Cricket!

So I've become a new fan of cricket, that confusing game strangely named after an insect. I've gotten into the Australia v. England one day internationals, watched the national final in Adelaide between South Australia and New South Wales, and watched my friends' son's under-11 cricket match this weekend.

Basically, it's kind of like baseball but not really. The pitchers are called bowlers, strikes are wickets, points are runs (similar to baseball), and each team gets to bat, but there are less innings. The game is played on an oval rather than a field.


The bowler bowls an over, which is 6 balls, and then they switch bowlers. Depending on the type of game, the number of overs changes. The one day internationals are 50 overs each side. Batters are out when they hit a ball and the fielders catch it in the air, or they miss the hit and the ball knocks the little pieces of wood on top of the wicket off. Then a new batter comes in and they do that until all the overs are bowled or all the players are out.


The object of the game - to score more runs than the other team. The "run chase" is pretty much the most exciting part of it - when the team to bat second (or last) has to beat the other teams runs score to win.

(This is me trying my hand at bowling...)

It's surprising out addictive this game is. I'm becoming obsessed and I want to play!