Cricket

This weekend I watched cricket on the TV. Australia was playing India, so that was quite an interesting match as I am in Australia and I have just visited India. In the end Australia won by 18 runs: Australia had 317 runs vs India's 299. They were supposed to win, because they are the current favourites and India currently ranks about fourth, I am told.

I tried watching cricket before in Australia when India was playing Pakistan but I did not understand a thing, partly because I did not know the rules and partly because all the comments were in Hindi. This time it was more fun however, as I had internet and a Pakistani to explain the rules to me. As I like the game and it is serious part of Australian sports culture, I will try to explain the rules to you briefly.

In cricket there are two teams playing. One team is batting and the other bowling (throwing) and fielding (catching).The batting team in in the position to score runs. A run is scored when both batsmen (there are two, on opposite sides of the pitch, the one in use seems to be called the striker) succesfully move to the opposite ends of the pitch. Every time they cross the pitch counts a run. A run can also be scored by hitting the ball over the edge of the boundary without hitting the ground. This scores six points and there is no need to do any running.

The team that is fielding and bowling will try to minimize the number of runs the batting team can make by trying to get the batsmen out. The striker is out when the ball it caught before it has hit the ground. Both batsmen can get out if the two bails are thrown from the three poles behind them. The combination of the bails and the poles is called a wicket. The fielding team can throw the ball at the poles as long as the batsmen are running. I think.

The game goes one for quite some time. First one team plays does the batting, until their batsmen are out and then the other team plays batting. In the classic game, now played in testmatches, it goes until both teams are out of batsman. There is a maximum of five days for the entire game. But today's matches are played with 60 overs. An over consist of 6 legitimate bowles (throws), and after an over the game is reversed. That's why each side of the pitch must have a batsman, which means that there will be one, lonely batsman left when the game is over. There is also a new, extra short version of cricket: 20-20s, in which each teams gets 20 overs. This last for only three hours and is thus easier to watch.

Should you like to do some more reading on this marvellous game, start by checking wikipedia by clicking here. They also have a very nice 4 min video that explains it better than I do. Thanks for reading anyway. Bye!