(18-07-2019, 20:54)spireitematt Wrote: I understand where everybody is coming from. This is a tough, unpredictable league, we only have to look at the results of last season to see how anybody can beat anybody in this division and that form, league positions and doesn't matter how big a team is or used to be as that all goes out the window.
Biggest problem for us last season was we drew far too many games and we couldn't keep a lead in certain games and would just capitulate, we can't afford to do that this forthcoming season. Need to stay in the Top 7 to have any chance of winning this league or getting playoffs. The one problem with this division is there is no transfer window so we can sign players up until March but you can also lose players to other teams in the same division.
(18-07-2019, 15:58)Devongone Wrote: Bizarrely a couple of times in Matt's Predication Game last season I did stop playing to win and didn't do any worse, but in active sports and games you've got a guaranteed trier in me ...... if not an eternal optimist. To win when you've only got half a glass and your opponent's is full you've got to appraise what you've got realistically and make better use of it than him. The best player doesn't always win and as Boris Becker kept pointing out at Wimbledon "your opponent will make mistakes too." I used to bat alongside several glass half-full batsmen and they mostly seemed to end up back in the dressing-room before me bemoaning their ill-luck.
Did they slog the ball to try and get 6 runs?
They "played their own game" which meant they tried to score quickly before they'd even got their eye in. Very occasionally it would come off and that would confirm it was the way to play. Once when faced with a near impossible target because of a difficult wicket our captain sent in all our optimistic, play-their-own- game men early and held himself and me back to try to pick up the pieces. We came together with the score on 16 for 6 in the sixth over (including one hit for six!). The captain lasted through 37 more overs and got a 50 and I remained not out on 30 I think at the end of our 46 overs (which got us points for a losing draw!)
What made it worse is we did have one brilliant attacking batsman, so several of the others imagined they could do the same thing. Strangely it was all the players who regularly threw away their own wicket who moaned when I "walked" when caught behind against the team we were battling it out with at the top of the league! I always "walked" and only once appealed when I didn't think a player was out ('cos I felt such a cheat when he was given LBW a full stride down the wicket).
