Second innings syndrome

[Jobi1K]

Resurrecting this discussion point I posted about in the CC20 forum… Is anyone else having trouble killing teams off when bowling in the second innings in FC games??

I've just completed my second English season in this edition, and was very pleased to actually finish the season unbeaten in the Championship. However, I didn't win the tournament. In fact, I didn't even finish top of Division 2! Why? Because I struggled all season to dispatch teams in the final innings! In my 10 games in the first phase, I won 3 and drew 7, while in the final phase I won 2 and drew 2, for a season total of 5 wins, 9 draws and 0 defeats, which will go down as an overall 8th place finish, which is absolutely rubbish considering the quality of my team and the fact I didn't lose a game all season!

There were I think three occasions where I had the opposition 9 down by the end, and just couldn't take that final wicket. I know in the CC20 forum cde suggested going with 3 bars of aggression with your bowlers from the start of the second innings, which does seem to work fairly well in most situations, as it seems the AI does still send the opposition out attacking with the bat in the second innings (at least at first), no matter what the match situation is. But I'd be interested to hear how people go about finishing off a tail to win a game in the final innings. All out aggression and try to blast them out, or stick to average aggression and good line and length and hope they make a mistake? I've tried both approaches this season and not had a huge amount of success with either!

I have won the Championship in previous editions, and in fact in my first season in this edition I was only one win off coming top (I was basically in a head-to-head in the final match of the season where the winner would finish top and the other team would finish 3rd, and I didn't win!), so it's not like I can't win games in the format, but I've just really struggled to put games to bed in this latest season.

[Chris_]

My answer sort of comes down to a useful "it depends", but also partly that it comes down to the players.

I was having a similar issue of getting into a good position but then not being able to finish a team off and ending up drawing, or declaring with what I thought was a good number and ending up losing as I didn't take the wickets needed to stop them building momentum. After a few seasons of bowling inconsistency I sat down with my spreadsheet of stats from each season to see what might jump out. When I looked closer I realised I was putting too much weight on bowling average alone for tracking FC bowling performance; I had some bowlers who had a decent average as they had good economies but they could go quite a few overs between wickets and their Strike Rates were poor. An example might be a 26 average but 50-60 SR. Having a couple of these bowlers meant when it came to crunch time and a team was digging in for a draw I just wasn't clinical enough to take those wickets in time.

A big part of converting those draws into wins, and going from Div 2 to consistently Div 1, was dropping any bowlers for FC matches if their SR was poor. Instead of focusing on players with a good average each year I plugged a simple formula in to combine both average and SR to put more emphasis on wicket taking. (Average*SR/10). This scoring system made it clear which bowlers had both a good average and SR compared to those with a decent average but a bad SR.

When I then looked at the 2nd XI 3-Day stats for each player there was a clear trend: My consistent FC wicket takers had a 2nd XI SR below 40. Usually an average below 20 too, but my highest wicket taker for several seasons in a row had a 2nd XI average of 21 and a SR of 36. His economy was a bit higher as he leaked a few more runs, but if I needed wickets before time expired he'd take them. My inconsistent bowlers who'd struggled in FC matches had much worse 2nd XI SRs in the high 40s or even 50s, and even if their average was ok that was showing me why they weren't clinical at taking wickets quickly.

With that data I adjusted how I sign new FC bowlers and since then have reached Div 1 every time. Now and then a team will still dig in just enough depending on time and conditions but I have less of those should-be-wins end up as draws. In addition, my stronger bowling team has given me more time to bat and less pressure on that side, so it's also helped me turn some matches into draws where I'd previously expect to lose (such as those where you lose the toss and conditions go heavily against you).

All of my FC bowlers now have a 2nd XI 3-Day SR below 40. The strongest bowlers have it around 34-36. My all-rounders aren't quite as good (as you'd expect) but still in the low 40s; I wouldn't use one for bowling with a SR at say 49 or 50+). Typically those bowlers also have a 2nd XI average below 20, though a couple are around 20-21. You can see the difference in the long run between the bowlers around 17 and those at 21 in terms of giving a few more runs away, but when it comes to that final day when you need to take wickets their SR still usually gets the job done.

Form is key for this. Bowlers with low form might keep their economy reasonable but they're just much slower at taking wickets. I know I can trust my strike bowlers in 4-5 star form to get wickets when needed but if they're on 1-2 stars they can easily play like an economy bowler instead.

In terms of tactics in the match this is where it depends on the situation and the conditions. If I have plenty of time I'll stick with 4 bars from the start but where in a first innings I'll drop to 2 after a while I likely won't in the final innings if I'm up against time. If conditions are poor I might start on 5 bars (the first orange) and then drop to 4 if they start getting settled. I only use maximum bars if I think I'm really up against it for time and have a comfortable enough lead that I'm not in any risk of losing. Even then it might be saved for their tail end and not used on the higher order batters, as I don't like seeing a good batsman get a bunch of runs and settled quickly.

Given how the wicket deteriorates by the final day I have many of my wins where I've bowled them out in 2 sessions. In the last few seasons since changing my bowling lineup the only times I've really failed to do so have been when it's sunny and the wicket is still average or better, which tends to be when I'm playing away and the other team has it set to be primed for batting.

It's sort of a 'feel' thing for me for that final day bowling, when to switch between 4-5-max bars, but it's often dictated by whether I have 2 sessions or the full 3 and how comfortable my lead is. The bigger the lead and/or the shorter the time remaining the more aggressive I'll go from the start.

But the real key for me is the player ability and form. I need my FC bowlers to have good SR (which I look at 2nd XI 3-Day) and they need to be 3+ star form. I try to use extra coaching practice and 2nd XI matches to keep form up, so if one bowler loses form I have another ready to step in who also has a good SR.

[Chris_]

Just as an extra thought, draws themselves aren't bad in the group stage. My last two seasons I comfortably reached Div 1 after records of 5-1-4 and 4-0-6 in the group stage. Both were 161 pts after batting/bowling points. The key in both was avoiding losses, and the stronger bowling has certainly helped with that. Each of the last 4 seasons I've had the full 30 bowling points due to the focus on strike rate. Then I was able to avoid the draws in the final Division matches by grabbing those wickets to set my batsmen up with good opportunities.

Before that my bowling was much more hit and miss, which was down to too many of my bowlers simply having a weaker SR and taking more time to bowl teams out (or not getting batsmen out before they got settled).

[cde]

The AI seems much better at shutting down to play for the draw than last edition. My goal was to set 150 for the final session, 100 for each additional session. The AI would always chase like it was a OD game until it was too late to play for a draw. Now if I get a handful of quick wickets the AI switches to playing for the draw and I have to work harder for the wickets.

The quality and strike rate of your bowlers becomes key, I find that I only really have a high percentage of draws when my bowling is weak. I mix my bowers, I like a couple with a high strike rate and some with low averages so I can mix for each situation but when closing out a game and the AI is looking for a draw strike rate is what you are after. I find 3 bars can work but upping the aggression, bowing straight or dropping short, whatever suits your bowlers. I find that a part time bowler on full aggression and a really defensive field can make a break, the batsman wants to cream them but a must-hit comes into play because of the pitch conditions.

I still try to let the AI reach the previously mentioned milestones, going more aggressive and conceding some runs can both take wickets and bring them back into the game, resulting in more chances.

[Jobi1K]

Yeah I've noticed the AI is quicker to go defensive than in previous editions, but they definitely still look to attack as their first option (and that still seems to be the case whether their second batting innings is the third or the fourth match innings), so yes if you don't knock a few of them over pretty sharpish they will come after you. In a couple of games in my latest completed season, I had situations where the first days hadn't progressed as quickly as I'd have liked, and the match looked to be heading towards a boring draw, so I declared at tea on the final day once I thought the match was safe with the opposition needing around 200 in the final session, just to see what I could do, and they went for it and almost got there!

That's very interesting what you've both said about strike rate. I must admit I've never previously looked closely at that, always prioritising average and economy. That's probably bourne out in the fact I draw so many games that I really should be winning, and it's also not uncommon for at least four of my bowlers to be in the top 10–15 for best economy come the end of the season. Think I just have too cautious a mindset – you can definitely tell I'm from Yorkshire! Going forward, I'll definitely pay more attention to SR though and try to balance my attack better between bowlers with good economy and good SR.

[galvatron]

I don't find this much of a problem offline. Always try and give yourself four sessions to bowl opposition out in the final innings and have a top quality spinner.

[cde]

Four sessions is nice but not always possible, especially when starting off and you have a weaker team. When you are taking on a lower ranked team it is far more of an issue because your batsmen may take longer to gain the runs and your bowlers more time to take the wickets. When you have built a full strength team you will almost always have enough quality to get the win unless you really mess it up - I have been caught out by having a longer last session because of rain delays! On the whole my win ratio batting first is about 90% when my squad is at what I consider to be built to full strength but much closer to 50% if starting with a weak team.

If you keep failing to take those wickets try giving yourself longer to bowl them out, although this can work both ways, and if it keeps happening look to different bowlers. There are different ways to be successful in this game and different bowler characteristics can be just as effective as changing your tactics.