How are you doing in ICC? (any version)

[Auric Goldfinge]

Luckily, I was at home for the Challenge Trophy quarter-final and a game in the County Championship so I could prepare pitches favouring the spinners. Cooray was in masterful form during these games.

Then it was time for the Twenty20, we started off on a good batting track and I racked up a huge score in the first innings for a comfortable victory. The spinners took charge in the next home game, leaving a target of 95 for my batsman to chase. Broad returned to strengthen the squad, then Shantry returned a couple of games later. After coming back from England, Shantry was a bit off form but picked up gradually throughout the Twenty20 competition. I ended up with 10 wins in 10 games in the Twenty20 with Ten doeschate the star man - he was just so consistent throughout and delivered the innings that was needed each time he batted.

 

[Jakester1288]

Got a good game going with Glamorgan: (first XI)

1. Francois Du Plessis
2. Michael Di Venuto
3. Ryan Ten doeschate
4. Ravinder Bopara
5. Jamie Dalrymple
6. Phil Mustard
7. Alfonso Thomas
8. Stuart Broad
9. Cooray (Sri Lanka)
10. Adam Shantry
11. James Harris

My first XI looks very strong but is considerably weakened now Broad and Shantry are in the England squad. My back up seamers are young fast bowling all rounder Dean Eldershaw (but he is inconsistent and not very accurate. I'd class him as a batting all rounder really) and Ashling who hasn't played a first class game. I played Eldershaw in place of Thomas for the first couple of one-dayers, favouring his better batting but his bowling in conjunction with fellow batting all rounders Ten doeschate and Dalrymple failed and made me lose those games.

Graeme Swann will replace Broad in the side. He others good, accurate off spin bowling and decent batting in both forms of the game. I also have Cosker who can come in and do a good job with his left arm spin. But that leaves the team over-loaded with spinners and only two out-and-out seam bowlers, so I gotta hope for turning wickets if I do this. If I come across a pitch that favours the seamers and offers nothing for the spinners then I'm stuffed unless the batting shines and Thomas and Harris both bowl out of their skins.

This is basically a problem of my own making as I should have saved a bit of cash to bring in a seamer in the winter but the team should cope. The batting is probably strong enough to play for a draw if the bowlers fail me (in the CC). Swann is a capable no.7 and Thomas generally bats better in First Class cricket.

Should be interesting to see how the team goes.

Broad is a very handy batsmen on my game.

 

[jacobfelix]

2025 season

 

[shravi]

I suck at Twenty20 matches. Any tips? I keep getting bowled out for low scores.

 

[Cricketman]

Most of the guys that do well all season seem to flunk in T20s for me, except for a select one or two. Try out the younger guys and more bench players.

 

[King Pietersen]

I've been playing as India recently, and been doing really well. Not lost a series in either form of the game. Found a very good balance in both forms of the game, and results are coming with relative ease. My Test XI is:

Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
VVS Laxman
Submarine Badrinath
MS Dhoni + *
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Mohnish Parmar
Shankaturkanmarkan Sreesanth

Badrinath's been a beast. After 17 games he's scored 5 hundreds batting at 6, averages 77.50 and 2 of those 5 hundreds have been turned into doubles. He's fantastic. Parmar's also come in and done superbly, has 99 Test wickets at 24 and has actually outbowled Harbhajan easily. Just Gambhir's form that's faultered, not really been able to find any consistency.

ODi/T20 XI is:

Sachin Tendulkar
Virender Sehwag
Submarine Badrinath
Rahul Dravid/Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
MS Dhoni + *
Joginder Sharma
Praveen Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Mohnish Parmar

That team basically plays every game, with Raina playing T20's and Dravid playing ODi's. Has worked very well. The bowlers are doing the job and the batsmen are scoring runs. Badrinath's been the star once more, averaging over 50 in his ODi career. Dravid's averaging 135 in the current calendar year in ODi cricket as well, to add to his world record 412 score in Test cricket. He's basically been a god in both forms in the past 2 years.

Playing as India is easy. They're too good.

 

[Jakester1288]

I could write a post as long as my arm, but will keep it short.

In my normal county save, I had the best season, and am now coaching Australia. Decent start, not going into detail though.

 

[spaga1994]

I suck at Twenty20 matches. Any tips? I keep getting bowled out for low scores.

Just use young players that seems to do it for me

 

[shravi]

King Pietersen, here's a tip when the seniors go bad or retire. Choose this XI.

*Gautam Gambhir
Ajinkya Rahane
Cheteshwar Pujara
Manoj Tiwary
Subramaniam Badrinath
Suresh Raina/Virat Kohli
+Robin Uthappa
Praveen Kumar (great all rounder in tests, 35bat, 25-27ball)
Piyush Chawla (great all rounder again, 30bat, 24-25ball) / S Anish (great record)
Mohnish Parmar (in my other save he retired with 1300 test wickets @17 and 700+ ODI wickets @15)
RP Singh (he has some really bad matches but he can win you matches single handedly, once he took three 7 wicket hauls in a 3 test series)

You can't beat that team.

 

[King Pietersen]

Ah cheers for that. I've actually heard of all of those, bar S Anish. Pujara's already played a couple of ODi's when Tendulkar was injured/needed a rest, and performed ok, think he got a 70odd in his last one. Raina's beeen in the ODi team quite alot, but was fairly inconsistent so I bought Dravid back, and he's been superb. Tiwary's had a couple of Tests as well, when Laxman got injured, but didn't live upto expectations. Pujara'll probably be next in line.

Parmar's awesome though, been outbowling Harbhajan easily. Zaheer's been fantastic as well, got his career bowling average under 30 and has consistently taken vital and hauls of wickets. Seems to do something of note in every spell. Sreesanth's done decently filling the 2nd seamer role also, with Joginder Sharma doing a fantastic job in the ODi side.

 

[Niv]

End of the 2014 season, and it's the second year in a row I've won all 4 trophies

My squad contains 13 internationally experienced players, and the first XI looks like this:

S. Goulding (regen, av 60)
R. Key (ave 47)
M. North (ave 54)
N. O'Brien (ave 50)
M. Birt (regen ave 47)
J. Dalrymple (ave 42)
S. Watson RFM (ave bat 42, bowl 26)
S. Kael RFM (regen AR bat 40, bowl 30)
F. Exley RFM (regen bowl 22)
K. Stewart OS (regen ave 21)
M. Panesar SLA (ave 22)

Unfortunately I had to release Watson during the trade period, but I picked up a new offie, averaging 14 in second team.

 

[jacobfelix]

Finished my 2025 season as Surrey.

Regained the County Championship after a gap of 2 seasons. In fact, a No Loss record.:happy:happy

Finished 2nd in Challenge Trophy 'South' group.

Regained the 20 Over Cup after a gap of 3 seasons

From 12th position ,slipped to 14th Position in Pro-League

 

[Cricketdude]

I played 2 seasons with Anish averaging 15 with the bowl.

 

[Isura]

Finished season 1 with Glamorgan (Icc 2008). 3rd in D2 county championships. Awful in the one day and T20 games. Shanty and Harris are promising bowlers. Also have 2 regen batsmen with 2nd team averages of 60 and 45.

Major new signing in Justin Kemp. Funny, I almost ran out of money, but managed to sign Tim Southee at $25,000 as my international player. Probably another tough season ahead. Bowling stocks pretty thin in Cardiff

 

[Howsie]

but managed to sign Tim Southee at $25,000

That's a good pick-up. :cool: