You try playing against it mate. I was four wickets down at the time with Michael Hussey and Haddin (IIRC) at the crease - not playing with two tailenders. Despite them being high in confidence, with him bowling in the yellow consistently with the fast bowler, the timing window was tiny. That in itself wasn't a big issue - the problem was that if I did time it, it was almost always a catching chance, either by one the close fielders or the bowler.
There are two main problems with short fielders in this game:
- They have a very large area of effect, particularly the short cover. Anything played between wideish mid off and forward point can present a catching opportunity for short cover.
- The game slows down close catches too much. Even if you make a good connection with the ball and the fielder is only a couple of metres from the bat the fielding player gets a a comparatively large amount of time with the ball green to secure the catch. Considering how quickly the ball is going to the fielder it should be much shorter.
With catches behind or to the slips I can understand it slowing down more as you must have edged it and so clearly made a mistake.
As I say, play against him using it and see what you think. If you're happy with it after that, then good for you - your free to use it against anybody else who agrees it's okay. However, I and apparently many others clearly feel it is too effective when you would never use it with a fast bowler in a Twenty20 IRL (if ever).
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