The Essex Kids

[itsreallybig]

So I started my ICC08 journey with Essex. First season I was in Div 2 and got through that quite easily to move up to Div 1. Im in season 2013 now and I have won the last 3 county championships with Essex. Just a brilliant team all round thanks to the help of D.Kaneria who was taking about 100+ wickets a season and the little dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate who is scoring well over 1500 runs a season on average along with Dalrymple who is also scoring as many. At the end of the 2012 season is was time for an overhaul. I decided to grab Lawson, A.Mendis, Hales and E.Joyce and now we are 5 from 5 in the 2013 season in the county championship div 1. Mendis bowls a lovely leg spinner although according to wikipedia he is actually an off-spinner so who knows....in the game its leg spin and from 5 games he has taken 45 wickets. BB 8-25. Best team innings so far is Dec 967-8 (200 overs), lowest opposition score was Kent who were all out for 79 and followed that up with being all out for 113 in the 2nd innings. things are going well, players are fresh and we're now got a 48 point advantange over 2nd after 5 games. im happy

[qpeedore]

What difficulty are you playing on?

[itsreallybig]

im playing on normal because easy was just silly, opposition were getting all out for >50

[qpeedore]

Well done in that case! It sounded like you were playing on Easy at the start, but you're doing well! Keep it up.

[Sureshot]

I started with Essex. My first achievement was reaching the Challenge Trophy final, in 2012...

I'm certainly better in the One Day formats than the Championship. I do hate it when players get called up to the England squad.

[qpeedore]

I'm better at the longer game. I can't seem to post a decent total at one-day level or keep the AI's score down.

[mosts]

I'm in my second season with Essex after a fairly poor first season. This season is going better as I'm topping Div 2 CC. Ryan ten Doeschate is my rock and I've made him captain this year as I let Flower and Gallian go. This season I have a very exciting batsman who came through the youth team, Morris Agee. He's averaging 135.50 with the highlight being the 229 he scored in my innings of 8(dec)/700 when I beat Surrey by an innings and 254 runs. Varun Chopra who is developing into a very good opener, also contributed 221 in that innings.

[Sureshot]

I'm better at the longer game. I can't seem to post a decent total at one-day level or keep the AI's score down.

I use two spinners. Don't be afraid to bring them on early, inside powerplays, etc. In setting a decent total, finding a player who will bat for the innings, rather than two aggressive openers, has worked for me.

[Rickripper]

I play as Essex on normal too, in my first season I won the Challenge Trophy and got promotion from D2 in the CC. The following season I won the Pro League and came second in D1 of the CC. Mostly thanks to Jason Gallian scoring 1500+ runs per season, and Kaneria taking close to 100 wickets. I signed Simon Jones and Robbie Joseph to back up David Masters, and Samit Patel as a useful second spinner. Alistair Cook also became the number one International batsman, so it was a boost whenever he came back from England duty.

It was a bummer when I became England captain though, the team just lost all form. They won the 20/20 cup, but I had to save them from relegation in the CC with only a few points to spare, and all my players who were performing well have totally lost form. Is the AI really that bad?

[Sureshot]

I never take control of England when I play as a county, it always makes your county side do badly under AI control. If I want to play as England/any other nation, I just use international only mode.