How Are You Doing in ICC 2009?

[MarksNotts]

Jonathan Clare is an absolute beast of a player on the game. He bats number four (even thinking of putting him ahead of S Law in the order) and opens the bowling.

Ive noticed this too, he is far too good, i think Clare may have the Munday/Shantry syndrome(overated) in ICC09, is he this good in real life?, does he even get in the derbyshire 1st team?...ive never heard of him, perhaps someone should give the selectors a nudge ,

[MarksNotts]

Im now well into my first season with Notts on the new game, and ive had the best start i can remember having with ICC.
I play on normal mode and i watch every ball (yes i know im sad!), i know its early days but im top of the CC having played 3, won 2 and drawn 1...which was helped by Samit Patel scoring hundreds in each of the first 2 games, my dependable No.3 Mark Wagh and match winning bowling by Sidebottom and Broad.
Ive won my group in the FP trophy securing a home tie in the quarter finals against Kent....played 8, won 7 and lost 1, what pleased me most about this was doing it without Patel/Swann/Broad and Sidebottom who were all called up by England...Ali Brown was a major factor, as i used him to open and he scored 2 hundreds and a couple of fifties....while Andre Adams and the evergreen Mark Ealham have been excellent with the ball in the shorter form of the game.
Ive got my FP quarter final up next, then into the 20/20.

[ICClover]

Do mainly well with Pakistan.

Won the world T20, with a win over India in the final. Misbah-ul-Haq, Afridi, Gul and Aamer were stars throughout.

Then won a 3 test series against New Zealand - here Kaneria with the ball, Alam, Younus and Yousef with the bat did the damage.

Won the ODI series as well, with Jamshed and Afridi blistering the top of the innings, Alam and Malik coming in at 6 and 7 always doing the job needed. With the ball, Gul and Amer Ali shone.

Then went to Australia, where after drawing the first test and winning the 2nd, got thrashed in the third, getting bowled out for 61. Then went on to lose the ODI series 5-0.

Back to Pakistan for a series against England. Won the 4 match series 2-1, with Kaneria in amazing form, and Younis Khan and Alam propping up the batting more than once. Followed this with a 3-2 win in the ODI series. One thing that alarmed me - England picking Jonathan Trott for the whole series.

Just finished a series against the Windies - won the tests 2-1 after being 2-0 up. Same stars as before. The ODI series was won 3-2.

Can't wait for the next assignment.

[Yorks13]

In 3rd season with Yorkshire, first year didn't win anything, no stand out performers although Joe Sayers was a consistent run scorer in CC. 2nd Year won FP and CC, sayers had terrible year and was sold, again no stand out performers with bat, Vaughan was highest scorer with 1200 although Rashid and Wainwright starred with the ball, rashid taking 104 wickets, they both outshone my overseas Kaneria who was thoroughly disappointing, now halfway through 3rd year, in semis of FP, Mascarenhas is brilliant death bowler!!! doing ok in CC, my batting has been dreadful so far, Phil Hughes as my overseas missed first 3 CC games but has now scored 53, 177, 144 and 82* in his first 4 innings and have won both the games which he has played, Rashid is again excelling with the ball, will post again at end of 3rd year...

[Auric Goldfinger]

Things are going a little better on my Derbyshire save. The four main bowlers - Clare, Wagg, Lungley and Needham - have all contributed with wickets in the three County Chamoionship games so far. All of them average below 30 with the ball, which is good. Stuart Law has been out of form so Clare has been pushed up to 3 in the order with mixed success. The main star with the bat has been Daniel Birch - he scored 170 in the last CC game to give us our third win in three.

Things have improved in the one day format too. Ian Hunter had a reasonable first game of the season but went for seven an over in the second, so I think I'm still a bowler light in this format. Might give spinner Lawson or seamer Gronewald (can't spell his name) a go. The latter seems to be a good Twenty20 bowler, so it could translate into decent 50 over form too I guess. To his credit, Hunter did whack a couple of sixes in the penultimate over to give us victory against Essex. Amazingly, we beat Lancashire by 50 runs in the game before that after a huge partnership between Rogers and Hinds and decent restrictive effort with the ball.

I find that creating my own fields in the one dayers is helping quite a lot. The default ones (for the most part) do not cut the mustard.

[Imager36]

Almost half-way through my second season with Sussex. Made key signings after the first season in the all-rounders Rashid and Harris, the 19 year old batsman Kitson and the (disappointing) overseas spinner S. Vithana. Also offloaded lots of dead wood, making the squad 18, with Lewry, H'ton-Brown, Beer, Hopkinson, Rayner, Thornely, Goodwin and the distinctly-better-than-Vithana Arafat all leaving. Had 48,500 spare after maxing all Budget.

7 matches into CC, won 3 drawn 4, only 4 points off the lead in 2nd place.
Got to Quarters of FP Trophy, but lost badly to Glamorgan.
Came 5th in T20 group :P
Pro40 just about to start.

[sambert]

Doing ok with worcester, drawn first two CCD1 games, won my all of my one day games so far. Fingers crossed for the rest of the season

[Spinninggenius]

Things are going a little better on my Derbyshire save. The four main bowlers - Clare, Wagg, Lungley and Needham - have all contributed with wickets in the three County Chamoionship games so far. All of them average below 30 with the ball, which is good. Stuart Law has been out of form so Clare has been pushed up to 3 in the order with mixed success. The main star with the bat has been Daniel Birch - he scored 170 in the last CC game to give us our third win in three.

Things have improved in the one day format too. Ian Hunter had a reasonable first game of the season but went for seven an over in the second, so I think I'm still a bowler light in this format. Might give spinner Lawson or seamer Gronewald (can't spell his name) a go. The latter seems to be a good Twenty20 bowler, so it could translate into decent 50 over form too I guess. To his credit, Hunter did whack a couple of sixes in the penultimate over to give us victory against Essex. Amazingly, we beat Lancashire by 50 runs in the game before that after a huge partnership between Rogers and Hinds and decent restrictive effort with the ball.

I find that creating my own fields in the one dayers is helping quite a lot. The default ones (for the most part) do not cut the mustard.

Can you post a screenshot of your different teams please because I'm having some trouble in my Derbyshire game. Thanks!

[Auric Goldfinger]

For first class, its:

Rogers
Hinds
Clare
Law
Park
Birch
Sadler
Telo
Wagg
Needham
Lungley

Batting line up is nice and strong for 2nd division. Bowling is a little weak but (for me anyway) the batters can do well enough to ensure victory. I tend to use quite defensive field settings when the ball gets more than 10 overs old or so.

For the one dayers, I swap Sadler with Hunter.

I am early in the season so Langeveldt isn't available yet. Not sure how good he is but I am certain he is better than all the other seamers at my disposal.

..............................................

For the one dayers, making your own fields is a must as even the 2nd most defensive one has too many fielders close to the bat. For the first 15 overs, spread the field out and have only a couple of catchers. Use this sort of a field for a new batsman when he comes in. When a batter gets settled outside of the first 15 overs, go even more defensive. But again, set your own field. I don't like the most defensive default field for any of the bowlers either.

[carlton09]

Just a question fellas.

I usually struggle to make big totals.

Can someone please tell me how many bars my Batters should be on when im opening end of innings etc.

[Meph.]

If i play a Kolpak do i get less money? like the real game..

[ICClover]

Started a post-patch game as Surrey.

I skipped every game of the first season because it is a massive, yet very poor squad. At the end of the season, Ramps, Butcher, Batty and Tudor retired. I didnt offer any new contracts and terminated the contracts of most of the players that were left. So, I was left with just Newman, Benning, Afzal, Jordan and Ormand. Went on a recruitment spreee and bought in:

Afridi
E Morgan
V Solanki
P Mustard
E Rankin
De Plussis (sp)
A Rashid
C Collymore

And another seamer whose name I forget. also signed up a few youth players. Doing well - sitting top of the CC 2nd division and of my T20 league, though knocked out of the challenge trophey at the group stage.

[gilly01]

i like to keep the same team for all formats. wastees time swapping for one dayers and gets confusing and players cant maintain form

[the_trademarc]

Depends on what mode your playin? etc. County, Int, ODI, Test, What Team/Country, Normal/Easy?

Generally with Test i start on 2 bars for openers, then 3 as they are settled, and as they move into the innings more i put em on 4 bars, never more than 4 in Tests unless Im after quick runs.

For 3-7, I start em on 3 bars and put em up to 4 once theyre settled.
For 8-11, depends on the state of the game as to what level. Generally 2 bars, 3 if they are the main batsman.

For ODI's, batting 1st, I start them on 6 bars, and if they get off to a good start, one batsman goes to 7 and above, and the other drops anchor and plays on 6. I usually take my Batting PP around 37 overs, but once again, its dependent on the game state. If I lose a couple of wickets early, i consolidate on 4-5 bars and then go 8-9 for the last 10-odd overs.

Chasing, depends on the total, but usually I use the same formula.

[ineedsomesleep]

Playing as Northamptonshire.

First season was pretty run of the mill. Finished mid-table in most competitions. Didn't get promoted, didn't make any finals. Second season was a fair bit better. Made the QF in the challenge cup. And got promoted in the pro-league, coming top of D2. Only came forth in D2 of the county league, so no promotion there yet. That's my next goal.

For season three I have a pretty young squad. Aiming to stay in D1 of the pro league, and get promoted in the county championship. This might depend on how my younger batsmen fair. I won the first county game in a very low scoring encounter, but my batting lineup looks a little shakey. Bowling outfit is very solid, though.