Cricketing Timewaster

[Sits]

Thanks Levin, it’s a shame and the game is very good. Just too much managing to do and not enough time.

The Yoof was good wasn’t it.

[The_Purple_Cow]

Sensational F.T.P. News this morning, as Zimbabwe’s coach has been sacked and replaced by one of my sons. According to Dylan no national coach has been sacked on the grounds of incompetence before on F.T.P.

[Levin]

Wow, had he been actively incompetent or just not paying attention?

I came very close to bidding on a 28yo opener except his 18k wages put me off in the end.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Gate receipts have saved my academy, 4.5k in the black.

I'm top of all my leagues, two are nearly full of humans and two are zombies only. Hopefully I'll get some decent prize money if I can win all four and then it's time to rethink my strategy.

[longeared]

From a look on the forum it seems that the Zimbabwe manager hadn't actively been doing any managing to the extent that the game was automatically picking the team - which is an absolute no no at international level.

I've recently beaten the two teams in my T20 division who are miles better than me and have consequently managed to get myself embroiled in a promotion race. This is potentially a bit scary as if I went up it would mean second division cricket - a look at the other teams at that level would mean I'd be getting tonked every week, we're not ready for that level yet. On the other hand part of me thinks there's no point in holding back so I bought an all rounder on a 15k wage last week.

[Levin]

So that player I was considering bidding on has just scored 152* against me. 361 the target against the Ducks.

[Antepli Ejderha]

OTF Yoof invites have been sent, and the Ferrets are last to join the party. We've only got one aim, to get a win.

[Levin]

It's been a while since I've done one of these. We've had a few more players reach the 1000 run milestone. I hope this isn't too wide.

		Match	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Avg	BF	SR	0s	100s	50s	4s	6s
Philip Esmond	Croesoswallt Dragons	24	24	4	1221	149	61.05	1309	93.28	1	3	8	108	16
Martin Slattery	Bagillt Baptists	18	18	3	1200	173	80.00	1153	104.08	0	2	9	89	22
Rhys Nobes	Village Flowers	24	23	6	1139	139	67.00	1401	81.30	2	2	8	69	20
Jabril Zuhair	Village Flowers	23	21	3	1111	159	61.72	1329	83.60	0	3	5	80	17
Vinayagamoorthi Prabath	Wellworth	24	24	2	1080	117	49.09	1171	92.23	1	3	8	65	13

Slattery's 173 is the highest score in OTF history

[Levin]

And at the other end we've had two players take 50 wickets.

			Mat	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Best	Ave	ER	SR	3WI	5WI
Nathan Cleeve	lfm	Village Flowers	24	1396	20	813	58	6-18	14.02	3.49	24.07	5	3
Tanver Kumble	rm	Croesoswallt Dragons	24	1306	18	822	50	5-37	16.44	3.78	26.12	7	1

The best avg (min 20 Wickets) is Bayden Boome at 13.33 but I think he's retired.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I think as a team we've managed 1,000 runs and 50 wickets.

In the official T20 League I've beaten another non Zombie and look good for promotion.

[pebblethefish]

OTF Yoof invites have been sent, and the Ferrets are last to join the party. We've only got one aim, to get a win.

Depends on when in the season you play me. If you get me first game of the league, then you're up against the full title winning squad from last season. If you get me last game, then pretty much the whole lot will have passed their 21st birthdays, and you'll be facing the callow muppets I have in reserve.

[longeared]

Similar here - one of my players graduated to the firsts last week, two more are going next week and another follows in early November. If I need to create some space on the wage bill for next season then the 19 year olds that aren't going to play senior cricket (which is much of my youth batting) are first on the list to be culled and they'll be replaced by cheaper 16/17 year olds. Not expecting to finish second again, let's put it that way.

[pebblethefish]

Hmm, looks like I might be joining Antepli Ejderha in the bankruptcy court. If I can just make it to the end of the season before it starts selling off my top earners, then the prize money should help tide me over.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Hmm, looks like I might be joining Antepli Ejderha in the bankruptcy court. If I can just make it to the end of the season before it starts selling off my top earners, then the prize money should help tide me over.

I just avoided it, had to downgrade my senior academy.

I'm going to be more careful with prize money but will increase my ground capacity again.

[pebblethefish]

I know that when you're facing a bot on a flat pitch, you would expect a big win. But a winning margin of 517 runs is worth a quick boast.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I was in Arusha yesterday - I think I found Levin's HQ...above Woollies

[Levin]

Haha. Woolworths continuing to exist around the world is a constant source of amazement to me. People probably thought you were suffering from the same sense of wonderment when they saw you taking a picture.

The same applies to C&A actually. C&A only exists as a memory of a shop that once existed in Brighton opposite Churchill Square.

On the cricketing front, Vishvajit Jadavani of Fuzzy Ducks become the first player to score a double century, 205* against Village Flowers.

[TopManager]

Hi Folks,

Great to see OTF make an appearance on FTP. You may have seen from the news that Zimbabwe is looking for an assistant! As Zimbabwe national manager, if any of you want to get involved in the NAT scene, send me an in-game mail. Moreover, if you have any other questions, tactical or otherwise, as a more experienced player, I'm happy to help.

(Do tell me you're from OTF if you send me an in-game mail)

[Antepli Ejderha]

Hi Folks,

Great to see OTF make an appearance on FTP. You may have seen from the news that Zimbabwe is looking for an assistant! As Zimbabwe national manager, if any of you want to get involved in the NAT scene, send me an in-game mail. Moreover, if you have any other questions, tactical or otherwise, as a more experienced player, I'm happy to help.

(Do tell me you're from OTF if you send me an in-game mail)

Nice to see you here, welcome to OTF.

Judging from the new league created by Levin there are nine of us on FTP.

If you're going to post semi regularly on here could you answer questions and give advice here?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

If you're going to post semi regularly on here could you answer questions and give advice here?

Seconding this request, TM. I think I like this game, but not always exactly sure what I'm doing. Welcome to OTF from me too.

[TopManager]

Thanks for the welcome!

Here are some orders I set against Australia in a friendly. Even though it was a friendly, I'm quite proud of this win as we were significantly outraged by 20 K.

https://www.fromthepavilion.org/scor...gameId=5475943

Here are some basic tactics which I used vs Australia.

1) Firstly, an LHB/RHB opening partnership. Every time a new partnership is formed with both a left and right combination you get a small bonus for the remainder of that partnership. Therefore, it's always good to have an LHB & RHB opening combination.

2) Unfortunately, Zimbabwe only has 1 RF who is good enough for National Level cricketer. If you find yourself in this position at club level where you only have 1 strike bowler (RWS, LWS, RF & LF) who is suited to the conditions (in the case an RF on Hard/Overcast), it's is best to use this bowler aggressively. Hence, 7/10 of Maetma's overs were on aggressive. I used the same idea vs Bangladesh and he got 4 wickets in that game, but this time the pitch was Uneven

3) Moolman has an opener talent. Moreover, on Hard/Overcast, the opening period is likely to be the most difficult for the batting team as the opposition will likely use their strike bowlers with the new ball. Therefore, by putting Moolman on defensive, you are increasing the chance of him facing more balls and surviving the opening period, knowing that his opener talent will allow him to score at a competitive rate in the early stages (70.63%).

4) Finally, it's always important to have variety within your bowling attack. Both Australia & Zimbabwe had 4 different bowling types (5 would be optimal) - based on your bowling variety you get a bonus from the match engine. This is one of the reasons that despite Lodge (RWS) not being suited to a Hard pitch, he picked up 3 wickets.

5) Australia played 2 medium pacers on Hard/Overcast - foolish stuff. Here is a big tip which many players get wrong. Hard/Overcast favours seam bowlers. All this means is that seam bowlers such as medium pacers bowlers are better than normal. However, this does not mean RM's/LM's are greater than wrist-spin bowlers.

Hope some of you found this useful,
TM

[ad hoc]

Thanks. That's genuinely helpful

[Levin]

Yes, very. I see you've got your tail set to defensive. Will they not be defensive anyway given that they're batting down the order and are poor batters?

[TopManager]

Yes, very. I see you've got your tail set to defensive. Will they not be defensive anyway given that they're batting down the order and are poor batters?

It probably doesn't matter that much. The Match Engine should hopefully allow your better batsman to farm the strike regardless of N/D orders. Although, by putting your tail on D, you're encouraging your tail to be more conservative (which is a personal preference). This matters more in the first innings, when the Required Run Rate doesn't influence aggression settings. But as you state, it's largely irrelevant.

[Levin]

Etienne barely squeaked past longeared last night. Unlucky there longeared.

I must say that we all appear to be converging on a certain level, or at least the gaps between teams aren't as great as in the first competition.

Oh and in my main leagues my season is done. I'm guaranteed promotion from both my d4 leagues and am safe in both the d3 leagues I'm in.