England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Won toss, put 'em in, they scored 167-5, we scored 140-5. Same old story - every batsman on aggro, but incapable of hitting the ball off the square, and still 5 wickets in the shed at the end. They should add a hyper-aggro option, maybe the buggers would start swinging the bat then?

I'll put it down to tight bowling by The Tykes and the nature of the pitch.

Every batter on aggro might be part of the problem. I think if you use too many aggressive or too many defensive orders they become less effective. I think if you have over a certain % of aggressive batters then the aggression tapers off. What that percentage is I've no idea.

I'd guess it's something like if you have 1 or 2 who have aggressive orders then they'd be very aggressive but if you have 5 or 6 they'd move more towards normal so might only be mildly aggressive.

[casperj]

Won toss, put 'em in, they scored 167-5, we scored 140-5. Same old story - every batsman on aggro, but incapable of hitting the ball off the square, and still 5 wickets in the shed at the end. They should add a hyper-aggro option, maybe the buggers would start swinging the bat then?

I'll put it down to tight bowling by The Tykes and the nature of the pitch.

I'm not convinced that aggresive orders on batsmen works very well. In my limited experience about 50% of the time the batsmen scores at normal or slightly faster rates, and the other 50% of the time it's an 'out 4th ball for 1' sort of outcome. I use it very sparingly, and only when I'm certain that I can afford a few cheap wickets.

I'd recommend having a match with every batsmen on neutral (or with maybe 1 or 2 of the tailenders on agg) and see how that goes in comparison.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Loddington CC
Batting - Top Order 13,169 12,474
Batting - Middle Order 10,821 9,033
Batting - Tail 6,099 6,129
Bowling - Seam 12,770 (8) 12,027 (12)
Bowling - Spin 13,313 (12) 12,368 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,747 14,072
Overall 226,983 207,448

End of over 19 (6 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(178-0) RR 9.37
J. Wambua 103 (62b), B. Luckmini 74 (49b), A. Rasil (rf) 3.3-0-38-0
Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 10 wickets

Hot/Dry is the new Sunny/Flat. Chased down 9 an over without losing a single wicket even though my opponent put out a decent side. Naturally my world class summary finger spinner went for 10 an over without taking a wicket.

[Atko]

Won toss, put 'em in, they scored 167-5, we scored 140-5. Same old story - every batsman on aggro, but incapable of hitting the ball off the square, and still 5 wickets in the shed at the end. They should add a hyper-aggro option, maybe the buggers would start swinging the bat then?

I'll put it down to tight bowling by The Tykes and the nature of the pitch.

.....

Every batter on aggro might be part of the problem. I think if you use too many aggressive or too many defensive orders they become less effective. I think if you have over a certain % of aggressive batters then the aggression tapers off. What that percentage is I've no idea.

I'd guess it's something like if you have 1 or 2 who have aggressive orders then they'd be very aggressive but if you have 5 or 6 they'd move more towards normal so might only be mildly aggressive.

.....

I'm not convinced that aggresive orders on batsmen works very well. In my limited experience about 50% of the time the batsmen scores at normal or slightly faster rates, and the other 50% of the time it's an 'out 4th ball for 1' sort of outcome. I use it very sparingly, and only when I'm certain that I can afford a few cheap wickets.

I'd recommend having a match with every batsmen on neutral (or with maybe 1 or 2 of the tailenders on agg) and see how that goes in comparison.

Yeah, the total aggro orders was something I started experimenting with last season when my youth squad was dropping rather low ratings-wise, of all places, in YOD, where I had a small degree of success. I concluded that T20 would be a natural environment to try that approach, but thusfar it's proven a bit of a damp squib. I've probably employed neutral orders for the majority of my FTP gameplay; I remember ash saying once in the old "ask ash" thread that the basic (or neutral) AI algorithm would adjust the batsman's approach to the conditions and match state of play; also that there was a sort of bit of "rubber band" coding that would over ride defensive or aggressive orders if they pushed the run rate curve too far out of shape from the norm. Back then I figured from this, that the ME knew best, so always had everyone on neutral - even the bowlers - and found this to be a successful approach.

I'd be disappointed, spark, if indeed there was a "normalizing" where blanket aggro orders were set, but assuming there have been no major changes to the ME since ash's "rubber band" comments, then I guess that may well be the effect I'm seeing.

Anyhoo, today we faced Two Star CC, and for some bizarre reason I forgot to change my orders, winning the toss and batting first (uh-oh) -

Two Star CC vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Twenty20 3.3

Weather Hot
Pitch Even

- we scored a lacklustre 127-10 off 19.4 - all aggro - I don't mind too much though - at least we had a few swings and misses! In reply, the oppo knocked off the runs in 16 overs for the loss of a couple of wickets. That loss takes us back into the relegation zone with one win from 5 games.

Match Ratings
Two Star CC The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 12,429 11,235
Batting - Middle Order 7,800 8,172
Batting - Tail 4,353 5,914
Bowling - Seam 11,646 (8) 11,130 (16)
Bowling - Spin 10,845 (12) 11,235 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 14,149 15,133
Overall 192,252 196,528

On a positive, our 2nd XI are inching ever closer to 200k

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Camberwell Carrots
Batting - Top Order 12,968 13,189
Batting - Middle Order 10,500 10,987
Batting - Tail 4,400 5,421
Bowling - Seam 12,579 (8) 12,509 (12)
Bowling - Spin 11,512 (12) 12,464 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 16,159 15,146
Overall 215,246 220,864

Result: wolfberries won by 28 runs

Nice win and we managed to play a few younger lads and even a youth.

[Atko]

...and, back to 'proper' cricket -

The Raging Speed Horns vs S London CC
League Youth 2.1

Weather Hot
Pitch Crumbling

At home to 3rd placed S London CC; we're 4th, 4 points behind, so with a superior NRR, an opportunity to jockey our way up a bit. We're roughly equivalent in ratings, so should be a good match up.

We lost the toss and were promptly inserted to bat (dammit), and have made rather hard going of it (no one on aggro, honest! ). Scoring has proven difficult and wickets were falling regularly until a good partnership took us from 58-5 to 124-6. We do bat down to our boots, so I didn't have too many concerns in that area, but I suspect, barring a stellar performance from our bowlers, our total won't be enough -

T. van de Meent (rm) 8-0-53-2, L. Delameter 3 (4b), R. McSpank 86 (76b)
End of over 40 (13 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(180-7) RR 4.50

[Atko]

L. Delameter (lfm) 4-0-17-2, M. Hodges 0 (0b), P. Mansey 0 (7b)
End of over 7 (1 run) - S London CC(34-3). 147 runs required from 33 overs. RR 4.86 RRR 4.45

That's the start we needed, and the spinners have yet to take the stage. But are we going to see one of those pesky recoveries now....? (bit like we did? )

[spark]

D. Buck (rfm) 8-1-32-0, Y. Shashtri 8 (11b), D. wa Kiliku 9 (9b)
End of over 40 (7 runs) - SLBenfica(177-7) RR 4.42

Not too bad from our bowlers on an uneven pitch although I think we let them get away from us compared to when we had them 91-5. I think our batting is weaker than our bowling so it might not be easy.

Y. Shashtri (lfm) 1-1-0-1, C. Macrow 0 (3b), D. Howe 0 (0b)
End of over 6 (maiden) - Ruff Royals(12-2). 166 runs required from 34 overs. RR 2.00 RRR 4.88

We're really struggling with the bat so far. Looks like there's going to be a lot of pressure on Howe's shoulders as he's our best batter.

[spark]

Ruff Royals SLBenfica
Batting - Top Order 7,131 6,776
Batting - Middle Order 5,674 5,755
Batting - Tail 3,948 3,864
Bowling - Seam 7,932 (32) 6,474 (32)
Bowling - Spin 8,528 (8) 5,441 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,805 8,098
Overall 129,737 117,351

Ruff Royals won by 6 wickets

Howe managed to take all the pressure and get himself a 92 not out from 90 balls to win us the match. Niazzi was the main wicket taker today with 3-40 and Pithey ended his youth career for us with 2-33.

We're 8 points clear of the relegation zone which is good as I'm concerned with how big the drop-off in performances and results will be without our, as of this week, spectacular/spectacular bowler Pithey. We've got bowlers who can replace him but, unsurprisingly, they're just nowhere near the same level as Pithey.

[Atko]

...
We're 8 points clear of the relegation zone which is good as I'm concerned with how big the drop-off in performances and results will be without our, as of this week, spectacular/spectacular bowler Pithey. We've got bowlers who can replace him but, unsurprisingly, they're just nowhere near the same level as Pithey.

Bloomin' 'eck, spec/spec?!

And with reliable form and xp (and LF, and bouncer...) he'll leave a monster gap! I've got to guess he was reas/reas when pulled - with no gifted or prodigy talent that's one heck of a high bar to have reached.

[Atko]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Result: The Raging Speed Horns won by 11 runs

It was touch and go for a bit, but we managed to grind 'em down. Three wickets to run outs plus our (only real) seamer bagging another three completed the win.

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns S London CC
Batting - Top Order 5,977 7,350
Batting - Middle Order 6,118 5,872
Batting - Tail 4,030 3,232
Bowling - Seam 6,174 (12) 7,053 (32)
Bowling - Spin 7,036 (28) 8,542 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,249 7,202
Overall 119,106 120,944

Unlike sparky, we've no immediate concerns regarding promotees to seniors - our oldest player is 19.14. In fact I was surprised when glancing down the oppo's team sheet that there were seven 20yos, three 19yos and an 18yo. My lot are always layer-caked through all age groups.

Currently 1st Team sheet -
4 x 19yo
2 x 18yo
3 x 17yo
2 x 16yo

- despite this, we still punch hard, and I don't think I'd swap homegrown for any other approach. Looking back, I see that we managed to stay in West Indies Tier 1 from season 19 - 25 using this method. The only downside is that there isn't the possibilty of a peak XI, and it needs large slices of luck to swing a title!

Anyway, as always, I'm yet again resetting my sights for this season - from hoping to stay up, I'm sniffing an outside shot at promotion; we're only 7-8k off the top three teams, and that ain't much, plus I suspect with our setup we'll be closing the gap

...all I need now is a second seamer

[spark]

...
We're 8 points clear of the relegation zone which is good as I'm concerned with how big the drop-off in performances and results will be without our, as of this week, spectacular/spectacular bowler Pithey. We've got bowlers who can replace him but, unsurprisingly, they're just nowhere near the same level as Pithey.

Bloomin' 'eck, spec/spec?!

And with reliable form and xp (and LF, and bouncer...) he'll leave a monster gap! I've got to guess he was reas/reas when pulled - with no gifted or prodigy talent that's one heck of a high bar to have reached.

He was actually reas/ave with a wage of 1305. I do have a deluxe academy which is nice and fun but very expensive. I'm crossing my fingers that it's sustainable in my current leagues (it certainly wouldn't be if I was double div 2 seniors like last season). I've been slightly struggling to give gametime to some of my youths (bowlers mainly) so a bit better planning is probably needed on my part or more likely focusing more on quality rather than quantity.

[wolfberries]

Oxhey Players wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 7,244 7,075
Batting - Middle Order 5,470 6,253
Batting - Tail 3,583 3,035
Bowling - Seam 6,447 (24) 6,182 (24)
Bowling - Spin 7,796 (16) 8,520 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 7,265 8,962
Overall 118,338 124,891
Club Champion / Fantasy Points

Result: wolfberries won by 5 wickets

Needed 234 to win and wasn't very positive, but hot and green conditions seem to be very batsmen friendly still!

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Egham Town CC
League One Day 1.1

Weather Humid
Pitch Sticky

Big match day and we're up against last seasons champs, Egham Town CC. Should be a great test for the new talent; we have three of our big guns away on national duty - Speed (LF, yorker), Diablo (RM, NBB) and Shalidor (seam specialist). Their replacements are raw, somewhat lacking in xp and power, and not as gifted talent-wise, but there is a symmetry - Saxon (RF, bouncer), Applebee (RM) and Bozelli (who replaces Shalidor as captain). Egham Town are down one bowler, an LM. We're playing in our own backyard and ordinarily there's not much in the ratings, so I'd say this match might run close.

Egham have won the toss and elected to bat. Ten overs in and -

End of over 10 (4 runs) - Egham Town CC(32-2) RR 3.20

A wicket each for the two new seamers in overs 3 and 4 got us off to a good start, but these "good starts" hardly ever translate into a collapse, so I won't get overly excited.

[Atko]

...

A wicket each for the two new seamers in overs 3 and 4 got us off to a good start, but these "good starts" hardly ever translate into a collapse, so I won't get overly excited.

And so it was. Score at drinks -

End of over 25 (1 run) - Egham Town CC(86-3) RR 3.44

The oppo have been solid since the first two wickets fell, with their numbers 2 and 4 batsmen carving out a 71 run partnership; the third wicket only fell in the over before the break. Without Max Speed (LF), the attack feels a little toothless, and it's a shame we lack the reserves to field four seamers in the humid conditions. Top bowlers so far are the two new guys with a wicket each and the best economy.

But we really need to start knocking over some of their bats before this gets out of hand - Egham are running with a 4-prong seam attack (I think), which could prove the difference...