T20 Tactics Tested at WC20

[cde]

T20 Tactics

This is going to be a study into the success rate and limits of my T20 tactics. I’ve been reasonably successful over the years in LO matches and have previously shared them in this forum but have decided to put them up again and test them by playing the WC20 with each team available.

I mostly play as the mighty Glamorgan, maybe taking on the England role a few years into the save, or as a purely England international save. I have played as other teams in the English league, the IPL, various domestic and international teams but these are the teams I am most invested in so play the most. As such I have not been sure if my tactics work because of the tournaments I regularly play in or because they just work. I also think it is also easier to build winning teams in larger multi-season saves because I can try out players and if there is a player who doesn’t get results with my tactics I just drop them and find another one. As such I have signed players with good T20 records or prospects who I have had no success with and after letting them go seen them thrive. I do really like this because it proves that there are more than one way to play and win. I also really like it when an ex-player tears me apart!

First I will outline the tactics. They are not trying to recreate real life, they are a reaction to how I think the game plays and how I feel I can be most successful with the least effort. There is no way to win 100% of the time but I have started keeping my own stats this year and over have a win rate of 75%, rising to 82% when bowling first and this is broadly in keeping with what I would expect.

[cde]

Tactics – Bowling

From first playing CC I have preferred bowling first. This is true in real life but I have always felt that the AI was more successful chasing a target. As such I bowl first and look to take wickets so build my squad around a strong bowling attack - the best way of keeping the score down is to send batmen back to the pavilion. This also helps if you have a weak batting line up or are looking to turn around a weak team - to consistently win you need to find only five quality bowlers but seven decent batsmen. There are two main exceptions to this. If the pitch is dead flat then the team who bat first almost always wins so bat first. If the pitch is dead for bounce, has one bar spin but you know the opposition don’t have two good spinners also bat first.

I bowl with one setting and two custom off-side heavy field settings – essentially an ideal field setting and one to meet fielding restrictions – for all bowlers of all types. I bowl on two bars, good length, outside off, for all bowlers to all batsmen. These tactics are very much not true to life at all and for two reasons. First, it is a computer game, not real life. Second, if you bowled like this in real life the batsman would simply keep stepping across the stumps and swatting you mercilessly into the leg-side all day long. In game the batsman still wants to hit into the empty spaces on the leg-side but as they are always playing from an orthodox position this becomes far riskier and a source of wickets rather than runs. True to life? No, but see reason one.

Mostly playing in English conditions my preferred attack consists of 4 seamers and a spinner, a sixth bowler is nice but far from essential. I always look to have a F, MF and FM seamer with the fourth seamer any of the above. If the conditions are predominantly spin friendly, I will go for the same three seamers with two spinners who turn the ball opposite ways. If the pitch is flat but spinning I will try to play three spinners though not too many teams have 3 on hand! Variety helps take wickets.

In the average game I bowl with a two over pattern:

Fast / Medium-Fast
Fast / Medium Fast
Fast-Medium / Medium Fast
Fast-Medium / Medium Fast
Fast-Medium / Seamer 4
Fast-Medium / Seamer 4
Spinner / Seamer 4
Spinner / Seamer 4
Spinner / Fast
Spinner / Fast

I find that while the fast bowler can pick up wickets in the opening spell it is in tandem with the spinner (hopefully against the lower order) that they can be deadly, especially if they are a LF. If the pitch is spinning the second spinner replaces the 4^th seamer in the order. This is not absolutely rigid. If a bowler gets hammered in their first two overs I take them out, if I am defending a total and can’t stop a key player I might bring the fast bowler back in but 90% of the time this is how I bowl.

To left handers with two right handed seamers I bowl one seamer over the wicket, one around. With a left handed bowler I only go over the wicket if the batsman is smashing it. OS I bowl around the wicket, LS over for two overs then around, SLA the same and SLW over the wicket. I find that if I am getting creamed about the park by a batsman then changing bowler or coming around the wicket to a right hander can more often than not force the wicket.

If I have the option of a batsman who can bowl a bit then I only bowl them in conditions that suit them or if a main attacking bowler is getting demolished. In Glamorgan terms think David Lloyd, primarily an opener but can be a lethal RM bowler in overcast conditions or D’Arcy Short who can pick up a few wickets on a spinning pitch. Don’t rely on them, they supplement rather than complete the attack and can give a useful option if a bowler is getting thrashed.

When selecting bowlers I always look at the average first and, quite obviously, the lower the better. If trying to choose between two bowlers with fairly equal averages I look at the strike rate. All five bowlers have to be as good as possible.

[cde]

Tactics – Setting the field

In real-life top-class cricket teams have a huge number of field settings, tweaking basic templates to suit individual batsmen, bowlers and conditions and it can seem a bit daunting. Personally, I knew the fielding positions and fielded in many of them but didn’t altogether realise what was going on or why. Through playing this game I understand a little more and certainly enough to be aware of how little I know!

In FC matches I have a handful of set fields that once saved I can choose from and tweak but in LO matches I really can’t be bothered and once I stopped changing my line and length there seemed little point in having more than two basic fields. They seem to make the bowling tactic work (and vice-versa) and the changes from the basic setting make a difference. I have tweaked them over the years and made a slight change this year too. Any changes are made to increase the chance of a catch. They are almost the same for seamers and spinners with just a few significant changes.

I will walk through how I got to the field settings for seamers so you can see the logic behind it. Why so much effort on the seamers over the spinners? Because in English conditions they will bowl 80% of the balls and once the basic framework was there tweaking it for spinners worked just fine.

First up, the default field setting for a seam bowler on two bars outside off is shown in attachment 1

Which didn’t get me too far at first. There were a lot of balls going fine of the wide 3^rd man and a lot of catches going begging to short leg, so I moved those two, which also negated the need for the guy at square leg so I shifted him back to backward square leg. (2)

I then found a very helpful suggestion on the forum – they had found that removing 1^st slip but leaving 2^nd in place resulted in more catches behind the wicket. I tried it, and it mostly worked but if I moved the slip to a kind of 1½ slip then fewer balls flew through the gap between the keeper and slip. I also moved mid off and mid on back and straighter. (3)

The next iteration of CC came along and I noticed that the guy at point was, a bit pointless. Most catching opportunities passed him by or fell far short. I moved him in and after some tweaking settled on placing him between the Y of gully and the T of point. I found that he performed some amazing diving catches and caught a lot of mis-hit cuts. It maybe resulted in a few more boundaries but not that many. I then realigned the fielders at short cover and long off to close off some gaps. The unexpected consequence of moving from short cover to a kind of mid extra cover was that it became harder for batsmen to chip over the fielder and again I took more wickets. I was also missing deep catches on the leg side so shifter the backward square leg to cover that area. (4)

This was now working very well indeed. This year I noticed more shots falling short of the player at long-on so moved him to mid-on and have been taking more catches there. (5)

For the first overs I have a different setting where the long off and deep square wicket are brought inside the circle. (6)

The fields for spinners are the same for OS, LS, SLA and SLW (7)

The main differences are that the guy at point has moved back because the catches just aren’t there and the fielder at mid-on is a tad straighter. He is there for the skied pull that drops behind the bowler. The guy at silly leg is shuffled forwards and back for the different spinners. I start off square and move them to wherever the most missed catches go. I’ve found that it is slightly different each year but once he’s there most catches go there.

[cde]

[cde]

Batting

I have often been in the position of being able to bowl the opposition out relatively cheaply but unable to chase them down because of weak or brittle batting. The next biggest issue I have is with multi-season saves where I have a strong bowling attack but have no idea of my best batting line-up because they are seldom put under stress. I can find out that my No. 4 who averages 35 @ 135% is actually not so hot when he has to come in and pile on quick runs rather than build into an innings. This can also be an issue when setting targets since it can be hard to gauge which players you can push up when. Beware the opener who is slow to start, it is easier for your tailenders to drag themselves to 15 off 3 overs than 25 off 3.

As a rule I kick off on 7 bars. If the pitch is flat or they get 5 off the first two overs I up it one. Otherwise I let them have a few overs more and up it. If the pitch is good and the batsmen are going well it goes up to 9 once the bar turns green. T20 is brutal, any new batsman needs to hit the ground running and once we are over the halfway line they all start off on 8 bars, 9 in the last over. There is no magic formula and players can collapse or go big with little reason.

Player selection is key. Player traits can help but strike rate is a better gauge. Also take a look at how many 50s they are scoring as a percentage of their innings. If your side is full of live fast or die trying batsmen you will vacillate between horrible collapse and high scoring glory. I go for as many aggressive players as I can and will allow a low averaging batsman with a high strike rate lower down the order. Form is a massive, massive factor. A batsman struggling for form is a walking wicket in T20. No matter who the player is, no matter how good they are in real life or last season if their form is dropping get them out. A batsman who averages 20 in 90%+ form will outperform a batsman who averages 35 in 30% form in the short term, though their form will drop away quite quickly.

You can, and I have often, enter the spiral of death. This is especially true in weak or shallow squads. A couple of batsmen are in poor form so struggle to score runs. They struggle to score runs so their form dips. Because you can’t rely on them you push the other batsmen harder and they get out quicker, making their form dip. Eventually everyone’s form is awful and your squad is so weak that the replacements aren’t much better or are already in poor form themselves.

[cde]

Team Selection

I first find the best five bowlers, a F, MF, FM, spinner and another seamer/spinner. I want as many of these as possible to be all-rounders but one is a minimum. If it is between a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder I always go for the bowler because it is easier to stop runs than to score them.

I then look for three openers with high averages and strike rates. I like to play three because if I lose a quick wicket the incoming player can play the new ball and it seems to help stop a collapse, it is also important that your openers can get going from the start as it is easier to scrape home needing 5 and over than 10. I then put in the highest and quickest scoring batsmen I can find.

You only get to know your players by trying them out. Some batsmen can come in and almost always smash it from the start, others can’t and the only way you will find out is when they have to perform. If you have a high averaging 5 or 6 who walk in and smash runs at the end of an innings then drop them and try someone else. Some bowlers can take wickets with the new ball, some do better at first change, some during the middle overs. You don’t have to keep detailed stats, if it feels like a batsman keeps getting out for 4-10-12-67-5-11-5-67 or if your bowler only seems to like wickets that really suit him, he probably does. Most of all be brutal, move people about and drop them rather than hope for the best.

[cde]

The Test

I’m going to play as each available team in the WC20 tournament to test out the tactics. This is going to be a different sort of challenge to the multi-season career saves I am used to.

Over a multi-season save I can find the players who suit my tactics over a few seasons. They can be tested out, moved about in the order, different combination tested. Players come into tournaments in a certain degree of form, which can strongly determine if they play or not, and as the seasons go by a degree of depth can be built into the squad. None of this is available and while players enter the tournament at the same level of form some are going to go up, others down. If a key player in a small squad is on poor form it is going to be difficult to turn it around since there are few back-up spaces in a 15 man squad and you have no idea how the incoming player will go either.

I find it best to select my ideal XI then add back-up options – an opener, a wicketkeeper, a seamer and a spinner. If some of these can be amalgamated or all-rounders, all the better but much will rest on that initial selection. I will be picking on the stats I see in front of me and not on real-world teams.

What is the criteria of success? That depends on the team. I would say that most of the big teams have a decent chance of winning the tournament. To not be making the final would be a failure. For the teams coming through the group stage then I would hope to qualify and to beat the other team from the group stages. A big success would be to beat one of the big teams.

[cde]

Afghanistan

Starting with a team I initially think will struggle to get out of the group stage. Selecting the team I start feeling a bit more positive, there are some players here who have decent looking averages and a little experience. It will be tough to get out of the Super 12 group with India, England and South Africa but if I can take one of those you never know.

We start off gently against PNG and then Bangladesh, both comfortable wins bowling first. It is then on to SA who we put in to bat and mug. We get them to 79-4 and they never quite come back. We have our first big scalp and all going well. England have already lost to Bangladesh, SA and India and look all over the place, we take our second big win chasing down 164 with the loss of just one wicket. We are through! India next and we hold them to a similar score and the batting, again led by Gurbaz puts them to bed. A wildly successful five from five!!

We play NZ in the semi and this time it is Fareed Ahmed who takes a brilliant 5-24 in overcast conditions to leave them 56-6 and we make it to the final.

We have, so far, bowled first in every match. Now we get to the final and Australia put us in to bat. We limp to 123 all out and despite a late fightback from Rashid Khan we are very comfortably beaten.

Position - Runner-up. A great run-in with four big teams beaten in succession.

Player of the tournament – Lots of great performances and while Gurbaz is a strong contender with his big scores against SA, England and India it has to be Hamid Hassan who opened and close the bowling and finished with 20 wickets at an average of 7.95 and economy of 5.96.

[cde]

Australia

Playing at home with a lot of big-hitting batsmen anything other than a win would be disappointing. The team is fairly settled and easy to pick.

A bit of a tougher start to the tournament we kick off against Pakistan, they put on 166 but we chase it down with great ease. Batting is already easier then with Afghanistan. We then pile on the runs against West Indies, put on a decent score against Sri Lanka and skittle Bangladesh. The match against NZ is abandoned after we have already bowled them for 90. We ease through to the knock-out stages.

We play India in the semis and make a strong start before Bumrah takes a hat-trick of Warner, Smith and Handscomb. Maxwell comes and goes but we rebuild thanks to a brilliant 92 from 65 from Finch. We keep India at a decent distance and as the game starts slipping away from them Agar finishes them off with his own hat-trick for a really good win.

We play NZ again in the final, hopeful to finish the match this time around. They post a decent score of 164 but it is a total that feels comfortable to chase down, which we do with a couple of balls to spare and another fine performance from Finch

Position – Winners.

Player of the tournament – Aaron Finch. 475 runs, one century, five 50s at a strike rate of 142.6.

[Chris_]

Interesting to see your full approach there.

I might have to a try a 2-over pattern from the start. I use a similar setup of 4 seamers, 1 spinner as standard (dropping a seamer for a 2nd spinner if the pitch encourages it) but have always done a 4-4-2-4-4-2 over pattern, with my strongest two bowlers opening for their full 4 each and then my other two seamers getting 2 each next to the spinner who takes all 4 at once.

I've also been sticking to low aggression, outside-off bowling but have been using the default field. It might be time for me to try some custom fields too, as I see your point about balls going just wide of the lone slip position where a "1.5" slip might be able to catch it.

Batting has been my weak spot and it's interesting to see how high you go quite early. I've been finding my batsmen getting out very quickly as soon as they're on even 7 bars, but that could be down to mine not being ideal for T20. My best 20-over campaigns (including winning the thing) have been when I've bowled first a lot and kept the AI score low. That's let me bat on 5-6 aggression a bunch of times and still win, so there's been less stress on my batsmen. This year my bowlers weren't quite as effective and I had to bat first a lot, which led to me having to use 7+ bars more than I'd like and seeing wickets tumble.

Form is certainly a key point. A couple of bad games and 1 star form can render a player useless for the rest of the competition. Always fun when a player returns from international duty or the Hundred with their form completely destroyed

[cde]

Bangladesh

Picking the squad I am struck by a couple of things, firstly that if this tournament was played on spinning pitches then having two spinning all-rounders in Al Hasan and Mahmudullah along with the seamers Rahman, Islam and Hossain I would have a really tidy bowling attack. As it is played in Australia it feels like I am a seamer short of a strong attack. Secondly is that there are a lot of batsmen with decent averages with strike rates in the mid-120s which could be an issue if we have to score quickly.

The tournament kicks off with the qualifying group stage and we easily dominate. Bowling first in all three we concede 91-9 against Namibia, 150-7 against the Netherlands and 54-9 against Scotland in just 11 overs before the match is rained off. This feels like a good chance to have built form.

We go into the group stage of the Super 12 with a match against England, who we hold to just 165 with Iqbal leading a successful chase. Two simple, low scoring matches against Afghanistan and Oman follow before a defeat to India. They put 201-7 on us and despite a decent 187-7 in reply our lack of big-hitters comes home. This is proved to be somewhat untrue when we face SA to qualify for the knock-out phase. This time they put 211 on us but a strong 50 from Iqbal and a brilliant 98 off 45 balls from Das takes us to a famous victory to take us to a semi-final against Pakistan. They put on a strong 174 and despite another good batting performance from Iqbal we fall short.

Position – Semi-final. A decent return, the SA match a highlight.

Player of the tournament –Al Hasan was the leading wicket taker and Rahman did very well in opening the bowling but we conceded over 200 twice so it is difficult to pin point them as key. Probably Tamim Iqbal would have to be first choice, his three big scores of 73*, 50 and 72 all coming against our strongest opponents.

[cde]

Interesting to see your full approach there.

I might have to a try a 2-over pattern from the start. I use a similar setup of 4 seamers, 1 spinner as standard (dropping a seamer for a 2nd spinner if the pitch encourages it) but have always done a 4-4-2-4-4-2 over pattern, with my strongest two bowlers opening for their full 4 each and then my other two seamers getting 2 each next to the spinner who takes all 4 at once.

I've also been sticking to low aggression, outside-off bowling but have been using the default field. It might be time for me to try some custom fields too, as I see your point about balls going just wide of the lone slip position where a "1.5" slip might be able to catch it.

Batting has been my weak spot and it's interesting to see how high you go quite early. I've been finding my batsmen getting out very quickly as soon as they're on even 7 bars, but that could be down to mine not being ideal for T20. My best 20-over campaigns (including winning the thing) have been when I've bowled first a lot and kept the AI score low. That's let me bat on 5-6 aggression a bunch of times and still win, so there's been less stress on my batsmen. This year my bowlers weren't quite as effective and I had to bat first a lot, which led to me having to use 7+ bars more than I'd like and seeing wickets tumble.

Form is certainly a key point. A couple of bad games and 1 star form can render a player useless for the rest of the competition. Always fun when a player returns from international duty or the Hundred with their form completely destroyed

The bowling pattern is more to do with seeming inability to count than any grand tactic! However I have found that a some bowlers do well at first change, some at the death, etc and it can help to identify the type of bowler I need to complete my attack.

I find the same with bowling first and would say that by chasing a few low totals at the start it can help with building players into form. It is harder to do this batting first becasue you simply have to post as many points as possible even if you actually bowl them out for 123.

[cde]

England

Like Australia there is more consternation about who to leave out and selection is straightforward. This should be another tournament win.

We kick off with an easy win over Namibia before we crush SA, posting just over 150 but bowling them for just 72. Next we keep India to a below-par 159 in 18 overs and smash the runs off. What makes batting with England so easy is the number of batsmen with a high strike rate, you can afford for a couple not to get going because someone else will. We trounce both Afghanistan and Ireland to reach the semis.

We have our closest match against NZ, being held to 175 on a bouncy pitch, but they fall six runs short, Mark Wood saving the day with wickets at the end of their innings to take away momentum. We then crush Australia in the final, bowling them for just 129 and knocking off the runs at a leisurely pace.

Position – Winners. The NZ match was close but otherwise never looked like losing.

Player of the tournament – All the batsmen played a part but none dominated. Stokes added all-round strength but the opening pair of Archer and Wood were fantastic. Archer shades Wood on average, Wood shades Archer on wickets. Not enough between them to choose.

[Raver]

This is a wonderful series of posts cde. You have my vast gratitude for doing these. I had in fact been meaning to have a go at doing something similar myself, but more as an attempt to get better players to chip in and correct me. But this is excellent, and funnily enough I think you might have posted screenshots of your field settings a few years back, because my own custom fields look very similar to your older ones. They worked like magic for me back then, but lost their effectiveness last year and this.

A few other questions I'd be interested in your take on:

1. Do you vary your length at all for overcast conditions (pitching the ball up?) or uneven bounce (shorter bowling?)
2. I find that a good RM or LM can be quite useful for containing runs even in unhelpful conditions, but the trick is knowing when to take them off. But it doesnt look like you really go there?
3. How do you vary things for ODIs and 4 day games? You've touched a little on that, but I wondered if you would elaborate a bit more.
4. Do you play ball by ball? And do you watch the replay of every ball?

[cde]

India


A wealth of depth and talent. Just like England and Australia anything other than a tournament win will be disappointing. The only talking point in selection is leg spinner Yuzendra Chalal over Ravi Jadeja. Jadeja’s averages really aren’t that hot in international T20s and while he is probably the best fielder in the world and so valuable to a side that translates to nothing in-game so I pick Chalal instead. As stated above, all the bowlers have to be as good as possible.

We kick off against SA and after posting 163-9 the decision to pick Chalal is vindicated by his taking 5-17 to take them down for 139. We kick the stuffing out of Oman but fail to chase down England’s total of 172-7, falling 5 runs short. The batting isn’t clicking as hoped, the batsmen aren’t doing terribly badly but neither are they doing terribly well. The line-up is: Sharma, Kohli, Rahul, Iyer, Pant, Gill, Pandya, Ashwin, Kumar, Bumrah, Chalal. We bowl Bangladesh for just 129 but collapse horribly and scrape a win with the last ball. Change is needed. For the final group match the line up changes to Dhawan, Kohli, Gill, Iyer, Pant, Pandey, Panda, Ashwin, Dinda, Bumrah, Chalal. We put 172-7 on Afghansitan, enough for a comfortable win but uncomfortably low.

We play New Zealand in the semi-final and this time the batting clicks – 198-5 and a comfortable win with NZ unable to get near the strike rate. The final is against our first opponents, SA and we are put in to bat first again. This time the batting does not click, a decent start turning to quick wickets for Ngidi and Rabada and a perilous looking 143 to be chased down. It doesn’t feel enough and when the third wicket falls for 110 in the 13^th over the game is almost gone. Then comes Chalal. First ball Bavuma is out for 9 then followed by ducks for du Plessis and Miller to complete the hat-trick and after a couple of single Mulder for 1 to turn the match on it’s head and leaving the score at 130-6. Next over back he takes another, and they are 108-7. He finishes the match with 6-15 and SA 14 runs short.

Position: Winner. The most difficult of the big teams so far, I didn’t get the batting line-up right. This is an issue I seem to have every few seasons but seldom with such strong teams. I couldn’t really push them and it was very hit and miss.

Player of the tournament: Easy. Yuzendra Chalal. His mother must have been badly insulted by a South African at some point in the past because while he took a healthy enough 6-126 in the other five games he played he took 11-32 in the two against SA and won the final when all looked lost.