Hitting it for six
The matches themselves flow at a tempo that prevents you from ever becoming too bored, but that doesn't mean you can slog the ball left, right and centre notching up more runs than Mr. Lara himself, because at the same time there’s still enough depth to the gameplay; ultimately meaning that a mixture of strategy and skill will still win the day.
First off I'’ll talk about batting. Aiming is fairly straight forward and accomplished by using the thumb stick to point in the direction you want the ball to go. Aiming is helped greatly by the on screen radar which highlights the direction the ball is heading and shows you fielding positions so you can adjust your path in order to bypass them and score a boundary. Of course, it’s not that straightforward. The path you choose for the ball still depends on the bowlers pitch, so for example, if you planned to hit the ball mid-wicket, but the ball is pitched at an angle that doesn’t allow for such a shot, you may have to change your mind at the last second and hit the ball towards cover or past third man. For a second there I think I almost sounded like I know what I’m talking about but the truth is I’m sitting here with a diagram of fielding positions, so for those of you who know as little as I do about cricket, I’m just saying trying to say that you may have to change the direction of your hit.
Click for larger imageAt the crease there are three standard shots that you can use, the defensive shot, the ground stoke or a powerful slog (the one you’ll use to score all of those sixes!). To help you time your shot to perfection there’s a timing metre and if you hit the sweet spot at right time it means that you’ll hit a perfectly struck shot, miss-judge it however and you’ll fluff the shot or miss completely.
Click for larger imageStrangely, the metre is more of a hindrance than a help as it’s difficult to keep one eye on it and your batsman at the same time, which sort of defeats the point of it even being there. Rather than watch the meter it seems far easier to watch your batsman and time your shot based on the bowler’s pitch. In addition to the standard shots there are also two sweep shot, both of which are easy and effective to use and are ideal if the bowler has pitched a short ball.
