wickets to get. My prediction is an ACT victory by 7 wickets. The lineup is follows:

T Marston
K Slater
E Sellars
F Platt
C Vaughan
C Rogers
I de Saram (wk)
T Mughal
I Gallage
U Sammels
R Ezard

[tadeusz]

I assume 2nd xi stuff goes here too?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by tadeusz

I assume 2nd xi stuff goes here too?

yeh mate..

[lord_of_darkness]

wow good win against warwicks!! that too an outright ...superb!.. Shelley put my faith back in him with 11 wickets in the match was top effort! and graham.. well beautiful to see him play like how he used to orginially when he stepped into wcc with a crafty 242* N.O! we really needed this win to stay off the bottom in div 1 and hopefully this good run carries on for us , we really need it.. disappointed Jewell didnt have a bowl at all again... he really could have wrecked things up with Shelley

[tadeusz]

Recently appointed WA 2nd XI manager Thad Bochat has made two changes to the round 5 team that drew with Hampshire.
R Uthappa has been dropped for M Vandort, while the decision to play three pace bowlers and one spinner on the WACA sees F Milligan come in for M Hossain Jr