Cricket

It is an almost magical combination of the use of rare skill and athleticism, aerodynamics, and exploiting natural phenomena.

It requires humidity to create a more dense air mass, and for the ball to be buffed to a shine ON ONE SIDE OF THE SEAM ONLY.

When the ball is bowled with the upright seam and the extra spin along the axis through the seam imparted by the bowler's index and middle fingers along it, with a smooth,shiny ball face one side and an unrestored mucky one that creates more friction, for the same reasons planes fly, the ball swings to one side in the thicker air.

It usually also dips sharply, sometimes VERY sharply, and the extra energy this generates gives it tremendous bounce off the pitch, while the combination of the seam hitting the pitch, at an angle created by the bowler, affected by the other forces such as rate of spin, can make that bounce extremely variable in height and direction.

The bowler's action, and precise preparation of one side of the ball, without tampering, and the required air density, are the keys, and it's awesome to watch!

Glen McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie are the best exponents of the art.

Cricket - Ballet and War, with Bats and Balls! ...lol

Greetings fellow posters. Nice to see so many erudite, informed individuals.

The US also has hundreds of cricket teams, and must surely be on the verge of entering a team in even a one-day match? That would be great.

Today in OZ I predict the Aussie batsmen will be smashing the world record for a final innings to defeat New Zealand...their form says they'll do it, but either way it will be FUN!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing an interest in cricket.

No, I'm not complaining. But the conditions would have been perfect for him on the first couple of days. It's a shame, he's almost 29 and for reasons of family pride I want him to get a decent stab at it.

of course, the cute new zealand bowler made watching like 10 hours of cricket so much more interesting:
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2002/sep/23vet.jpg

1) Notts failed to get more than ONE bonus point from their game
2) Yorkshire and Durham drew
3) Durham got maximum batting points.

Astonishingly, 1) and 3) have already come true, and 2) looks to be very much on the cards barring an absolute mare for Durham tomorrow.

Notts would have got the 2 bonus points by taking 7 or more Sussex wickets inside 130 overs, an occurrence which happens in almost every single Championship game. With an abysmal bowling display, they took just 6, accruing one point.

Notts would then have got the 1 further point they needed by scoring only 200 runs in their own first innings. Sussex had scored 550-odd for 6, so the pitch would seem to have been ideally suited to this.

They crumbled from 130-2 to 165 all out.

One of the biggest chokes in recent British sporting history?

(P.S. I'm a Worcs fan)

anyone following the test in hamilton?

yeah, thought so.

me, but its a bit of a foregone conclusion now innit

just looked at the scorecard at lunch. 36/4 from 18 overs. the scores of cook and vaughan total 22 runs from 33 balls, which means the rest of the sorry crew have made 12 runs from just under 13 overs. A run an over???

fraser's comments are spot on: england would never have declared as vettori did. they'd have waited until about 3 balls before tea, just in case mccullum hit 50 sixes in a row.

Do colly and bell have the bottle to survive? Better in this situation than KP and co but that doesn't mean anything.

they'll survive for the best part of an hour or so, in the english way. i'd be very surprised if the match goes into the final session, once the spinners get into their ribs and there are 4 or 5 around the bat.

funny how these things cycle. england outclassed at rugby today, being outclassed at cricket in a country where they probably expected to win, and going through transition in football. contrast to a few years ago: rugby world cup holders, ashes winners, rooney breaking into the england team...

Well, as a scotsman I enjoyed the rugby at least :) The cricket was sadly more predictable.

As a working class Englishman living oop North I enjoyed the rugby.

You enjoy England getting beat at anything, Jim.

Nah, the cricket is painful. But they've lost the plot big time, and I'm not a fan of Vaughan nowadays.

explain the class ref?

as in, how it is important in terms of the sport?

in the meantime, collingwood: 0 runs, 30 balls. should be zero balls, no fkg fight.

I don't care for Rugby Union cos I've too many hoorays are into it. In fact Guscott came out with a classic bit of twattery midweek when they dropped that dude for going clubbing - he said something along the lines of that behaviour not being good enough for Rugby players, but you'd expect it of footballers. Cock.

"cos I've known too many hoorays who are into it", I mean.

fairdos. i'm not a hooray, or a northerner (altho i live in mcr), but i like both codes but prefer union. i think i like contested scrums more than uncontested. but i like the rigidity of fixed numbers of tackles in league, although that leads to a sterility in terms of lack of depth of player size/beef/athleticism. league is homogenised rugby, union still has the cream separated at the top of the bottle.

just getting at: why is rugby cursed with class? football isn't (although the moneyed types are trying to make it that way).

League is nothing in Scotland. We like Union.

I don't think Union is a class signifier outside of England, hardly. I don't dislike watching Union matches, tho I far prefer League which to me is a way faster, more beautiful game to watch. I just hate the England team and their smug, Daily Mail reading, management book co-writing players.

Oh i dunno, lots of posh people play rugby. But when it comes to the national team no-one cares as if they can beat England then it's good enough for them. It was one of the few sports we were good at.

collingwood's gone. 2 runs from 50 balls.

Collingwood lbw Vettori 2 (Eng 59-5)
xpost

i know, it's just i'm not smug and don't read the daily mail, but i prefer union etc etc. talking to my wife's uncle in keighley the other day, he used to report on league for the local papers. an avowed league man, had ended up watching the england france union game a couple of weeks ago. "and that constant rucking at the end of the game, that leaves me cold", whereas there was me feeling england had ground out the victory.

herman, i think what fuels english union fans is the knowledge that all the other home/euro nations have made their season if they stuff the english. it makes me (as an england supporter) feel like a man utd supporter (which i bloody ain't). but when it got to the last 10 minutes in murrayfield today i had to go to the kitchen to start cooking the kids' steaks. that horrible, hollow feeling.

No fucking chance of england grounding out anything in cricket. I should've learned by now really, yet I put myself through it all the time. The ashes is such a distant memory now.
x-post

(Eng 60-7)

and xxxxxpost, no posh people play league.

i can't get over uncontested scrums: if you don't contest them why bother locking down? why not just have a tap free kick with the opposition having to be 5 yards?

for fucking 7?????? (xp)

at least we're up to 2 runs an over...

67-8

Bells got us over 100 at least

110 all out. A fucking shambles.

I don't think Union is a class signifier outside of England, hardly.

A kind of relevant article I read yesterday: http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/its-a-crime-how-footy-heroes-go-bad/2008/03/07/1204780065538.html

Also It's pleasing the NRL season starts next week :):):)

bump for ^^^ this article.

League is nothing in Scotland. We like Union

"We" being some border hill farmers and assorted bankers/ brokers/ lawyers in Edinburgh.

I don't think Union is a class signifier outside of England, hardly

Ha ha, right

Okay, I didn't know this. So Union is a poshoes sport everywhere except Wales?

I don't know about Ireland, but I would have guessed so there too

a short game's a good game!

I take it all back!

Stokes running amok here.

We are back to the 1900s

Most wickets on day one of an Ashes Test
25 2nd Test, Melbourne, 1901-02

22 2nd Test, The Oval, 1890

20 Only Test, The Oval, 1882; 2nd Test, Melbourne, 1894-95; 4th Test, Old Trafford, 1909

Real sowing vs. reaping vibes today

England batted for 67.3 overs in the entire match, their shortest total in an Ashes Test (where they lost all 20 wickets) since 1888.

Aus will need to score the highest total to win the match.

Which they are well on track to doing.

Christ, that was brutal.

That was something

Got my head on head

Astonishing innings from Head. What a player.

England? Pfft. Basically everything that was suggested; under-prepared, admirable vs ludicrous 'sticking to the gameplan' mentality and a generalised air of hubris. Brisbane could be messy.

Joe Root on 70..

Well done Root, with an excellent final wicket partnership too

Can I just say:

lol england

Worth a lol or two

vmic

Oops.

https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12040/13484655/the-ashes-snicko-operator-admits-mistake-led-to-incorrect-alex-carey-not-out-decision-during-third-test

Might have mattered if the series was alive.

Ashes null and void

Head still remains fixed on Head

speaking of Trinidad, I've been watching the WI regional final last couple of days. feel like Jayden Seales could end up being WI's best cricketer since Lara packed it in

and one of their boys has just seized the all-time Test 6th-wicket stand from Bairstow and Stokes, with a bit of help from Roston Chase