Hi Tommy,
I started playing Cricket 2005 since last 2 weeks and already I am scoring about 350-450 in Test matches, without any patches.... with about 2-3 wicket loss...
The trick, that I noticed, is to start from Test matches... there you have plenty of time to check yourself with shot selection...
Another thing... go for front foot big shots only when the ball is overpitched... and vice versa for back foot big shots... but here the trick is to judge the bounce of the length properly as it varies quite a bit in hard and normal pitches...
I am quite enjoying this game... it ain't great... but it's not crap either...
mocha