How Is Your CC19 Game Going?

[bryce87]

Some of us just want to share bits of our game rather than write a whole story. Or maybe there are special achievements or players, or something odd in your game that you would like to share. Share whatever you like in here!

[Sureshot]

I've started a save with Glamorgan and have been trying to make them a bit better. In to season 3 now, it's going okay, I'm now more middle team than struggling to win anything.

It's a good challenge.

[bryce87]

I have just finished my third season with Worcestershire, in which I completed the treble. I have enjoyed using this team. Here is a breakdown of how I went in my seasons.

Season 1
FC: Second (Division 2)
OD: Winner
T20: Quarter-Final

My only additions for the contracts were the two young Irishmen, Balbirnie and McBrine, who I got on three year deals. Though both good contributors, in hindsight these are not great investments as it turns out that the Irish are away on international duty more often than not.

Calum Ferguson was my overseas player and led the run charts in all three formats. Pat Brown, Barnard and Joe Leach all took wickets consistently across all three formats. Tongue took over 75 wickets@25 in the FC comp, while Parnell topped the T20 wicket charts with 33 wickets. Fell & Wessels topped 1000 runs in the championship while wicketkeeper Cox's late order hitting in the T20s was extraordinary.

There were many highlights in the first season, including securing promotion to division one, but winning the one day cup was the one that stood out. Mitchell, Wessels and Ferguson were my top three and were very formidable, scoring six centuries between them. The bowling attack of Brown, Parnell, Leach, Barnard and McBrine/Ali was well balanced, took wickets and allowed us to bat deep.

Season 2
FC: Second
OD: Winner
T20: Group

For season two I felt like splurging out a bit so decided to test out the most expensive player on the market, 23 year old allrounder Delano Potgeiter. He was valued at over 100k, but I managed to get the price down to 86.5k. He went OK but was not quite the match winner that I had hoped for, although he did play large part in me defending the one day title. I signed two promising youth batsmen but something in the budget had to give and I ended up letting go of Leach, which was probably a poor move in hindsight.

Wessels, once again, was a batting lynchpin across all three formats although Mitchell was not the same presence at the top of the order as he had been the season before. Instead, the two youth batsmen, who were both one day openers, both played fantastically well insomuch that by the end of the season each had represented England in one format or another. Tongue was not quite the same force with the ball as he had been in division two, likewise with Brown and Barnard who both averaged over 40 with the ball in the championship, although these two were both incredible in the limited overs competitions.

Partway through the season 21 year old Dillon Pennington, who had largely done nothing in the career to date, announced himself with a match haul of 14/207 against Surrey which included 8/79 in the first innings. He would end the season with 59 wickets@24 from nine matches and carried our bowling unit. We fought hard, including winning two consecutive matches by margins of less than ten runs, and led the championship by a mere four points going into the final round. However we were overtaken by a powerful Yorkshire unit and had to settle for second place. Prior to that Tongue shocked everyone by taking an outlandish 8/17 in our final dead-rubber T20 match.

Season 3
FC: Winner
OD: Winner
T20: Winner

Not a whole lot changed for this season as we chose to keep faith in our young squad. For our overseas player we decided to go down the seasoned pro route, and were short on long-form openers, so went for Aaron Finch. He, like Calum Ferguson before him, scored over 1000 runs in the championship and over 700 in the one day competition (including four centuries) which led us to the three-peat. Glen Maxwell provided able support in the T20s which also helped us to that title.

Unfortunately, the championship bowling got even worse. The season bowling averages of Brown (51), Tongue (44) and Pennington (38) were cause for concern. Barnard stepped up this year however, with 78 wickets@25 and Ryan Higgins (24 wickets@33) was as close to an ally as he got. Somehow though we led the championship once again going into the last round, this time with an eight point lead over Yorkshire. We would not be denied this time and clinched division one! Moeen Ali smacked 900 runs in 11 championship games although his bowling was poor, and had been for this entire career. New recruit Will Jacks also hit a couple of championship centuries including 200* to mark his Worcs debut. One of our young batsmen was away on England duty most of the time, while the other scored over 1200 championship runs.

Our two young batsmen also formed a strong top three in the limited overs sides, along with Finch, which enabled us to get off to great starts with the bat. Ryan Higgins enjoyed the cloudy season and took a barely believable 31 wickets@9 in the T20s, often opening the bowling and bowling right through in very cloudy conditions. Barnard and Brown again showed prowess in the limited overs fixtures, while the futures of my primarily longer forms bowlers Tongue and Pennington remain up in the air.

My squad for the fourth season is now almost unrecognizable from the one that started. Among youth players, new recruits include Babar Azam, Miles Hammond, Phillip Salt, Grant Stewart and Ravi Patel.

[bryce87]

I've started a save with Glamorgan and have been trying to make them a bit better. In to season 3 now, it's going okay, I'm now more middle team than struggling to win anything.

It's a good challenge.

Wow yes Glamorgan do look like a challenge. Who are your key players, and what overseas players have you tried?

[Sureshot]

bryce87

Colin Ingram has been a star with the bat, feel he's close to retiring now. Now in to 2022.

Kiran Carlson has a knack of big hundreds, but doesn't score much outside of that. Chris Cooke, Billy Root, Craig Meschede and Marchant de Lange are still in my squad. Marchant is good, the rest are more fringe players, though Meschede is dependable as back-up, especially in short formats.

As for overseas players, Handscomb has been solid, I've dumped him this season for Hazratullah from Afghanistan.

A lot of signings have come in. I've got Jennings and Newton opening the batting. Pope is my keeper. Sam Curran and Chris Woakes are in as the all-rounders. Just signed Jamie Overton.

Trying out a lot of regens. Realistically, I've got a chance at promotion in the Championship if I do well.

Finding spinners is tough! Did have Ravi Patel, I've let him go as he was erratic, might regret that as he could take loads of wickets, but would then do nothing for a month. But always like to move players about when results are iffy.

[bryce87]

Have you had any problems bowling to very aggressive batsmen on CC19, compared with CC18? I find the likes of Weighell and Willey consistently slay my bowlers, even when I drop down an aggression to them. On CC18 I would usually to drop down an aggression to them early in their innings and that would nullify them, but not anymore!

[estmsm]

I am playing with Pakistan. M Rizwan is my captain. He is leading well so far. I am into 2023 already. Just lost the 2023 WC final to India. But will be playing the Test championship final soon against India, hence a chance for redemption, lol.

The game engine is more modern and realistic kind of, which is good to see. But if only it had an editor.........

[estmsm]

Have you had any problems bowling to very aggressive batsmen on CC19, compared with CC18? I find the likes of Weighell and Willey consistently slay my bowlers, even when I drop down an aggression to them. On CC18 I would usually to drop down an aggression to them early in their innings and that would nullify them, but not anymore!

Once. I had scored 360 or so in an ODI against England. Buttler scored a match winning hundred, and chased it down, lol. That was a brutal knock. I got him out eventually, but the damage was already done.

[bryce87]

I am playing with Pakistan. M Rizwan is my captain. He is leading well so far. I am into 2023 already. Just lost the 2023 WC final to India. But will be playing the Test championship final soon against India, hence a chance for redemption, lol.

The game engine is more modern and realistic kind of, which is good to see. But if only it had an editor.........

Wow 2023, are you doing international only? Who are your best bowlers? How are Shadab, Amir, Shaheen and Hasnain? I know Shadab and Amir were amazing on CC18 so I interesting to hear how they go on CC19.

With the very aggressive batsman, I am having the problem getting them out in FC/Test matches. But it seems to work both ways. I bought P.Salt, a very aggressive batsman, as a reserve batsman in my county game. He finally got his first FC game for me and look what he done on only three bars of aggression, on an average wear pitch! So my advice for CC19 FC/Test matches is to use very aggressive batsman as they seem to perform much better than on CC18.

[bryce87]

Finding spinners is tough! Did have Ravi Patel, I've let him go as he was erratic, might regret that as he could take loads of wickets, but would then do nothing for a month. But always like to move players about when results are iffy.

I've found the same thing re the spinners. In past editions I have just got an overseas one, but my top order is not strong enough without an overseas player at the moment. That may change in my next season.

Having said that, as in real life, you seem to be able to get by in the county game alright without a decent one! Mind you so far Ravi has ten wickets@19 for me

[bryce87]

Just finished my fourth season. Defended the CC & OD cups but got bundled out in the T20 QF chasing a small total. Here are some highlights for the season:

P.Salt was unbelievable. He is like the David Warner of the county game, scoring run a ball hundreds. I brought him into the squad as a reserve batsman but he seized his chances and ended up playing ten CC matches - and topped our run charts! And check out that strikerate - you couldn't do this in CC18!


Pat Brown has really struggled for me in the longer form, but has been a genius in the short form. He sucked up a whopping 40 wickets in the T20 competition!


Sureshot, is Sam Curran going any good? He has not popped up on the contracts of my game yet, but think he comes off contract at his club next season. Ravi Patel had a decent year for me, but i'm happy with my batting depth now so have purchased Rashid Khan for this season. I have a battery of quality quicks so it will be interesting to see how they all go this year!

[estmsm]

Wow 2023, are you doing international only? Who are your best bowlers? How are Shadab, Amir, Shaheen and Hasnain? I know Shadab and Amir were amazing on CC18 so I interesting to hear how they go on CC19.

With the very aggressive batsman, I am having the problem getting them out in FC/Test matches. But it seems to work both ways. I bought P.Salt, a very aggressive batsman, as a reserve batsman in my county game. He finally got his first FC game for me and look what he done on only three bars of aggression, on an average wear pitch! So my advice for CC19 FC/Test matches is to use very aggressive batsman as they seem to perform much better than on CC18.

https://imgur.com/a/hQAGE89

https://imgur.com/a/hQAGE89

Yes, I only play international cricket. In the above link, you can see the stats of the players you have asked about (so far till 2023). Shadab has been terrific in Test cricket. Shaheen has been the real deal.

And you are absolutely right regarding Aggressive players (especially Very Aggressive), as I selected Azam Khan for a Test match (he is Very Aggressive), scored an above 100 S/R century on his debut, that was brutal.

[TomP]

Have you had any problems bowling to very aggressive batsmen on CC19, compared with CC18? I find the likes of Weighell and Willey consistently slay my bowlers, even when I drop down an aggression to them. On CC18 I would usually to drop down an aggression to them early in their innings and that would nullify them, but not anymore!

I mentioned this in another thread, very aggressive players are very difficult to control in CC2019 and tend to strike at 75+ even on 3 bars, I think this needs to be toned down a bit. Or perhaps a better solution is to have different aggression ratings for white ball and red ball as not all players take the same approach in both formats. For example Butler and Bairstow are obviously very aggressive ODI players with SR or 120 and 105 but have test SR's of 59 and 55, still quite fast but probably more aggressive that very aggressive?

[bryce87]

I mentioned this in another thread, very aggressive players are very difficult to control in CC2019 and tend to strike at 75+ even on 3 bars, I think this needs to be toned down a bit. Or perhaps a better solution is to have different aggression ratings for white ball and red ball as not all players take the same approach in both formats. For example Butler and Bairstow are obviously very aggressive ODI players with SR or 120 and 105 but have test SR's of 59 and 55, still quite fast but probably more aggressive that very aggressive?

Which thread? I thought I was the only one complaining about this. Very difficult to control is a perfect description.

The aggression levels in FC batting did need an increase from CC18. But the balance is off in CC19. I wish they had made an adjustment for very aggressive batsmen to have greater impact in T20s instead. In CC18 average and defensive aggression batsmen had the advantage in FC matches, which is how it should be.

[TomP]

In the 'are people still buying this every year' thread. I was highlighting that the game engine has changed a lot.