Pitch Groundman

[PostmanPissed]

What wicket do people select before home games?

I'm playing as Essex and not sure what type of wicket to select. Batting is 5 stars, Bowling 4 stars, do I go for a batsman friendly wicket, or a seamers wicket to help Porter & Wagner?

[512fm]

I'm playing as Derbyshire and generally go for seamers wicket for four day games and batsman friendly for T20 and one day games.

[PostmanPissed]

I'm about to go with that for the first home four day game against Lancashire. Sunny weather forecast and Anderson in the Red Roses lineup, so will be important to win the toss and bat first.

I've noticed from previous versions that the wicket can still turn. Hope thats still the case, so Harmer can get in the wickets.

[PostmanPissed]

Well it worked going with a seamers pitch.

Lanacashire won the toss and batted first on a clear day. A solid bowling start with Lanacashire losing their first five wickets for 105 runs, but then a partnership of 96 between Croft and Vilas brought Lanacashire back into the game. The 7th and 8th wickets cost another 75 runs, but Lancs ended up 302 all out early on day 2, with Jamie Porter the pick of the bowlers taking 3-75. The pitch was already uneven, so I decided to go with a little caution at the start of the Essex first innings. An excellent opening partnership of 211 between Cook and Browne, gave a very stable base for the rest of the innings, which the Essex top order took advantage of. The innings was declared at lunch on day three at 475 for 6, and Essex 173 runs ahead.

With a big advantage the idea was to attack the Lanacashire batsmen, although I reverted to being more balanced for a while. and their top order once again struggled, the first 6 wickets falling for 107 runs. The only partnership of note being being the third wicket for 56 between Jennings and Chanderpaul. The weather on day four was cloudy, and the pitch was turning as well as being uneven, so off spinner Simon Harmer will be putting in a shift. Eventually rain fell either side of lunch with 90 minutes lost. I didn't want to run out of time so continued to bowl aggressively. The tea interval arrived with Lancashire six runs behind and only one wicket remaining. Porter secured the win with the first ball after tea, an innings and six runs the result.

Despite going with a seamers pitch the wickets were quite well shared around. Man of the Match Jamie Porter finished with match figures of 7-106, and Neil Wagner's match figures were 4-94. My number three bowler fast/medium Sam Cook took 3 wickets, and off spinner Simon Harmer 5 wickets, medium pacer Bopara the other one.

[Sureshot]

I'm playing as Derbyshire and generally go for seamers wicket for four day games and batsman friendly for T20 and one day games.

This is exactly what I do. In fact, it gave me the idea of having a setting that enables to you keep x pitch type for y match type.

[jedimasterlincoln]

I've always tended to pick the pitch to suit my squad. Back in the day when we had harbajan and murali at lancs I always set a spinning pitch at home and played to my strengths. Doesn't matter which format.