Ok, a few tips.
A) Batting wise - let your batters settle in. In FC games, I usually start all players with two bars, then:
- If they are defensive, leave them there untill they are full in confidence before increasing aggression to normal
- If they are normal, wait 3-4 bars till increasing them to normal and the sticking them that way
- If they are aggressive, normal in 4 bars, aggressive (4 bars of agression) in 5.
- If they are very aggressive, then I increase as above, and to one bar from full (Note, full aggression never works) when they have 4-5 blocks of confidence, depending on how good they are. If they are really good, or if it is in a OD game, I set very aggressive types to one bar from full straight away.
And be patient. 400 in FC and 210-230 in OD are very defendable. Infact, with a 200+ score in an ODI game (Even if it is 201 with Bangla, although you might need 220-230 with Zimbabwe) is very defendable. Not so much in OD level, there 210-230 is required. I usually score up to 245-250 there, although I have been able to defend scores as low as 170.
B) Pitch type and weather is very important. Always check on those.
C) Bowling wise, bowl against a batsman's preferences. But, try to keep lengths and lines seperate from each end. Preferences only have back foot or front foot, nothing in middle. You have 3 lenghts to bowl to - Back foot, middle, front foot. So when ecountered with these, keep the line against preference, and one length short/full depending on preference and one length middle. If the line of preference is not specified, then keep one outside off and on on legstump. If the length in not mentioned, keep one short and one full. If neither are mentioned, bouncers and half volleys outside offstump.
D) Custom fields are useless. Also, always have a slip in place, that is, the 2nd most defensive field as maximum. Personally, I always use the second most aggressive fields throughout a FC match, sometimes even using the most aggressive ones if there is like 15 minutes left or I need 5 wickets in a sessions to win and stuff.
E) When bowling in FC cricket, you can try leaving the bowlers aggression bar on full. It's useful, works for me. In OD, I leave it at three.
F) Keep playing the game. The more you play, the better you become.
