England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Ruff Royals Bedfordshire Jats
Batting - Top Order 14,144 13,080
Batting - Middle Order 12,289 10,383
Batting - Tail 6,358 4,434
Bowling - Seam 12,927 (20) 13,374 (30)
Bowling - Spin 12,706 (30) 12,479 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,135 15,599
Overall 240,185 219,038

Bedfordshire Jats won by 2 wickets

So scoring 322 on a slow pitch and outrating the opponent by 20k is apparently not enough to win. That is annoying.

I might have to rethink the pitch. Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

[Atko]

Ruff Royals Bedfordshire Jats
Batting - Top Order 14,144 13,080
Batting - Middle Order 12,289 10,383
Batting - Tail 6,358 4,434
Bowling - Seam 12,927 (20) 13,374 (30)
Bowling - Spin 12,706 (30) 12,479 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,135 15,599
Overall 240,185 219,038

Bedfordshire Jats won by 2 wickets

So scoring 322 on a slow pitch and outrating the opponent by 20k is apparently not enough to win. That is annoying.

I might have to rethink the pitch. Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

Interesting, similar pitch and first score by my mob, and not much in the ratings (between the trev and me), and yet -

Result: The Raging Speed Horns won by 103 runs

Match Ratings
Trevor Francis Tracksuit The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,271 13,937
Batting - Middle Order 9,131 10,891
Batting - Tail 6,557 4,470
Bowling - Seam 13,502 (40) 13,476 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,171 (10) 14,724 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,294 17,917
Overall 230,348 236,355

I haven't considered tactics but you had one more spinner than me plus a quick, still, radically different outcomes. Must confess I was perturbed by all this talk by you and wolfie of uplifted scores - obviously a memo went round and I never read it!

Well, that pops us into 3rd spot and gets our NRR the right side of zero, so job done

[Atko]

...Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

Heheh - meant to say, that's my usual lineup - LF, RM, LM, 2 x RFS, and I play on a sticky

[casperj]

Spingleberry Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 11,539 10,787
Batting - Middle Order 6,651 12,072
Batting - Tail 3,856 6,658
Bowling - Seam 10,922 (50) 12,224 (40)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 14,256 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 8,498 15,294
Overall 164,436 220,446

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 3 wickets

Uncomfortably close given the ratings difference. Would have been in trouble if another wicket had fallen.

[casperj]

I might have to rethink the pitch. Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

I'd stick with slowwith that bowling line up. You probably just got unlucky with the ME - their accumulator got 'in' and made the difference.

Also noticed you actually player 3 spinners in that match, would have gone for Crumbling in that case.

[spark]

I haven't considered tactics but you had one more spinner than me plus a quick, still, radically different outcomes. Must confess I was perturbed by all this talk by you and wolfie of uplifted scores - obviously a memo went round and I never read it!

It was announced on the forums.

"Some minor changes to run rates (increased by approx 5%) and extras (NBs decreased, Wides increased) will also be installed during the EOS57."

...Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

Heheh - meant to say, that's my usual lineup - LF, RM, LM, 2 x RFS, and I play on a sticky

I have considered sticky but I only have one main allrounder and I don't completely trust my batters (although I feel a bit better about them lately). I also slightly worry that my mediums aren't going to be able to pick up enough wickets and that might mean I rely too much on my fastie. That said, my mediums have decent averages with one averaging less than 20 so perhaps I'm worrying for nothing.

Sticky might be worth a try.

[spark]

I might have to rethink the pitch. Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

I'd stick with slow with that bowling line up. You probably just got unlucky with the ME - their accumulator got 'in' and made the difference.

Also noticed you actually player 3 spinners in that match, would have gone for Crumbling in that case.

Switching to crumbling might have been sensible but I didn't really think ahead and slow/sunny should still have been good for my line-up even with my two best mediums missing.

My bowling line-up should be good for slow and perhaps it is just a one-off but lately it's felt like a slow pitch is bowl first and you win. Off the top of my head, I've been involved in about 6 or 7 one day matches on a slow pitch (including internationals) and the side batting first has only won once. That's not a massive sample size and maybe I'm remembering incorrectly but it's concerning me as I don't want the toss to be such a massive influence on my games.

[Atko]

I haven't considered tactics but you had one more spinner than me plus a quick, still, radically different outcomes. Must confess I was perturbed by all this talk by you and wolfie of uplifted scores - obviously a memo went round and I never read it!

It was announced on the forums.

"Some minor changes to run rates (increased by approx 5%) and extras (NBs decreased, Wides increased) will also be installed during the EOS57."

...Anyone know what a good pitch is when your best bowlers are 2 mediums, 1 fast bowler and 2 spinners?

Heheh - meant to say, that's my usual lineup - LF, RM, LM, 2 x RFS, and I play on a sticky

I have considered sticky but I only have one main allrounder and I don't completely trust my batters (although I feel a bit better about them lately). I also slightly worry that my mediums aren't going to be able to pick up enough wickets and that might mean I rely too much on my fastie. That said, my mediums have decent averages with one averaging less than 20 so perhaps I'm worrying for nothing.

Sticky might be worth a try.

Ah, cheers for that - 5% doesn't sound too frightening - at least in terms of impact on overall tactics,

I had a look at my SODs last season on sticky -
Played 12, won 11 (6 batting first, 5 second), lost 1 (to bloomin' dave)
Medium pacers - Diablo (RM) 25 wickets, Calver (LM) 16, totalling 41 out of 114 wickets taken; fag packet stats says a 36% contribution vs a 40% (all things being equal) expectation isn't too shoddy, plus Calver is the "baby" of the attack being a level below Diablo and the others.

I was interested following your chat with casperj - I never considered slow before - it does seem to fit your (and my!) bowling attack, but I suppose, as with all things, it's down to personal taste. Even with real life cricket, I've always preferred watching the bowlers over the batsmen. I got more joy from seeing a devestating spell from {insert any demon bowler} than watching {insert any famous batsman} scoring a ton. Thusly with FTP, a good sticky is going to get those wickets tumbling, and (depending on the manager) put the wind up the oppo before the toss - I know that when I first started playing (around season 4-5 I think) sticky and crumbling used to absolutely terrify me!

As for worrying about your batting, a quick perusal shows you outrate mine!

Anyway, it's your call fella - good luck - hope to see you in 1.1 next season

[spark]

As for worrying about your batting, a quick perusal shows you outrate mine!

Anyway, it's your call fella - good luck - hope to see you in 1.1 next season

It's not so much the quality of the batting that worries me but the performance. I have heard rumours that some players just seem to perform far better than their skills would suggest. I seem to be able to train mine so that they are far worse than I would expect!

Perhaps it's just I have too high expectations and I don't understand what a good one day average is. Several of my batters, especially the older ones, don't even manage to get averages of 30.

With how the teams are this season, I could just as easily end up in division 3 than division 1!

[Atko]

It's cup time again, and we're away - for the fifth time in a row - to Cyprus Creek, a Canadian tier 2 team who pull ratings in the circa 235k zone, so no slouches. After a lot of consideration I decided to rest my keeper and two spinners for this one -

Cypress Creek vs The Raging Speed Horns
Cup Matt Krevs Memorial Cup

Weather Sunny
Pitch Green

- bringing in a couple of young seamers to help manage the bowling chores on a greentop. It was a slight concern replacing two world class summary bowlers with an outstanding and a spectacular, but I needn't have worried - on paper they slightly outperformed their more experienced team mates, picking up four wickets between them at a superior economy rate. At the halfway stage -

End of over 48 (2 runs) - Cypress Creek(235-10) RR 4.90

In reply, thusfar, we are -

End of over 16 (4 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(65-0). 171 runs required from 34 overs. RR 4.06 RRR 5.03

- with the other reserve of the trio currently on 36no - so a pleasing trio of substitutions.

Moderately, happy, but I'd like my guys to up the pace a tad...

[Atko]

...well, I had a feeling that might happen. An inexplicable fall of wickets sees us crash out of the cup early -

End of over 42 (2 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(180-10). 56 runs required from 8 overs. RR 4.29 RRR 7.00

Match Ratings
Cypress Creek The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 13,254 13,771
Batting - Middle Order 6,960 9,267
Batting - Tail 5,720 4,485
Bowling - Seam 13,386 (30) 12,911 (50)
Bowling - Spin 13,014 (20) 0 (0)
Fielding/Keeping 15,535 16,669
Overall 210,810 220,175

Against the numbers too. Won't even try to analyse it - sometimes the match engine just blows a raspberry at you

[spark]

R. Reynolds (rfm) 4-0-17-1, C. Carmody 13 (15b), G. Hazell 44 (33b)
End of over 20 (6 runs) - Relegation reprobates(155-2) RR 7.75

Uneven pitch and I don't think we bowled very well. I can't see us chasing this especially with two players good at batting away on international duty.

[spark]

C. Mcgowan (lfm) 3-0-18-0, H. Mitchell 57 (48b), L. Foot 9 (7b)
End of over 14 (8 runs) - Ruff Royals(94-2). 62 runs required from 6 overs. RR 6.71 RRR 10.33

We're going to need an amazing effort from the batters to chase this. That run rate required is out of control.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Somerset Cavaliers CC
Batting - Top Order 4,973 5,161
Batting - Middle Order 4,374 4,609
Batting - Tail 3,014 3,244
Bowling - Seam 5,499 (12) 5,858 (16)
Bowling - Spin 5,590 (8) 7,032 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 6,473 4,130
Overall 93,527 91,666

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 5 wickets

Beat the leaders (in a very average league). At least looking like we'll be competitive for prize money this season while I rebuild the youth team.

[spark]

I don't know what to feel right now.

L. Lugton (rf) 4-0-41-0, H. Mitchell 95 (64b), L. Foot 26 (21b)
End of over 19 (13 runs) - Ruff Royals(149-2). 7 runs required from 1 overs. RR 7.84 RRR 7.00

An amazing effort to get to this position and we got 5 runs from the next 2 balls so just 2 to win and 1 to tie. Foot gets out on 19.3 and Vinson comes in and gets 2 dot balls before getting out on his 3rd ball.

Relegation reprobates won by 1 run

Ruff Royals Relegation reprobates
Batting - Top Order 6,673 7,994
Batting - Middle Order 4,655 5,244
Batting - Tail 3,612 3,888
Bowling - Seam 6,503 (16) 6,543 (16)
Bowling - Spin 6,671 (4) 7,606 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 8,202 8,120
Overall 113,444 122,753

100 not out for Mitchell from 66 balls and he ends up on the losing side.