Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Cricket stuff, but I will provide a vague translation for the baseball folk here. Just today Jason Gillespie, who ordinarily bats at number 8 in the order (think pitcher) just scored 201* (think hitting 4 HR in a match). Absolutley marvellous effort really.
Story here

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

I have a ton of his rookie cards, I hope this is the break out game he needed.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

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I have a ton of his rookie cards, I hope this is the break out game he needed.

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ROFL

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

I think they did a story about this on The Ocho.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

That article seems to be written in English.

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That article seems to be written in English.

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Every paragraph in that article has exactly one sentence.

Also, I wish I knew anything about cricket, so I could decode these babies:

"Bangladesh was batting for survival at tea on day four at 1-67 in its second innings, trailing by 317, with Brett Lee having already removed Javed Omar (19)."

"He joins Brad Hodge, Bob Simpson, Sid Barnes and Syd Gregory as the only Australians to pass 200 with their maiden Test centuries."

I mean, the dude passed 200 in his maiden Test century! WTF?!

Actually, if this feat is actually comparable to the OP's suggestion (pitcher w/4 HR in a game), this is freaking amazing. However, since 4 other guys have seemingly done what this guy did, I don't think it quite matches up. Still pretty cool though I guess.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

This does seem impressive, but I don't understand how the scoring works. It sounds like one guy bats a bunch of times in a row and gets points each bat (up to 6?) that add up to a total score. He stops when he makes an out? More than one out? What's an out - same as baseball? Is the number he scores (a "six") how many times he runs somewhere after he hits it, like back and forth to a base? Do cricket fans think baseball words are funny?

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

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Actually, if this feat is actually comparable to the OP's suggestion (pitcher w/4 HR in a game), this is freaking amazing. However, since 4 other guys have seemingly done what this guy did, I don't think it quite matches up.

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More than four people have hit four homers in a game.

I bet scores in the hundreds (centuries?) are relatively common (common enough that they keep track of how many a guy has in his career), but 200 is seen as out of reach.

Oh, I see now that that was 4 people to have 200 in their "maiden test" - maybe this is like scoring fifty in your first NBA game?

It also appears Bangladesh is the Royals of cricket.

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However, since 4 other guys have seemingly done what this guy did

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Those guys were all specialist batsmen (think outfielders), this guy is a specialist bowler (pitcher). Plus, this guys highest score in any form of cricket was a 90 in a grade cricket match, that's like having 5 HR in a year in an independent league and going and hitting 4 HR in a game in the majors.

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h, I see now that that was 4 people to have 200 in their "maiden test"

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No, "maiden test century" means first test century, so to use a baseball analogy, the first time a guy hit 2 home runs in a game, he hit 4.

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but I don't understand how the scoring works.

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OK, quick primer

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It sounds like one guy bats a bunch of times in a row

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close, it's 2 guys from opposite ends of the pitch (a rectangular bit of turf in the middle of an oval field), a run is scored when both batsmen reach the other end of the pitch. After every 6 balls (an over) a different bowler (pitcher) takes over from the other end.
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and gets points each bat (up to 6?) that add up to a total score.

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Pretty much, you score a 4 for hitting it past the boundary after the ball has hit the ground after it leaves your bat, you score 6 if it goes past the boundary on the full.
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He stops when he makes an out?

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Yup, one out
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What's an out - same as baseball?

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there are several ways you can get out
Bowled - behind you there's 3 stumps, if the ball from the pitcher hits that, you're out
caught - same as baseball
LBW - This one's kinda complex, i'll simplify it - if your leg is adjudged by the umpire to have blocked a ball that was going to hit the stumps and the ball hasn't hit your bat.
Run out - if you're running from one end of the pitch to the other, and the ball hits your stumps when thrown by a fielder.
There's also hit wicket (when your bat or body hits the stumps), handled the ball (when you well, grab the ball) hit ball twice (self-explanatory), timed out (the batsmen takes too long to get out there) and obstructing the field (when a batsman goes and intentionally stops a fielder from doing something) but these are very very rare and hardly bear talking about.

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Is the number he scores (a "six") how many times he runs somewhere after he hits it, like back and forth to a base?

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I explained that one.
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Do cricket fans think baseball words are funny?

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Yes, yes we do.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Ahh, I thought all the guys listed were bowlers. It would be less impressive if 4 other bowlers had done it, but if he's the only one then its pretty cool.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Cricket is awesome. I play whenever i go back to the native country. Unfortunately, I get pwned by 10 yr olds.

This achievement is quite impressive.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Thanks for the info. I agree, very impressive.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Just as an addition the * next to the 201 means it was 201 not out, the Australian team declared (which means they voluntarily ended their innings to force the other team to bat, since a test match is limited to 5 (8-hour) days and the winning team must either a) score more runs than the combined total of the other 2 teams innings in their 2 or b) bowl the other team out twice it made sense to declare to give our bowlers the chance to bowl bangladesh out)
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Bangladesh was batting for survival at tea on day four at 1-67 in its second innings, trailing by 317

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This means Bangladesh realise they have no real shot at winning the game, they've already lost 1 wicket (of 10) in their second innings (of 2) and still need to get 317 runs off their next 9 wickets, which would be an amazing feat. Instead, they will just try and bat out day 5...which is not looking likely, as by stumps (end of days play) they are 4/195 which means they still need 189 on their last 6 wickets (or not lose 6 wickets in the 90 overs that a day's play entails to force a draw), which again is unlikely, as teams tend to leave their specialist bowlers at the back of the order (most teams carry 4 specialist bowlers in their 11 man squads. There's also a very specialised fielding position, wicketkeeper (kind of like catcher) which run production from most is quite average). Why 11 players and only 10 wickets? Well, that's because you need 2 guys out there to bat, and if only one is left, it's innings over.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

When I was in Anguilla this winter, there were a lot of cricket games on some sport channel they had and I forced myself to derive the rules. Looking at the explanation posted here, I was pretty much right on. I love how excited everybody gets about an out.

Also, they showed some replay of somebody hitting a triple century. It was pretty cool.

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Is there actually "tea time" in cricket? Is that like the 7th inning stretch with a snack?

I almost thought I understood what was happening... then Smurf made his second post, and I'm confused again.

This is why I'm a hockey fan - you get a point if the black thing goes in the net ... so much simpler [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

A test match is 5 days.

Each team has 11 players.

Each team has 2 innings. To finish the other team's inning, you have to get 10 of their 11 players out.

You get them out in various ways (as described above).

When 10 of team A's players are out OR if Team A voluntarily decides it has scored enough and stops batting(called "declaring"), it is team B's turn to bat. Each team has a further inning after that.

When you hit the ball you can (but dont have to) run between teh wickets (sticks at eth end of the picth). for each time the batsmen successfully run between teh wickets, you get 1 run. IF you hiot it over the edge of the pitch withoiut bouncing, you get 6. If you hit it off the edge of the pitch, but it bounces on the way, you get 4.

THere are variosu great fielding positions, called things like Silly Mid-Off, Fine Leg etc etc.

The different types of delivery the bowler can bowl (i.e. like a pitchers' different pitches) also sometimes have amusing names, like the Googly, the Wrong'un or the Chinaman.



The analogy used above is a good one. The guy's achievement is like a pitcher, the first time he ever gets a hit, hitting four home runs in consecutive at-bats.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

And yes, there is a tea time. There is lunch too.

A test match is 5 days.

Each day tends to start at 11am. Lunch is at 1pm.

After lunch, place resumes at about 1.40.

The players leave the field again at about 4 for tea.

They then resume play till about 6 oclcik.

All very civilised and very Engliash.

Cricket is a great game to play, as it is one of the few games one can play while drinking a can of lager, or smoking a cigarett (obviosuly, only while you are fielding).

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

[ QUOTE ]
Cricket stuff, but I will provide a vague translation for the baseball folk here. Just today Jason Gillespie, who ordinarily bats at number 8 in the order (think pitcher) just scored 201* (think hitting 4 HR in a match). Absolutley marvellous effort really.
Story here

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Well, we did care (Angels fans mostly)

Adam Kennedy hits 3 HRs to send Angels to first World Series.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

http://www.education.ucsb.edu/autism...20Seinfeld.jpg

So I said, "What is this, the T-interval??"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

It indeed was a marvellous effort but there have been other instances of bowlers getting a double century. I know that Wasim Akram of Pakistan did it against Zimbabwe. There likely have been others.

I watched quite a bit of that Gillespie effort on live TV. He was just shrugging his shoulders to his batting partners in disbelief after every boundary. It was ridiculous how easy he made batting look that day.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

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Those guys were all specialist batsmen (think outfielders), this guy is a specialist bowler (pitcher). Plus, this guys highest score in any form of cricket was a 90 in a grade cricket match, that's like having 5 HR in a year in an independent league and going and hitting 4 HR in a game in the majors.


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So the dude is on 'roids?

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

i coulda sworn this was gonna be about soccer.

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i coulda sworn this was gonna be about Canada.

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Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

It should be pointed out that
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The players leave the field again at about 4 for tea.

They then resume play till about 6 oclcik.

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Would translate in the US as "The players leave the field again at about 4 for dinner. They then resume play 'till about 6 o'clock." I think this is one thing that confuses Americans. The tea break is a break to eat as they've been playing all day. Since noone (that I know of at least) in the US refers to the last meal of the day as tea it feels like the players are taking a break for a "spot of tea."

I'm guessing most here know that but you will see comedians say stuff like "I can't get behind a sport where the players take a break in the middle to drink tea."

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Cricket is the only sport I've ever seen where I didn't know what was going on pretty quickly. I've seen plenty of highlights on Sky Sports News and I still have absolutely no clue what the [censored] is going on.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Cricket is baseball backwards. Instead of getting people out for hours on end until someone smacks the ball a long way, the batsmen smack the ball a long way all day until someone gets them out.

Lori

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http://www.education.ucsb.edu/autism...20Seinfeld.jpg

So I said, "What is this, the T-interval??"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

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So THAT's why Kramer was having a High Tea with Mr. Newman at Kramerica Industries!

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Cricket is a great game to play, as it is one of the few games one can play while drinking a can of lager, or smoking a cigarett (obviosuly, only while you are fielding).

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Sounds kind of like softball.

Umpire: Okay, lets go over the rules. You can't leave first until you chug a beer. Any man scoring has to chug a beer. You have to chug a beer at the top of all odd numbered innings. Oh!, and the fourth inning is the beer inning.

Police Chief Wigam: Hey! We know how to play softball.

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

Most of the people I've met in New Zealand share the same sentiment as I do during cricket: Why the [censored] would anyone want to watch this [censored]?

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

The tea break in test cricket is aptly named as traditionally, it is tea that the players have (along with cucumber sandwiches for reasons unknown to me). A test match has 6 hours of play in a given day - 3 sessions of 2 hours each. There is a 40 minute lunch break after session 1, and a 20 minute tea break after session 2. A test match is scheduled for 5 days meaning that there is a maximum of 30 hours of play. It is not unccommon for a match to be drawn after the 30 hours of play. Imagine that: Play for 30 hours and have no victor. Unthinkable to Americans. Having said that, draws can often be "gripping" to many cricket watchers (i.e. as one team does its best to "run out the clock" without being dismissed or alternatively, tries to get to the required wining target but runs out of time before they get there).

A faster version of cricket is a 1 day match where there is no tea break. Each team has 50 overs (which amounts to 300 balls) bowled at them to score runs without losing 10 wickets (losing a wicket means having one of your players given out). There is normally about 7 hours of play not counting a 40 minute lunch break. The format of the game lends itself to more entertaining cricket as batsmen are forced to keep the run rate going rather than simply waiting for the bad ball to score runs from as they do in test cricket.

There are no draws in one day cricket. A tie however is possible though extremely rare. Cricket's World Cup tournaments use this format. This tourney happens every 4 years and the next one is scheduled for Spring '07 in the Caribbean. The Aussies have won the last two World Cups and are big favorites yet again.

The fastest version of cricket is something called 20/20 cricket wherein each team tries to get as many runs as possible in the 20 overs that are bowled to them by the opposition. Therefore, the object is to score more runs than the other team in the 120 balls that are bowled to you (of course you also need to ensure that your team doesn't lose 10 wickets before those 120 balls are bowled). These matches shock purists as the batsmen are out there just slogging in an effort to score runs rather than playing proper cricketing shots. These 20/20 matches probably last only about 3 to 3.5 hours which...alas...means no cucumber sandwiches....damn.

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What's crazy is I've watched cricket a couple times and I've read all about how to play and I still have no [censored] clue what is going on. Has there been a more complicated game in the history of the world?

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anybody have a link to see cricket in a video>?

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Here's a couple that I plucked from Youtube. I am at work right now so I haven't actullay viewed them so I don't know if the quality is any good.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpQrTgCTYds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNyaVPmuA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRXmPe8I7QQ

Re: Most amazing achievement 99.9% of Americans won\'t care about
 

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The tea break in test cricket is aptly named as traditionally, it is tea that the players have (along with cucumber sandwiches for reasons unknown to me). A test match has 6 hours of play in a given day - 3 sessions of 2 hours each. There is a 40 minute lunch break after session 1, and a 20 minute tea break after session 2. A test match is scheduled for 5 days meaning that there is a maximum of 30 hours of play.

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Is the whole 30 hours televised, or do they just show highlights?

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Every minute of the 30 hours is on the boob tube.

I grew up in India in the early 70s when television was available in only cities like Mumbai and Delhi. We had no television where I grew up. Most people (including our family) did not even have a good radio. We would all be listening to cricket commentary on a little transistor radio for the whole 30 hours. Man, even I have to admit that that is a colossal waste of time but nevertheless, I look back on those days fondly.

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The tea break in test cricket is aptly named as traditionally, it is tea that the players have (along with cucumber sandwiches for reasons unknown to me). A test match has 6 hours of play in a given day - 3 sessions of 2 hours each. There is a 40 minute lunch break after session 1, and a 20 minute tea break after session 2. A test match is scheduled for 5 days meaning that there is a maximum of 30 hours of play.

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Is the whole 30 hours televised, or do they just show highlights?

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The WS baseball is a similar timeframe, it's not that ridiculous.

Lori

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What's crazy is I've watched cricket a couple times and I've read all about how to play and I still have no [censored] clue what is going on. Has there been a more complicated game in the history of the world?

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It's a really simple game.

There are three sticks in the ground called wickets. These are the strike zone.
The difference here is that if the pitcher (called a bowler) hits the strike zone, you're out.

Your bat is huge, so hitting the ball is easy, unlike baseball where the bat is tiny and so it's hard.

Hitting a HR is 6 points (called runs, just like in baseball). Hitting a ground rule double is 4 runs.

If you hit it and it stays in the park, you have to run to the base, except it's 22 yards away not 90 feet, (it's not that much different really) If you want to reach second base, you have to run back to here you started. There are only two bases.
Reaching a base is worth a run.

Most runs after each team has batted twice wins.

What makes it look messy is that someone stands at first base. If you run, they have to run to your end. Effectively meaning there are two people batting at any one time.

Pitchers (Bowlers) can be used more than once, and rested and stuff, but it's the same concept.

Lori

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What's up with the rules restricting where fielders are allowed to play? Do they really think that scoring runs is too dificult in this game?

Also, the 30 hour time limit seems somewhat arbitrary. Why not just let them keep playing for as many days as it takes to finish?

In test cricket, if the bowling team is defending a target that is so small that they don't think they have a reasonable chance of winning, why don't they just bowl unhittable balls until the match is declared a draw?

As for one day cricket, the game length is determined by the number of overs (balls), instead of the number of wickets (outs). What prevents the bowling team from just delivering 300 unhittable balls. You would never get anyone out, but you would still end the game without allowing any runs.

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The tea break in test cricket is aptly named as traditionally, it is tea that the players have (along with cucumber sandwiches for reasons unknown to me). A test match has 6 hours of play in a given day - 3 sessions of 2 hours each. There is a 40 minute lunch break after session 1, and a 20 minute tea break after session 2. A test match is scheduled for 5 days meaning that there is a maximum of 30 hours of play.

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Is the whole 30 hours televised, or do they just show highlights?

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The WS baseball is a similar timeframe, it's not that ridiculous.

Lori

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The world series is 7 games * about 3 hours per game = 21 hours (much less when you consider that the series doesn't usually take all 7 games).

A cricket test series is 7 hours per day * 5 days * as many as 5 matches = 150 hours. They play all 5 matches regardless of if one team has clinched the series.

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What's up with the rules restricting where fielders are allowed to play? Do they really think that scoring runs is too dificult in this game?

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That's only in the one day matches, it's to make scoring runs easier and supposedly more exciting.

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Also, the 30 hour time limit seems somewhat arbitrary. Why not just let them keep playing for as many days as it takes to finish?

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This is annoying as hell, they used to do this and miss their boats home and stuff. The modern excuse is that the TV stations don't like it. The real reason, as with many baseball type things is that you don't mess with stats geeks.


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In test cricket, if the bowling team is defending a target that is so small that they don't think they have a reasonable chance of winning, why don't they just bowl unhittable balls until the match is declared a draw?

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An unhittable ball adds one to the total.

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As for one day cricket, the game length is determined by the number of overs (balls), instead of the number of wickets (outs). What prevents the bowling team from just delivering 300 unhittable balls. You would never get anyone out, but you would still end the game without allowing any runs.

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Not only does an unhittable ball add one to the total (see above) but it has to be bowled again.

Lori