Late at night on February 27th, we decided that we should probably learn a bit about cricket, or at least ODIs (short for One Day Internationals...to differentiate this type of game from longer 3 and 5 day tests). I recommend looking up the rules on Wikipedia, rather than trying to make sense of Emma's description, below:
In a nutshell, these games consist of two innings, with each team getting one chance to bat. Each inning lasts for 50 'overs', or until 10 of the 11 batters on the batting team gets out. An 'over' consists of is 6 bowls (aka pitches), thrown by one bowler. Each team has several bowlers, who rotate bowling duties between overs. So, if a team doesn't get out while batting, then the inning will last for 300 bowls, which typically takes about 3.5-4 hours (the games are scheduled in 8 hour timeslots). However, the inning can be shortened if the bowling team is able to get 10 of the 11 players on the batting team out. Two batters are always on the field at once, each protecting a wicket from being hit by the bowler (which batter receives each bowl depends on a few different factors). Both batters must run from one wicket to the other in order to make a run, although if the ball is hit far enough, then they are automatically awarded runs (4 or 6 depending on the distance of the hit) without having to physically run. Anyway, there always has to be 2 batters on the field at a time, and the inning is over once 10 of the batting's team 11 players have gotten out, because at that point they only have 1 batter remaining.
To get a batter out, the bowler needs to hit the wicket behind the batter with the ball, a fielder needs to catch the ball in the air after the batter hits it (like baseball), or the wicket-keeper needs to touch the ball to the wicket before one of the batters crosses the batting line after trying to make a run (again, like baseball). The best two batters on each team will start out batting, and each time a batter gets out (called 'a wicket', even if the out results from a ball getting caught), a new batter from lowing in the batting order takes their turn. So, at the time of the 9th wicket, the crappiest batter on the team will be coming on. Although, if the top batter on the team hasn't gotten out yet, he may still be batting. See, isn't it interesting??
Anyway, we ended up seeing pretty much the most exciting game in the history of cricket (probably not, but that's what it felt like). The Aussies batted first, and NZ got 10 wickets on them within about 2.5 hours, which is pretty much unheard of. They only had 152 runs, which is an exceptionally low total for an inning (so we're told). So everyone was feeling pretty good about NZ's chances going into the second inning. They just needed 153 runs and the game would be over. Batting was going as expected, with their captain (and #1 batter) Brendan McCullum racking up 50 runs in quick succession. Then, he got out, and things went down hill quickly. Suddenly, Australia had 9 wickets on us, and we needed another 6 runs to win the game. It probably doesn't sound exciting, but it was as good as a NHL playoff game (and 1000x better than NBA playoffs)! The stadium was silent and everyone was on the edge of their seats. Then the NZ batsman hit a 6-pointer and we won. And it was all over in a tidy 5.5 hours (rather than the usual 8), which we also considered a win.
Needless to say, we're now pretty into the cricket world cup, and will certainly be trying to get to another game (the semi-finals will be in Auckland later this month).
Nice day for a game:
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