Story One off test match - Asia XI v/s World XI

[crick4life]

This game is being played to test the new patch that I have come up with. This is an entirely new patch (nowhere related to my Test patches Ver.2) and is suppose to make CPU approach batting smarter(or I assume). The CPU is supposed to bat less aggressively compared to my previous test match patches and also to bat long. Bowling definitely will have a chance this time around and we should be able to bowl CPU out for fairly reasonalbe scores if not for meagre totals. Also CPU is not supposed to go for aerial shots once too often(Hopefully).

Batting quite naturally will be in line with the new ODI patches made by me. Easy to play shot but not all shots will fetch runs. Also there is more possibility of losing a wicket if the shot is not timed well enough. Even a little lapse in timing rest assured the batsman will get out. Aerial shots will be ladden with too many risks, better off not use it at all. It will be hard for the lower order to score runs than the top order.

In order to get similar results I suggest using all the patches and software as below :

Sam's new exe Ver 1.2
Shailesh's save tweak
My own Test cricket patch ver 3.0
New field setup
!xSpeed +1.74
sunsamrat1980's World XI and Duke's XI Test kits (Thanks mate)
Many other graphics files (Can't list the names here of the producers apparently as there are one too many). I will also be using the kits Shailesh is using for World XI.


There will be no glossy reports or anything but just a simple scorecard at the end of each session to see how CPU progresses and how I progress too.

What better than playing between Asia XI v/s The World XI?

I will be playing as World XI

The Asia XI team (Asia XI is replacing England team in Cricket 2004) :

Sehwag
Younis Khan
Rahul Dravid
Tendulkar
Inzamam Ul Haq (Cap)
Youhanna
Sangakkara (WK)
C.Vaas
Balaji
Shoaib Akthar
Muralitharan

It was hard to select the Asia XI even, plenty of Asian batters are in excellent form. Younis Khan was more than happy to be playing at the top of the order in the company of Sehwag as the only place he could bat was at the top of the order. It was tempting to include Afridi in place of Vaas or Murali but in the end the team can't really be fitted with innumerous batters. We needed a good balance between specialist batsmen and bowlers.

World XI (All Stars XI in the Cricket 2004) :

A.Strauss
J.Langer
R.Ponting (Cap)
B.Lara
D.Martyn
A.Gilchrist (WK)
A.Flintoff
D.Vettori
Warne
Hoggard
McGrath

It was indeed hard to select the World XI and many names had to be missed out. Players like Kallis, Tresco, Gayle, Hayden, Gillespie et al couldn't find a place in this XI. This is the team of in form players IMO.

The pitch and weather conditions for the 5 days will change (thanks Shailesh) :

Day 1 :

1st Session : Damp pitch - Warm weather
2nd Session : Green pitch - Warm weather
3rd session : Green pitch - Grey clouds

Day 2 :

1st Session : Green pitch - Warm weather
2nd Session : Normal pitch - Warm Weather
3rd session : Normal pitch - Overcast conditions

Day 3 :

1st Session : Normal pitch - Warm weather
2nd Session : Normal pitch - Hot Humid Weather
3rd session : Hard pitch - Warm conditions

Day 4 :

1st Session : Hard pitch - Hot Humid weather
2nd Session : Hard pitch - Hot Humid Weather
3rd session : Dry pitch - Hot conditions

Day 5 :

1st Session : Dry pitch - Hot Humid weather
2nd Session : Dusty pitch - Hot Humid Weather
3rd session : Dusty pitch - Hot conditions

 

[viral1991]

Looking forward to it.

 

[crick4life]

Asia XI in big trouble

Turned out to be bloody good bowling by the World XI pacemen, pitching seaming a mile, lot of swing in the air and to go with it unlucky Asia XI batters. The batters fought hard but they got absolute jaffas to deal with and anyone would have been out.

Flintoff although bowled towards lunch picked three quick wickets to put Asia XI reeling at 113/6. Amid ruins the lone warrior and the master Sachin Tendulkar is fighting a lone battle out there.

Watch the videos from below. The wickets video is a must watch, some absolute gems by Hoggard and Flintoff. Either you can download the video or open your Windows media player, go to file menu and open url then copy past the following links to watch it as streaming media.

http://www.overthewicket.com/Cricket2004/asia.wmv (This is for the wickets)

http://www.overthewicket.com/Cricket2004/master.wmv (Watch Tendulkar in action)

http://www.overthewicket.com/Cricket2004/swing.wmv (Watch the morning session's absolutely stunning bowling from the World XI)

 

[gold639]

Nice to see that in The Batting Stats,the players are playing quite slowly.

The batsmen seem to be getting out bowled alot though.

The videos should be interesting

 

[sohail]

Excellent Videos!! Lovely quality! and most of all great bowling by world XI

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Why is Martyn bowling?
Sehwag's LBW was a bit dodgy....
The ball did swing a lot....*shudder*....

 

[crick4life]

Why is Martyn bowling?
Sehwag's LBW was a bit dodgy....
The ball did swing a lot....*shudder*....

Martyn bowled because we needed a fourth seamer given the conditions and he was the choosen one.

The ball swung, reverse swung and seamed all over the place. Even surviving a session or more was hard on that pitch.

Unfortunately I saved another game on that one and lost that game

The next time I bowled Asia XI batted almost through the first day and ended up mustering nearly 250 runs. I lost two wickets in under 5 overs on the same evening too

Now am on 90+ for 4 with Martyn and Gilchrist at the crease. It's almost lunch time and now the pitch type is going to be changed to normal

 

[m_vaughan]

Two englishmen picked up a total of five wickets. awesome!!

 

[jazz]

yea good bowling by flintoff

 

[crick4life]

Out goes my previous two games , both got erased by one of my world cup game.

Although that is bad news there is plenty of good news on the patch front. Do not know how or is it even true but the patch is absolutely bang on. I would have never expected CPU to bat the way it did in this game and that on a wet pitch.

Asia XI were very solid, defended the good balls in particular the balls pitch on or around good length. Asia XI batters were very positive and did not let go a single opportunity to stamp their authority when a bad ball was bowled. I do not still understand how did they even end up batting like this after the dismal effort the first time around. I had to bring on spin fairly early on as my bowlers had lost their mojo(swing ) midway through.

Yunis Khan batted very well untill he was undone playing a back foot straight drive and the ball kept a tad low off Flintoff. Sehwag was the best on display as well as Rahul. Asia XI defended very well and played variety of shots all over to simply frustrate the World XI (I am bowling as World XI). There were 2-3 edges either not carrying or not heading to a fielder which is pretty good too given the pitch.

Normally spin bowlers bowl very tightly and the CPU do not normally play smartly against the spinners but this time around Warne was cover drove, swept, pulled and was even on drove by Sehwag and Rahul. When Warne switched to around the wicket the batters padded a lot of balls which is just surprising and occassionally attempted sweep or glance.

I just hope it is not just me experiencing this kind of result and wanted to make sure you guys get similar result with this patch. Although I haven't tested the batting as much despite being easy to bat batting long hours without getting out will be a challenge IMO. Although I was able to hit the balls crisply not all the time I was able to score runs enough.

Please download the patch as well as the field setup in the zip file and try it out. I know most people don't prefer to leave feedback it would be nice if you just confirm my opinion about this patch.

 

[The Champ]

okay buddy taking them, sure to try it and i will post my comments soon

 

[crick4life]

In case you had downloaded the Ver 3 from the previous post, please download again here. The other one was an older version.

 

[T20]

Out goes my previous two games , both got erased by one of my world cup game.

Although that is bad news there is plenty of good news on the patch front. Do not know how or is it even true but the patch is absolutely bang on. I would have never expected CPU to bat the way it did in this game and that on a wet pitch.

LOL! are ever we going to get in day 2 of the test mate btw good to see results on a wet pitch..brings another option to type of wickets we use.