2007 World Championship HARD mode in WI

[crick4life]

I have chosen to play for all the countries. One welcome addition in C2K4 is you can select to play for all the countries and choose only to play for whatever country when the match screen comes up.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN WEST INDIES
Patch : AI patch 3.0 with batting update as well

1st game: South Africa V/S England

SA - CPU
England - User
Pitch - HARD
Weather - Hot with no clouds in sight.
Toss: England won the toss and decided to bat.

England started in good fashion with scoring around 4-5 runs an over in the first five overs without losing a wicket. Vaughan was looking in fine touch with nicely timed shots all over the ground. When the ball was pitched up anywhere outside the off or pitching middle and swinging towards leg Vaughan took full toll of the bowlers creaming them for two sixes one over cover and the other over long on. Freddi unfortunately was the other opener with the default team setup. Freddi couldn?t hold for long and tried a big heave over long to get caught at mid off. Graham Thorpe was the next to come in and then started building good partnership in the company of Vaughan. Runs were coming at good pace and Vaughan reached his fifty in only 38 balls with shots all around the ground. Thrope was looking well set too; the Saffie bowlers had no answer to England's brisk running and punishing bad balls. Thrope made good use of shots over the infield when the ball was pitched up nicely. Just when things were going very well rush of blood cause Thrope to whole one at mid on for well made 34. While Vaughan continued his onslaught the other batsmen came and left with not much contribution. Hussein scratched around a bit for 17, Butcher scored quick 14 while others made minimal contribution at one stage England were 189/3 off 34 overs but in the end succumbed to 255 all out off 46 overs. It was a shame Vaughan couldn?t take much strike later in the inning with some dodgy reckless batting by the lower order. The batting is simply not that easy for the lower order and the tail enders still I should have let Vaughan take most of the strike. Paul Adams was the best bowler for Saffies with the figures of 8-1-16-4. I have this terrible weakness against the spinners in this game neither can I play them for singles nor can I blast them for fours and sixes. Need to sort this out but for now to bowl the SA out quickly.

The England scorecard is attached :

 

[crick4life]

England batting stats

 

[crick4life]

England inning manhattan, SA bowling and England partnerships.

 

[crick4life]

Vaughan's spider and wagon wheel.

 

[squiz]

Good first innings mate, also dont feel bad you cant play the spinners, neither can I, also very realistic batting card. Good Job. And wouldn't playing as every team take a long time?

 

[joedoe21]

Wow that's such a realistic innings! I have just started playing a few friendly's on hard and am finding batting very hard, especially playing yorkers.... any tips?

Also I like the way you've shown the pictures with lots of info on one shot. If I had the PC version I would do that, but the pictures don't come out clear from the PS2.

Good luck with your bowling! Seems like a great match, hope it's close!

 

[killa_stiky2002]

VERY realistic. Even a classic England collapse

Anyway, were any gameplay patches applied?

 

[crick4life]

Originally posted by squiz
Good first innings mate, also dont feel bad you cant play the spinners, neither can I, also very realistic batting card. Good Job. And wouldn't playing as every team take a long time?

I cant understand why the spinners are so over talented in this game. Maybe a little fix here and there wil help. Imagine playing India in India with 3-4 spinners in thier line up will be a debacle.

It might take quite a long time to play all the games in a world cup but its well worth it. There is this satisfaction to play for underdogs and somehow win.

 

[crick4life]

Originally posted by joedoe21
Wow that's such a realistic innings! I have just started playing a few friendly's on hard and am finding batting very hard, especially playing yorkers.... any tips?

Also I like the way you've shown the pictures with lots of info on one shot. If I had the PC version I would do that, but the pictures don't come out clear from the PS2.

Good luck with your bowling! Seems like a great match, hope it's close!

Cheers mate, SA are struggling on 89/3 off 25 overs. Looks like England will take the honours in the first game although you never know. :

Is there anyway you can take pictures off the PS2 at all. There is so much being done in PS2 market, why cant they introduce screen capture straight into the memory card?

 

[crick4life]

Originally posted by killa_stiky2002
VERY realistic. Even a classic England collapse

Anyway, were any gameplay patches applied?

LOL Killa.

Yep, gameplay patch ver 3.0 with batting update.

 

[squiz]

i think there is a screenshot taker for PS2, but i think its pretty costly

 

[crick4life]

Getting back to the first game, the Saffies went down against the England very tamely. They hardly looked to win the game right from the start. Foolish running got Kallis back into pavillion in the very first over of England's inning. Graeme Smith holed one to mid on trying to hit over the infield off Harmison. Harmison was a bit wayward but Caddick was just sensational. Although not so quick as Harmison, Caddick bowled so well SA batters were swinging their bat and missing twice every over off Caddick's overs. Harmison was not bad but at times bowled few down the leg but overall a very good first spell from the openers. Gibbs & Kirsten treid to steady the ship with a painstaking 70 runs partnership probably coming off 20 overs but that didnt matter in the end. After having seen every bowler chip in, Vaughan was brought in rightly so and with the hundred he scored in the first inning the bowling form seemed to fall in place right away. Vaughan was the most successful of the England bowlers to return with an impressive figures of 7-1-24-3. He was then awarded MOM deservedley. Ntini scored an unbeaten 22* with some lusty blows including a six off Vaughan to add some sanity to the Saffies scorecard.

High points : Chris Read's wicket keeping was a revelation. There was only one byes conceded off Vaughan when the ball drifted down the leg. Read took an excellent catch off the inside edge of the bat off Caddick flying a mile away towards the left of the WK. Also a diving catch in front of first slip was a brilliant effort too.

The batting was excellent in patches from England although at times should have gone on to build good parterships. Bowling was simply at its best with all types of bowlers bowling good line and length stuff. Overall a very good win and who knows whats in store the next game. The next game is NZ v/s SL at Port of Spain.

 

[crick4life]

SA batting card

 

[crick4life]

England bowling card

 

[squiz]

Nice win, and i liked your Match Report very in detail.