The US cricket team orchestrated a shocking defeat of powerhouse Pakistan following a dramatic Super Over victory at the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup on Thursday in Dallas.
This T20 form of cricket is shorter, and is not much longer than other US sports. I still don’t get it, though. I work with a bunch of folks from India and they have tried to explain it to me, to no avail.
To put it simply, cricket is taking turns to bat/bowl where one team ‘bowls’ : where everyone spreads out on the field and on person bowls the ball down the pitch at the current batter.
The other team ‘bats’ : two players are in the centre of the field and try to hit the ball. After hitting the ball, the batters will run between each end of the pitch and each time they cross over and make it to the other end this is counted as a ‘run’, however if they manage to hit the ball out of the field boundary - if its in the air: automatic 6 runs, or after a bounce/along the ground: automatic 4 runs).
The batters can get ‘out’ by 1. They miss hitting the ball and the ball hits the wickets (wooden poles) behind them. 2. They hit the ball and it is caught on the full (before it bounces). 3. They hit the ball, but while they are running between the ends of the pitch one of the fielding team throws the ball at the wickets whilst the batter is still out of the ‘crease’ (safe zone at each end, like a baseball base). 4. Blocking the ball from hitting the wickets with their body (usually leg), but only IF it was going to hit the wicket if they didnt block the ball.
Once 10 of the 11 players on the batting team are out, the batting & bowling team swap sides and then the winner is the one with the most runs made by the end of the day/days depending on the type of match.
There are some other technical rules and aspects but thats it in a nutshell, but you can see why it would be a slow game where batters try keep the game at their pace to not be rushed and be calculating with when they want to take risks or big shots.
Which is where T20 comes in, each team gets 20 ‘overs’ each (an over is a set of 6 bowls from the bowling side, so 20 overs is 120 individual bowls at the batters). After 20 overs, or all players on the batting side getting out, the teams swap sides. T20 changes the game from a couple batters holding on as long as they can (which can be hours to over a day each for the better batters on each team) to the batters taking big risks - big swings, more 6’s and 4’s, more risky runs up & down the pitch because they dont have the time for strategic & slow methodical gameplay. This makes the games last only a couple hours total, usually played at night with more intensity & excitement + pyrotechnics, colorful outfits, more energetic commentary, etc.
TL:DR - Cricket is like baseball but played on a much bigger field, instead of running between bases they run up and back down the pitch, each player only gets the one ‘out’ per game and the whole team gets out before they swap sides.
That said, I’m guessing American football is about as confusing to them as cricket is to us. I didn’t realize T20 was the same as Twenty20 cricket (although I actually should have because I do know the difference between that and normal cricket). I tried to figure it out once myself. I kind of get it. Admittedly, the whole physics of the thing is kind of interesting, but still over my head.
In fairness, I find the rules for American Football confusing, too, and I’ve been watching all my life. I am still not quite sure what Pass Interference is anymore. My kids are not sports fans at all, and when I explain what is going on it makes it all sound like Calvinball.
Baseball is a bit simpler in that respect. “Tag the guy after you catch the ball” is simple, as is “safe” vs. “out”. We’ll just skip over the infield fly rule, or whatever the hell a balk is. (I admit, one of the things I miss about the Other Place is the liberal application of Jon Bois’ Balk Rules copypasta…)
Pass interference is basically attacking the person instead of the ball before it’s caught. It’s up to the refs to decide how much PI they let slide though because a 100% clean game wouldn’t be fun to watch and would get stopped nearly every passing play.
There’s a lot of other confusing rules too like designated receivers, illegal shift, and one about linesmen being to far forward.
PI and Holding specifically are rules that I, a man who has spent 1000s of hours in his life watching or reading about football, cannot understand anymore. At times it appears as though they are purposefully vague so they can be used to add drama
The biggest beef I have with the PI rules is that it seems extremely easy to force a PI call on an underthrown ball. Most teams who are trailing late in the game and have a guy who can throw 80+ yards try this trick at least once, where they send a guy on a deep route and purposely underthrow, so the defender can’t help but be in the way. That gets flagged as PI more often than not, and makes a huge difference in outcomes.
Sometimes I wonder if the refs bet on the trailing team to cover the spread.
This T20 form of cricket is shorter, and is not much longer than other US sports. I still don’t get it, though. I work with a bunch of folks from India and they have tried to explain it to me, to no avail.
Do you not get cricket or T20 in particular?
To put it simply, cricket is taking turns to bat/bowl where one team ‘bowls’ : where everyone spreads out on the field and on person bowls the ball down the pitch at the current batter.
The other team ‘bats’ : two players are in the centre of the field and try to hit the ball. After hitting the ball, the batters will run between each end of the pitch and each time they cross over and make it to the other end this is counted as a ‘run’, however if they manage to hit the ball out of the field boundary - if its in the air: automatic 6 runs, or after a bounce/along the ground: automatic 4 runs).
The batters can get ‘out’ by 1. They miss hitting the ball and the ball hits the wickets (wooden poles) behind them. 2. They hit the ball and it is caught on the full (before it bounces). 3. They hit the ball, but while they are running between the ends of the pitch one of the fielding team throws the ball at the wickets whilst the batter is still out of the ‘crease’ (safe zone at each end, like a baseball base). 4. Blocking the ball from hitting the wickets with their body (usually leg), but only IF it was going to hit the wicket if they didnt block the ball.
Once 10 of the 11 players on the batting team are out, the batting & bowling team swap sides and then the winner is the one with the most runs made by the end of the day/days depending on the type of match.
There are some other technical rules and aspects but thats it in a nutshell, but you can see why it would be a slow game where batters try keep the game at their pace to not be rushed and be calculating with when they want to take risks or big shots.
Which is where T20 comes in, each team gets 20 ‘overs’ each (an over is a set of 6 bowls from the bowling side, so 20 overs is 120 individual bowls at the batters). After 20 overs, or all players on the batting side getting out, the teams swap sides. T20 changes the game from a couple batters holding on as long as they can (which can be hours to over a day each for the better batters on each team) to the batters taking big risks - big swings, more 6’s and 4’s, more risky runs up & down the pitch because they dont have the time for strategic & slow methodical gameplay. This makes the games last only a couple hours total, usually played at night with more intensity & excitement + pyrotechnics, colorful outfits, more energetic commentary, etc.
TL:DR - Cricket is like baseball but played on a much bigger field, instead of running between bases they run up and back down the pitch, each player only gets the one ‘out’ per game and the whole team gets out before they swap sides.
That said, I’m guessing American football is about as confusing to them as cricket is to us. I didn’t realize T20 was the same as Twenty20 cricket (although I actually should have because I do know the difference between that and normal cricket). I tried to figure it out once myself. I kind of get it. Admittedly, the whole physics of the thing is kind of interesting, but still over my head.
In fairness, I find the rules for American Football confusing, too, and I’ve been watching all my life. I am still not quite sure what Pass Interference is anymore. My kids are not sports fans at all, and when I explain what is going on it makes it all sound like Calvinball.
Baseball is a bit simpler in that respect. “Tag the guy after you catch the ball” is simple, as is “safe” vs. “out”. We’ll just skip over the infield fly rule, or whatever the hell a balk is. (I admit, one of the things I miss about the Other Place is the liberal application of Jon Bois’ Balk Rules copypasta…)
Pass interference is basically attacking the person instead of the ball before it’s caught. It’s up to the refs to decide how much PI they let slide though because a 100% clean game wouldn’t be fun to watch and would get stopped nearly every passing play.
There’s a lot of other confusing rules too like designated receivers, illegal shift, and one about linesmen being to far forward.
PI and Holding specifically are rules that I, a man who has spent 1000s of hours in his life watching or reading about football, cannot understand anymore. At times it appears as though they are purposefully vague so they can be used to add drama
The biggest beef I have with the PI rules is that it seems extremely easy to force a PI call on an underthrown ball. Most teams who are trailing late in the game and have a guy who can throw 80+ yards try this trick at least once, where they send a guy on a deep route and purposely underthrow, so the defender can’t help but be in the way. That gets flagged as PI more often than not, and makes a huge difference in outcomes.
Sometimes I wonder if the refs bet on the trailing team to cover the spread.