Hopefully, someone from this thread can help me out.
We read an English case today where a woman lived near a cricket oval (field? pitch?), and was hit on the head by a batted ball as she stood in her front yard. She sued the team for her injuries.
Over the course of the discussion, someone said, “Well part of the goal of the game is to hit it out of the field.” And someone else said, “No, you don’t get any runs if you do that.” And we - stupid Americans - quibbled about that for a few minutes.
So purely out of curiosity, I’ve been educating myself on the game of cricket, but I can’t seem to figure out the answer to this question. Yes, I’ve figured out that if the ball lands beyond the boundary rope without bouncing, that’s worth six points (runs?), and is desirable for the batsman (robin?). But I can’t figure out what happens when the ball is hit entirely out of the field of play, into the stands or whatnot.
So is that still worth six? Does this happen often? If it’s in a stadium, does the lucky spectator get to keep the ball? Do kids bring keeper-gloves to cricket matches in hopes of catching the ball (quaffle?)?
I’m not a cricket afficionado, but I think the batsman gets credited with six runs. I don’t think there are any penalties for hitting the ball out of the ground. I don’t know how often it happens. It probably depends on how big the ground is. It happens all the time when visiting international cricket teams play Australia in a country town called Bowral (in NSW) because they’re playing on what is effectively a suburban park/oval and the batsmen’s shots frequently end up in one of the neighbour’s front gardens.
I suggest you watch this video (44 secs.) of Garfield Sobers striking Malcolm Nash for six sixes in one over.
We see the final four balls, two of which land in the stadium and two of which are struck beyond the perimeter. The last delivery is hit totally out of the ground and was last seen heading in the general direction of Swansea city centre. Each momentous blow was worth, and duly counted for, the statutory six runs.
If the ball is hit out of the stadium it is unlikely to be returned. The umpires wheel out a box of used balls and invite players from both sides to agree on one which most closely resembles the condition of the lost ball. The game then continues.
Where the ball is hit into the crowd it is normally thrown back onto the field of play. I’ve seen some impressive catches taken by spectators, some of them the worse for a few beers, but never by someone wearing a pair of keeper gloves.
I’m pretty sure that, in practice, the captain of the fielding side and the two batsmen have more involvment in the selection process than is indicated above.
The condition of the ball makes a big difference to how easy or hard it is to score runs with it, and also how it moves on the pitch. A new ball is shiny, hard and bouncy with a thick equatorial ridge formed where the two halves are sewn together. Quick bowlers will be able to bowl quick because the ball loses less energy when it bounces. Also they’ll be able to get it to move sideways off the seam which can make it more difficult to hit. If the batsman hits it well though, then it’s more likely to go to the fence for 4 or 6 runs. An old ball has a flattened seam, is softer and won’t bounce as much. By smoothing one side of the ball with spit and polish (trousers normally) it can be made, by some bowlers, to swing. It may generally be easier to hit as it tends to get used by slower bowlers but it takes more work to hit a long way.
So as the ball wears during play, the advantage can change from batsman to bowler and vice versa. It is then in everyone’s best interests to try and find a replacement ball which is similar to the one that’s been lost.
Wearing gloves in the audience, baseball-style, wouldn’t make much sense, because the only player who uses them is the wicket-keeper directly behind the batter. All other catches are made with bare hands.
It used to be the case that a batsman only scored 6 if he hit the ball out of the ground and it was declared “lost” (Law 34 of the 1884 Code).
I believe there was a brief period in the early 1900s when a hit over the boundary without bouncing (which is nowadays a 6) but not out of the ground was worth 5 but I cannot find the relevant amendment.
It’s as bad as those people who move near to a church and then complain about the noise of the bells on Sunday mornings. I think In a couple of cases they have even succeeded in permanently silencing the bells.
My father was headteacher of a local primary school. One of the houses the far side of the playground wall changed hands…and the new owners started complaining about the noise made by the children. How tempting it would have been to relocate games of football, and indeed cricket, to that location.
Footnote for Americans: I understand it is imperative that a baseball be changed the instant it shows any sign of wear. It’s much different in cricket (possibly because a worn ball isn’t considered to impose an unfair risk on anyone) and we normally aim to get about 500 uses out of a new ball (as in, it will be bowled about 500 times before it is changed).
Indeed, for reasons obvious from the excellent explanation above, strategy and tactics can revolve around the availability of the new ball - restricting scoring for a while with defensive bowling by the second-string bowlers, in order to give the best attacking bowlers a rest so that they will be fresh for the new ball, and not concede too many runs in the meantime.
I beg to disagree. The land for Riley Park in Calgary was donated to the city, IIRC, with the stipulation that cricket was the only game to be played there.
You’re kidding, right? The umps impart a little wear before the ball ever enters the game. I saw this on the tube the other night while recuperating from Austin Texas heat. Mind you, I’m not an avid baseball fan, but I’d never heard of such a thing.
I do expect some fan to jump in and correct me with insignificant details. That’s okay.
BTW; cricket is much funnier than baseball.
Peace,
mangeorge
So, that law would take effect if, say, the cricket ball happened to drop into a spectator’s bag, and he or she hid it and nobody else realized that this person had the ball?
“Now I would say that that was also a very curious event.”
No. What the ump may do is rub the ball a bit to help remove the patina that each ball has from having been conditioned. This makes the ball less slippery. You rarely see this anymore on the screen because the balls are prepared in advance of the game, so that there is no need to break up the flow of the game, IIRC.
Yeah, the guy on television was, I think, an assistant equipment manager. He sat there with a can (3lbs) of this mud and was rubbing it on many boxes of balls.
I just remembered, the show was “Dirty Jobs”.
I got the feeling that all the NBA balls got rubbed.
but that would be justified