July 17th, Australia Day 146

I mentioned in my last post that one of the signs that you have been in Australia too long is that the sport of cricket becomes entertaining and begins to make some sense. At this moment Australia is playing England in England in the Ashes Cup tour and I have found myself watching the game with anticipation. Prior to arriving in Australia I knew of the sport of cricket but I couldn't really grasp the rules and it seemed to be a bizarre sport to say the least but like all things, once you immerse yourself in it, you realize that it really isn't all that complicated.

In cricket, one team bats and the other team defends at any one time. Every time a team goes to bat it's called an "innings" and depending on the type of tournament, a team can have up to 2 innings. When batting there are always 2 players from the batting team together, called a "partnership" and they are the ones who score runs. The batters, called "batsmen" stand in front of a "wicket" which consists of 3 vertical poles called "stumps" on between which rest 2 horizontal sticks called "bales" on either end of a short ground known as the "pitch". The object of the batsman is to protect the wicket otherwise he will be out. When the ball is thrown at the batsman, he endeavours to hit it with the bat, in any direction. If the ball is hit and rolls to the edge of the ground, called the "boundary", then 4 runs are given to the batting team and if the ball clears the boundary from the air, then 6 runs are given. Whenever the ball is hit, a batsman may choose to run and score runs. Both batsmen in the partnership must make it across a line, called the "crease" in front of the wickets before the ball hits the wicket in order to score a run. In any one innings, a team is allowed to field 11 batsmen.

The defending team consists of 11 players on the field placed in any manner that the captain desires. They are placed strategically for each batsman in order to maximize the opportunity to stop or catch the ball, thus preventing runs. The person who throws the ball is known as the "bowler" and he runs up and bowls to one batsman at a time. He must take care that when he bowls his foot does not cross the crease on his end or the umpires will rule it a "no-ball" and a run is awarded to the batting team; the same thing would happen if the bowler bowls a wild ball. The defending team tries to get batsmen out and as soon as 10 batsmen are "dismissed", then the innings is over. There are 10 ways to get a batsmen out but I will only list the more common ones, which are the ones I have seen. If the bowler bowls a ball, the batsman misses and it hits the wicket, then the batsman has been "bowled out". Given the same scenario but the ball hits the batsman's leg instead of the bat or the wicket, then he can be called out on a "leg before wicket" or "lbw". In this case the umpire would decide if the ball had not hit the batsman's leg, would it have hit the wicket and if he decides that it would have, then the batsman will be called out. The third way is for a batsman to be "caught out" which is if he hits the ball and a fielder catches it without letting it touch the ground. The last common way is for a player to be "run out" which is when the ball hits the wicket they are running to before they reach it. Whenever a batsman is dismissed you will see the defending team celebrating like crazy. This is because unlike in baseball, once a batsman is out, they can no longer bat for the remainder of that innings. Add to that, in baseball any one player is worth only 1 run but in cricket, there is no limit to how many runs any one batsman can score and getting 200 runs while rare, is not unheard of. When a batsman scores 100 runs in a single time at bat, it is called a "century" or a "ton".

Depending on the tournament, the style of play varies. The most famous tournaments are those that last 5 days and are called "tests" where each team is allowed 2 innings; in the past games went on even longer and the longest in history lasted 11 days. The innings will only end if 10 batsmen are dismissed or if the captain of the batting team calls the innings over. More popular now are the "limited overs" games which take all day to play, or maybe even only a few hours. Each over consists of 6 "balls" (legal throws from the bowler to the batsman) and recently there have been 50 overs games as well as a new 20 overs game called "20/20". The object, is to score more runs than your opponent by the time your innings is over. If you bat first, you try to get as many runs as possible but if you bat second, then the object is for you to outdo the other team by at least 1 run in order to win.

All this was a lead up to something that happened to me on Tuesday; I won my first cricket game. That day I actually played 2 games, the second was a rematch, with an acquaintance of mine who plays cricket for a local team. This was a 1-on-1 game with some unusual rules but we decided to play a 5 overs game with what I call "safe balls". The first 2 balls of any over are "safe", you can't get on them but the next 4 are "danger balls" (another one of my terms) and with them you can get dismissed. I bowled first and I thought I got him on an lbw on the fifth ball of the first over when my opponent had just 17 runs. I thought his leg was in front of the right side of the garbage can we were using as a wicket and after some arguing I allowed him to continue; he ended up scoring 72 runs by the end of the fifth over. When it was my turn to bat I made a great showing getting 38 runs by half way through the second over and I was well on my way to winning when I knocked the tennis ball we were using too high and not far enough and I was caught out.

After that game had ended, my acquaintance suggested a rematch using different rules and only 3 overs. The rules, known as "indoor" cricket rules, say that the full 3 overs must be played and anytime someone is out, then the batting team loses 5 runs and the safe ball rule was also done away with. I agreed and again bowled first. I managed to get him out 3 or 4 times, leaving him with only 10 runs by the end of the third over. I then went to bat and had 43 runs with 1 ball left in the second over; if I scored any runs, I would win the game, but if I got an out then I would have to continue. He bowled and I got a 6 run shot, thus insuring my victory, 49-10. Although I've lost a number of games to him, I look forward to playing again.

Other than that, not much has happened in Sydney other than another baseball game on Saturday. I had an average game with a ground out to third and then a walk. While my batting average is not so good, my on-base average remains high. With that ground out to third, I almost got a single but the ball beat me to first by a step or two. Actually from first base, after my walk, I eventually made it home on a hit but our team still lost 12-7 even though we led 7-6 going into the last inning. We had been down 6-4 going into our last at-bat but we pulled off a great comeback but then so did the other team; my quest for a victory continues.