Pitch Selection

[Cynic]

I just check for recent friendlies ... failing that, last strongest lineup.

[Cynic]

I have two first XI bowlers with average batting ... but two Opener talent batsman. Ah well.

[heppa]

There is one strategy that I employ alot now, I find it hard not to enter a game without these orders. And it's opening the batting with a bowler. Why? I hate early wickets, and I always noticed I'd lose alot of early wickets on Uneven, so I chucked a bowler to open, and nothing changed, apart from now having a proper batsman at 8. I don't have concrete evidence, but three seasons in a row I've been knocked out of PC on an Uneven (I know, favourite deck, embarrassing) without doing this, however I've had very successful seasons during leagues as I use the tactic. Food for thought.

Oh I so want to try that Any stats for some of your openers? I'm pretty sure you can check somewhere...

Do any of your bowlers have the opener talent?

None have opener talent, and the results are pretty much expected I think, the better the batting, the better the return. So I use two of my bowlers there regularly, one on the seamers decks and one on the spinning ones. Only like 1% of my games are on Hard/Flat wickets, so the strike rate is understandably low, however I feel that if both openers can stick around, it sets up a platform for the other batsman to take over. These are the combined results from SOD and ODF.

John Kuhlengisa (Dreadful Batting)
12 matches opening the batting
77 runs
38.69 SR
6.42 average

Paul John (Reasonable Batting)
19 matches
433 runs
51.86 SR
22.79 average

So I'd say Kuhlengisa is almost always a failure (HS of 33) however John's last couple have seen him score 86 and 34, both times taking the role of a top order batsman that has failed. So I think it works, if the bowler has avg or so batting.

I've tried it a few times. Sometimes it seems to work but it can backfire big time if the bowler decides to stick around and score 1 off 100 balls causing a major collapse later on.

[sr468]

I've tried that gambit with a bowler (that can bat a little) sometimes on tougher pitches. The last time I did it was when he got 45* which was just a bizarre performance. http://www.fromthepavilion.org/scorecar ... Id=2468134

I look at it as a way to make it so when I think I'm going to be losing a ton of wickets that I have proper batsmen at 6/7 and hopefully he can be up there and protect against my actual top order eating a cheap wicket. I basically set the goal at getting like 10 runs off 25 deliveries through 10 overs when I do that.

[Vershner]

I've done this quite a bit in YOD, but only with keepers. It seemed to work, but it's difficult to prove. The keepers never seemed to score much, but the batsmen around them did.
The keepers were avg or reas batting summary, and the batsmen capable or reliable.

[Cynic]

What would people recommend for: FS, WS, FM/F/M with reasonable power at best?

[heppa]

What would people recommend for: FS, WS, FM/F/M with reasonable power at best?

Buy another FS or FM...