Only 98 runs for the Aussies in their first innings. England coming up.
Hugh Jackman will actually be doing some batting against another celebrity at the tea break. It could be Nicole Kidman. I have to see that.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
A NEWBIE DECIPHERS THE ASHES
Because I love the podcast "The Bugle", I have been turned on to something called "The Ashes", which is an international test series of cricket played between England and Australia every other year or so.
This year, they are playing in Australia because it is Australia's turn. England currently holds "The Ashes" trophy, which is not really a trophy except that it is. Or something. Anyway, they are playing cricket, and I know nothing about it, but I am learning, slowly.
The Ashes is played out in five test matches. Each match lasts five days. There are three (or four) possible outcomes of a match: either Australia wins, England wins, there is a draw, or there is a tie, which is extremely unlikely. Let's look at the draw first. This happens when neither team can get the other side out twice within the five day period. To win, you must outscore your opponent (more on that later) after they have have been bowled out twice. Ok, what the hell does that mean? You get bowled out when 10 of your batsmen take a wicket. What is a wicket? It's like an out in baseball. Just like an out, there are many, many ways to accomplish it. The most common ways are by the batsman hitting the ball and the ball being caught before it hits the ground, or by the bowler to bowl it past the batsman and have it strike and knock down some sticks placed in the ground (which are literally called "wickets").
If the batsman doesn't take a wicket, he either hits the ball on the ground, misses it but does not have the wickets fall down, or he hits it where the other team ain't. If he manages to do the latter, he can run between two sets of wickets placed about 22 yards apart, which counts for a run. Every batsman has a teammate at the opposite wicket who also runs when he hits it. I'm not exactly sure why, but go with it.
You automatically get four runs if you hit the ball on the ground, and it rolls all the way to the boundary of the pitch. You automatically get six runs if you hit the ball in the air past the boundary (kind of like a homer).
You can also get out if, whilst you are running between wickets, the other team fields the ball and throws it and knocks down one of the wickets. You need to be careful while running that you can make it safely to the other side.
That's basically it. You can follow the action with that much knowledge, but there have been over a hundred years of terminology, nuance, history, and bad blood that have transpired, so listening to anyone else talk about it is maddeningly confusing, about as much as it would be for a native Liverpudlian trying to pick up baseball having to listen to Tim McCarver.
Now, on to this particular The Ashes. England and Australia drew the first match, played in Brisbane. I won't go into it, since draws are incredibly boring. Essentially, they ran out of time. That's the major problem with Test cricket. It goes on for days, and then you might not get a result. It's not exactly tailor made for Fox Sports, is what I'm saying.
In the second match at Adelaide, England won by 71 runs. This means, they scored 71 more runs than Australia did, even after Australia had closed both their innings, meaning 10 men had been bowled out twice. Got it? Anyway, Australia batted first, scored some runs, then England batted and scored a bunch of runs, and then Australia batted again, and came up 71 runs short of what England had done. England didn't have to bat again, so we say that England won "by an innings and 71 runs".
In the third match in the west coast city of Perth, Australia put up a pedestrian total of 268 runs in the first innings, but England could only muster 187 runs to counter, and Andy Zaltzman of "The Bugle" was seen renouncing his citizenship. Australia put up 309 in the second innings, and England scored only 123 runs to lose by 267 runs. The consensus was that some members of the Perth Cricket Club on the Australian side used their superior pitch knowledge to give the English batsmen fits.
The fourth test match commenced on Boxing Day (today down under) in Melbourne. Australia is batting first, and the English have recorded five wickets by just after lunch. That's another problem with cricket - the long breaks. They take water breaks, tea breaks, lunch breaks, and dinner breaks, and the inevitable weather breaks whenever it so much as sprinkles. They pretty much have to, because they play all day, but it really hurts continuity.
So, they are back after lunch, heading for tea break, when Hugh Jackman will be in the booth to talk about that new "Wolverine" movie he is doing with Darren Aronofsky. Seriously.
More later...
This year, they are playing in Australia because it is Australia's turn. England currently holds "The Ashes" trophy, which is not really a trophy except that it is. Or something. Anyway, they are playing cricket, and I know nothing about it, but I am learning, slowly.
The Ashes is played out in five test matches. Each match lasts five days. There are three (or four) possible outcomes of a match: either Australia wins, England wins, there is a draw, or there is a tie, which is extremely unlikely. Let's look at the draw first. This happens when neither team can get the other side out twice within the five day period. To win, you must outscore your opponent (more on that later) after they have have been bowled out twice. Ok, what the hell does that mean? You get bowled out when 10 of your batsmen take a wicket. What is a wicket? It's like an out in baseball. Just like an out, there are many, many ways to accomplish it. The most common ways are by the batsman hitting the ball and the ball being caught before it hits the ground, or by the bowler to bowl it past the batsman and have it strike and knock down some sticks placed in the ground (which are literally called "wickets").
If the batsman doesn't take a wicket, he either hits the ball on the ground, misses it but does not have the wickets fall down, or he hits it where the other team ain't. If he manages to do the latter, he can run between two sets of wickets placed about 22 yards apart, which counts for a run. Every batsman has a teammate at the opposite wicket who also runs when he hits it. I'm not exactly sure why, but go with it.
You automatically get four runs if you hit the ball on the ground, and it rolls all the way to the boundary of the pitch. You automatically get six runs if you hit the ball in the air past the boundary (kind of like a homer).
You can also get out if, whilst you are running between wickets, the other team fields the ball and throws it and knocks down one of the wickets. You need to be careful while running that you can make it safely to the other side.
That's basically it. You can follow the action with that much knowledge, but there have been over a hundred years of terminology, nuance, history, and bad blood that have transpired, so listening to anyone else talk about it is maddeningly confusing, about as much as it would be for a native Liverpudlian trying to pick up baseball having to listen to Tim McCarver.
Now, on to this particular The Ashes. England and Australia drew the first match, played in Brisbane. I won't go into it, since draws are incredibly boring. Essentially, they ran out of time. That's the major problem with Test cricket. It goes on for days, and then you might not get a result. It's not exactly tailor made for Fox Sports, is what I'm saying.
In the second match at Adelaide, England won by 71 runs. This means, they scored 71 more runs than Australia did, even after Australia had closed both their innings, meaning 10 men had been bowled out twice. Got it? Anyway, Australia batted first, scored some runs, then England batted and scored a bunch of runs, and then Australia batted again, and came up 71 runs short of what England had done. England didn't have to bat again, so we say that England won "by an innings and 71 runs".
In the third match in the west coast city of Perth, Australia put up a pedestrian total of 268 runs in the first innings, but England could only muster 187 runs to counter, and Andy Zaltzman of "The Bugle" was seen renouncing his citizenship. Australia put up 309 in the second innings, and England scored only 123 runs to lose by 267 runs. The consensus was that some members of the Perth Cricket Club on the Australian side used their superior pitch knowledge to give the English batsmen fits.
The fourth test match commenced on Boxing Day (today down under) in Melbourne. Australia is batting first, and the English have recorded five wickets by just after lunch. That's another problem with cricket - the long breaks. They take water breaks, tea breaks, lunch breaks, and dinner breaks, and the inevitable weather breaks whenever it so much as sprinkles. They pretty much have to, because they play all day, but it really hurts continuity.
So, they are back after lunch, heading for tea break, when Hugh Jackman will be in the booth to talk about that new "Wolverine" movie he is doing with Darren Aronofsky. Seriously.
More later...
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