Well Done, wilso!!!
You didn't mention that Oz just won the one-day world championship for the second time in a row! (and the third time over all0
Rub i tin Margo, rub it in !
Batsman's Shots
The different types of shots a batsman can play are described by names:
Block:
A defensive shot played with the bat vertical and angled down at the front, intended to stop the ball and drop it down quickly on to the pitch in front of the batsman.
Drive:
An offensive shot played with the bat sweeping down through the vertical. The ball travels swiftly along the ground in front of the striker. A drive can be an on drive, straight drive, off drive, or cover drive, depending in which direction it goes.
Cut:
A shot played with the bat close to horizontal, which hits the ball somewhere in the arc between cover and gully.
Edge, or Glance:
A shot played off the bat at a glancing angle, through the slips area.
Leg Glance:
A shot played at a glancing angle behind the legs, so that it goes in the direction of fine leg.
Pull:
A horizontal bat shot which pulls the ball around the batsman into the square leg area.
Sweep:
Like a pull shot, except played with the backmost knee on the ground, so as to hit balls which bounce low.
Hook:
Like a pull shot, but played to a bouncer and intended to hit the ball high in the air over square leg - hopefully for six runs.
French Cut:
An attempt at a cut shot which hits the bottom edge of the bat and goes into the area behind square leg.
Reverse Sweep:
A sweep with the bat reversed, into the point area.
Most of these shots can also be lofted, in an attempt to hit the ball over the close fielders (or the boundary). The batting strokes can be divided into two categories: Straight bat and cross bat. The straight bat shots are played with the bat held close to the vertical, and are the blocks, drives and glances. Cross bat shots are played with the bat held more horizontally, like a baseball bat. These include cuts, pulls, sweeps and hooks.
The following terms are used more informally and are not standard:
Hoik:
A wild swing intended only to hit the ball as hard and as far as possible, usually with little or no control.
Agricultural Shot:
Any shot played with very little skill.
More Weird Names
If a bowler completes an over without any runs being scored from it, it is termed a maiden.
If a batsman gets out without scoring any runs, he is said to be out for a duck . The origin of this term is unclear, but commonly rumoured to be because the '0' next to his name on the scorecard resembles a duck egg. A batsman out for a duck while facing his first delivery of the innings is out for a golden duck.
The runs scored while two batsmen bat together are called their partnership. There are ten partnerships per completed innings, labelled from first-wicket partnership to tenth-wicket partnership, in order.
A nightwatchman is a batsman who comes in to bat out of order towards the end of a day's play in a multi-day game, in order to 'protect' better batsmen. To elucidate, the batting order in an innings is usually arranged with two specialists openers who begin the innings, then the rest of the batsmen in order of skill, best to worst. The job of the openers is to bat for a while against the new ball. A brand new ball is very hard and bouncy, and fast bowlers can use this to great advantage and can often get batsmen out. So it is harder to bat against a new ball. It is also somewhat difficult to begin batting. A new batsman is more likely to get out than one who has been on the field and scoring runs for a while.
Now, in a multi-day game, it sometimes happens that a team's innings will have only a few men out towards the end of the day's play. If a batsman gets out with about half an hour or less until stumps, the batting captain will sometimes send in a poor batsman next instead of a good one. The idea is that the poor batsman (the nightwatchman) will last 20 minutes and so protect the good batsman from having to make a fresh start that evening and again the next morning. It is essentially a sacrifice ploy. Of course, it can backfire dangerously if the nightwatchman does get out before stumps. The nightwatchman is a tactic which is used about 50% of the time when the appropriate situation arises (which itself occurs perhaps once every 4 or 5 games). It just depends on how the captain feels at the time.
A sightscreen is a large screen positioned on the boundary so that it forms a backdrop behind the bowler, so that the striker can see the ball clearly. Sightscreens are white when a red ball is used, and black for a white ball.
A rabbit is a player (almost invariably a bowler, but sometimes a wicket-keeper) who is a very poor batsman. A ferret is an extremely poor batsman (so called because he ``goes in after the rabbits'').
Way to go Wilso. I don't think I've ever seen you say so much in all the years I've known you, LOL!
Statistics and Good Performances
The following statistics are recorded:
Batsmen:
number of runs scored, time spent batting, number of balls faced, how out (and by which bowler and catcher if appropriate).
Bowlers:
number of overs bowled, number of maidens bowled, number of wickets taken, number of runs conceded (i.e. scored off his bowling).
Team:
extras, total runs, wickets fallen, overs bowled, total at each fall of wicket.
A single innings scorecard might look like this:
Australia - 1st Innings
M. Taylor c. Richardson b. Snell 12
M. Slater LBW. Donald 57
D. Boon b. de Villiers 68
M. Waugh not out 184
A. Border c. Rhodes b. Donald 0
S. Waugh c. Snell b. de Villiers 34
I. Healy c. Snell b. de Villiers 6
S. Warne run out 35
M. Hughes st. Richardson b. Cronje 10
C. McDermott b. de Villiers 41
G. McGrath LBW. de Villiers 9
Extras 16
Total 141 overs 10 for 472
Bowling - South Africa
O M R W
A. Donald 40 5 106 2
F. de Villiers 37 7 85 5
R. Snell 32 3 126 1
C. Simons 15 0 82 0
H. Cronje 17 2 73 1
FOW: 25, 99, 164, 164, 225, 238, 315, 345, 446, 472
The abbreviations are:
b. bowled by
c. caught by
st. stumped by
O overs
M maidens
R runs
W wickets
FOW fall of wicket
The team score is usually given as ``(number of wickets) for (number of runs)'' in Australia. In England, New Zealand, and some other countries it is given as ``(number of runs) for (number of wickets)''. Bowling figures are sometimes printed in shortened form, for example: Donald 40-5-106-2, de Villiers 37-7-85-5, etc.
The partnership scores can be seen from the differences between successive fall of wicket scores.
Good performances are considered to be:
A batsman scoring 50, or 100, or multiples thereof.
A partnership adding 50, or 100, or multiples thereof.
A bowler taking five wickets in a single innings.
A bowler taking ten wickets in a two innings match. (This is an excellent performance and a relatively rare feat.)
A bowler taking a hat trick, i.e. three wickets in three successive balls (perhaps in different overs). This is even more rare.
Each of these tasks is usually greeted with enthusiastic applause from the spectators. The crowd also usually applauds significant events such as: Any wicket falling, a six, a four, a good over from a bowler (one which the batsmen have great difficulty playing safely), a good athletic effort from a fielder to gather the ball, the innings total reaching a multiple of 50.
The number of runs scored in an innings average about 3 per over for a first class match, and 4 per over in a one-day match. The variation on these numbers can be quite large, differences of up to one run per over being not uncommon. In a first class match, a captain makes his decision on declaring the innings closed based on the remaining time in the match and the size of his team's lead. He will try to allow as much time as possible to bowl the opposition out, while ensuring they do not have enough time to score enough runs to win.
Over a single player's career, the two most important statistics are:
Batting Average:
The aggregate number of runs scored divided by the number of times the batsman has been out. The higher, the better.
Bowling Average:
The aggregate runs scored against a bowler divided by the number of wickets taken. The lower, the better.
Each of these averages is kept separately for Test cricket, first class cricket in general, and one-day cricket. A batting average above 30 is very good, 40 excellent, and 50 is legendary. Mention must be made of the Australian batsman Sir Donald Bradman, whose career average was a record 99.94, far and away the greatest batsman ever to play the game. A bowling average below 25 is considered excellent.
Teams Which Play Cricket
The official Test Cricket nations are currently: England, Australia, West Indies, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The West Indies is actually a consortium of Caribbean countries: Barbados; Jamaica; Guyana; The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Antigua and Barbuda; St. Kitt's-Nevis; Dominica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Montserrat; and Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Minor cricketing nations (which do not play Test cricket, but do compete for a place in the World Cup One-Day competition) include: Kenya, Fiji, Canada, The Netherlands.
The most famous Test cricket Series is The Ashes, played every two years between Australia and England. The Ashes trophy is a small urn containing ``the ashes of English cricket'' (in reality the ashes of a set of bails), which ``died'' in a match in 1882 when Australia beat England for the first time. The Ashes are currently held by Australia, although the physical trophy is kept permanently in a room at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.
The most infamous event in cricket was the 1932-33 English tour of Australia - the Bodyline tour. The English team used a new tactic to get batsmen out, by bowling at their bodies and placing many fielders in short fielding positions backward of square leg. As the batsmen fended the ball away in an effort to protect themselves, the ball often flew off the edge of the bat into the waiting hands of the fielders, getting the batsman out caught. The English referred to this tactic as ``Leg Theory'', but the Australians, angry that the English bowlers were aiming at their bodies, christened it ``Bodyline''.
Several Australian batsmen were injured because of this, some seriously. The English tactics cause a diplomatic row between the countries. After the tour was over, cricket officials introduced the rules against dangerous bowling, and the restriction of no more than two fielders backward of square leg.
And that is Cricket.
<The End>
ok, who's the wise guy that moved this here. my mind started spinning when i saw this seperate thread with my name as the person who posted it. as the thread was opening, i kept asking myself "did i post that, and if so when?" made me worried there for a second. not nice! plotting revenge
To me, cricket is an excuse to drink beer in the sun, whether I'm watching or playing. As I could be charitably described as a lower order batsmen, I get plenty of opportunity for this while my team is batting, and an excuse is readily available when I get out cheaply.
But then, I am english-maybe this is why we constantly lose to the aussies?
hmmmm, the aussiecat raises her head. returning to the scene of the crime eh?
yorkshire, welcome. glad to see you here. please don't go into the cricket thing yet with the aussies until i'm able to read all this cra, uh, fine information that wilso graciously provided.
pueo<
"Cricket" is the name of a character played by Connie Stevens on a 1960ish TV show entitled Surfside Six. :wink:
so when does cricket season start?
'Sover.
Bloody footy is in.
pueo wrote:so when does cricket season start?
Cricket is a summer sport. So it's being played during your winter. Locally anyway. There's always cricket being played somewhere in the world.
