A pair of at-the-death finishes propelled The Cricket Draft's winning Ashes manager to glory
The Cricket Draft's Ashes games were almost as exciting as the series themselves, with at-the-death surges from both winning managers.
Playing Joe Root and Chris Woakes as double captains in the final round catapulted Tom Rowell's team – the inappropriately named Confusing Selections – to the top in the men's Ashes fantasy cricket game… but it could have been so different...
"I did get a bit of fortune by seeing a tweet saying they were using the Double Captain," said Rowell. "I had forgotten to do it, so quickly made sure I had my Double Captain locked in." Cue a massive 2,163 points and a jump from 6th to 1st.
"My main strategy was to pick players that were multi-disciplined. Bats who could bowl a bit, bowlers who could help with useful runs and I picked a lot of players that were in slip cordon for more chance of points with catches," said Rowell, explaining the key to his success.
"I also picked bats and all rounders who I didn't think were going to be dropped as I knew a lot of bowlers could be rotated and didn't want to waste crucial transfers.
"The Cricket Draft have created a great fantasy cricket game in all competitions and is really enjoyable and thoroughly addictive."
"Nat Sciver-Brunt as captain from gameweek 4 kept me in the hunt," said David Kerry whose Glory Gardens team took the women's Ashes crown, but it was another huge final round that took him to the top.
"The last minute decision to bring Charlie Dean in as the 12th that really paid off - sneaked into 1st from 11th at the last with the most important 44 points I'd scored all series!"
We asked Cricket Draft co-founder John Welch for his two players of the series:
Chris Woakes - 645 points
"Initially you would have to have been fairly brave to pick Chris Woakes mid-series, without a huge amount of game time behind him. But on the flip side you would have been crazy not to have picked him for the last two games after his immediate impact.
"He ended up scoring an average of 215 points per game, 45 more points than any other player. Thoroughly deserved man of the series."
Ashleigh Gardner - 971 points
"Top wicket taker across all three formats, Gardner was always likely to be towards the top end of the points scoring.
"But the fact she also scored 208 runs with a strike rate of 94, including 7 sixes, across all formats, meant she ended up a huge 202 points more than her nearest competitor Sophie Eccelstone. An amazing effort."
You can still play the County Championship and One-Day Cup games – enter for free at www.thecricketdraft.com
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