How to get better at One day games.

[RVallant]

Any advice as to how to bowl in one day games. I'm fine with T20 and Tests, but One day games just blow me away.

These are my results so far with England (on easy :P ) all vs Sri Lanka;

T20 - Skittled them for 113, posted 115-3 to win 1-0.

OD - Hit 289-4 and they won with 290-7
OD - 202-9 under very cloudy conditions, I thought it would be reasonable as I have medium pacers to skittle them but they cleared 203 for the loss of only 2 wickets ¬_¬

OD - Skittled them for 242 and posted 243-4 to win 1-2.
OD - 365-5 from Sri Lanka, we got a measly 200-7, but we gave up anyway as we were nowhere near the run chase.
OD - 334-7 from Sri Lanka, we hit 261 this time but for the loss of 9 wickets, the middle order basically threw in the towel and tumbled away the wickets, on a bloody batting pitch. ¬_¬

Contrast the experience with the only test I've managed so far;

Test - Took them all out for 265 and 230 and proceeded to smash 671-7 with Cook netting 204 and two others hitting 100+. The 265 was under cloud, my 671 saw me batting an entire day in rain/very cloudy, conditions that would see my lads go out for 50-10 if it was a one day match! -_-;;

It seems if I go defensive, they'll just smash me around the park. If I attack, they'll smash me around the park. If I try and constrain them, they smash me around the park. I ended up with 3 aggression and 2nd most defensive field and... didn't quite work.

It is not fun to watch. Batting likewise is frustrating, I do 5 to start and raise to 6 as we go along and we'll usually tick the run rate over at around 4-5 ready for the last 10-20 slog, but at some point a succession of wickets tumble and it becomes a running joke.

Any advice?

[Raver]

Seems to me that your efforts aren't exactly a complete train wreck. You're not winning a lot, but many of those scores are respectable. And youre playing Sri Lanka, who aren't a bad one day outfit.

Personally, my approach in the one dayers is generally to put the opposition in to bat, try to attack them to take wickets, and restrict the scoring that way, and then to pace my innings in light of the score I'm chasing. I find that easier than trying to set a total against an AI that seems to find it easier to pick the right aggression rating. I also tend to have my more defensive batters at 3 and 4, and even opening as well, and back my ability to lift the run rate as the ball gets older.

Probably all BS, but those are my thoughts.

[Sureshot]

I don't tend to start batting at 5 in one dayers, but if you're chasing 300+ it's difficult not to.

Best way of holding the run rate back is taking wickets, get your best bowlers going and if you've taken some early wickets, keep them going for another over. It's easier to get those overs back with 3rd/4th/5th if they're 5 down rather than 3 or 4.

Be aggressive on your squad and team selections, try and find those bowlers with the best strike rates, rather than economy.

[Tigerhgrrrrrr]

Something I am trying and so far after very limited testing it seems to work. If you need to consolidate / score 1 run per ball then regardless of batting aggression play ball by ball so you can constantly change and set the non striking batsmen as the preferred striker this seems to increase the flow of quick singles. You have to reset to the other batsman after every ball but recently it won me a game when requiring less that 1 run per ball aggressive set batsmen were playing and missing at everything.

There is logic to this.