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Posted: This thread is for all you people out there that think you know a think or twelve about cricket. Explain this "sport" to us unlearned Americans.
Some Jarhead last night: "this dumb a$$ thinks hes fireproof"
RoziSILVER Member 100 characters max... 2,996 posts Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Posted: I have never understood it, and am determined not to. I am a pom living in Australia, and if I start to understand cricket I will have to support the UK, who are always getting beaten by the Aussies. And I will be permanently devastated
It was a day for screaming at inanimate objects.
What this calls for is a special mix of psychology and extreme violence...
as i undestand it, one guy stands opposite another guy and pegs an ultra hard ball at the other guys nads, and the other guy tries to fend it off with a block of willow tree...
Keep your dream alive Dreamin is still how the strong survive
Shalom VeAhavah
New Hampshire has a point....
RoziSILVER Member 100 characters max... 2,996 posts Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Posted: This is all you need to know, club cricket is a lot more fun to watch than the proper matches. The reason is that your local team probably plays in cricket whites. These are see-through and make a perfect perving opportunity for any interested party.
It was a day for screaming at inanimate objects.
What this calls for is a special mix of psychology and extreme violence...
It's quite saucy too, men in slips and in the covers and trying to bowl a maiden over...
AdeSILVER Member Are we there yet? 1,897 posts Location: australia
Posted: I'm a cricket umpire - so probably the worst person in the world to explain the rules
The only thing that you need to remember about the 5 day test matches (the purists form of cricket) is:
cricket's not just a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that
Hope that doesn't help ray
DomBRONZE Member Carpal \'Tunnel 3,009 posts Location: Bristol, UK
Posted: Cricket is an excuse for people to stand around in the sun for days on end without doing too much running about and getting all hot and bothered, while spectators sit about drinking Pimms and G&Ts and chatting about the vicar's tea party. Every now and again they'll clap politley and say things like "Jolly Good" and "Well done that man". Perfectly simple really.
Posted: Ahh the British have drunkin cricket and us Americans have drunkin bowling. The sad part is, is that I know guys who get better as the night goes on!!
Some Jarhead last night: "this dumb a$$ thinks hes fireproof"
Bender_the_OffenderGOLD Member still can't believe it's not butter 6,978 posts Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: imagine John Howard v Jacky Chan in a bout of drunken boxing!
Posted: It's 1.00 in the morning, I can't sleep and have completely lost my voice 2 days before a job interview and 3 days before I'm meant to be heading to Glastonbury festival... I just have to have a stab at answering this question while drinking my tea, lemon and honey in a vain attempt to get my voice back... sorry for inflicting my insomnia on you this way!
Firstly, Test cricket is immensely tactical. It is played over 5 days, and the tactics take place on a match level as well as on a player level.
Firstly, the captains of the two teams (there are 11 players on a team) toss a coin. The winner of 'the toss' chooses whether to bat or bowl first. Here is the first instance of match tactics. The decision depends on the weather forecast for the first five days, the condition of the batting pitch and how it is likely to change over the next 5 days, and on the strengths of the opposing team. There are three results in cricket, winning, losing and 'drawing' (a stalemate). The fourth result, a tie, has only happened twice in the entire history of test cricket.
Lets say that Team A choose to bat first. Their first two batters stand at the 'wicket', an area near the stumps (upright bits of wood, with horizontal wooden 'bails' on top) at opposite ends of the crease, and the bowler bowls the ball at them. The batters are trying to hit the ball, in which case they will run to the opposite wicket, scoring 'runs' (nothing to do with Delhi belly, though!) while the bowler is trying to hit the bails off the stumps, in which case the batter is 'bowled out', or is trying to force the batter to mishit the ball into a fielders hands ('caught out'). If the ball _would_ have hit the stumps but the batter's leg got in the way, then the batter is also out ('leg before wicket', lbw). A batter is also out if the ball takes the bails off the stumps while the batter is away from their wicket - whether running between the wickets (run out), or because the catcher (wicket keeper) (or very rarely, the bowler) sees the batter has strayed out of their wicket and has knocked the bails off (stumped). Other ways of being out are if the batter accidentally hits their own wicket (hit wicket) or if they handle the ball or hit the ball twice, but that hardly ever happens at international levels.
Got that?? Good!
The bowler bowls six 'balls' at the batters (an 'over'), and then another bowler bowls another 'over' from the other end of the pitch. Here is where the player level tactics come in. The bowlers bowl in such a way as to try and force the batter to make a mistake so that they get out. The captain and the bowler work together to place the fielders in positions which maximise the chances of getting a particular bowler out, and the two bowlers work together to try and get the batters out also, often over a period of several overs or even longer. Watching a top class bowlers and top class batters playing each other has all the subtlety and nuances of a fencing duel.
When a batter is out, the next batter comes out to face the bowlers. The game continues until 10 of the 11 batters are out, so that the last batter runs out of partners (the 'innings' has ended). The best batters bat first, leaving the poorer batters, usually the specialist bowlers, to make up the 'tail end'. Towards the end of the 'innings' you may have one good batter and one poor batter playing together, in which case the better batter tries to 'farm the strike' (I think that's the phrase) and protect the poorer batter from facing the bowlers. Watching great bowlers against the 'tail end' is often a bit like watching sharks circling around an injured whale.
Then the teams swap and Team B has it's first innings. Then the teams swap again and Team A has it's second innings, and then after Team A is all out, then Team B has it's second innings - so 4 innings altogether.
It is towards the end of Team B's first innings, that match level tactics become important again. The captain of each team has the option to declare their innings closed at any point, which becomes important as the 5 day limit draws closer. For instance, if Team A have done quite well, scoring perhaps 150 runs more than Team B in the first innings, then the captain of team A must balance the number of runs they feel they will need to bowl the other team out before they reach Team A's total (in which case Team A will win), against the possibility that they will run out of time, and the match will end in a draw.
Team B, in this situation, needs to decide whether they will bat aggressively in their second innings in a 'run chase' to try and better Team A's score, or whether they should play defensively and try to bring the match to a draw at the end of the 5th day. Obviously in different situations different tactics will be needed, but it would be far to complicated to try and explain, so I won't!
This is also how you end up with those funny winning margins. It is only occassionally that a test will be one by a specific number of runs, (the number of runs a batting team were short of the fielding team's total when they were bowled out). A test can also be won by a certain number of wickets (the number of wickets a batting team had left when they bettered the fielding team's total, or it may be by an entire innings + x no of runs - one of the teams only batted once but bowled the other team out twice before they reached the total.
So there you go. The real interest in test cricket lies in the tactics. There are also all the statistics, the great players and personalities, but I'm sure they all happen in baseball too. I know nada about baseball, but I don't think it has the same level of tactics that a test match has - it would be hard, given the different duration of the two games.
The other variety of cricket is the one day game. This is much less tactical - each team only gets to bat once, and they only have 50 overs in which to amass a total and defend it. The one day game is much faster, much more of a run-feast (which makes for exciting cricket), and is much more spectator friendly (played under lights, for instance), but generally players and cricket connoisuers (sp??) prefer the longer game because it has so much more depth.
Well, tea is all finished, I hope this makes sense (it probably won't, but hey, it IS cricket we're talking about!) and I sure hope I get my voice back soon! I think I'm forgetting how to talk!!
Posted: I am going to be honest and say I only read the first five paragraphs and once again I say NO MORE DRUGS FOR ENGLAND YALL ARE F$#% UP ENOUGH!!
Some Jarhead last night: "this dumb a$$ thinks hes fireproof"
AdeSILVER Member Are we there yet? 1,897 posts Location: australia
Posted: Nice explanation sepa.
Did you know there are 10 ways of getting out in cricket? 1. bowled 2. caught 3. lbw 4. stumped 5. hit wicket 6. handled the ball 7. run out 8. obstructing the field 9. hit the ball twice 10. timed out
The only other things I'd add to your explanation is that there are over 300 variations on the playing conditions/rules and that an over is 6 'legal' deliveries (unless there's a limit on the number of balls bowled in an over due to a local playing condition - e.g., 4th graders generally have to bowl 6 legal deliveries, or 9 balls - which ever occurs first).
Oh yeah, and you have to have lots of tea
Roll on summer, roll on
RoziSILVER Member 100 characters max... 2,996 posts Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Posted: *cowers under blanket in fear of coming cricket season*
It was a day for screaming at inanimate objects.
What this calls for is a special mix of psychology and extreme violence...
sarah...member 339 posts Location: Central coast / Sydney, Australia
Posted:
quote:Originally posted by Dom: while spectators sit about drinking Pimms and G&Ts and chatting about the vicar's tea party. Every now and again they'll clap politley and say things like "Jolly Good" and "Well done that man".
*Sigh* you are truly all so uneducated in the politicas of cricket. It is a strict booner sport, and it is mandatory for atleast 4/5 of the crowd at a one dayer match to be pissed off ther face and more than half naked. Any Aussie will know that! It involves intense sessions of mindless cowardly chiors, body painting, dancing like an imbicile, wearing the austalian flag in the most creative way possible, and thats just the crowd!! The players.. well, thats a different chapeer alltogether i hope one day youll all see the light
[ 26 June 2002, 00:16: Message edited by: sarah... ]
Fire... A bushmans telly
splerphBRONZE Member member 75 posts Location: Perth Australia
Posted: Agrees totally with Sarah you guys have all missed the point. Cricket is not a game to be watched. its the drunken spectators sport thats to be watched. Esp the Boxing day game.
Smile and the whole world smiles with you
UCOFSILVER Member 15,417 posts Location: South Wales
Posted: Wow.... what an old school thread. About cricket!
Who'da thunk it?
CantusSILVER Member Tantamount to fatuity 15,966 posts Location: Down the road, United Kingdom
Posted: Is Mr Phule actually fireproof? It was never established.
Meh
RoziSILVER Member 100 characters max... 2,996 posts Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Posted: I think an attempt was once made to test the theory with lighter and a can of fly-spray. The results were inconclusive.
It was a day for screaming at inanimate objects.
What this calls for is a special mix of psychology and extreme violence...
Helz BellzSILVER Member lovin' it... 2,444 posts Location: Bristol!, United Kingdom
Posted:
Live well, love much, laugh often...
Official O.B.E.S.E. cheerleader
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