Gameweek 1 Kittens v Cobras Knights v Fangs Punters v Brumbies Test Eagles v Somestars 1. JA Robertson Roberston opened his season XI account with a fast-paced but unremarkable 20, but went on to follow that in the second innings with an outstanding 174, comfortably the highest score of the round. The Teagles went on to lose the match, but only when Robertson departed was their innings anything to be criticised. 2. CJ Downes Much of the work of offsetting Roberston's score was done by the young Somestars opener, who not only compiled 125 in the first innings, but then made a difficult 4th innings chase look easy with his 93. A fine start to what many expect to be the opener's breakout season. 3. EL Volavola & 4. BR Hall After a decent first innings against the Brumbies, the Punters were looking to go big in the second to put the match out of sight. Thanks to Volavola and Hall that was achieved with aplomb, as the pair compiled 145 and 100 respectively to help build an insurmountable lead. The pair's 3rd wicket partnership of 119 was the key, and factoring in Hall's five match wickets and Volavola's fine keeping display, they were automatic choices. 5. BA Storer ALC veteran Storer weighed in with a top all-round performance on his return to 'Stars colours. The Victorian's fast-mediums took 2-94 and 2-64 against the good-looking Teagles batting lineup, but his main contribution was a professional 110 in the Somestars' first innings. He then finished it off by being there at the crease with 4* as his side won by 8 wickets. 6. OX Gbagbo & 7. C Kovas A ramshakle-looking Knights batting lineup showed they were not to be underestimated in their first innings of the season when they scored 451 against the Fangs. At the heart of the innings was a partnership of 190 for the sixth wicket between Gbagbo and Kovas. The pair could not be more contrasting, but both outdid themselves. Gbagbo was there with the unenviable task of holding up the Knights batting on debut, but made his way to 114. Old hand Kovas, primarily in the side to bowl, contributed 90 before getting down to business, taking match figures of 9-86 to spin the Knights to victory. 8. ER Witters & 9. MS Winney The much-fancied Cobras made short work of the Kittens in week one, and chiefly did so thanks to the efforts of their two young allrounders. Witters set the house on fire with his 4-26, dumping the Kittens out for 160, and then made 50 with the willow as the Cobras forged a healthy lead. Winney, after having scored scoring 25 himself, then took his turn to step up in the second dig. Tearing apart the Kittens' middle order, he finished with 6-49, dismissing the opposition for 201 and claiming his team an innings victory. 10. SM Green The second of our team to come away without the win, veteran Green could not be blamed for the Brumbies' opening round loss. The defensive quick's 5-78 restricted the Punters to a mediocre first innings total without any support, and then took three more in the second innings, all while keeping the runs down to less than three an over. 11. JHF Howe The Teagles' second innings was a curious one this week. Towards the end of Robertson's epic 174, the boys in black were looking good, over 200 runs ahead and with five wickets in the bank. Up stepped Howe, whose spell first dismissed Robertson and then quickly silenced the rest of the innings. Teagles lost five wickets for 13 runs, Howe finished with 6-70, Somestars were set a manageable 221 to chase, and won their opening game. And the Player of the Week is...... C Kovas! (90, 4-31, 5-55.) Amongst several excellent allround performances, Kovas went above and beyond the call of duty with the bat, before waltzing his way through the Fangs lineup twice to earn his team an unexpected victory. 1. %JA Robertson 2. %CJ Downes 3. %EL Volavola+ 4. %BR Hall 5. %BA Storer 6. %OX Gbagbo 7. %C Kovas* 8. %ER Witters 9. %MS Winney 10. %SM Green 11. %JHF Howe
Just checking Howe, but are you aware if you type @Teamname that it puts the logo in for you? For example, @_Somestars without the underscore becomes %Somestars. It's something not many people seem to know, so given you're going to be doing a lot of it from the looks of that OP, I thought I'd tell you.
Personally I would have put Armstrong into my side rather than Witters. With the amount of bowling I don't think the side really needs as many bowlers/allrounders.
I think he wanted to make sure he didn't pick anyone out of position as such, which meant Armstrong was only really competing with Downes/Lordeman and lost out.
Yeah I can understand that. I personally don't think teams like this need to be as rigid as that, but I get that others do.
Well it's either muck up the balance by playing people out of position or muck up the balance by including too many bowlers, so meh. I'm pretty confident I got the six best batting performances in there.
I largely agree, but I do think it's a bit different when it comes to openers. Picking someone to bat 6 in this side when they batted 4 isn't a big deal, but picking three (or one, or none, or four etc) openers does seem wrong to me.