A name, and a month in the nets

The game is called Stumped: Ultimate Cricket 27. Each edition runs September to August, and your My Career player carries over.

Batting

• Short balls get up: six metres short reaches the stumps' top, ten the chest, eleven the helmet.
• Shots answer the ball's height and length. Drive a short ball and the game tells you.
• No special-shot button. Any batter may play a scoop, ramp, reverse sweep or helicopter when the ball invites it, as well as his rating for that shot allows. Journeys and Pathways raise those ratings.

Grounds

• Four to six separate stands per ground, in different heights and styles, with grass banks and trees at the smaller ones.

Smaller fixes

• Normal's timing window is wider. The old Normal is the new Hard.
• Stats and rewards count only for finished matches.
• Result-screen buttons wait a moment, so a stray tap can't restart a match.

Next: touch controls, then testing on more phones before the stores.

Sφnny