Would appreciate if someone could fight my cricket ignorance (maybe even with analogies to more familiar sports like American football or baseball scores.) What kind of score difference is considered to be a trouncing in cricket, and what’s considered to be average or a squeaker?
You at least want both teams to bat twice .A real trouncing is when you enforce the “follow on” and win the match without batting again.
If the last team to bat wins without getting down to the middle order that another bad loss.
in the short form of the game, say a 20 over match. If one team scores perhaps 155 and the next team reaches that target with 8 wickets and 10 balls remaining. Even though those margins don’t sound huge it would still be looked upon as a bit of a trouncing.
Cricket matches vary in length, depending on the competition.
‘Test’ matches (which are between countries) can last up to 5 days.
As bluezooky said, a trouncing here is where one side only has to bat once and gets the opposition out twice (for a lesser total.)
In 2002, Pakistan scored 643-10 in one innings, defeating New Zealand who scored 73-10 and 246-19 in their two goes.
Pakistan won ‘by an innings and 324 runs’.
An average result could be a draw, where time runs out whilst one side is still batting.
In 2007 Sri Lanka scored 548-9 against England who scored 351-10 and 250-3. Match ‘drawn’.
A close result is where one side is bowled out in their second innings (both sides have batted twice) within a few runs of winning.
In 2013 England scored 215-10 and 375-10, whilst Australia scored 280-10 and 296-10.
England won ‘by 18 runs’.
(There have been very few tied Test matches.
In 2011 India scored 482-10 and 242-9, whilst West Indies scored 590-10 and 134-10.)
In England there is County cricket (a bit like a US Inter-State competition.) These matches last 4 days and a trouncing / average / close result would be similar to Test matches.
There are also one-day matches (which are over in one day!) and the fastest format of all - ‘20-20’ matches where each side has one innings of just 20 overs (i.e. 120 balls are bowled.)
Here a trouncing would be winning by (say) 143 runs (Pakistan beat West Indies by this margin in 2018).
Most ‘average’ matches are close anyway, because of the tight time limit.
A ‘close match’ would be by 1 run (which has happened several times.
A large part of the joy of cricket is just how volatile and variable games are. A team chasing runs could look like they will win comfortably and then within a few deliveries be struggling. Or alternatively, they could be struggling and with one good partnership be on top.
Two recent games illustrate this splendidly. When Sri Lanka chased down 304 against South Africa last month during the course of the innings they were cruising, then struggling, on top and looking like winning, then virtually no chance at all before miraculously winning.
In the Big Bash final the next day having kept the Renegades to just 5-145, the Stars were cruising at 0-93 in the 13th over and then suffered one of the biggest collapses in BBL history.
They turned a boring routine victory into a boring routine loss by the time they got to the final overs.
It’s a pretty common event for games to be a lot closer than the bland numbers on the scorecard indicate.
Thanks everyone, still confused though unfortunately. I guess there is no substitute for just…learning the game thoroughly.
Part of the difficulty in answering clearly is that a winning margin can be either in wickets or runs, depending on how the victory was achieved. If the winning team bats last, then it’s said they won by x wickets, ie however many batsmen they had remaining when they acheived the winning number of runs. If they bowl last, then the margin is in runs, ie however many runs they were ahead when they bowled the opposition out. There’s no mathematical equivalence between runs and wickets.
In Test cricket, there’s also the time limit to consider. For example, a team might win by a large numerical margin but only on the last ball of the fifth day. If the opposition had survived one more ball it would be a draw.
Perhaps a more empirical measure.
In the sub-district competitions my son plays all the games are one dayers, with 50 overs per side.
If the team achieves a “big” win they get a bonus point.
A bonus point is earned if the win (either the team batting second scores the target runs or is dismissed) is achieved by the end of the 30th over i.e. 60% of the available overs.