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

[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).

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I have to concede the second point. Many modern tests dont get much beyond about 21 hours though.

Lori

[jstnrgrs]

I think the thing that most americans find confusing about cricket the the unfamiliar termonigoly. The game itself is not that difficult to understand.

Things like a team is 235-4 don't make much sense even after someone reads the rules.

[Lori]

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I think the thing that most americans find confusing about cricket the the unfamiliar termonigoly. The game itself is not that difficult to understand.

Things like a team is 235-4 don't make much sense even after someone reads the rules.

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The biggest trouble I have explaining the game to Americans is not being able to work out which bit it is that makes it so difficult. I suspect it's the fact that there's two batsmen, but I'm not certain.

I always used to find it amusing that a strike zone in baseball was so arbitarily enforced.... I'll save that for LBW discussions later into the thread [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Lori

[skp]

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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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As Lori said below, they used to do that. But in fact, many cricket test matches would have no appeal to the viewers at all if a draw were not possible as a result.

For example, if a powerhouse like Australia played a minnow like Bangladesh and the rules were that they keep playing until both teams play their two innings in their entirety, the result would never be in doubt. Bangla would have absolutley no chance of winning. Also, with no clock to worry about, batsmen would take even longer to score runs. They can simply keep defending balls and only take risks on extremely badly bowled balls. A star batsman like Australia's skipper, Ricky Ponting, might never get out.

With a 5 day time limit, the game will hold some intrigue about it as Bangla could draw. Heck, they might even pull off an unlikely win if Australia "declares" (i.e. cuts short their second innings voluntarily to give themselves enough time to bowl out Bangla in their second innings) and the declaration backfires.

Test cricket works better with a 30 hour time limit.

As for the other matters you have raised, Lori has already addressed them.

[Aces McGee]

Like someone else in this thread, I can usually quickly grasp a sport pretty quickly, and I even know a lot of the basic rules of cricket. But I find it very unwatchable, because -- at least on the broadcasts I've seen -- there are seemingly thousands of numbers all over the screen, and I haven't the slightest idea what any of them mean.

-McGee

[AJW]

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Like someone else in this thread, I can usually quickly grasp a sport pretty quickly, and I even know a lot of the basic rules of cricket. But I find it very unwatchable, because -- at least on the broadcasts I've seen -- there are seemingly thousands of numbers all over the screen, and I haven't the slightest idea what any of them mean.

-McGee

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Id of though crickets obsession with numbers would have chimed with baseball fans fascination with statistics.
And as for the greatest sporting achievement 99.9% of Americans don’t know about that would be Denmark winning Euro 92. Denmark fail to qualify so the players are all on holiday just before the tournament kicks off. Yugoslavia is in a state of civil war and their team is kicked out. Denmark as the best placed non qualifier is called up with just one week to train. Amazingly they beat Germany 2-0 in the final a result the whole of Europe can celebrate.

[skp]

What you might generally see on the TV screen:

1. Current score: 244-4.

This means that the batting side currently has scored 244 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. An innings is over when the batting side loses 10 wickets. In a 1 day match, there would also be an indication of the number of overs bowled. It might be something like 44 overs bowled which means that there are only 6 overs to go.

2. target: 280

This would mean that the team batting first scored 280 in their 50 overs. Thus, the batting side has to get 36 more runs in the 36 balls (i.e. 6 overs) left to be bowled. With 6 wickets in hand, that should be a fairly easily reachable target for the batting side.

On the other hand, if they were at 244 for 7 wickets, then getting 36 runs in 36 balls might be dicey as they only have 3 wickets left. That match would be tantalizingly poised. If the batting side was at 244-9 with 6 overs to go, then the fielding side would be prohibitive favorites. Not only is it difficult to get 36 runs iin 36 balls without getting anyone out, it will also likely be the case that the team's worst batsmen would be at the crease at this point in the game.

3. There might be all kinds of individual statistics flashed up on the screen for the batsmen and bowlers.

The Batsman's career stats might be something like this:

Games played - 200
Runs - 8200
Average - 44.4
Strike rate - 85.2
Highest score - 125

This just would give you a glimpse as to the batsman's proficiency. The example numbers given above are those of a world class batsmen in 1 day cricket. This chap has a batting average of 44.4 runs per inning and also scores his runs quickly with a strike rate of 85.2 which means that for every 100 balls he faces, he scores 85.2 runs.

3. A bowler's stats for the match in question might be:

Overs - 8
Runs - 32
Maidens - 1
Wickets - 2

This means that he has bowled 8 overs and has given up 32 runs. In a 1 day match, a bowler can bowl a maximum of 10 overs so this guy has been bowling well in this match but only has 2 overs left. Sometimes, what batting sides do is "see off a good bowler". That is, they don't take risks against the bowler who has been bowling well. Once his alloted 10 overs have been bowled, they up the tempo against the new bowler.

Going back to this guy's stats, he has also bowled 1 "maiden" which means that no runs were scored in 1 of the 8 overs that he has bowled. He also has 2 wickets meaning that of the 4 wickets that the batting side has lost, two of them occurred when this guy was bowling.

His career stats might also be flashed. I'll spare you the details but it would tell you his economy rate (i.e. number of runs he gives up per over), his strike rate (i.e. the number of balls he bowls on average before he gets a wicket), the number of wickets he has taken etc.


4. Sometimes, you will also see:

Current run rate: 4.5
Required run rate: 6.2

What this means is that the batting side to that point in time has scored an average of 4.4 runs per over. To win the match, they need to score 6.2 runs per over the rest of the way.

In a 1 day match, the most entertaining portions of the match are the first 15 to 20 overs (when fielding restrictions are in place and the batting side is trying to score runs quickly) and the last 5 to 7 overs of the match, when the batting side throws all caution to the wind and tries to hit out at everything.

Hope that helps.

[Aces McGee]

skp,

Thanks a lot for that. It's not going to do me a lick of good until I see another cricket match on TV, but I'm saving this thread for when I do.

Thanks again.

-McGee

[jstnrgrs]

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A star batsman like Australia's skipper, Ricky Ponting, might never get out.

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Would a skilled batsman be able to defend his wicket indefinately if he is not trying to score runs? If so, I would think that a team chasing an unreachable target should be able to secure a draw every time. Couln't the batsman just deflect the ball into the ground on every ball until times up? (Is this really that hard to do with a big cricket bat, and the restrictions on bowling form?)

[Aloysius]

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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

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ahaahahaha - I don't think this post got the recognition it deserved [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

-Al