80s "Fantasy" Test League - battle of the all rounders: contains video of best AI ball of all time

blockerdave

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The 80s is known as the era of the great all rounders - Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee all in their pomp.

It might be less well known that here were two other fantastic all rounders in the 80s that never played a single test match. Clive Rice was prevented from playing tests due to South Africa's isolation, and Franklyn Stephenson was banned from the West Indies due to his participation on the West Indies Rebel tours to South Africa in 1982/83 and 1983/84. Rice scored 26,331 first class runs @ 40.95 as well as taking 930 wickets @ 22.49. Stephenson wasn't perhaps in the same class as the others as a batsman, but still scored 8,622 runs @ 27.99 (including 12 hundreds) and taking 792 wickets at 24.26. I believe had he had test cricket to aspire to, he'd have done even better. He remains the last man to score 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in a county championship season.

Thanks to great work from creators such as @Mouseydread and @gleeso73 and fabulous logos from @Llewelynf I've created a "Fantasy" test league using the 80s teams. It's Fantasy because in this alternative reality South Africa are included and this means Stephenson never goes on a rebel tour, never gets banned and miraculously the West Indies side of the early/mid 80s gets even better. (There's no question had he not banned he'd have been ahead of the likes of Eldine Baptiste and Milton Small).

Though they had no all rounders in the same class, I've put Australia and Sri Lanka in the league too, so that's all "8" test nations of the 80s (including South Africa).

Format is everyone plays each other home and away twice (so 4 round robins in total), in 80s test match format (96 overs a day, no bouncer limit, no reviews). Top 4 go into semi-finals. I've also created 3 umpires from each country that were active in the era, and I've lowered their lbw and edge judgement stats to spice things up...

Aim is to see not only who wins the league, but which all-rounder comes out on top.

Team lineups are pitched towards the early 80s - pre-86 really, when most of the all rounders were at their peak, though this is a little early for Stephenson. I'll "evolve" the lineups as the tournament progresses - i.e. switching out Lloyd for Richardson in the WI, Boycott for Broad/Fowler etc in England etc.

I'll be playing as the away team in every game. Obviously the format means 112 round robin matches alone, so I may not ever complete this, but what I do play I'll write up here.

Hope people enjoy!
 

blockerdave

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Match one was New Zealand (AI) vs West Indies (me).

Well, the least said about this the better. Garner helped West Indies reduce New Zealand to 118-6, before a battling stand of 88 between Coney and Smith. Finally a 10th wicket stand saw Coney (129*) and Boock (52) take New Zealand from a par 233-9 to a challenging 354 all out.

WI crumbled twice - Rowe (45) was the only resistance first inns as WI just failed to avoid the follow on, 153 all out. Following on, only Viv Richards (63) showed fight, as 175 all out meant New Zealand won emphatically by an inns and 26 runs.

From the all rounder perspective, Hadlee got a first ball duck and had match figures of 5/97 whereas Stephenson scored 21 runs and took 2/115. Neither setting the world alight but Hadlee definitely had the edge as his 4/48 in the second inns did a lot of damage to the top order.
 

Mouseydread

Associate Captain
Joined
Apr 4, 2017
The 80s is known as the era of the great all rounders - Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee all in their pomp.

It might be less well known that here were two other fantastic all rounders in the 80s that never played a single test match. Clive Rice was prevented from playing tests due to South Africa's isolation, and Franklyn Stephenson was banned from the West Indies due to his participation on the West Indies Rebel tours to South Africa in 1982/83 and 1983/84. Rice scored 26,331 first class runs @ 40.95 as well as taking 930 wickets @ 22.49. Stephenson wasn't perhaps in the same class as the others as a batsman, but still scored 8,622 runs @ 27.99 (including 12 hundreds) and taking 792 wickets at 24.26. I believe had he had test cricket to aspire to, he'd have done even better. He remains the last man to score 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in a county championship season.

Thanks to great work from creators such as @Mouseydread and @gleeso73 and fabulous logos from @Llewelynf I've created a "Fantasy" test league using the 80s teams. It's Fantasy because in this alternative reality South Africa are included and this means Stephenson never goes on a rebel tour, never gets banned and miraculously the West Indies side of the early/mid 80s gets even better. (There's no question had he not banned he'd have been ahead of the likes of Eldine Baptiste and Milton Small).

Though they had no all rounders in the same class, I've put Australia and Sri Lanka in the league too, so that's all "8" test nations of the 80s (including South Africa).

Format is everyone plays each other home and away twice (so 4 round robins in total), in 80s test match format (96 overs a day, no bouncer limit, no reviews). Top 4 go into semi-finals. I've also created 3 umpires from each country that were active in the era, and I've lowered their lbw and edge judgement stats to spice things up...

Aim is to see not only who wins the league, but which all-rounder comes out on top.

Team lineups are pitched towards the early 80s - pre-86 really, when most of the all rounders were at their peak, though this is a little early for Stephenson. I'll "evolve" the lineups as the tournament progresses - i.e. switching out Lloyd for Richardson in the WI, Boycott for Broad/Fowler etc in England etc.

I'll be playing as the away team in every game. Obviously the format means 112 round robin matches alone, so I may not ever complete this, but what I do play I'll write up here.

Hope people enjoy!


Great stuff! Closer to the vision I have...take a wild guess??
 

blockerdave

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Match 2 saw South Africa travel to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka are the new boys of test cricket, whereas South Africa have not played a test since the legendary series of 1970...

South Africa win the toss and bat first, but only reach a disappointing 267 all out in just 57 overs. Although this league is supposed to be about the all rounders of the 80s, it's a legendary all rounder of the 70s, Springbok skipper Mike Procter, who top scores with 52, although Clive Rice just misses out on a 50 as he went for 47. Leg spinner Somachandra De Silva led the way with the ball taking 5/83.

Sri Lanka take a commanding lead of 152 on 1st inns, as a brilliant 117 from Ranjan Madugalle leads them to 419 all out. 40 from De Silva and an agonising 99 from Ravi Ratnayeke not only helped Madugalle see Sri Lanka out of trouble from 164/6 but also indicated that Sri Lanka may have some all rounders worth noticing too. Procter's 4/103 and Rice's 2/56 illustrated their all round credentials too.

Sri Lanka looked set for victory as South Africa lost 4 wickets without wiping out the deficit, and a 5th when they were only 35 ahead. But South Africa's long batting line up pulled them out of the fire - only the two legends Richards (7) and Pollock (2) didn't pass 20, and Cook (72), Rice (63), Kourie (66) and Le Roux (67*) all brought up half centuries. A huge total of 470 meant the Springboks had 318 to defend.

It always looked like being enough, with 3 wickets apiece for Hobson and Procter and a brace each for Rice and Kourie seeing South Africa home by 49 runs, with Ranusinghe's 53 the highlight for Sri Lanka.

A gripping affair sets the competition alight after New Zealand's procession in the first match.

From the all round perspective, Procter scored 79 and took 7/150, and Rice scored 110 and took 4/97.
 

blockerdave

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Are you using custom sliders? If you are can you hoy some screens up? I never get the AI making 400+

I think I’ve just got legend AI with timing and run rate increased a bit, and wicket chance reduced.

Bowling is hardest with spin difficulty reduced a very little

Physics default with spin Revs increased by 5

There is a definite possibility I’m quite shit.
 

Ed Smith

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See I changed the sliders but the base is still east or medium I think. No idea if that's having an impact. Tbf I do so much editing I've not played a game for ages
 

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