Blimey a lot had been said since i last posted.
I have a few scorecards to post, then i'll get down to the nitty gritty.
First game against Ricco, then Earl then cricketer.
Hey Earl, I'm glad you brought all this up. I'll try to explain my actions. I bowled proper line and length for the whole game, making sure i hit what the game designates as a perfect line. When i was batting some strange things were happening with your custom field. I had several perfectly timed lofted shots caught by your close in fielders, short cover to name but a few. I couldn't understand it. It basically meant that i couldn't score any runs, as although i did mis hit a few i was seeing my perfectly timed ground and air shots being caught.
I understand that timed ground shots can be caught, but surely not perfectly timed lofted shots, this confused me and i lost many wickets before i realised that with your field playing through the offside was so risky, be it ground or air shot perfectly timed.
Not sure why it was implemented like this but i can definitely see a problem.
Now i'll come on to your batting.
What worried me was almost all 90%+ of your runs were from charging down the wicket. This is not your fault, your just using the mechanics of the game, but seeing you charge down constantly with very little risk is something i have never seen another player do. I hope when i get a decent control pad that will allow me to select charge/back foot it does not give me a get out clause.
On the rare times you didn't charge i started to pick up wickets, i think as you grew closer to your target you became more cautious and this allowed me back into the game.
So, we got to the final wicket, and you started charging down the wicket again and lofting me to the legside. So i decided to use a field similar to what you started with, only in the fact though that i had a few close catchers and packed the offside boundary edge.
I did this to leave singles available on the offside, but whilst protecting the boundary. If you beat the two close in fielders there were an easy 1/2 runs every time on the offside. But for a while you were still trying to get charge leg side shots away. At this stage you had around 7-9 overs to pick up 22 runs i think.
I wanted you to take a single or two so that i could attack your vulnerable batsmen. Johnson was fearless, and had already scored some runs. So i decided to bowl good line and lenth, protect the offside boundry with 5 fielders, have a few close in catchers and men at mid on/mid off. As i noticed you became desperate to hit to the onside, a few times i moved the cursor to the right, but still a light green line according to the game at the last moment. I made these deliveries outswingers which probably made them look wider than they actually were.
There were enough overs left that if you had just taken singles to the offside you would probably have won.
Because it was the final wicket, i didn't really anticipate that so much would be made of this to be honest. I was still bowling my line and length, and at the last second i would move the cursor to change the length to slightly wide. I got wided a few times because i chose an outswinger, however the ball was still within the lines so not sure why i was wided.
Anyhoo I'm happy not to do it if people thinks its a major issue. You actually scored a boundary or two on the offside with that field, you just had to time it.
It was a good game, but if this is counted as an exploit, then i think charging down the wicket constantly and using close in fielders is up there with it. I can understand charging of spinners, but you don't see batsmen charging bowlers who bowl 95 plus every ball.
I'm happy to stick to pre-defined rules though if that's what people want to do.
And for the record that game against Earl was amazing. He had won i thought when he was 44/3, and then lost 3/4 wickets in an over or two. Amazing game, so close.
