Cricket...

ya perl is easy

perl is basically about people in white clothes standing around, running and leaping in the sun

they dont even wear the white clothes anymore ;_;

it is like the polyphonic spree but with more balls

... and better songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpsxaDvtOTw

ok everyone im gonna try. this is what i got from louis' explanation in the other thread and from watching it some:

11 guys on a team. everyone gets a turn to swing the stick at the ball once or twice (depending on the type of match).

when you hit the ball you run from the stump youre standing near to the other one (and maybe back again depending on how far you hit it).

you get to keep swinging the stick at the ball over and over again until the ball hits the stump or is caught by the opposing team in the air - at which point you are out!

the field is round.

That'll do for now

^^^ the basics, beautifully rendered

i'm just in a bad mood because the red sox got swept by the yankees

well, my mood will alter depending upon whether my beloved worcestershire can pull off an unlikely and heroic victory against durham this afternoon.

My mood was improved immeasurably on listening to Broad and Bopara bat last night - and noting that Stuart Broad looks like an elongated Ziggy (from Big Brother)

*sigh* The pitch is oval.

*sigh* The pitch is rectangular, the ground is oval

stone monkey, that is the worst piece of attempted pedantry i've ever seen

and there is only one Oval. (well, two if we're counting the one in barbados)

wait a minute we ARE condescending pricks.

:-D

let us now be welcoming and let the people taste cricket howsoever they wish

oh baseball fans also need to understand this point: the batter and pitcher are both in the CENTER of the playing field! there are no foul balls. so hitting it behind you is just as good as hitting it in front of you. mindbending.

*sigh* that's CENTRE not CENTER

hitting it behind you is liable to have you caught by the wicketkeeper or the slips, though.

(the slips stand in an arc around from the wicketkeeper to the side you're facing when you're in your batting stance)

haha tom

unless they are a leg slip.

mate, sometimes even I don't understand leg slip

(newbies, leg slip is a very archaic position and it's never used EVER. unless alastair cook is batting.)

cricket is sort of like if american football teams were allowed unlimited chances to advance 10 yards -- and you could score in either end zone

Now you've lost me

in the interests of transatlantic comity, here is an interesting page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_cricket_and_baseball

(the slips stand in an arc around from the wicketkeeper to the side you're facing when you're in your batting stance)

I prefer to face the bowler myself.

Cricket's bowlers are grouped into different categories based on their bowling style—pacemen, seamers, off-spinners (or finger-spinners), leg-spinners (or wrist-spinners)

Uhhhhhhh, where is SWING bowling? Oops, forgot to sigh... *sigh*

swing is just a feature of pace bowling

How do you define "pace bowling" tho? I mean, if you're going to separate seamers from pacemen? You don't have to be a pace bowler to swing the ball, any more than you have to be a pace bowler to seam the ball surely?

Tom it's wikipedia, just add "and so on" to that list

pacemen, seamers

does not compute, there are genuinely quick bowlers who also seam it about, e.g. makhaya ntini

Tom it's wikipedia

Yes, silly me

Well that list is kind of bollocks.

There are Fast Bowlers 80-9, Mediums and Slow bowlers (who are 99% spinners)

Fast and Medium pacers can exploit swing.

With some bowlers, swing is all they've got, hello Matthew Hoggard

Sorry, that was a but unfair on Hoggy

You leave Hoggy alone....

The Bowlers Holding The Batsmans Willey

This is the lamest sport in the world apart from that thing the US calls football that stops every five seconds.

amirite?

hoggard bowled beautifully on our last tour of india in non-swinging conditions; his length was superb, his line consistent, and he developed an ability to cut the ball (essentially, spin it at pace; it doesn't turn much but it can be very effective)

i wonder what heave ho makes of pakistan's many cricketing controversies, like the oval forfeiture last year, or the reprieves handed out to 'drug cheats' shoaib akhtar and mohammed asif (who's shaping up to be a bowling great). i wonder who his favourite players are, in fact. mohammed hafeez, perhaps? or possibly danish kaneria?

Mohammed Asif is brilliant

p.s. i'd never have kicked pakistan out of world cricket for any of their offences. some people have something against them, but i think they liven the sport up like you wouldn't believe. it's NEVER dull on or off the pitch with the green army around

there's something v. similar in baseball called a "cut fastball" or "cutter", which is almost as fast as a normal fastball but has movement on it

taking sides: chad bradford vs lasith malinga for wackiest ball release action in sport?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_(baseball)

haha steve also don't forget kent tekulve... or josh papelbon, seen here:

http://www.kieranchapman.net/images/weblog/joshpapelbon.jpg

In cricket, defeating the batsmen through ball deviations is achieved both through the air and off the pitch (sometimes both, if you're a top-quality spinner). How does baseball manage to have such a variety of different deliveries when the legal target is so small and the ball can't bounce?

It doesn't

argh ffs my beloved worcestershire have lost to durham, now we'll be relegated for sure ;_;

as this is the cricket ephemera thread not the rolling cricket match thread i shan't ask you to pass comment on yr lads' rickety bowling or suliemann benn's fielding/presence in international sport, may revive the other one tho, which will confuse ppl