How are you going in Ashes Cricket 2009?

[Furball man]

Got my 1st Hattrick today with Monty, 2 catches(both fairly short deliveries with a defensive field) and 1 L.B.W

You win a achievement trophy on the X Box

 

[barmyarmy]

First Ashes test update for you all. Last time round I had just bowled Australia out for 290 off courtesy of some short bowling. Starting my 2nd innings 110 behind I put on 100 for the first wicket (unlocking a stadium in the process) with Cook and Strauss. Unfortunately I then got out to my first of 6 wickets to short balls both cutting to point off the backfoot. Seriously hard to play safely that shot.
Bell played conservatively, KP played aggressively. Both pulled short balls to midwicket.
Prior went first ball (not to a short ball) and I was 200/5 - only 90 ahead and 5 wickets down. Step up Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff. Batting like a dream and took the Aussie attack apart aided by some questionable field placements. I was sweeping the spinner to fine leg and after 3 fours they put a fielder there and I thought great. Then next over they took him out again so I plundered a load more runs and so on...
Collingwood and KP scored 298 for the 6th wicket and transformed the match. Both got out cutting to short balls (will I never learn?) and Broad smashed a few late to take the target to 437.
Was suprised how easy it was to bat once in and although they dropped a few only the back foot shots seemed to have risk. I think picking the gap is really important and I ended up aborting shots if I felt they were going to go too close to the fielder.
One more thing about bowler confidence. Siddle bowled 3 overs for 24 (8 rpo) and his confidence was still Bold. Quite hard to get bowler confidence down. Once Johnson's was down Fred hit him for 5 6s (see the spider).

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

So am I the only one with crappy looking graphics? Jaggies everywhere....I have a good PC which runs most games, got AC09 full settings....

 

[nicksy111]

Restarted my Ashes campaign earlier, this time on Hard as I was finding Normal too easy. Australia won the toss and batted, and at lunch were 132/4, Swann picking up 2, with Freddie and Anderson getting one each. Bought Swann on straight after lunch, and North instantly took a liking to him, and after 4 overs he had figures of 4/0/79/2!! Then bought my created Harmison and Onions on (recreated Harmy because of him being Fast-Medium and unable to bowl quicker than 77?mph, which is a joke) and they tied things down. Ended up bowling Aussies out for 302, Swann picking up the last 2 wickets to finish with 4/80, and only 2 wickets falling to run-outs! This left me with one over to face before tea, which i got through unscathed on 6/0. I will be carrying on with this test later on so will have an update this evening.

 

[barmyarmy]

Oh ffs. I didn't quit and restart this time because I got Ponting out right after getting my first runout. After that it was just comical.
Two of the runouts occurred when the bowler actually had the ball in his hand and they went for a run. :crying

 

[jazz]

The graphics for the pc are looking quite good on your system Colin! You must have a decent graphics card

 

[Wealey]

Oh ffs. I didn't quit and restart this time because I got Ponting out right after getting my first runout. After that it was just comical.
Two of the runouts occurred when the bowler actually had the ball in his hand and they went for a run.

Im certain that the run out big is worse on the PC, i have played 4 complete test matches now on ps3 and had 1 run out!!

 

[DarrenBravo]

1st Ashes test

1st Innings
England - 373 all out (101 overs)

Australia (AI) - 446 all out (94 overs)

2nd Innings
England - 360/8 (86 overs)

Morning of day 4, England lead by 287 runs with 2 wickets in hand

 

[nicksy111]

1st 2009 Ashes Test Hard Difficulty

Australia 1st Innings (AI)
302 all out (58.2 overs)

North 88* (88)
Hussey 47 (41)

Swann 4/80 (5.2)
Flintoff 2/63 (15)

England 1st Innings
125/2 (31 overs)

Strauss 54 (94)
Bopara 49* (104)

North 1/1 (1)
Siddle 1/27 (8)

Stumps on the first day. A fairly satisfactory day for England, bowled the Aussies out relatively cheaply after they elected to bat, and Strauss and Bopara have bulit a solid platform for the rest of the team to build on. England will be aiming for 550 as a minimum, but is all up to Bopara and the night-watchman Swann to have a good first session on Day 2

 

[Wealey]

Australia v South Africa
1st Test Sydney

South Africa (AI) Won Toss and batted.

South Africa
405 all out
Australia
205 all out
Australia Following On
306 all out
South Africa
110-4

South Africa won by 6 wickets!

 

[SciD]

Wait till you see JKartick's scorecard. :rtfl

 

[pcfan123]

i can rarely get a game online but if I do I usually win, so far have won 8 , lost 1 and 5 quitters

 

[jkartik]

1012/0 in 66 overs on HARD(15.3 RPO)

 

[tajjuk]

Just finished my first ashes test, did it on normal because I was struggling with the bating timing, but after this may do it on hard for next test.

I bowled Aus all out for 166 in about 34 overs, I think all but two wickets were caught, mainly in the covers or at point as I got the Aus batters out by swinging the ball away from them and they would mis-drive in the air.

All the players played quite aggressively, but if you bowl mainly in the line outside off (Yellow zone) they struggle to score.

The other wickets I got were a legit run-out from the deep via a direct hit ( i had to reload a few times after the run out bugs and Anderson got a bowled against Hauritz, where I lined up a full straight ball on middle and leg and then at the last minute changed it to an outswinger and it clipped off-stump with Hauritz tying to defend it into the on side, was pretty pleased with that.

Kept the run rate pretty low apart from Swanns one over which went for 40! I bowled 5 no balls and pretty much every legal delivery even if I got it spot on perfect went for 6!.

When I batted once i got in the rythmn it was too easy to score, got a hundred with Cook off about 80 deliveries mainly through the on-side, the only way I got out was to an mis-timed drive full deliveries outside off or to bottom edging hook shots onto the stumps.

The computer basically bowls to 3 plans (for non spinners) and rotates them through the bowlers, full outside off trying to get you to edge to slip, short trying to get the hook or top edge, or very full and straight trying for LBWs.

The tactic outside off is effective because if you mistime the drive you can edge it or get caught in cover and the timming bar for thos shots is smaller as the shots are more difficult, however you can also most of the time leave the ball, the AI then reverts to the other two tactcis which are quite easy to score off as the timing for leg side shots seems a lot easier and when they try the full approach most balls are full tosses which can easily be lofted back down the ground. The full tosses allowed Prior to score 67 of 19 deliveries (and an unlock for the fastest test half-century).

Other odd things i noticed were that Aus bowled Hussey as a second change bowler with Hilfenhaus

In their second innings with a defecit to make up the openers scored quite slowly (katich as 28 off 98 when he got out, Hughes was 17 of 78) Ponting also continued fairl slowly think he score about 11 of 35 but then when Hussey, North and Haddin were in they went mad, with swann particulary taking a battering, I think Swann ended up with figures of 3-82 from 6 overs!

I think I bowled them out for about 211, giving me about 130 to chase down which I did for the loss of 4 wickets, but mainly becuase I was playing aggressively, again the AI bowled a lot of short and wide deliveries and a lot of full tosses. The second innings took 54 overs and the first wicket didnt fall until the 23rd over.

I will of course try the game on hard to see if the AI is less stupid but their tactics were very poor.

 

[cooks1st100]

Lot of Hampshire lads on here!!!