Spinner's slips

[Kalund Brasov]

Is there any point in having slips for a spinner? Recently I retired my fast bowler after 3-4 years of his career and I thought I would try a new career with an off spinner. He is now well-advanced into his first year but I've found a few issues with field placement. I must have sent down over a thousand deliveries but only a staggering TWO have gone into the slips--and both dropped! Also, while the keeper has stopped a few deliveries to have passed the bat, he has only taken 3 catches and 1 stumping. This seems ridiculous to me, does it improve with experience?
In the same vein, apart from maybe a guy at Square or at Deep Backward Square Leg (as well as keeper and one slip), I don't bother with any fielders behind the stumps as the batsmen rarely hit there. Is this right?

[Dr. Dee]

I play leg spin and do get edges that go to 2nd slip, wicket keeper and gully. I don't bother with gully as this is rare enough not to be worth placing someone there but always bowl with 2nd slip. Slip catches tend to go, of course, to righthanders more than lefties...but will probalby be the reverse for offspin...mind you I tend to bowl googlies to lefthanders and do get edges to the wicket keeper. As you say, however, these dismissals remain rare. I think it is generally more comon once you can get a bit of turn and the conditions are right. My banker fielding position is square leg for both right and left hand batsmen as the AI tends to sweep overpitched deliveries right to him. Point is useful for catching reverse sweeps also.

The one odd thing about slip fielders and spin is the position of the slip fielders once you get to 8th and 9th slip. They are actually in front of sqaure rather than behind...so I'm not sure they are technically in the slips...can be useful if you want someone at silly point or silly cover point.

[Kalund Brasov]

Originally posted by Dr. Dee:

I play leg spin and do get edges that go to 2nd slip, wicket keeper and gully. I don't bother with gully as this is rare enough not to be worth placing someone there but always bowl with 2nd slip. Slip catches tend to go, of course, to righthanders more than lefties...but will probalby be the reverse for offspin...mind you I tend to bowl googlies to lefthanders and do get edges to the wicket keeper. As you say, however, these dismissals remain rare. I think it is generally more comon once you can get a bit of turn and the conditions are right. My banker fielding position is square leg for both right and left hand batsmen as the AI tends to sweep overpitched deliveries right to him. Point is useful for catching reverse sweeps also.

The one odd thing about slip fielders and spin is the position of the slip fielders once you get to 8th and 9th slip. They are actually in front of sqaure rather than behind...so I'm not sure they are technically in the slips...can be useful if you want someone at silly point or silly cover point.

Interesting. Maybe it's just the way I set fields (very similar in both cases!) but both for quick and spin, mid on and off are my usual catchers. For spin I have also started putting a guy in front of the sight screen and he's taken a few...when they've not gone for six...
Also, after learning a lot with my quickie, I tend to only use a 2nd slip, no others. Unfortunately the buffoon standing there for my new bowler and new team has dropped the two chances that have come his way...mind you, he's probably asleep standing there waiting for the chances to come along...

[Dr. Dee]

This is my field setting for leg spin for all formats of the game (also works when bowling restirctions are in place):
Mid Off - catching position but stops a lot of runs
Straight Hit - Can take catches. Certainly did early in my career...rare now though. He still stops runs for anything very straight that is firmly hit
Mid Wicket - run stopperr but will also pick up catches from fluffed sweep shots
Square - covers lofted shots to leg. Catches quite a few and acts as sweeper on the on side boundary
Square Leg - catches lots...maybe 70% of wickets here...and stops grounded sweep strokes
Forward Point - catches reverse sweep shots and chases down shots square on the offside
2nd Slip - Better value than 1st or 3rd slip.
Extra Cover - stops drives and catches mistimed drives.
Deep Mid On - Catches a few and protects against straight drives

I find the above works really well against the AI by getting both wickets and restricting runs(I'd get demolished by a human player, I suspect, as there is little protection on the offside).

The one thing that is a bit annoying is that you don't have automatic control over buffoon placement. I want my best catcher at Square Leg but I have to manually assign which fielder gets assigned there sometimes because it is not always the best one. For instance, in my England test team Carberry is a genius in the field and drops nothing...but with the above field setting he is auto-assigned (since the latest patch) to mid-off...so I have to move him to Square Leg. If you have a fielder dropping stuff, try to swap him out for someone more reliable.

[Kalund Brasov]

Pretty similar to my off spinner (somehow wish I'd gone for my leggy...).
2nd S--a waste of a fielder as per this discussion? Contributed 2 drops in umpteen innings...
Mid On and Mid Off the two most successful catchers for spin and pace (I do sometimes wonder if the AI deliberately picks them out...)
Straight Hit--a few catches but usually watches it drop short or fly over the sightscreen!
Mid Wkt and Cover--general sweepers
Sq Leg--not too many catches. Often moved back to Sq or Deep Fwd Sq Leg when opposition is hammering on leg side. Stops boundaries (sometimes!) then.
Deep Fwd Mid Wkt (or Straight Off) and Deep Extra Cover (or Wide Off). Rarely take catches but act as sweepers and a bit (not much!) of help for Straight Hit. Another pair who regularly see the ball drop short of them (when it's not hurtling past...).

I wonder about the various default fields. Most spin (certainly attack) have clusters of men around the bat but do they really serve a purpose? Or will the AI pick them out for catches if you use them? I gave up on anyone behind the stumps when it was so rare that I was hit there.

I agree about buffoon placement, I've mentioned this in another thread but no-one's responded. As well as setting a custom field you ought to be able to specify your choice of fielder per position in advance. Early on in this career one guy at mid off was taking a bucketload of catches (OK...maybe that's an exaggeration...), it was becoming quite a partnership between him and the bowler. Then suddenly, and seemingly for nearly every innings thereafter, he's been moved to 2nd Slip. Yeah, that's right, the one whose only contribution has been those two drops! I've also seen several of my lumbering elephants (this is a custom team!) shifted out to the boundary to do all the running...

Just played a game since this post and experimented with swapping 2nd Slip for a Leg Slip (and a different fielder!). What do you know? A catch!!! At Leg Slip!!! Mind you, the batter was probably knackered by this time as he was only 219....

[jaffarhussain21]

Hi All,

I have playing my career mode with YORKSHIRE.

I have few CUSTOM created fields. I am a Off SPIN Bowler and Short Mid ON,Mid On,Forward Square ,Square Leg and Backward Square Leg are very important positions for me.

I want my best fielders to be here like ROOT, BALLANCE ,WILLIAMSON.

But to my utter shock i could see LYTH,SIDEBOTTOM fielding here,i am finding difficult to change for every spell i bowl.

I tried many permutations and combination but still i could not see my best fielders in these feild positions.Please help.

And also i tried to change in field attributes like AGILITY ,CATCHING in different ways under FIELD POSITIONS.

Also i tried by rotating players positions under field presets.

Please HELP...

[Dr. Dee]

One of the recent patches changed the way that players are allocated to fielding positions which does tend to put buffoons in key catching positions (square leg and slips...see Kalund's comments above). There is, as far as I know, no way round this. Even if you manually move players to your chosen fielding positons and press X for use for all, this can still get reset if you change bolwer or, in career mode, the bowler at the other end take s a wicket.

[Kalund Brasov]

Originally posted by Dr. Dee:

One of the recent patches changed the way that players are allocated to fielding positions which does tend to put buffoons in key catching positions (square leg and slips...see Kalund's comments above). There is, as far as I know, no way round this. Even if you manually move players to your chosen fielding positons and press X for use for all, this can still get reset if you change bolwer or, in career mode, the bowler at the other end take s a wicket.

It's actually worse than this now. I've found in the last few games that now and again the field resets itself for a new over, not just for a new batsman coming in.

For the last couple of games, as well as my Leg Slip, I've experimented with bringing my 2 boundary riders (not Straight Hit) right in to Silly Mid On and Off, thus making something similar to standard attacking spin fields. While the two do stop a lot of shots, and, by the same token, I do give up a fair few runs where they've moved from, not once has there been a hint of a catch for them or the LS. The keeper has taken one catch and one stumping in this time. It seems to prove my original point that close in fielders (and not just 2nd Slip, it seems) are a waste of time for spinners as almost no catches are forthcoming.

[Dr. Dee]

Yes, I tend to agree that close fielders aren't value for money. I have seen catches in close but they are too rare to justify putting a fielder there (though 2nd slip is useful...partly because I think he stops the batsman trying to run the ball down to 3rd Man). You just don't ge those classic bat-pad chances popping the ball up to short leg or silly mid-off.