Alright boyz, here we go!!! Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 First Impressions

[AlexB]

(I'm guessing this will be one the least replied to threads in FOFC history!)

It appears to be a great game even after only three matches - after a few net sessions thought I'd jump in to a ODI England v. New Zealand on County level, and after posting a huge 44 all out as England, I managed to knock 5 of their guys down to at least give them a few jitters before they got their target!

So I figured I'd best drop down to Village level, and played England v. Zimbabwe - this time I got 180 odd all out, and bowled them out with about 20 runs to spare. The batting and bowling confidence bars really mean you have to think about strategy, and although the area of the delivery's pitch can be seen, the different types and paces of delivery mean you really have to be on your toes.

It might be a little easy to get the CPU batsmen to play and miss by taking the pace off and swinging the ball away from the stumps, but we are talking Village level and against NZ.

Filled with a bit of confidence, I start a World Cup tourney, again on Village level with England, and my first opponent is a rematch against Zimbabwe! This time we bowl first, and after I keep them to 30-something runs in the first 15 overs before the fielding restrictions I'm thinking this is very easy, especially when I get them 5 down and the Flower brothers in... who then proceed to smash me off the park before I make a late recovery to bowl them out for 243 in 47.1 overs.

I'm worried: I haven;t looked like scoring close to 250 yet, but we start off well before getting bogged down and reach 50 odd without loss after the 15 overs. I manage to lose Trescothick & Hussain (the squads for the WC tourney are set as per the 2003 WC, while at least the exhibition teams are current: I haven't checked out other modes yet) both C&B, and we're looking in trouble.

But then a worrying glitch comes up: the Zimbabweans set a 7-2 offside field, with one onside fielder square and the other behind square. But I can easily step inside the line or do on-drive after on-drive with Knight & Stewart scoring 15-20 runs an over (although I was dropped two or three times when I tried to work balls that were well on the offside back to the onside and caught leading edges). The problem is they keep the field, although they do change for an over or two, but always revert to the 7-2 off set-up again. I end up getting the 244 in 33.2 overs, with Knight scoring at over 200 and Stewart at 150...

Hopefully this is just symptomatic of Zimbabwe rather than a recurring theme in the game... Other than this though the game is excellent - good graphics, an good attempt to get a cricket TV commentary with random discussions throughout the game. I like the way I had to bowl short of a length on an African pitch otherwise I got tonked, and taking the pace off the ball 2-3 times an over seems to help. I would like to see career stats saved on the game, and definitely tournament leaders, but I guess I can do this for my team at least. And while I have been out caught by a fielder, the only guy in three games that has taken catch so far off my bowling has been the keeper...

Nevertheless, I can see already I'm going to be spending a lot of time on this game, and once I've worked out the level I should play at, I'll follow up this least responded to thread with the least viewed dynasty!

[SirFozzie]

Nice stuff.. I still play ITC, sometime I'll have to update the database

[sovereignstar]

Fuck yeah! You use those exclamation points, big boy!!

[Greyroofoo]

HOLY CRAP that was a long post, what you said must be really VALID and IMPORTANT

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

HOLY CRAP that was a long post, what you said must be really VALID and IMPORTANT

I figured I'd post it as a counter the NCAA thread, as college football seems to be something part and parcel of US life, but doesn't necessarily translate as well abroad as the pro sports.

Cricket is similarly quintissentially English, but hasn't really crossed over into areas that were not part of or in the immediate vicinity of the old Empire.

So, basically, this is an English NCAA thread. Seemed a good idea at the time...

[HomerJSimpson]

One of these days, I'm going to learn Cricket. Nah, who am I kidding.

[Pumpy Tudors]

What platform is this game for? PC?

[AlexB]

Its on PC/Xbox/PS2 - mine's PS2.

[Eaglesfan27]

I know almost nothing about cricket, but I find your description of this game quite interesting.

[SirFozzie]

if you're looking for a cricket sim, there's International Test Cricket a shareware game.. it's not an arcade game

[Ajaxab]

Anyone know anything about cricket text sims? Is it darn near impossible to simulate a 5 day match in a reasonable amount of time?

[Klinglerware]

I went to school with someone distantly related to Brian Lara...

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

I figured I'd post it as a counter the NCAA thread, as college football seems to be something part and parcel of US life, but doesn't necessarily translate as well abroad as the pro sports.

Cricket is similarly quintissentially English, but hasn't really crossed over into areas that were not part of or in the immediate vicinity of the old Empire.

So, basically, this is an English NCAA thread. Seemed a good idea at the time...

Nah- Cricket has appeal outside England - hell, its base is Indian today. American football- not so much.

On topic, I still haven't installed my copy of EA 2004 - I think I'll give that a shot now..

[21C]

For cricket text sims, check out:
http://www.cricketgames.com/index.html
http://cricketweb.net/cricketgames/index.php
http://cricketweb.net/downloadscentre/index.php ( under freeware and shareware )

My favorite cricket text sim is Virtual Cricket - I even ran an online league for two seasons with it. It's very simple and easy to use but it sims a whole innings at a time - no strategy as such.
http://cricketweb.net/downloadscentr...ualcricket.php

I've even written the game engine for my own cricket text sim but I got bogged down with parts of it and it's still sitting there waiting to be finished.

[andy m]

lara is pretty solid, but there's some annoying issues with the AI

1 - the AI never leaves any ball
2 - it doesn't really seem to have any clue as to what the situation in the match is when it comes to batting / fielding positions (the latter of which Jari noted)

wides seem to be pretty off too.

looks nice though, and is fun. i beat sri lanka this morning on county level in a 10 over game. they set me 75 to win and i did it by 7 wickets with 4 balls to spare. the game is certainly easier to get into than EA's cricket effort.

more good news for cricket fans though:

http://www.cricketweb.net/cricketgam...5/features.php

[Senator]

I made my wife stop off at some big cricket match while we were vacationing in Bermuda. It was a really neat thing to see.

[kmbgolf]

I ordered blic.My wifes father is from barbados so I got cricket explained to me from him............still dont understand it but find it intersesting ,thinking about cricket captain 2005 but am wondering if being new to the genre would be a waist not knowing tactics and stuff,,,,,thks for the help

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by kmbgolf

I ordered blic.My wifes father is from barbados so I got cricket explained to me from him............still dont understand it but find it intersesting ,thinking about cricket captain 2005 but am wondering if being new to the genre would be a waist not knowing tactics and stuff,,,,,thks for the help

I played an earlier version of ICC, and I had no problem with it, the key plays are done in a visual format so you see what's happened.

If you guys want a brief description of cricket, let me know.

[kmbgolf]

please

[SirFozzie]

First, here's the wikipedia entry on Cricket.. pretty good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket

In cricket, the batter's job is to defend his wicket (IE, not get out). The pitcher bowls a hard ball (Instead of pitching it like in baseball, the person throwing the ball has to keep his arm straight during the delivery). There are three major ways to get out, that I'll cover for now

If the ball hits the stumps behind the batter (three stumps into the ground. Two small pieces of wood, called bails, lay on top of the stumps, and usually go flying if the ball hits it, so there's no doubt that the ball hit..), then the batter is out. (usually, it's referenced by saying that he was BOWLED.)

If the batter hits the ball into the air and it is caught without it touching the batter is out. (The notation for this is CAUGHT)

The third way is a judgement call. If the batter attempts to play a shot (ie, hit the ball), and is hit by the ball, and in the umpire's judgement, if he had not been hit by the ball, the ball would have hit the stumps, then he'll signal that the batter is out lbw. (that means Leg before wicket)

Once the ball is hit, the batter and runner (at opposite ends of the field) do not HAVE to run, if they dio not think they can score. They score 1 run for every time they swap ends, up to four times.

If the ball is hit, and not fielded, and goes over the edge of the playing field, that is called a boundary, and automatically scores 4 runs.

If the ball is hit IN THE AIR over the edge of the playing field, it scores six runs (the highest score you can get from one ball in cricket).

There are six pitches in an over. All pitches are delivered by the same pitcher (called a bowler), pointing the same way. So this means that you could pitch to one batter, see them score an odd amount of runs, and suddenly be facing the other batter. After an over, you turn around to the other end and start bowling THAT way. (no pitcher can bowl two overs in a row)

An innings is made of 11 batters. The first two are on the field to start, until one batter is out. Then the team sends up the next batter. You always must have two batters on the field at all times, so once 10 men are out, your innings are over.

There are two types of cricket...

First Class Cricket is a slow moving game, that can take up to five days to play (at the international level) both teams get two innings to score as many runs as possible. Whoever scores the most runs is the winner. Since you bat until you're out, it can be very defensive.

Then there's LIMITED or One Day Cricket. Each team has a maximum of 50 overs to score as many runs as possible (or all 10 men are out).

[Mac Howard]

There are three other ways for a batsman to be dismissed:

1) Stumped. There is a line (batting crease) about 4 feet from the wicket. Essentially the batsman has to stay behind this crease (between the line and the wicket) or make sure the stumper (the fielding player immediately behind the wicket) is not able to hit the wicket with the ball while the batsman is in front of the line. The batsman can move forward of the line to hit the ball but must ensure he does hit it and/or prevents the ball getting through to the stumper or ensure he's back behind the crease before the stumper can hit the wicket (remove the bails) with the ball.

2) Hit wicket. Where the batsman hits his own wicket with his bat or any part of his body. As with being "bowled" the bails have to be removed. If he, or the ball in case of being bowled, hits the wicket but doesn't remove the bails then he's not "out"

3) Run out. To score a "run" the two batsmen have to cross from wicket to wicket. If the fielding side can hit the wicket while a batsman is still ouside of the batting crease (between the batting creases at either end) then he is dismissed "run out" similar to a baseball player who doesn't make it to the base. As above the bails have to be removed - the timing as to whether the batsman has completed the run comes at the instant the bails leave the stumps.

I won't get into the complexity of the LBW dismissal where the batsman prevents the ball hitting the wicket with any part of his body other than his arms or bat - the rules also take into account whether the ball is in line with the wicket when it hits him, coming from the "on" side (behind him) or the 'off" side (in front of him) and whether he makes an attempt to hit the ball or not as well as whether the ball would have hit the wicket.

There is also a new form of cricket called 20/20 which is a further reduction of the game to 20 overs ( an over is a six ball spell) for each side. It moves even closer to baseball in the pace of the game and the pressure on the batsman to score quickly.

[MacroGuru]

You guys also forgot Battrick....

The Hattrick version of cricket at http://www.battrick.org.uk enjoy.....

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

First, here's the wikipedia entry on Cricket.. pretty good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket

If the ball hits the stumps behind the batter (three stumps into the ground. Two small pieces of wood, called bails, lay on top of the stumps, and usually go flying if the ball hits it, so there's no doubt that the ball hit..), then the batter is out. (usually, it's referenced by saying that he was BOWLED.)

Not strictly true - if the ball hits the stumps but one or both bails are not dislodged, the batsmen is not out.

Happened last week, where a delivery glanced the off stump, but the bails stayed on top of the stumps, so the batsman was not out.

Mac's right about LBW - there are a lot of things to consider: where the ball pitches, whether the batsman was playing a shot, if the ball hit the bat before the pad, etc - often makes it difficult for the umpire.

(Although in the recent Test the Australian fast bowler Brett Lee bowled a beamer that hit our guy bang in line with middle and off stumps at just below knee height that the umpire gave as not out, which was one of the more perplexing decisions I have ever seen: he didn;t even have to assess whether the ball's bounce would take it further away from the stumps as it would have hit them on the full! Unfortunately it didn;t make any difference as we got whupped within four days anyway, even with most of the fourth day being washed out!)

[AlexB]

I don;t like this game anymore

I've moved up the County level, and playing Australia decide to put them into bat. 2 dyas later they're 460+ for 3, Hayden not out for 250+ and he and Lehman are in the Aussies 2nd 200+ partnership! When I got Langer out and the score was 5-1, and then Ponting at 50-2, it was all good - already it's just a case of trying to prevent them from scoring (at least I have kept them to below 3 an over), and hope the AI wont declare at the right time, or just block everything for 2+ days myself.

Fair to say I'm getting a good old fashioned kicking!