I like the idea of being a cricket fan - sitting in the sun for the day, relaxing while watching a game go on - but in reality I find it boring. Especially as I don't understand the rules. But even I watched the last hour of the cricket world cup final yesterday. And what a thrilling hour it was.
The good thing about it was that there was a set number of overs (6 balls bowled is an over), fifty to be precise, and the result depended on the number of runs scored. So there was a limit and it was easy to understand the scoring.
When I started watching - in between flicking over to see who was winning the Wimbledon men's final - England was batting and needed a total that seemed unreachable. Not impossible but unlikely. I forgot to mention that the final was between New Zealand and England - correctly called England and Wales, although I don't know if there were any Welsh players, and it was only on the official boards that it was given its full title. To all intents and purposes it was England.
Anyway, it came down to the wire and the result ended as a draw, meaning they played a Super Over. What's that I hear you ask. Each team bowls and bats for six balls and the team that gets the most runs wins, although, strangely, the rules said that if this ended in a draw then England would win. I have no idea why. Maybe it was their ball.
Again it came down to the last ball of the match. And England won!
Even I leapt out of my seat cheering.
Today the papers are declaring it 'probably the greatest cricket match ever!' Not that they go overboard or anything.
5 comments:
Cricket is a complete mystery to me but congrats to England!
Me too, Debra!
I triple that emotion.
England won because in the 50 overs they'd scored considerably more boundaries than NZ.
It's all simple really ....
Well clearly not eventually it was admitted the umpires got it wrong. There was the throw that came off Stokes bat to go for a further 4 runs The umpire signaled 6 but as the ball hit his at before he was in the crease the run he'd not completed should not have counted. It should have been 5 for that ball. So NZ should have won by one run in the 50 overs....
I've only ever seen prep school matches so could umpire if I had to, but why anyone would want to is anyone's guess.
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