The new season has been a harsh reminder of why T20 can be such a frustrating format.
After dominating the competition to win it last season I was optimistic coming in afresh with largely the same players in good form, but I've been annihilated. My batsmen all look like blind amputees trying to hit the ball so far; on 6 bars they barely score anything and going up to 7 pretty much makes them get out instantly. This has been in good conditions too. The highlight had to be getting all out in 7 overs for the fantastic score of 34, and it was a sunny day I thought would be good for batting! I've been bowled out below 100 multiple times.
My bowlers, despite using the exact same approach as last year, have been nowhere near as effective. Never mind bowling the AI out below 100, I've had a few teams get into the 180s and others around 150. I have held some teams to 139 - 145 when I bowled first but they proved to be winning scores as my batsmen couldn't chase that.
I'm currently rock bottom with 2 wins and no chance of making the knockout stages.
It's hard to pinpoint what the difference is, given I kept my approach the same. Maybe I was lucky last year and the AI all entered in poor form, while this year they were in better form? My aggressive batsmen who scored well last year all dropped to 0-1 star form after a bunch of ducks and single figure scores in the first few matches this time so they've been warming the bench since then. Unfortunately the replacements haven't done much better. It was disappointing as I'd primed them with coaching and rests to enter the T20 matches at full fitness and good form.
Anyhow, I thought I was getting somewhere with this format after runs of QF-SF-W but this has been a timely reminder that sometimes nothing works!
After dominating the competition to win it last season I was optimistic coming in afresh with largely the same players in good form, but I've been annihilated. My batsmen all look like blind amputees trying to hit the ball so far; on 6 bars they barely score anything and going up to 7 pretty much makes them get out instantly. This has been in good conditions too. The highlight had to be getting all out in 7 overs for the fantastic score of 34, and it was a sunny day I thought would be good for batting! I've been bowled out below 100 multiple times.
My bowlers, despite using the exact same approach as last year, have been nowhere near as effective. Never mind bowling the AI out below 100, I've had a few teams get into the 180s and others around 150. I have held some teams to 139 - 145 when I bowled first but they proved to be winning scores as my batsmen couldn't chase that.
I'm currently rock bottom with 2 wins and no chance of making the knockout stages.
It's hard to pinpoint what the difference is, given I kept my approach the same. Maybe I was lucky last year and the AI all entered in poor form, while this year they were in better form? My aggressive batsmen who scored well last year all dropped to 0-1 star form after a bunch of ducks and single figure scores in the first few matches this time so they've been warming the bench since then. Unfortunately the replacements haven't done much better. It was disappointing as I'd primed them with coaching and rests to enter the T20 matches at full fitness and good form.
Anyhow, I thought I was getting somewhere with this format after runs of QF-SF-W but this has been a timely reminder that sometimes nothing works!
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