Northern League - Week 3

Match 1 - Lancashire Lightening vs Leicestershire Foxes

Pitch: A bit overcast to start with with with swing bowlers having fun early on but as the clouds retreat it should become a batting paradise. Bit of spin throughout, possibly more in the second innings.

Match 2 - Nottinghamshire Outlaws vs Durham Dynamos

Pitch: A bit of a green top that will favour the seamers, some uneaven bounce may make batting tricky. Quite a fast outfield as well so therefore we should see a high scoring match.

Match 3 - Worcestershire Royals vs Yorkshire Carnegie

Pitch: Overnight rain has left a slowish pitch that shouldn't have too much bounce in it, slow outfield making accumulates the absolute key here. Some slow and low spin throughout.

uneven bounce means Harmison will get to play this one. Unsure on the rest of the selection at the moment, but probably something like:
Finch
Stirling
Gibbs
Collingwood
Pollard
Stokes
Read
Borthwick/Botha
Gul
Harmison
Hassan

Green top means Samit misses out for Harris in all likelihood.

Hales
Warner
Rahane
Taylor
Hussey
Van Wyk
Harris
Broad
Swann
Fletcher
Malinga

Gives me 4 seamers, and two spin options.

Cook
Denly
Mahmood
Rohit
Dhoni (w)
Bairstow
Ervine
Rashid
Bresnan
Shahzad
Warne (c)

Worcs tactics

Solanki(C)
Bell
Lyth-U25
Miller-U25
Pathan
Wilson-U25
Andrew
Shakib-U25
Lee
Meaker-U25
Cheema

Toss:Bat first

Injury of Pietersen and nature of the pitch sees Bell elevated up the order, in the hope he will anchor the innings and accumulate runs throughout with the others playing around him.

Bowling
Meaker(1,3)
Lee(2,4,18,20)
Cheema(7,9,17,19)
Yusuf Pathan(6,15)
Shakib(8,10,12,14)
Andrew(5,11,13)

Notts Vs. Durham

Team:

Alex Hales
David Warner
Tamim Iqbal
James Taylor
David Hussey
Morne Van Wyk
James Harris
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Luke Fletcher
Lasith Malinga

Toss: Bowl first. Use bounce and seam to get wickets and restrict Durham, then chase down total.

Bowling: Start up with Malinga and Harris. Malinga will bowl one over and look for an early break through, whilst Harris will use the early green on the pitch to get some movement and look for wickets. Broad will bowl one over after Malinga and use the extra bounce to trouble the batsmen before Fletcher replaces Broad and uses his 6'6 frame to utilise the extra bounce and pick up wickets. Fletcher and Harris will bowl out if they are bowling well. Swann will come on in the middle overs after the PP and use the extra bounce to trouble the batsmen and build more pressure. Broad and Malinga will come back at the death with instructions not to bowl length to Pollard. Malinga will bowl yorkers as Pollard can struggle with the extra pace, mixing in some slower balls, whilst Broad will bowl short to Pollard as he does sometimes struggle against short, quick bowling especially with the extra bounce.

N.B. Hussey can bowl if Harris/Fletcher get some tap.

Malinga - 1, 16, 18, 20
Harris - 2, 4, 6, 8
Broad - 3, 15, 17, 19
Fletcher - 5, 10, 12, 14
Swann - 7, 9, 11, 13

Batting: Play their natural games. Hales is used to English pitches and will go well on this track, and Warner loves extra bounce and will thrive on it especially if Harmison is lose. They will be under orders to see of Gul, and attack the other bowlers. Iqbal will play his natural game and get us ahead of the rate aswell, before Taylor and Hussey can turn the strike over and accumulate runs before teeing off at the end if necessary. Van Wyk is a very good striker of a cricket ball, with a T20 average of over 30, and will be my finisher. Harris, Broad and Swann are all competent batsmen and even Malinga and Fletcher can hit a long ball.

Yorkshire Tactics

Cook
Denly
Mahmood
Rohit
Dhoni (w)
Bairstow
Ervine
Rashid
Bresnan
Shahzad
Warne (c)

Toss: Bat. Our bowlers are brilliant at defending scores.

Batting tactics: Cook and Denly will open with Cook looking to anchor and Denly looking to attack. Mahmood will come in as a pinch hitter followed by Rohit who will look to work it into the gaps. Then come Dhoni and Bairstow who'll look for singles to get settled and then hit out. The rest of the batting line up, all of whom are capable batsmen will attempt to hit boundaries.

Over allocation:

Rashid: 1,7,9,11.
Bresnan: 2,4,17,19.
Shahzad: 3,5,18,20.
Mahmood: 6,8,15.
Warne: 10,12,14,16
Rohit: 13.

Rohit will be given the 15th over if Mahmood is poor early on and Sharma is okay during his spell. If further bowlers are required, Ervine's military medium can be used.

Bowling tactics: Rashid will bowl a tight over of spin before Bresnan and Shahzad come on. They will try to bowl yorkers and slowerballs in trying to deceive the batsmen. Azhar Mahmood will use all his experience and make use of cutters and other subtle variations. Warne and Rashid will keep it tight during the middle overs, aiming to stifle the run rate and take the odd wicket before Shahzad and Bresnan return at the death.

Lancashire tactics v Leicestershire

No injuries this week

1. Moore
2. Mustard (wk)
3. Ryder (Ov) - Let out of rehab for the afternoon
4. Maynard (U25)
5. Williamson (U25) (Ov)
6. Napier
7. Smith
8. Marsh (U25) (Ov)
9. Harris (Ov)
10. Kerrigan (U25)
11. Anderson (Capt)

Lineup - Anderson has regained fitness and replaces McCullum, who drops out due to the nature of the pitch prefering swing.

Kerrigan comes in for Payne in the other change, Payne drops out due to Andrson coming in meaning Kerrigan replaces him to provide the spin option.

Toss - bowl first, exploit the swinging conditions earlier on

Bowling over allocation

Anderson (1,3,5,20)
Harris (2,10,14,19)
Napier (4,6,15,18)
Smith (7,9,11,13)
Kerrigan (8,10,12,16)

Marsh will fill in should any of the bowlers go around the park

Anderson, Harris, Napier and Smith will bowl the early overs of the innings, hoping to take advantage of the early conditions. Kerrigan will look to tie up the scoring during the middle overs, with Harris brought back for two 1 over bursts in order to unsettle the opposition. Napier, Harris and Anderson will all take one over at the death and all three all perfectly capable of bowling effective yorkers and slower balls.

Batting
Once the cloud cover has gone batting should prove much easier, Moore will play the anchor role allowing the others to play around him, Mustard will open with him and will look to take advantage of the powerplays. Ryder and Maynard come in at 3 and 4, and are both naturally quick scorers and are capable of clearing the boundary with ease. Should quick runs be needed then Smith and Napier will both be promoted ahead of Williamson, Williamson when he does come in will play as an acculumator, nudging 1s and 2s and picking the gaps. Napier in particular will play his natural game and take the attack to the Leics bowlers

Durham tactics:

Finch
Stirling
Gibbs
Collingwood
Pollard
Stokes
Read
Borthwick
Gul
Harmison
Hassan

selection: Going for three tall seamers in Gul, Harmison and Hassan to run in, hit the pitch hard and exploit the movement and uneven bounce.

toss: bowl first, restrict Notts to a low score.

Bowling tactics:
Hassan and Harmison to open up, looking to exploit the conditions and take early wickets. Notts only have five proper batsmen, so will have to be fairly cautious you'd imagine, and their star players Warner and Iqbal aren't used to these conditions. Gul will bowl one PP over, and Borthwick, Harmison, Pollard and Collingwood will rotate through the middle, before Gul and Hassan finish it off at the death.

overs:
Harmison: 1,3,5,15
Hassan: 2,4,17,19
Gul : 6,12,18,20
Borthwick: 7,9,11,13
Collingwood: 8,10
Pollard: 14,16

Batting:
Stirling and Finch are both excellent T20 players, Stirling in particularly fine form as shown by the WC qualifiers. They'll look to be cautiously aggressive off Broad and Malinga, but cash in at the other end. Then we have a wonderful experienced middle-order of Gibbs, Collingwood and Pollard. All good players of spin, so should see off Swann without too many problems. Stokes and Read are excellent finishers, and with Borthwick and Gul at 8 and 9, and even Harmison at 10 who can give it a whack there's plenty of batting there.

Leics Tactics. - Quick due to time constraints.

Squad

1) Dilshan
2) Jefferson
3) O'Brien
4) Raina
5) Trego
6) Eckersley
7) Ashwin
8) Henderson
9) Bishoo
10) Malik
11) Nannes


Bowling

Dilshan - 2
O'Brien - 2
Trego - 4
Henderson - 2 - Will bowl at death.
Ashwin - 2
Bishoo - 2
Malik - 2
Nannes - 4 - Bowling at the start and death.

Toss - Bat first to allow spinners to dominate Lancs' chase.