The Lowdown.

I've been playing this game for a while and this is the first time I've finished as high as fifteenth. You can do your due diligence on players, look at the match schedule and firm up a strategy, but it can all go wrong if the players you pick don't deliver. The Trump Player adds another element to the game.

If you want me to share some basic points, here they are:

1.Pick batsmen who bat in the top order. Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Tim Paine, Jacques Kallis, Jesse Ryder are good picks.

2.Pick wicket-taking bowlers, bowling in the slog overs is an added bonus. Wayne Parnell, Brett Lee, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Ashish Nehra are good picks.

3.Pick bowlers who can bowl and vice-versa. Paul Collingwood, Reolof van der Merwe, Jacques Kallis, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Daniel Vettori are likely to get you batting as well as bowling points.

4.Look for smart picks. There were quite a few in the Champions Trophy. Tim Paine, Grant Elliott, Eoin Morgan, Ashish Nehra to name a few. Graeme Smith at 95k was also a smart pick.

5.Use your subs to maximize the number of active players. India weren't going to play their first game until South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies had played two each. So it made sense to not have an Indian in the side until their first game. Also, South Africa and Sri Lanka were to finish their group matches while India, England, New Zealand and Australia had two games remaining. Naturally, you bring in players from these sides once the Proteas and Lankans were done.

6.Hope your players deliver and don't get injured or dropped.

By Mahek
a.k.a The Chocolate Cream Soldier is the winner of the Bored Game Fantasy cricket challenge at Bored Cricket Crazy Indians a.k.a BCC!

He blogs at Confessions of a forced spectator a.k.a http://hundredpercentbarcelonista.blogspot.com/