Week 4 - Northern League - Pitches

Leicestershire Foxes vs Nottinghamshire Outlaws

Pitch: A great batting pitch which batsmen should love batting on. A quickish outfield should result in lots of boundaries. Bowling wise any bowler that can mix it up should enjoy the challenge of out thinking the batsmen.

Yorkshire Carnegie vs Lancashire Lightening

Pitch: Plenty of clouds should result in lots of swing with even the medium payers able to take advantage of it. Scoring should be relatively difficult if the bowlers can control the swing. Boundaries will be at a premium so a batsman that can play through might just win it.

Durham Dynamos vs Worcestershire Royals

Pitch: A spinning paradise. The ball will turn from the first ball and even medium payers who can bowl cutters should get plenty of purchase. Inventive batsman will relish the challenges of this pitch as will any batsman that plays spin well.

Nottinghamshire Outlaws Vs. Leics

Alex Hales
David Warner
Tamim Iqbal
Ajinkya Rahane
James Taylor
Morne Van Wyk (WK)
Samit Patel
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Lasith Malinga
Luke Fletcher

Toss: Runs on the board and squeeze.

Batting: My line up will just go out and play their natural games. If an early wicket falls, Rahane will go in ahead of Iqbal but if Hales and Warner get through the PP then Iqbal comes in next. Hales, Warner and Iqbal are all proven, destructive hitters and can destroy any attack on their day, whilst Rahane has proved in the IPL that he has a T20 game aswell. Taylor will look to rotate the strike whilst Van Wyk is a very classy T20 player and can hit huge balls. Even Samit, Broad and Swann can lash it out of the park, but they shouldn't be needed. I will target 200 plus.

Bowling: Fletcher and Malinga open up. Malinga immediately goes into death mode of yorkers and slower balls and just mixes it up in general. Fletcher will get some good bounce of this pitch and will be in yorker/bouncer mode. Malinga comes off after 2 overs and Broad comes on and bowls two with all his variations off slower balls, slower ball bouncers, round the wicket across the batsman, bouncers, yorkers and all his many variations. Fletcher bowls out. Swann and Samit bowl in the middle overs, with Swanny using all his experience and Samit bowling his left arm darts. Malinga and Broad return at the death and continue with their variations.

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

Worcestershire Royals tactics vs Durham

Line-up
Adam Lyth-U25
Vikram Solanki (C)
Ian Bell
Yusuf Pathan
Shakib Al Hasan-U25
David Miller-U25
Gary Wilson (WK)
Brett Lee
Azeem Rafiq-U25
Junaid Khan-U25
Jack Shantry-U25

Toss-Bowl first, bit risky but if we restrict Durham then can afford to nurdle the spinners and target the seamers.

Batting tactics: Decided on a swap of Bell and Lyth so that Bell can face more of the spinners. Solanki is also a good player of spin, Lyth's aim will be to bat for as long as possible rotating strike. Pathan and Shakib offer good players of spin also, and different approaches to it. Miller, Wilson and Lee are to be my hitters and Pathan if he is still in.

Bowling tactics:

Brett Lee 4 Overs (1,3,18,20)
Junaid Khan 4 Overs(2,4,17,19)
Shakib Al Hasan 4 Overs(6,8,10,12)
Azeem Rafiq 4 Overs(5,7,9,11)
Yusuf Pathan 2 Overs(13,15)
Jack Shantry 2 Overs(14,16)

3 spin options in Shakib, Rafiq and Pathan whilst Shantry also bowls good cutters. Lee will bowl at the start as if he was bowling at the death, whilst Junaid can mix it up in his first two overs whilst returning at the death to bowl his yorkers.

Yorks Tactics vs Lancs

Alastair Cook
Joe Denly
Rohit Sharma
MS Dhoni (w)
Jonny Bairstow
Azhar Mahmood
Adil Rashid
Tim Bresnan
Ajmal Shahzad
Shane Warne (c)
Ravi Rampaul

Toss: Bowl. Hopefully take advantage of the early swing to set up and fairly easy chase without a lot of scoreboard pressure.

Batting tactics: Openers have a lot of experience in seaming conditions and will look to get settled and progressively attack more. Rohit will look to provide a platform for Dhoni, Bairstow and Azhar. The whole line up, down to Rampaul are all capable of clearing the ropes.

Over allocation:

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

Bowling tactics: Bresnan and Rampaul will look to take advantage of early swing Shahzad will do the same, looking to restrict Lancs in the powerplay. Azhar will bowl wicket to wicket in order force mistakes, whereas Warne will do what do does best, attacking fields and intricate variations. Rashid will only get a solitary over, but will bowl more if another bowler has a poor outing. Shahzad and Bresnan will look to bowl full at the death, varying their pace.

Lancashire v Yorkshire

Line-up - Injury: Harris
1 Moore
2 Williamson (U25) (Ov)
3 Ryder (Ov)
4 Maynard (U25)
5 Brown (U25)
6 Mustard (wk)
7 Smith
8 Napier
9 Chapple
10 Anderson (c)
11 Kerrigan (U25)

Summary - Chapple comes in for the injured Harris, the conditions will suit his bowling style and he adds depth to the batting. Karl Brown plays his first game of the season, he replaces Marsh as feel another acculumator who can bat time will be beneficial.

Toss - Bowl first, exploit the early swinging conditions and restrict Yorks to a low score

Bowling

Anderson 1,3, 12(or whenever Dhoni comes in), 20
Chapple 2,4,10,16
Napier 5,7,17,19
Smith 6,8,15,18
Kerrigan 9,14
Ryder 11,13

Anderson, Chapple, Napier and Smith will bowl the early overs of the innings, hoping to take early advantage of the swinging conditions. Kerrigan and Ryder (with his dibbly dobblers suiting the conditions) will look to tie up the scoring during the middle overs. We see the key dangerman being Dhoni, and Anderson will be brough straight in to bowl at him, hoping to take advantage of MS's less than stellar record in English conditions, and remove him cheaply. Napier and Anderson will take the death overs with both perfectly capable of bowling effective yorkers and slower balls.

Batting

With the emphasis being on batsmen who can bat time and accumulate, Kane Williamson is promoted to open, we believe that him and Moore will be able to see off the new ball and build a platform that the more naturally aggressive players can use to their advantage. These two will hopefully build a platform for the likes of Ryder, Maynard, Smith, Napier, Mustard and Chapple, if needed, to play around and use their natural game. Karl Brown will come in and look to nudge one's and two's and generally bat through

OK, spinners pitch so in come Botha and Blackwell:

Stirling
Finch
Gibbs
Collingwood (capt)
Blackwell
Pollard
Stokes
Read (wk)
Botha
Borthwick
Gul

very deep batting line-up (bats down to 10 and Gul at 11 can give it a biff), four spin options (Botha, Borthwick, Blackwell and Stirling), Collingwood and Pollard to bowl some cutters, and fine players of spin all the way down.

Toss: bat first, this pitch isn't going to get any easier to bat on, so we'll look to put a decent score on (anything above 130) and then strangle the chase.

Batting tactics: the new ball could well be the best time to bat here, and with Worcestershire opening with two quick bowlers the ball should come onto the bat nicely, so we'll look to take ull advantage of the powerplay with our explosive top 3. Then we'll just look to nurdle our way through the middle-overs. Collingwood is a master at this, while Blackwell, Pollard and Stokes will look to cash in on anything loose the young Rafiq is bound to offer. Read and Botha are great improvisers, so should enjoy the challenge. With our deep line-up we should have plenty of batting left to make an assault at the death.

Bowling tactics: We'll open with spin, Botha taking the new ball as he has done many times before. The n°4 ranked T20 bowler should prove a real handful on here. Gul will bowl one from the other end, bowling one over, before Collingwood takes over, bowling his cutters which should grip plenty on here. Borthwick, Stirling, Blackwell then bowl through the middle-overs, strangling the chase, before Gul returns at the death with Pollard bowling his cutters from the other end.

overs:
Botha (1,3,5,14)
Gul (2,16,18,20)
Collingwood (4,6,12)
Borthwick (7,9,13,15)
Stirling (8,10)
Blackwell (11)
Pollard (17,19)

Leics tactics in later.

Leicestershire Foxes Tactics vs. Notts at Grace Road.

1) Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
2) Peter Trego
3) Kevin O'Brien
4) Suresh Raina
5) Jim Allenby
6) Abdul Razzaq (C)
7) Chesney Hughes
8) Josh Cobb
9) Claude Henderson
10) Devendra Bishoo
11) Dirk Nannes

Bowling

Nannes - 4 - Open and close the bowling
Trego - 3
Allenby - 2
Razzaq - 3
Henderson - 4
Bishoo - 4

Toss - Bowl first