Welcome to the top Moira!

When Faf fell

Only one game today and I proved to be quite exciting. Bangladesh was no ones pick as favorites for the day but then again South Africa haven't been to stellar as of late either so who knew?? Bangladesh batted first and did amazing! Al Hasan's 75 and Rahim's 78 secured a total of 330 for South Africa to chase. And since they only dropped 6 wickets I would say well done Bangladesh. 2 wickets each to Phehlukwayo, Morris, and Tahir - nothing to write home about. And for the first half of the 2nd innings it looked like South Africa had a shot, their run rate was on par with Bangladesh. But the then Faf fell. He was on 62 in the 27th over and tried to launch another one when it spun through the gate and crashed into leg stump. Bye bye Faf. They stuck it out for all 50 overs but the run rate just could never get where they needed it to be and in the end they were 21 runs shy. So again, well done Bangladesh.

As for our little competition, I was up there in second for a hot second, but alas, no more. Clustercluck2019 has regained the top spot with the Crackpot Rabbits making a surge just behind. Trophytakers slipped as did the Politcal*unkies, Nagels, Muttermatters and the Panicky Squids are all hanging in the middle order with Henry's Stour Power loosing steam. Hang in there Henry! Catherine is on her way home. (evil daughter in law aside: maybe Catherine will forget to do her trades since she's at the airport..........hmmmm.......)

Tomorrow's match will be England v. Trump, no wait, that's what's happening for the Political Junkies out there, as for the cricketing *unkies, it's England v. Pakistan.

Do you think that Trump Baby balloon will fly over the match? Maybe I should tape it just in case......hmmm......whistling........

We Have a Worm

Thanks for the worm duty Anna.

This will be a quick note as I have to get ready for tomorrows game day.

After getting the kids off to school this morning I sat down to catch the last half of the game today.....it was already over. Pakistan was crushed. They batted first and went all out after only 21.4 overs, posting only 105 for the West Indies to chase. 3 wickets to Holder and 4 to Thomas - anyone have that guy? Gayle (50) and Pooran (34) easily reached their goal in 13.4 overs winning the match for the West Indies by 7 wickets. All 3 wickets went to Amir.

Tomorrow there are two matches, New Zealand v. Sri Lanka - NZ is favored, and Afghanistan v. Australia - AUS is favored. Lesson of the day - pick the early order batsmen, I think it will be true tomorrow as well.

I knew Catherine would want to see this.

Let this be a lesson to you

So our first day of matches began today and, having recorded the game, I dutifully tried to avoid the results until Michael came home and we could watch. Then my mother called......lets just say between her and a few others I knew the end results. Any who, I think she's sorted and hopefully the others are as well. What happened you ask? Let me tell you - England batted first and it was a bad start when one of the openers, Bairstow, went out for a duck. But my man, Roy hung in along with Stokes, Root and Morgan, posting 311 for 8. South Africa's Ngidi got himself a hat trick and Tahir and Rabada each picked up a couple of wickets. When South Africa took the field, and by that I mean England was in the field and SA were batting, they started in fine form with de Kock hitting a respectable 68, but no one else really did much. So they lost at 207 all out after 39.5 overs. 2 wickets each for Plunkett and Stokes with 3 for Archer. In addition to the batting and the wicket getting, Stokes made the play of the day with an amazing behind the head, one handed, diving catch.

Whatever's in that crock-pot of James, it sure smells good for now. Moira's Mutter may matter but she's gonna need to up her strike rate. But its early days yet, early days. Michael? What about him you say? Well, he fell victim to the old "I changed my team but it didn't go through" scenario. So, let this be a lesson to you, when you modify make sure you CONFIRM (you have to click two buttons), and then double check by going back in to look at your team. You can thank me later with chocolate or cold hard cash

Tomorrow its Pakistan and the West Indies. Happy Gaming!

On Your Marks...Get Set...Go!

It suddenly dawned on me this morning that this whole affair starts tomorrow! Are you ready? I'm not, I immediately went into a panic, I have all Afghani Es and Fs on my team, my printer won't print the fixtures, I can't figure out how to get a nice clean list of all the players with their rankings, Do I make the WK my captain? How many trades do I make each day? Do I tell everyone that Steyn is out with an injury? What time will they close the trades? I wanna watch the matches, can I subscribe to Willow TV for one month or do I have to commit to a longer time frame? ...... SO MANY questions and things to do. But I sat down, got out a nice clean sheet of paper and a trusty pencil and I got to work. I think I have myself sorted for now at least.

So it all begins tomorrow with England taking on South Africa. Seems like expectations for England are high, those for SA are low. But England has a habit of going sideways, so who knows. Then on Friday its Pakistan v. West Indies. Remember, there is no group stage, just one big round robin set of 45 matches. Then top 4 go on to the semis. You have 300 modifications, so that works out to 6.25 modifications per match, but a captaincy change costs extra, and some days you don't have time to make modifications between matches, so I'm thinking maybe I could make like 8 changes a day......or maybe I do a complete change every other day......should I pick A players? they use up a lot of budget, how do I best use the "mixed role" players? Maybe I should take both wicket-keepers...... now I'm in a panic again.