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Couldn't agree more Sav, Billy Birmingham does some great work.

D8



I agree Otto, Ponting has made some shockers over the past few years. Only he knows why he took Hilfenhaus out of the the attack and persisted with Hauritz and Johnson. As I said earlier we failed to bowl them out, simple as that so good on England for sticking it to the Aussies. Although it was a flat deck England's bowlers didn't do enough I don't think to convince me that they're going to be a threat. That could all change today of course but probably not. The English batsmen at least scored some runs and can claim some loose shots cost them wickets but the bowlers struggled really.



Totally agree Sharky. The fact England are 0-0 rathan than 0-1 is awesome for them. They survived the first test and can start afresh today. Imagine what happens if it's 0-0 after this game.

Anyway very excited about the game today. Hope you all enjoy.

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Solid start by the Poms...

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"Ingrid Bergman"

Indeed. I think if you had offered them that outcome at the start of the day they would have taken it.

I didn't see most of it last night - is the pitch doing much?

Not really no, it's pretty flat. However not as flat as the Australian bowling attack with Mitchell Johnson in particular spraying them everywhere.

Again I'd have to say England would be disappointed at 6 for after a none for 200 start. Superb batting from Strauss and Cook. Not much from the rest and a good fightback from Australia. Let's see what they can accomplish today.

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"Ingrid Bergman"

This thread has piqued my curiosity enough to google cricket rules.

My first suggestion is to get someone who can actually explain this in less than 5 pages. Second, I read all 5 pages and I'm still not clear as to how a run is really scored and when the ball is actually "over" or dead or whatever.

Now, I also youtubed some highlights, and it looked like fun, so I'm open to learning. The idea of being able to follow these international tests, gets me excited like following america's cup, or the five nations.

I'll try and figure it out.

I'll try and explain cricket with reference to baseball (not that I know that game very well!).

In an "test" (international) match, each team has two innings. Winner of the coin toss decides who will bat first.

11 men per side. There must always be 2 batsmen (batters) on the pitch so the bowling (pitching) side have to get 10 men out to close the inning.

Play is arranged into "overs" of 6 balls (pitches). Play alternates from one direction of bowling to the other after each over.

If the batsman hits the ball, he does not have to run. If he decides to run, both batsmen must reach the other end of the pitch. If you hit the ball into an undefended area of the pitch, you can run 2 or more runs by running back and forth. If you hit the ball to the boundary having touched the ground, it scores 4 runs. If you hit it to the boundary without it touching the ground (like a home run), it scores 6 runs.

A batsman does not have a time/ball limit to how long he bats for. He stays there until the bowling side get him out. England captain Andrew Straus batted all day yesterday scoring 161 runs and will continue batting today.

Wickets (outs) are usually taken by
a) the bowler hitting the wickets/stumps (the 3 pieces of wood the batsman defends with his bat)
b) a fielder catching the ball
c) a run out - when the batsman tries for a run and doesn't reach his ground. Note that both batsmen have to run, not just the hitter
d) something called Leg Before Wicket (LBW). This is a very complex rule which most fans (and many players!) don't seem to understand. At it's simplest, it means that if the ball hits the batsman's leg but would have otherwise have gone on to hit the wickets, the batsman is out.

There are two types of bowlers. Fast bowlers who use pace/swing and spin bowlers who try to deceive the batsman by getting the ball to "turn" off the pitch.

An innings lasts until the bowling side take 10 wickets or the batting side decide they've scored enough runs and "declare" (close their inning). This is usually done to allow more time to bowl the other side out.

When both teams have batted twice, the game is over. A test match lasts 5 days with 6 hours/90 overs per day. Breaks are taken for lunch/tea and I believe cricket is the only sport played which stops to eat! Play is also stopped for rain or bad light as it is considered dangerous to be facing a ball thrown at 90mph+ in these conditions!

You can only win by bowling the other side out twice so despite Australia dominating the first test, they could only take 19 wickets so the match ended as a "draw" (no result). This is not the same as a "tie" which means both teams take 20 wickets and total runs scored are the same for both teams.

Test match cricket is about grinding out a victory so can seem tedious to those who don't understand the subtleties of what's going on (like baseball is to me!). If you are new to cricket, a version called Twenty/20 (or T20) is a 3 hour version of the game where each side bats for just 20 overs. Scoring is very high and there's lots of action in a short space of time. A good way to get into the game.

Hope that makes sense. I've probably forgotten some vital rule but I'm sure others will chip in.

Enjoy the game!

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Thanks Sharky - that made a HELL of a lot more sense than that tea towel thing!

That being said, I'm still a little confused about the concept of two batsmen. You mentioned that they alternate direction of bowling. So, I'm imagining one batsmen on one side of the playing field, the second batsmen on the opposite side (facing the first batsmen) and the bowling team is in the middle - is that correct?

One other confusing item - you said a batsman doesn't have time/ball limit to how long he bats for. So as a result you have someone like Straus that batted all day scoring 161 runs. I'm confused trying to reconcile that with an earlier statement that play is arranged into "overs" of 6 balls (pitches), with play alternating from one direction of bowling to the other after each over. I guess in my head I thought they pitched 6 times to one batter, then pitched 6 times to the other batter, repeat. But clearly that's correct if Straus batted all day.

Sorry for all the questions!

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Hmm....I just read an article titled "Cricket for Dummies" on Smithsonianmag.com, and I think I have it.

So - one bowler pitches 6 times to one batter, then the second bowler pitches 6 times to the other batter, and they continue to alternate back and forth.

For any other Yanks interested (I found the diagram extremely useful)......

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-pl ... icket.html

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Both batsmen are in the middle 22 yards apart, the bowler bowls 6 balls from each end next to the non striking batsman. He can bowl at both batsmen in one over if they score one,three, or five runs. In the past batsmen have been batting for three days at a time. In fact, years ago there were no time limits on test matches, the end of the game coming when the teams ship was due to sail !

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No, an "over" is 6 balls bowled from one end. If on the first ball of the over, the batsman (lets call him batsman A) hits the ball and decides to run, he runs from the batting end to the bowlers end, AND at the same time the other batsman (bastman B) runs from the bowlers end to the batting end. (Basically they cross in the middle).

Now batsman B is at the batting end so he faces the 2nd ball over the over. If B just defends the remaining balls in the "over" (i.e. balls 2 to 6) and doesn't run, when the "over" is finished and the bowling/fielding side change ends, batsman B will THEN be at the bowling end, and batsman A who WAS at the bowling end in the last over, will now be at the batting end and will face the 1st ball of the new over.

At the end of each over, the batsmen stay at whatever end they were at. It's only the fielding/bowling side that changes ends.

Hopefully this shows that there's no time limit or numbers of balls (or overs) that a batsman can face as long as he's not given out.

Does that make sense?

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Just joking - actually, that does make a little more sense (after reading it several times....very slowly).

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Great explanations gents and great that you've gained an interest since the thread began kstone. Cricket is a game that's simple in its complexity if that makes any sense i.e. the intent and desired outcome of the game is simple enough but to understand all of cricket's nuances can be fairly complex. As has been suggested earlier I highly recommend you watch a version as it may start to make sense.

I'll now give you a short synopsis of what has happened in this particular game as a 'live' example may assist.

Prior to any game there isa coin toss between the captains of each side to determine who will bat first (and which team will field). As England are hosting the ashes this year they generally will toss and in this case Australia will call either heads or tails as you do...in both games so far England have bat first.

England were all out for 425 i.e. Australia collected Englands 10 wickets for that score and this took just over a day.

Australia then went into bat and have so far scored 156 runs but with 8 of their 10 wickets lost - England only need 2 more wickets to complete the innings. England are so far dominating the game because they have 425 runs and Australia only have 156 at this stage. Once they bowl Australia out they are going to have one of two options. This may get a little confusing. Normally one team bats, then the other team (end of the 1st innings), then the first team bats again (2nd innings), then the other team bats for the last time - if both teams are all out at the end of the two innings, the team with the most runs wins. However there is something called the 'follow-on'. Basically is Australia don't make 225, then England will have the option to either bat again (normal order) or ask Australia to bat instead, the concept being because Australia have not been good enough to get within 200 runs of the English total, they have the right to win the game more quickly. This is a choice and will depend on how close they are, how tired the bowlers are etc...will be interesting to see if Australia can score the required 69 runs to avoid the follow on.

Hope that makes sense! Very happy to answer any questions you may have.

Congrats boys too for the outstanding start to this test. Although it is far from over you are certainly in the box seat. Hopefully the draw in the 1st game doesn't come back to bite us in the bum


So true. There was actually a game once that went for 14 days. Can you imagine how boring that would have been

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Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"

Katich back in the hutch already, two days left, Aussies doing the rain dance, surely we must win now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Quite a few Breitlings, most of them starting with the letter C.

Interesting final day coming up. I'd settle for a draw (ironic after last week, I know) but with a full day to play I think that might require a lot of rain dancing.

Doubt it will come down to the last few overs of the day, but if somehow it does it will be interesting to see whether Ponting sends out the 12th man and the physio.

Should be a great days play with Clark and Haddin playing well and the new ball only a few overs old. Looks like the Aussies got a couple of poor umpiring decisions I just hope it doesn't go to about 500-9 with 10 minutes to go, my nerves won't stand it

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Quite a few Breitlings, most of them starting with the letter C.