OT: Cricket WC Final
Probably not everyone's cup of tea, so to speak, but the rough equivalent to that Boise State/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl from 12 years ago was just played at the Cricket World Cup (England vs. New Zealand): extended cricket (extremely rare), batting mistakes, fielding disasters, luck. The match had it all. The only difference was Oklahoma (England) won at the end.
I actually viewed a portion of a match earlier in the year. I don't know the rules but the folks watching it were into it. It seemed okay but I got too many sporting interest as it is to get involved in another. Is there a league here in the states?
You're better off watching the IPL in India if you want a league to watch
T-20 world cup is next year. India is hosting.
I believe Australia is hosting the T20 WC next year. India hosts ICC WC in 2023.
There are leagues all over, especially in cities and college towns usacricket.org is the governing body in the country.
The IPL is the premier domestic T20 league in the world at this point. Canada (Brampton, Ontario) hosts a T20 tounament starting July 25th. Lots of big names coming over to play. Many guys from the WC that just wrapped up. Should be some good cricket.
That was absolutely nuts.
The thrown ball hitting the diving batsman's bat and then rolling to the boundary for six...
Boult Fielding the deep ball cleanly then stepping on the boundary to give up six...
The 'tie-breaker' formula...
England fully backed into the title.
Amazing drama.
Hunh? I don't know the rules or history so maybe I'm just a guy criticizing something he doesn't know about BUT...watching cricket makes baseball look like the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals.
Ya. I’d say if you knew more about how the game works... you’d retract your statement. The final today was one of the greatest sporting events I’ve ever watched... regardless of sport. It was an incredible match.
Backing into World Cup titles seems to be an English specialty (see WC 1966).
Crazy game, had both Wimbledon and Cricket games on...what a great sports day. I just didn't like how the rules gave England the W when it really was a tie
Yeah, well England didn't like it back when when Australia rolled the ball instead of bowling it, thus giving birth to the timeless lament: "That's not cricket!" (Well, it wasn't--but it wasn't *not* cricket, either.)
Wasn't that New Zealand whom Australia rolled the ball against? Early 80s I think.
It was New Zealand.
I watched the movie Lagaan many years ago (which was good IMO, although still very much an Indian movie with singing and dancing). Learned much about cricket from that and makes it easier to compare to baseball. Surprising that more people from that sport are not recruited into baseball (yes, I know there was a movie about this recently, but it doesn't really happen in the majors).
I've watched Cricket a few times and it looks cool. I just cannot, for the life of me, figure out what the heck is going on. I was on a cruise back in October of 2014 maybe? I was not excited to go on this cruise as it meant missing not one, but TWO college football Saturday's. (Things you do for the MGoWife) Those are sacred days to many of us on this site. Anyway, one of them was the Minnesota game (Shane Morris concussion fiasco). We had ESPN on the TV's but this was a Caribbean cruise. As I tried to find the game the only thing they showed on ESPN down in those parts was Cricket. And I was like...WTF!! Anyway, I thankfully missed out on that debacle which turned out to be the catalyst for change.
Where's Oklahoma England? There's an England, Oklahoma but I don't see an Oklahoma, England.
But did anyone propose to their cheerleader girlfriend after it was all over? That Boise St.-Oklahoma game had something for everybody.
Embeds for Board
I cannot make any sense out of this game.
Hey, it's English--it's what they do. Just look at tennis. Is a game, first to 4 (win by 2), or 15, 30, 40 and then words? Or, why doesn't the clock stop during stoppage in soccer? We don't know. They don't know. But those are the rules.
I'm pretty sure we can blame them for our calling it the "Foul Pole"--it's in our genes. It's almost like they're drunk on a clammy old isle when they invent their scoring systems.
Also, they have rules that dictate when it's OK to marry your reasonably good looking cousin to keep the castle in the family or to become the 11th Baron of Attenborough, which is important if you want to be a Baron, or if you like your cousin...a LOT.
I LOL'd reading that last paragraph!
100% right. English are horrible at inventing games.
There was a great quote a long time ago that I can't find, but it was something to the effect that the English have invented half the games of the known world and suck at all of them.
I was once watching American football with a Pakistani cricket fan and he had this EXACT same reaction.
Let's see if I can sum up what happened in 3 paragraphs or less.
So. The rule for the World Cup is that each team bats for one inning of no more than 300 "pitches" (don't use that word with cricket fans, but I will just use baseball terminology to simplify things) and tries to score as many runs as possible from those 300 pitches--but once they get 10 outs, their inning is over. This whole thing takes 7.5 hours--3.5 hours for each team's inning and a 30-minute break in between.
New Zealand won the toss and batted first. They scored 241 runs in those 300 pitches. So that was England's "target", and after 300 pitches, they had 10 outs and...exactly 241 runs. England was trailing New Zealand's pace for most of the match, and right near the end NZ had a chance to throw out an English batter, but the throw randomly bounced off the English player's bat, allowing what in baseball would be called 4 unearned runs. If that had been an out instead of 4 runs, the Kiwis would have won easily.
So now the tiebreaker. Each team bats for 6 more pitches in what they call the "super over." England bats first, and scores 15 runs. New Zealand gets their turn and scores exactly 15 runs--their batter getting thrown out easily trying to score the 16th run. What do they do now? You would think they would play another super over, but no. They go to a tiebreaker--the most "boundaries" in the match wins. Think of it in baseball terms as though they play one extra inning and then after the 10th inning award the game to the team with the most extra-base hits. Whatever, that's the rule. England wins, with 26 boundaries to New Zealand's 17. To add to the strangeness, this tiebreaker happened at exactly the same time as the 12-12 tiebreaker at Wimbledon, literally 8 miles apart from each other.
Is this the version of cricket where they take a break for tea at some point?
There is a meal break. But I assume you’re thinking of Test Cricket. Those matches often last days.
drinks
The tea break happens in test cricket. Those are 5-day matches, where each team gets to bat for 2 innings. A typical day's schedule in a test match goes something like this:
First playing session: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Lunch: 1:00 pm to 1:40 pm
Second playing session: 1:40 pm to 3:40 pm
Tea: 3:40 pm to 4:00 pm
Third playing session: 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
So they play for 6 hours a day over a 7-hour period.
What do they typically eat during lunch? The idea of someone eating a meal during a sporting event is pretty wild to me.
I'm not really sure, but I suspect those names are relics from long ago, and the players today probably spend the breaks sitting in the clubhouse and drinking Gatorade.
I think the only ones eating lunch during the lunch break or drinking tea during the tea break are the spectators.
If they're playing over a seven-hour period, I'd guess they actually do eat during those breaks.
EDIT: looked it up.
Huh. Good find, thanks.
When in doubt, or (like me) completely ignorant of the rules of cricket, fortunately there's YouTube for some answers.
Thanks to MGoBlog, I've learned to not criticize anyone who loves a sport that I know nothing about. It would be like hating someone who had a pony when they were growing up and then wondering why anyone who loved a pony would go from a country packed with ponies to come to a non-pony country.
I don't see how it is comparable to 12 years ago Oklahoma (traditional heavy weight) vs Boise State (tiny nobody at the time). They are both established big dogs, but typically behind Australia and India.
You have to go all the way back to 1992 to get to a Cricket World Cup that England did better than New Zealand in - of course except 2019.
2015
New Zealand Runner's Up > England eliminated in group stage
2011
New Zealand Semi-Finals > England Quarter Finals
2007
New Zealand Semi-Finals > England Super 8 (Quarter Finals)
2003
New Zealand Group of 6 (Advanced to final group stage of just 6 teams left) > England eliminated in first group stage
1999
New Zealand Semi-Finals > England eliminated in group stage
1996
New Zealand Quarter-Finals = England Quarter-Finals
1992
New Zealand Semi-Finals < England Runner's Up
Heading into the Cricket World Cup England was ranked 3rd and New Zealand was ranked 4th - not exactly a David vs Goliath disparity.
England was the number one ranked ODI team coming into the WC. And, besides, I think the original comment had more to do with insane entertainment value and bucket loads of ups and downs as opposed to being a comment on world rankings and reputation.
I think Oklahoma was a 7 point favorite going into that Fiesta Bowl. I would put England in that same category. A clear favorite (at home as well), but not overwhelmingly so.
Awesome game, cricket is kinda dying everywhere but the subcontinent so its good England won.
Here in Pakistan everyone was just beside themselves with joy that NZ beat India in the semis, especially after India purposefully tanked in the previous round to eliminate Pakistan. The final was just gravy, and boy what a final.
India's shit run chase versus England was awful. Just awful. It was like test cricket.
For those new to the sport, it's like running the ball and allowing the clock to run down when behind by 12 with 3 minutes left in the game. Better off giving yourself a chance and throwing a pick than doing that.
"Cricket!? Nobody understands Cricket! You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket!"