Game arrived yesterday and dove straight into the Ashes as England - Pro, Medium, Medium (yes, I'm shit).
Won what looked a crucial toss on a hard but crumbly pitch threatening turn later in the game. But a combination of early swing and possibly some rustiness on my part having not played DBC 17 in months left any advantage in tatters.
Cook edged behind to a beaut third ball, then the first ball of the next over saw Stoneman run out in farcical fashion to leave England 0/2. Possibly a rush of blood on his Ashes debut saw Rocky set off for a single that was never on after clipping the ball to square leg. With his aghast captain at the other end sending him back Stoneman was always going to be short of his ground.
Bairstow, promoted to 4 and with the freedom to concentrate on his batting with Foakes given the gloves played a couple of gorgeous drives before wafting at a wide one and edging behind. At 18/3 England were staring down the barrel as Starc and Hazelwood steamed in with their tails up.
Hales joined the fray and played briskly but smartly, using his power to find the boundary rope with some sweetly timed punches before misjudging a leave to Nathan Lyon's second ball and seeing the delivery just turn enough to clip the top of off and send Hales back to the pavilion for a well made 38. Not so nice, Gary.
At this point Root had been playing a different game to his teammates and finally found a partner to match his application in Moeen. Both played cautiously to Lyon and, with any swing long gone and a pitch largely devoid of demons were able to gradually unfurl some more extravagant strokes and rebuild England's innings. By tea England were approaching 200 with still just 4 wickets down and the prospect of posting a competitive total back on the cards.
Can't stress how enjoyable that was even with me getting myself in a hole early on. The new animations and range of strokes make the game so immersive and the AI feels more involved in the game than in previous versions. At one point they moved cover squarer to counter my scoring areas and it felt easier to adjust my shots and drive through the newly created gap between him and mid off. Never felt I had such precise control in 14 or 17.
Already looking forward to continuing the innings rebuilding effort after work - a few quick wickets and I'll be up against it on a good batting track judging by the way things have gone for Wealy and blocker Dave!
It's hard to explain until you play it but this really feels like a test match, and just like cricket in a way no computer game I've played has done before.
*EDIT* The Starc lbw wicket was an inswinging Yorker that landed on Ballance's toe... Just amazing
