That was a hell of a way to go out, although even when I knew how it ended I was still peeking through my fingers to watch it in trepidation.
Thats because he is hitting it out of park most of the time. Its 4 runs if the ball crosses the boundary, 6 if gets there without bouncing. Otherwise its one run for everytime the batsmen exchange ends.
Running between the wickets is an exceptionally important part of the game. And quite technical. See this video from one of the greatest.
I can certainly understand the importance of running, and also to be coordinated with the other batter as well. That said, I’ve seen runners almost run into each other when crossing each other on several occasions. With all the skills required this is one that I thought they would have all mastered. “Stay to the right!” 
I too turn on Willow when there’s no other sports on, and appreciate Cricket, but baseball is a much more evolved sport just for the base running strategy alone that puts more pressure on the players on both sides of the ball. Kinda like the NFL is an evolved version of Rugby and soccer, which is why we ignore those inferior sports as well.
From pitching v bowling, it’s one thing to bounce a ball at 90 mph and hope it hits a wicket before the batsman gets to it, versus throwing a 98 mph fastball in a 6 square foot aerial zone without the batter either hitting it or hitting the batter with the ball. In Cricket they change bowlers every so many throws no matter what, in baseball a pitcher may have to throw these pitches 130+ times a night, often to the same batters again and again.
The batter not only has a smaller stick, but almost has to “guess” where and when to swing, hence even the top batters in baseball are lucky to make to first base more than 30 percent of the time. There is no freebie 4 runs if the batter hits the wall, he has to judge whether to take the single or stretch for more bases depending on how the ball was hit and how he fielder reacts.
I could go on, Cricket is a nice sport, and I get they love to throw around and bat a ball around then have tea and krumpets at lunch time in their cute little white outfits, but I submit to you the best cricketer on the planet could not hold a MLB players jockstrap.
No offense, by the way.
nice try, but you’ll find that us cricket folks don’t tend to be so intentionally insulting and are used to having to educate those from a less complicated sporting background, It isn’t your fault you’ve missed the subtleties of the great game.
In cricket, the easiest ball to hit is what is called a “full toss” i.e. a ball that reaches the batsman without bouncing. Hitting the ground doesn’t make it any easier to hit. Quite the reverse. The ball can move through the air or only after it hits the ground. And of course the ground conditions change hour to hour and day to day. And of course hitting the ground means that the condition of the ball changes and it has to last the best part of a full day of play. There is a whole area of expertise regarding how best to look after or deteriorate the condition of the ball, roughing it up, shining one side, raising the seam etc. so as to give the bowler the best chance to extract the required swing and movement.
Also as already mentioned, the bowler is rarely hoping or expecting the ball to hit the wicket. most times they aren’t even aiming at the stumps. That error alone suggests you don’t know much about cricket.
They don’t have to sprint in to deliver the ball through do they? Plus the pitchers are allowed to throw to generate speed, bowlers cannot. It must be a straight arm.
So you are agreeing that there is not much finesses to baseball batting? Hit and hope? In cricket the batsman is looking to place the ball wherever possible in order to maximise the runs scored. That involves playing shots through a full 360 degrees and at all strengths and with a dizzying variety of shots types. A harder hit can make it more difficult to run.
most scoring in cricket is not gained through boundaries, it is gained through running so the same issues apply to cricket, though of course a cricketer is having to make so many more of those decisions during the course of the match., and your best batsman only gets, at most, two chances at being wrong in course of a full 5 day game.
Heh! yeah. In cricket it is a perfectly legitimate tactic to bowl directly at the batsman’s head or body. Plus the fielders stand closer and don’t use gloves to help them catch even though the ball is harder and heavier than a baseball.
So nice try, but clearly you’ve never played or watched cricket so consider your ignorance fought.
Well played Novelty Bobble!
Russian Heel, although Cricket and Baseball are very different sports I believe a good Baseball player, had he been brought up in a Cricketing country would have become a good Cricketer, and vice versa. Very different games, but both requiring the same general natural talents.
IIRC she has said she dreamt up the rules rapidly without much thought never thinking it would matter, then realised she had locked herself into nonsensical rules about which people actually cared but which - after the first book had come out - she couldn’t change.
To be fair, a silly runout for this reason happens only maybe once every couple of games, which is to say once every few hundred runs.
One of Australia’s greatest wicket keepers, Rod Marsh, said he once made the mistake of having his hands x-rayed. There were cracks and healed breaks everywhere. The result was so scary he vowed never to do it again.
Nah. It’s correct that the bowlers bowl 6 balls then swap with another bowler who does the same, in turns. However, if someone’s bowling well then their captain will try to keep them bowling indefinitely. And that can certainly be for 120 balls. They can be changed but there’s no rule they must be. The same as baseball.
And top cricket batsmen hit a scoring shot no more often. There’s no difference here.
There’s freebie runs if the batter hits a home run. And anything less than that and both a baseball and cricket batter have to judge how many runs/bases to try for. It’s exactly the same.
Here’s some things to think about: bowling at the body is allowed in cricket, not baseball, and a cricket ball is harder and heavier. Cricket players are not allowed gloves and have to catch barehanded a ball that is harder and heavier, and at some positions they are standing only a few feet from the batsman. In baseball, the pitcher is penalised for pitching anywhere other than the “butter zone”. In cricket, the bowler can bowl to the left or right of, or straight at, the batsman, from the batsman’s head to his toes, directly or on the bounce. The bounce is from a (real) grass pitch with cracks, which wears out over the course of the match such that the height and direction of bounce is slightly unpredictable. A cricket batsman may have to sprint (in the course of a single innings) over a mile, in short bursts.
I challenge you to think of a single statistic regarding which a baseballer has to be fitter or tougher or more brave than a cricketer.
And he was not a man that scared easily. Few were of his vintage as the reality of West Indies pace and scant protection meant only the stoic survived. (one of the later bowlers bore the nickname “whispering death”)
Always worth mentioning Brian Close in such discussions. There is a famous picture of his bruised side after facing the Windies. Ouchy!
Link is here, pic is halfway down, you’ll know it when you see it.
In fact, if you follow her Twitter feed over the next few weeks, you’ll see her devotion to the cause of Scotland’s Rugby Union team, as they try and fail to make any impact on the 6 Nations. Anyone who’s interest in sports extends as far as supporting Scotland at any sport, let alone rugby, is - far from being a disliker of sports - in need of some kind of intervention.
But we digress from cricket.
Batting is first and foremost an exercise in judgement. In the immediate term, reading the bowler, anticipating the ball and getting your bat in the right place. But where the right place is depends on so much more than the direction, speed and spin of that particular ball: How is the field set and where do you want to place the ball? Are you looking for big scoring shots or milking the bowler for singles and doubles? If you don’t need to score right now, do you need to put bat on ball at all? What about this particular bowler - can you gain a strategic advantage by scoring so much off him that his captain pulls him from the attack, or should you wait him out and pick a weaker bowler to score off later? How much time do you have? What’s more important for your team - wickets or runs? How much risk should you be taking? How is your partner batting - do you need to preserve your wicket to let him score freely or protect him from the bowling?
The greatest batsmen can adjust their play radically to meet the needs of the match situation - witness de Villiers, who is capable of scoring at a phenomenal rate when he sets his mind to it, taking 6 hours and 297 balls to score just 43 when battling for the draw against India. These long drawn out stonewalling performances may not have the high-octane thrills of T20 but as a demonstration of focus, judgement and self-control they can be awe-inspiring.
They could if they had a nice big glove to do it with.
With my view of these matters; I feel that with the above, she has inadvertently created some lovely satire on sports and their besotted followers !
Unless (to be cynical) – in fact, with her being English, though resident in Scotland and married to a Scotsman: she’s faking this enthusiasm in an attempt to butter up the sports-mad Jocks, and make them more accepting of her…
Highly disappointed that this was not a satirical link to a video of Inzamam’s greatest running mishaps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQh70VV-RaY
This is what happens when batsmen don’t run well in a game of cricket.
Good summary.
Even so, as I’m sure you’ll agree (and to hammer it home to those unfamiliar with cricket) this is not even a complete list of the considerations and variables open to the batsman, nor was it intended to I’m sure. And this doesn’t even attempt to consider the greater number of tactical and stragegic variables at the disposal of the feilding side.
Heck, Even before you select a side for a test match you have to consider whether the pitch/weather/ball type/opposition line up will favour a particular balance of batting/bowling for your own team. And even then, which type of batting and bowling…in what proportion? etc. etc.
Its not good for my blood pressure.
And these days Hafeez…:smack:
However, interestingly, his teams mates have recalled that Inzamam was actually pretty quick between the wickets, his problem was calling, which he never got the hang of, he would often run without calling or not run at all without calling or instead of speaking make a motion, or not pay attention to the fielder or his partner; in short he proved that it is not that easy.
Oh gods no. I’m not even sure I’m competent to produce a comprehensive list. And of course as you say the bowler is considering many of the same points from his perspective, and the batsman knows that, and the bowler knows the batsman knows that…
To briefly illustrate, one of the finest pieces of batting I ever saw was Sangakkara in a T20 WorldCup - not the most recent one. Sri Lanka were batting second and falling gradually behind the run-rate. No sooner had the commentators pointed out that they really needed to accelerate than Sangakkara skips down the track to the next ball and hoists it for six. Next ball, another venture from the crease, another six. Crowd wakes up, the commentators start predicting an onslaught. Next ball… a safe single.
Sangakkara had been alive to the scoreboard situation, quickly put on the runs his team needed and having scored them, took his foot back off the accelerator and returned to quietly accumulating runs in a low-risk fashion. As a demonstration of both skill and judgement it was masterful. They won comfortably.
Another notable was Dennis Compton.
Also the entire Australian line-up during the 80s when batting with Graeme Wood.
On the other side of the run-out equation was a certain Mr. Boycott. It wasn’t incompetence on his part but more that he made damn sure it wasn’t going to him standing with his cheese in the wind. (TM Ed Rooney)
Of course such things come back to haunt you and on one memorable occasion a young “Beefy” Botham engineered a run-out for Geoffrey (the captain at the time) in order to move the scoring rate on. Legend has it that when asked by Boycott “what have you done?” Botham replied “I’ve run you out you cunt!” Not his best quip but it showed a degree of promise from the young all-rounder.