IPL Cricket
- Thread starter JM
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Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Yes, I am fond of cricket myself, though I did not like it that much at school. It later became an acquired taste. My ideal day off work is watching an England test match.
jambo
Puritan Board Senior
Cricket! There is nothing worse and I think only the English can invent a game that can last 5 days and still be a draw.
That said, about 10-12 years ago my youngest son and I attended one of these 40/40 matches between Somerset and Yorkshire. I must say I enjoyed it and found it a typical English summer activity. I liked the relaxed family nature of the crowd and such a pleasant contrast with a football crowd I would be more used to. There were women knitting as they watched and regardless of which county scored a 6 or a 4 the crowd would hold up a card with a 6 or a 4 on it. I wouldn't normally go to a cricket match and didn't think I would like it but my son wanted to go. I thought I would be bored so brought a book to read but didn't open it once as I got quite engrossed in the game. I would not normally expect to use 'excitement; and 'cricket' in the same sentence but it was exciting
match going down to the final over of the game.
That said, about 10-12 years ago my youngest son and I attended one of these 40/40 matches between Somerset and Yorkshire. I must say I enjoyed it and found it a typical English summer activity. I liked the relaxed family nature of the crowd and such a pleasant contrast with a football crowd I would be more used to. There were women knitting as they watched and regardless of which county scored a 6 or a 4 the crowd would hold up a card with a 6 or a 4 on it. I wouldn't normally go to a cricket match and didn't think I would like it but my son wanted to go. I thought I would be bored so brought a book to read but didn't open it once as I got quite engrossed in the game. I would not normally expect to use 'excitement; and 'cricket' in the same sentence but it was exciting
match going down to the final over of the game.
PezLad
Puritan Board Freshman
6 balls in an over. 2 batsmen at the crease. One on and one off strike. Depending on the format, 20-20 (20 overs), odi is 50 overs, test match is 5 days with 80 overs a day (about), hitting ball over boundary on full is 6 runs (runs are like points), on the ground is 4, if it remains within ropes, the batsmen run between each end (and this constitutes 1 run each time), if the fielders return the ball and hit the wickets before they return to crease (either end) they are deemed run out. If the wickets are hit during bowling it is out. If the batsmen hits the ball to a fielder on the full it is out. Their is a bowling crease and a batting crease, and the non strike batsmen waits from the other end and cannot move past crease till ball is bowled. If the ball hits the pads in line with stumps this is deemed LBW (the umpire makes a decision). There are other technicalities, but this shall suffice.
PezLad
Puritan Board Freshman
i really watch for fast bowling which is the most entertaining. Unless you have faced a decent pace bowling yourself, it is hard to understand the physcial intimidation of getting wacked on the body. The batsmen are allowed to bowl at the body, hwoever the ball cannot be bowled on the full, it must hit the ground and bounce up to strike the body. And yes, a couple of years ago a man by the name of Phillip Hughes died after being hit in the back of the head by a bouncer.
Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I honestly did not know where to start. You have made a valiant effort at explaining things. @ReformedBrit is a well-known cricket enthusiast who may be able to say a bit more.
ReformedBrit
Puritan Board Freshman
Hi @JM. As @Reformed Covenanter mentioned, I am somewhat of a cricket lover so I'll see if I can make a fist of explaining the basics. As @PezLad mentioned, there are three formats to the game. I will start with IPL (which a tournament of Twenty20 cricket) since this was the subject of the OP and is the tournament currently going on.
The aim of the game is to have scored more runs (think points) at the end of the game than your opposition. You take it in turns at being the batting team to try and score runs (this is an innings). The game is played on strip of grass called the wicket or the pitch, at either end are a set of 3 stumps (a bit like wooden poles) and have two small bails resting on the top called wickets.
There are 11 players on both teams and the batting team must always bat in pairs. In a Twenty20 game, you have a maximum of 20 sets (called overs) of 6 deliveries (called balls) from which to score. The other side, called the fielding side, use all 11 players on the field and arrange themselves on the field in such a way to stop the ball when hit by the batman. They may place the fielders wherever they wish within the restrictions - for IPL, this is the first 6 overs of the batting team's innings you are only allowed 2 fielders on the boundary (the rope that goes round the outside of the ground) and the other fielders must be close in. From overs 7 - 20 this is relaxed to allow 5 fielders back. A member of the fielding side is then nominated as the wicket - keeper who stands directly behind the batsman and gets to wear gloves, and another is nominated as the bowler who will deliver the ball to the batsman. Each bowler is allowed to bowl a maximum of 4 overs in a T20 game.
The batsmen have two main goals: 1. To score runs and 2. To not get out.
1. To score runs, the batsman generally has to hit the ball and then try to run to the other end of the pitch before the fielder returns the ball (they swap places with their partner). If they do so, they score 1 run. If they managed to run again they score 2 and so forth. If the batsman manages to hit the ball such as it crosses the boundary rope, then the batsman automatically is awarded 4 runs. If the batsman manages to hit the ball over the boundary rope without it touching the ground at any point, they are awarded 6 runs. There are other ways runs can be scored, called extras, that normally involved mistakes from the fielding team, such as the ball being bowled so wide the batsman cannot hit it.
2. The other objective is for them not to get out. Strictly speaking, there are 9 ways to be dismissed in cricket, and several of them are so rare I won't mention them. The 5 types of dismissals you're likely to see are:
a. Caught - the batsman hits the ball in the air and the fielder catches it before it hits the ground.
b. Bowled - the ball hits the wickets behind the batsman and dislodges the bails.
c. Run out - the batsmen attempt a run but the fielder throws down the wickets before the batsman can get there (he must cross the white line called the crease to be deemed safe)
d. Stumped - similar to the run out. Sometimes, a batsman will walk down the pitch in order to hit the ball, leaving the 'safe zone' behind his crease. If he misses and the wicket keeper takes the ball and dislodges the bails on the stumps before the batsman makes it back, he is out stumped.
e. LBW - stands for leg before wicket. I will not go into all the complexity of the LBW rule, but suffice it to say that if the ball strikes the batsman's body (usually his leg) without having hit the ball and the umpire deems that the ball would have go on to hit the wicket were it not for the batsman's leg in the way, the umpire will make the decision that the batsman is out LBW.
The batting team's innings is over after either 1. 10 out of their 11 players have got out (you must bat in pairs so the last man cannot bat alone) or 2. the allotted number of 20 overs is passed. Typically, a team in a T20 game may score 170 runs in their innings. Innings with <150 runs are normally deemed a small score, and innings >190 are normally deemed a very big score.
Once the team's innings is over, the teams swap over and the fielding team becomes the batting team and vice versa. The second batting team tries to better then other teams score. If they do, they win. If they don't, they lose. If they tie and have exactly the same score, then the match goes to a 'Super Over' where each team has one more over each to score as many runs as they can. The team with the highest score in that 1 over win. If there is another tie, there is another Super Over etc until a winner is found.
The IPL is a great competition, drawing the best talent available from around the world, as well as the upcoming domestic Indian talent. Each team is allowed to field up to 4 overseas players with the other 7 having to be Indian. As has already been mentioned, there are multiple forms of cricket that do vary slightly, and T20 is the shortest.
I hope this all made sense! Feel free to come back at me if you want more - I always love introducing people the best sport God gave us
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