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One of the real joys about cricket is that it's one of the few sporting games in the world where the conditions vary wildly not only from match to match, but usually several times within each match. The pitch breaks down over the course of five days and batting becomes more difficult. The ball itself moves differently through the air depending on how long the game has progressed, how much cloud cover there has been throughout the day, etc. It's probably the sporting contest where winning the coin toss is most beneficial. It's a game played 50% in the head which is fascinating to watch. Players will actively verbalise one another to try to throw the other off their game. Bowlers try to tread a fine line between outright frightening the batsmen by trying to bounce the ball into their heads, and trying to bowl disciplined balls that are impossible to attack. Similarly batsmen tread a fine line between trying to keep the runs flowing, while not attacking balls that are too dangerous - and making the distinction between the two in the space of one second as a ball flies at them at up to 100mph. The difference between a good batting innings and a bad one is often a single lapse in concentration, either from the batsman making an error, or one of the fielding sides dropping a vital catch. Sometimes teams have to decide whether they're a realistic chance of winning, or whether to play defensive in the hopes of a draw - since the five day test matches are usually just one in a series of matches, preventing the loss can mean the difference between winning or losing an entire series which might last the best part of two months. It's also a goon's dream in that there are a billion stats and since the game moves at a slow walking pace for five days there is all the time in the world for everyone to dig them up and follow them. It's very common during a match for a commentator to describe how such and such batsmen is approaching the record for the highest ever run score in the second innings for a #6 batsman on this ground against that team. There is some kind of record broken, or at least approached, more often than not. It's also just a fantastic sport to follow when you're actually busy since you can just check the scores every five minutes and you won't have missed much. Very few people will actually sit down and watch the match intently for five days straight, and those who do go to the ground for all five days usually spend most of the time getting drunk as gently caress and baking in the sun. If you want to get into the sport, it might be easier to watch some of the shorter forms of the game to begin with. There is a form of cricket called 20/20 where each side has 20 overs (120 balls each) to try to score as much as they can. Since there are only 120 balls and they still have 10 wickets, sides aren't as concerned about getting out so they just try to smash the ball out of the park as often as possible, and the whole thing is over in a few hours. It's really just a popcorn game and not nearly as intriguing or tactical as test cricket but it is a good way to gain an understanding of the rules of the game and how it's played, and its generally pretty action-packed. India has an entire league dedicated to 20/20 games (the Indian Premier League) and Australia has a 20/20 competition called the Big Bash League if you want to look any of them up. cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Dec 27, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 08:45
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 13:44 |
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Rudager posted:Also the fielding team does what basically amounts to legal tampering with the ball by polishing up one side of it so when pace bowlers come out the ball swings without the bowler having to do much to cause the swing because of some physics poo poo. They also periodically exchange the ball for a new one (since it gets busted up over time) but the captain has to decide when he wants to do this because although the new ball is better for the fast bowlers, the old busted up ball is actually better for the spin bowlers. Again, quite tactical and it would all depend on who is batting, which bowlers are available, etc.
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Dec 27, 2014 09:04
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