OK, so I fired up ICC for the first time in about 8 months and got back into a game I have going with Essex in 2010. I am also national coach of Zimbabwe.
Essex - I won everything for the year except the 20-20. I have this incredible batting lineup which makes huge scores regularly. My usual tactic is to bat first, rack up 600-800 (800 in slightly under 2 days) and bowl them out twice (if the game allows me). The lineup is largely unchanged from the original (Flower bros etc) but I've sort of lost track of who the original players that become guns are, because I've renamed them all as Dutch cricketers.
Ryan ten Doeschate made 2259 runs for the year, at an average of about 134, with 11 tons and only 3 fifties. Five of those were doubles, but he has a ten Dency to go out soon after 200, so his PB of 259* (a real score against Canada 2 years ago) remains. Sadly short of Gooch's 2550 or so in a season for Essex... maybe 2011. There would have been another 3 or 4 players with averages between 60 and 90.
The bowling is still annoying in a lot of ways. I have an unhealthy reliance on Danish Kaneria who takes 100+ wickets a season at around 18. He snagged 2 8-fors last season, and a 7-for in a one day game. Sebastiaan Gokke is also very handy and is far and away the best seamer - that's Nathan Bracken BTW. I have an offspinner who is also very good, and a SLA who is awesome in ODIs and useless in 1st class. The rest of the seamers (Alex Tudor included) are crap and I'm usually rotating between bowlers to find another opening bowler who isn't crap. I've pretty much given up - I now use ten Doeschate as the other opener and as soon as I get to 15 overs, out comes the spin.
When I got to the end of season I went to re-sign Kaneria and I was told that because he'd be on international duty over the summer, I wouldn't be able to re-sign him. I have never seen this happen before - has it happened to anyone else, and if so, is there a way around it? Will I get him back next year? I might have been lucky in being able to buy M Munday, another leggie who took over 100 wickets last year, but it has to be a tall ask to expect him to replicate the efforts of Kaneria who just took bulk numbers of poles anytime, anywhere. If this Munday dude fails to fire, you can see what sort of hole that's going to leave in the bowling.
Now to the national stuff. It was time for a Test series vs NZ. The 1st Test seemed to be very much a case of 'here we go again' as the Kiwis racked up 450 after winning the toss and then Zim folded for 250. NZ won by about 200 runs which was probably lucky. Ed Rainsford copping 6-67 in the first innings was a nice surprise from a guy with a Test bowling average of 49. The difficulty with Zim is that the 1st class talent pool is very thin and I find I have to keep going back to previous discards when dropping other players. I've had more openers than Pakistan. There isn't a player with a 1st class batting average over 37, or a bowler much under 30. Test-wise, most of the bowlers are well over 40 (except Alex Cremer, a young leggie, but even he's going at 34).
I've decided then to build up the side the same way as Essex: spin, spin and spin. I've only got one dedicated RFM (Rainsford) and I open for a short aggro burst with Blignaut to try and buy an early wicket, then I have Chibhabha (RM) as change, then it's all spin with Cremer, B van Jaarsveld (computer generated OS bowler making debut) and a host of part-timers led by Gavin Ewing (who, while handy, is sadly not the star he was in ICC 2005) and Sean Williams.
2nd Test vs NZ: NZ won the toss on a belter and racked up 427, Cremer and van Jaarsveld with 3 each, mostly quick junk wickets at the end. On a pitch still offering plenty of runs, Zim slumped to 4-140 as the top order, as usual, got starts but couldn't go on with them. Then, out of nowhere, Sean Williams makes 118 from no 7, supported by Chibhabha at 8. Handy 20s and 30s from the tail allow Chibhabha to reach 145 and lift Zimbabwe to 543. Chibhabha soaks up 420 balls which at least makes a draw far more likely than a loss.
Given the weakness of the bowling and the steady state of the pitch, I was prepared for a 400+ innings from the Kiwis. They never really got going, folding for 211 as Cremer and van Jaarsveld go nuts with 4 and 3 each. Zimbabwe knocks off the required 95 runs, losing only 2 wickets, early on day 5.
It's a pity Zim only play 2-test series, but to win that match from that position, with that team, was good enough.
I've started the one-dayers, and my advice for anyone playing with a crap national side to bat first, and then bat every bat at 6 aggro bars from the first ball. This team has few who average over 30, and while this approach leads to a lot of individual failures and closure of the innings at 40-45 overs, I can rack up 300 surprisingly often. If the score is around 300, I usually then bowl with all-out aggro and the other team usually folds. I've been stung a couple of times with successful chases, have collapsed for 90, and it's highly dependent on the toss, but the hits outnumber the misses and I figure I've got nothing to lose with such a poor team on paper.
Last season for Essex, robbed of a star, and an amazing victory
OK, so I fired up ICC for the first time in about 8 months and got back into a game I have going with Essex in 2010. I am also national coach of Zimbabwe.
Essex - I won everything for the year except the 20-20. I have this incredible batting lineup which makes huge scores regularly. My usual tactic is to bat first, rack up 600-800 (800 in slightly under 2 days) and bowl them out twice (if the game allows me). The lineup is largely unchanged from the original (Flower bros etc) but I've sort of lost track of who the original players that become guns are, because I've renamed them all as Dutch cricketers.
Ryan ten Doeschate made 2259 runs for the year, at an average of about 134, with 11 tons and only 3 fifties. Five of those were doubles, but he has a ten Dency to go out soon after 200, so his PB of 259* (a real score against Canada 2 years ago) remains. Sadly short of Gooch's 2550 or so in a season for Essex... maybe 2011. There would have been another 3 or 4 players with averages between 60 and 90.
The bowling is still annoying in a lot of ways. I have an unhealthy reliance on Danish Kaneria who takes 100+ wickets a season at around 18. He snagged 2 8-fors last season, and a 7-for in a one day game. Sebastiaan Gokke is also very handy and is far and away the best seamer - that's Nathan Bracken BTW. I have an offspinner who is also very good, and a SLA who is awesome in ODIs and useless in 1st class. The rest of the seamers (Alex Tudor included) are crap and I'm usually rotating between bowlers to find another opening bowler who isn't crap. I've pretty much given up - I now use ten Doeschate as the other opener and as soon as I get to 15 overs, out comes the spin.
When I got to the end of season I went to re-sign Kaneria and I was told that because he'd be on international duty over the summer, I wouldn't be able to re-sign him. I have never seen this happen before - has it happened to anyone else, and if so, is there a way around it? Will I get him back next year? I might have been lucky in being able to buy M Munday, another leggie who took over 100 wickets last year, but it has to be a tall ask to expect him to replicate the efforts of Kaneria who just took bulk numbers of poles anytime, anywhere. If this Munday dude fails to fire, you can see what sort of hole that's going to leave in the bowling.
Now to the national stuff. It was time for a Test series vs NZ. The 1st Test seemed to be very much a case of 'here we go again' as the Kiwis racked up 450 after winning the toss and then Zim folded for 250. NZ won by about 200 runs which was probably lucky. Ed Rainsford copping 6-67 in the first innings was a nice surprise from a guy with a Test bowling average of 49. The difficulty with Zim is that the 1st class talent pool is very thin and I find I have to keep going back to previous discards when dropping other players. I've had more openers than Pakistan. There isn't a player with a 1st class batting average over 37, or a bowler much under 30. Test-wise, most of the bowlers are well over 40 (except Alex Cremer, a young leggie, but even he's going at 34).
I've decided then to build up the side the same way as Essex: spin, spin and spin. I've only got one dedicated RFM (Rainsford) and I open for a short aggro burst with Blignaut to try and buy an early wicket, then I have Chibhabha (RM) as change, then it's all spin with Cremer, B van Jaarsveld (computer generated OS bowler making debut) and a host of part-timers led by Gavin Ewing (who, while handy, is sadly not the star he was in ICC 2005) and Sean Williams.
2nd Test vs NZ: NZ won the toss on a belter and racked up 427, Cremer and van Jaarsveld with 3 each, mostly quick junk wickets at the end. On a pitch still offering plenty of runs, Zim slumped to 4-140 as the top order, as usual, got starts but couldn't go on with them. Then, out of nowhere, Sean Williams makes 118 from no 7, supported by Chibhabha at 8. Handy 20s and 30s from the tail allow Chibhabha to reach 145 and lift Zimbabwe to 543. Chibhabha soaks up 420 balls which at least makes a draw far more likely than a loss.
Given the weakness of the bowling and the steady state of the pitch, I was prepared for a 400+ innings from the Kiwis. They never really got going, folding for 211 as Cremer and van Jaarsveld go nuts with 4 and 3 each. Zimbabwe knocks off the required 95 runs, losing only 2 wickets, early on day 5.
It's a pity Zim only play 2-test series, but to win that match from that position, with that team, was good enough.
I've started the one-dayers, and my advice for anyone playing with a crap national side to bat first, and then bat every bat at 6 aggro bars from the first ball. This team has few who average over 30, and while this approach leads to a lot of individual failures and closure of the innings at 40-45 overs, I can rack up 300 surprisingly often. If the score is around 300, I usually then bowl with all-out aggro and the other team usually folds. I've been stung a couple of times with successful chases, have collapsed for 90, and it's highly dependent on the toss, but the hits outnumber the misses and I figure I've got nothing to lose with such a poor team on paper.
The 3-ODI series is delicately poised at 1-1.