Cricket

Yep, it's complicated.

There are six balls bowled each over, and there are a variety of different bowling styles such as fast bowling (80-90 mph) and spin bowlin (40-50 mph)...the bowlers aim is both to restrict runs and get wickets. The intracacies of bowling are hard to explain. Runs are scored by running between the wicket, or if the ball goes out of the playing area to the boundary rope it is singles as a 4, if the ball passes the boundary rope whilst in the air it is a 6. Runs are also scored by leg byes, byes, wides and no-balls.

It's probably best to watch cricket to get a good understanding of the game. The best team in the world is Australia. Hope this helps alittle!

***Hence off-spin and leg-spin (also off-break and leg-break), which bounce on the respective side of the batsman***.

It doesn't make any difference where they bounce - it's the direction the ball goes AFTER it has bounced which gives rise to the terms off- spin and leg-spin.

**Swing = when fast bowler spins the ball hard and it moves in the air***

The bowler doesn't SPIN it. Instead the seam is placed so that it is pointing to slip (out-swing) or fine-leg (in-swing). The best chance of getting swing is to use the fingers and wrist to keep the seam in that position when it goes thru the air. (It may move off the pitch in the same direction if the seam hits). The bowler can also influence this by the position of the front foot and by sweeping the bowling hand down the correct side of the body AFTER the ball has gone. If the seam wobbles in the air, you've less chance of knowing which way, and how much it will move (both in the air and off the pitch).

Reverse swing is when you go for outswing, but at the last minute the ball darts in towards leg after 'shaping' to go off-side. I've get to see a convincing explanation of HOW it's done, but it's a bastard to play!

To get around to the answer, Tracer, most bowlers do not get any appreciable swing - even if they follow the textbook. There seems to be something about swing bowlers actions which is not entirely coachable, whereas most people can get some movement off the pitch (seam-bowlng).

Occasionally even the best swing bowlers findthey can't control the amount of swing and get TOO MUCH movement so that the batsman doesn't need to play the ball.

If you really wnat to get wierd about bowling we can talk about leg- spin, where the top bowlers have several viciousl spinning deliveries which are bowled with slightly different actions. Some spin one way, some the other, some keep low, some go straight on and some are bowled with lots of disguise to look like one of the other deliveries. It's bluff and double-bluff.

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.

Classic unfolding, this

"And then this absolute clown of a skipper"

Shan Masood, the Pakistan captain, said: “If you want to be one of the top teams in the world you have to learn to play in all conditions.”

LOL @ Stokes putting India in with the sun splitting the sky and the temperature nudging 30 degrees.

and without a bowling attack at his disposal either!

Three Indian centurions now. Doh!

You know who has even less of a bowling attack though?

difficult with three bowlers

Given Jadeja's record in England I'd say two and a half at best

it seems to be turning a bit but he's not putting it on the spot enough

What a great test match and it's so good to see an England team that isn't scared of chasing down a high 4th innings target. It's even better having confidence in them to do that. It's not so long ago that teams would settle for a draw.

:/

How great was that match? I didn't think the bails were going to fall. I'm surprised none of you heard my shouting for joy from all the way up here.

Yes, great stuff. India getting the score one single at a time would have been amazing though.

It looked really great.

It was phenomenal. Stokes has a way of bending reality to his will against logic

Gambhir however has some questions to answer

Australia 11-6 vs West indies

Sadly the other way around

WI batting has long been a joke but handing old Starcy the quickest 5fer in Test history is a new low

There's also something very unfortunate indeed that's been overshadowing this series and hasn't been handled at all well. I don't know much about it but I assume SV has the details

They were 0/3 after the first over

They’ve steadied the ship at 18/6.

It is difficult to know how much the allegations hanging over one of the players have affected the squad as a whole. Doesn’t seem to have affected the player in question much but I can’t imagine it’s easy for everybody else.

New Zealand still has the lowest test score - but it came under serious threat today.

This England v India test series was fantastic.

Yep! Amazing conclusion

Great ad for the game, as they say

Fantastic stuff. Epic performance from Siraj.

Just perfectly balanced, exceptional series.

Think that's probably the most one sided match I've ever seen between two top tier nations. Winning by 342 runs in a 50 over match is just astonishing

I can only imagine South Africa had one hell of a party the other night.

West Indies: What Now FFS

Second string sure but they just got beaten twice by a country that's just been couped via Discord

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5BqlgdXwAAAtzC?format=jpg&name=large

I don’t know why I hoped for anything better, but lol.

Let's see if this test can stretch to three days or not.

Green out, England on top!

sleepless night not much fun checking the score at 6.15, feeling much better now though

gonna be a fun series if neither team remembers how to bat

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.