Gah ... How bad are Worcester???

[lancashire r the best]

that brown innings was in FC but he got them quickly and dont play him in OD as he cant score quick enough and in FC play him at 6. My order in FC is moore(hes poo though) horton(never gets big scores) overseas player croft(hes either hit or miss) chilton(doesnt score many runs-just like real life lol) brown smith( useful all-rounder) then sutton(doesnt perform on mine) then the tail in that order. With sutton i opened once with him as there was half hour left of day (i also opened with anderson that innings too) and he got 70+ so my try it again instead of moore. Also in OD i cant qualify for semis so i rest all big players and play the yougsters that i think will come good and get them experience. With the training i got a couple of batsman to play more defensive so in FC they dont get out as easier or quicker. How u doin in T20 im doin runbbish won 2 out of 9. Also im in my first season still as i like to play the game not skip matche. In addition u dont need to play keedy as croft is an mint bowler and regular gets 5fers, its an option. Well good luck u need it being lancashire especially if its anything like real life i.e. tuesday night- THAT WAS AWFUL AGAINST ESSEX p.s all our overseas players on game r rubbish especially mcculum

[enigma]

that brown innings was in FC but he got them quickly and dont play him in OD as he cant score quick enough and in FC play him at 6. My order in FC is moore(hes poo though) horton(never gets big scores) overseas player croft(hes either hit or miss) chilton(doesnt score many runs-just like real life lol) brown smith( useful all-rounder) then sutton(doesnt perform on mine) then the tail in that order. With sutton i opened once with him as there was half hour left of day (i also opened with anderson that innings too) and he got 70+ so my try it again instead of moore. Also in OD i cant qualify for semis so i rest all big players and play the yougsters that i think will come good and get them experience. With the training i got a couple of batsman to play more defensive so in FC they dont get out as easier or quicker. How u doin in T20 im doin runbbish won 2 out of 9. Also im in my first season still as i like to play the game not skip matche. In addition u dont need to play keedy as croft is an mint bowler and regular gets 5fers, its an option. Well good luck u need it being lancashire especially if its anything like real life i.e. tuesday night- THAT WAS AWFUL AGAINST ESSEX p.s all our overseas players on game r rubbish especially mcculum

Thanks for the tips, I'll try them out, especially on Brown. My line-up for current FC is Horton,Shankar (got 77 in last FC & 53 against Worcester OD),Croft,Chilton,Procter (choice was between him & Brown so chose at random & ALL other batters are injured, unavailable including BOTH overseas),Sutton (my only hope),Gross (again,no options to choose from),Chapple(wonderful in FC), Hogg (in-form in ODs),Parry (in-form in 2nd XI games & ODs), Mahmood.

About training batters on defensive, I never do it, I always go for aggressive because in FC (or in limited overs for that matter), it is better to have aggressive openers who'll score quickly at the start & get settled VERY QUICKLY since runs contribute heavily to "settledness" rating & the quicker one gets settled the less likely he is get out against the new ball; on the other hand, defensive batters just keep blocking so their settled-rating improves very slowly hence more chance of them getting out to the new ball (cases in point Horton,Chilton) but that's just my point of view based on my playing experience & assessment so far.

Opening with Anderson, I MUST try that what aggression did you bat him with at the start & then later as his innings progressed?

Yes, that really was pathetic on Tuesday, not being able to defend 183 I haven't played any T20s as yet so.... & among my overseas Chandrapaul was pathetic but Prince has been prolific, 2 tons in 2 FCs Sadly for me though, he got called up by the national side.

[lancashire r the best]

as i was trying to c out the day i put him on no bars and anderson got out out first ball. all my oversea players have been awful

[enigma]

as i was trying to c out the day i put him on no bars and anderson got out out first ball. all my oversea players have been awful

I just re-ead your earlier post & realized that you were actually talking about Sutton; I thought you were talking about Anderson getting 70+ & that's why I was so surprised & asked you about how you'd handled him Big reading mistake there Anyways, hopefully, we'll do well in our second seasons. Cheers.

[lancashire r the best]

cant get worse than this season still cant bat how bad is moore and i tried sutton opening at his highest score so far is 23 in 8 innings. horton is my best batsman and has hit 4 centurys so far and there hv only been 2 other centurys in the season chanderpaul and croft. who do u open with in FC and does it work

[enigma]

cant get worse than this season still cant bat how bad is moore and i tried sutton opening at his highest score so far is 23 in 8 innings. horton is my best batsman and has hit 4 centurys so far and there hv only been 2 other centurys in the season chanderpaul and croft. who do u open with in FC and does it work

I just tried Chilton & Horton & they put on 83 & 201(following on ) & managed to save the game. Chilton (35,79), Horton (79,146). It was not only the best opening partnership of the season but best partnership for any wicket for me this season. I was going through a continuous streak of bad starts in both formats, probably had like only ONE more than 50 runs opening partnership before this match & I crossed that mark in both innings, hopefully this'll continue in the future games as well

[lancashire r the best]

thanks mate ill try them to out as sutton opening doesn't work. Actually i hv stopped playing chilton because hes poo but might recall him. Also i cant quite get the balance right will u tell me your main FC 11 or twelve (the players u play most regularly) as i sometimes play too many batsman and then cant bowl a team out and other times i dont play enough batsman and get bowled out cheaply cheers. Also could u tell me your FC and OD record as mines awful. also with chilton an horton could u tell me wat bars they were on

[enigma]

thanks mate ill try them to out as sutton opening doesn't work. Actually i hv stopped playing chilton because hes poo but might recall him. Also i cant quite get the balance right will u tell me your main FC 11 or twelve (the players u play most regularly) as i sometimes play too many batsman and then cant bowl a team out and other times i dont play enough batsman and get bowled out cheaply cheers. Also could u tell me your FC and OD record as mines awful. also with chilton an horton could u tell me wat bars they were on

Actually, Chilton had been sitting out for a while for me too due to lack of form but this spate of injuries & unavailability that I'm going through forced me to draft him in to bring in some experience to my otherwise rookie batting & it worked like magic. I also used to bat him at 4-6 but I thought he's not getting many so let's just open with him & it's alright if gets out but if he sees the new ball through then that'll be worth it & he did much better. I had both Horton & Chilton mostly on 2 aggression bars with a little tinkering up or down depending on bowlers & run rate, etc. We were following on, trailing by 276 & openers smashed 201 at 3.5 RPO
Note: Everytime I come to team selection page before every match, I always mark my reserves to play 2nd XI games (depending on their stamina bars); they're likely to get to perform well there & get back into form, just what happened with Chilton.

Don't make the mistake of being too aggressive or too defensive, neither works it seems, I've tried both. I'd Imran Tahir marked out as a threat so in 1st inns I batted normally against pace with my openers & got 83 for 1st wicket & then when spinners came in to bowl (Tahir, Botha) I went too defensive (since pitch was turning & a draw was my only hope) so runs choked but wickets kept falling so in 2nd inns I decided to remain positive no matter who's bowling & it worked wonders

For FC games, I always like having the choice of 5 bowlers, especially when I'd Flintoff at my disposal but this last game I played with only 4 & the opposition piled up a mountain of 553 runs. Chapple has been doing well for me in FC averaging ~25, RPO ~2.5 which is excellent, Hogg has done pretty well, wickets & good RPO, others' have been below very inconsistent & below par, Flintoff used to be very good too but he's out for 7 weeks just my luck.

My current team is mostly a make-shift team that I've'd to put together due to all the unavailability issues previously mentioned. I've listed my whole team that played in the last FC in one of comments from yesterday. Again, I play REALLY slow & I've also been a little busy with my work so haven't been getting a lot of spare time so I've just gone through 5 FC games so far, lost 1, drew 4. Cheers.

[lancashire r the best]

flintoff is still injured for me but only few weeks away so he gives better balance. I too play the people im not playing in 2XI as this gives them match form, fitness and experience. I will try and b more positive in future but does it annoy u when for the 1st 2nd or 3rd wicket u put on a good partnership and then the rest come in and get out for single figures. Keedy has been my best bowler and might other bowlers hv been ok but smith is meant to be an all rounder but he cant bowl, his average on mine is 127 with only 4 wickets at about 3.8RPO. That happened with moore, i played him on 4 bars as he was getting out cheaply on 2 and he hit a run a ball 41 b4 i dropped him down to 2 (he was settled too) and he got out so i might play everyone on 3 bars. Another annoying thing is when in one innings u bowl a team out for less than 250 and go and get about 150 or when you get 428 (my highest score) and then the opposition go and get 500+ ANNOYING

[Sureshot]

Nah there isn't a rating that's in place to stop any team from becoming good.

^This.

Worcestershire had a self-destructive off-season. It should be slightly better in the new version, as I've made Ben Cox better than some were reporting. Thing is, I think their only notable players are Solanki and Mitchell...

[enigma]

flintoff is still injured for me but only few weeks away so he gives better balance. I too play the people im not playing in 2XI as this gives them match form, fitness and experience. I will try and b more positive in future but does it annoy u when for the 1st 2nd or 3rd wicket u put on a good partnership and then the rest come in and get out for single figures. Keedy has been my best bowler and might other bowlers hv been ok but smith is meant to be an all rounder but he cant bowl, his average on mine is 127 with only 4 wickets at about 3.8RPO. That happened with moore, i played him on 4 bars as he was getting out cheaply on 2 and he hit a run a ball 41 b4 i dropped him down to 2 (he was settled too) and he got out so i might play everyone on 3 bars. Another annoying thing is when in one innings u bowl a team out for less than 250 and go and get about 150 or when you get 428 (my highest score) and then the opposition go and get 500+ ANNOYING

You know, I can't tell you enough how right you are about some of those things. Yes, it does annoy me a great deal when I put on a couple of decent partnerships & then lose 3-4 wickets very quickly after that & that even if you start your new batsmen on ZERO aggression bars or 2 or 3, doesn't seem to make any difference at times.

I haven't played Keedy that much, Smith was a decent 5th bowler for me, I used to bowl him to rest the other bowlers & he usually used to bowl about 10 overs in a day for 20-25, didn't take any wickets except for a 3 wicket haul once but was pretty decent.

I'm yet to bowl an opposition out for 250 or less so far in the season so I wouldn't know what joy it is to do so but I'm sure it's very annoying when they put on 500 in 2nd inns.

By the way, I just struck disaster, ok it was a FLAT pitch, conditions said = weather - cloudy, pitch- no help for bowlers, wear- no help for spinners. I'd PREPARED a flat pitch so that I could hopefully win the toss & put on a massive 1st inns total; ok so luckily I won the toss, elected to bat, everything's good till now. Now, weather was cloudy so I decided to see off the new ball with batsmen on 2 aggression bars, lost only ONE wicket till 20 overs or so & then in comes Kaneria & absolutely rips through my line-up comprising of 5 "spin specialists", takes 5 wickets in 3-4 overs on a pitch which is supposedly FLAT & NOT supposed to help spinners & no, I didn't attack him or anything, in fact, I'd all my batsmen batting against him at an aggression of 2 or BELOW,even ZERO for new batsmen & yet I was 50-6 all of a sudden on FLAT pitch with NO HELP for spinners then I get bowled out after a while then THEIR openers come out & start smashing my bowlers all over the park & put on more than a 100 for 1st wicket, now that's VERY VERY VERY frustrating

Seriously, deciphering how to bat well in this game is akin to solving the most intricate of algebra problem in the world it seems & not to mention the unpredictability & disparity between what the "playing conditions" tell you & what actually happens in the game like pacers taking a bucketful of wickets on turning tracks & spinners running through sides on flat & seaming tracks, it really is big a algebra problem & I don't know how to solve it, right now.

By the way, how did your Flintoff get injured? In my game, he got hit & went out of action for 9 weeks, same with Moore & Smith "mysteriously" broke his finger out of nowhere.

Sorry for all the venting but I'm just very frustrated right now.

[lancashire r the best]

well im still in my 1st season and flintoff is injured at the start and i took ure advice on chilton, only match ive played 1st inn partnership 61 chilton (23) horton (39) 2nd inn 136 chilton (131) horton (79) however got bowled out for 236 annoying, anyway good advice and im near the end of my first season and im already relegated cos of collapses all the time need to strengthen middle order desperately. wat spinners do u play.

[enigma]

well im still in my 1st season and flintoff is injured at the start and i took ure advice on chilton, only match ive played 1st inn partnership 61 chilton (23) horton (39) 2nd inn 136 chilton (131) horton (79) however got bowled out for 236 annoying, anyway good advice and im near the end of my first season and im already relegated cos of collapses all the time need to strengthen middle order desperately. wat spinners do u play.

Good to know that my advice worked for you, amazingly enough but I guess it's not quite working for me. Yeah, it must very annoying to get bowled out on 236 after an opening partnership of 136. My spinners don't take wickets in FC so I don't play them as often in FC, mostly in limited overs games to choke the runs sometimes but I want to groom Parry with technique training, etc so I've been playing him recently, Keedy has only played a couple of games. Next season though, I'll get a world class overseas spinner to bolster my attack since good overseas spinners all seem very lethal.

[lancashire r the best]

i havent done that. after completing my first season and my record in FC was w-0 d-5 l-11 i needed massive changes in my seam attack and batsman and spinners. i got rid of the likes of powell newby montgomery shankar and couple more chapple & keedy retired. p.s i got relegated. anyway i signed rashid (already doin amazing) and a youngster from academy. my oversea main signing tendulker reserve was martin NZ quicky 2020 players k pollard and gayle. first 2 games won easily with team bein chilton horton k brown croft moore smith sutton rashid mahmood anderson martin. martin playing as main signing tendulker is in IPL as too is flintoff but evetbody has scored runs and evetbody has taken wickets with martin taking 17 in 4 innings and smith even taken a couple. Its now starting to look better give us an update on ures mate

[lancashire r the best]

CRISIS moore horton croft all injured chilton brown sutton cross tendulker all massively out of form flintoff rashid smith procter hogg only ones on any decent batting form. my bowlings good cos of rashid but runs severely lacking got bowled out in 1st innings for 99 but still won cos of rashid by 5 runs no joke BUT DESPERATELY NEED BATTERS