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2nd Ashes Test, Holy Cow!!!

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2nd Ashes Test, Holy Cow!!!

Postby Ricardooon » Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:10 am

England win by 2 runs, god I need a drink...

Rich
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Postby Felonius_Monk » Sun Aug 07, 2005 6:53 am

Jeez, that was pretty astonishing. Couldn't believe after 3 and a bit days it came to one shot or one ball to win it. Just catching my breath. BRING IT ON!
The Monkman J[c]

"Informer, you no say daddy me snow me Ill go blame,
A licky boom boom down.
Detective mon said daddy me snow me stab someone down the lane,
A licky boom boom down." - Snow, 1993
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Postby Kuso » Sun Aug 07, 2005 4:40 pm

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Postby k3nt » Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:37 am

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Postby Kuso » Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:12 am

Ashes = big biennial test cricket best-of-five series between Australia and England... Australia has recently been whipping up on some pom a$$. See for details.

Pom = Aussie pejorative term for English

test cricket = full cricket matches that can last up to 5 days (one day is a break)... as compared to one-day cricket. And, yes, it can end in a draw after 5 days (don't ask how).

Test cricket matches are usually won by dozens of runs (sometimes over 100). The second match of this series was won by England by just 2 runs. As an interesting side note, 10 of the 15 closest test cricket matches have been England-Australia matches. This win pulled the series even 1-1.

The end of the match seemed to be quite exciting. England had taken a big lead in the first innings, but fell apart in the second innings (no, the English choking with a lead? never!). Australia was making a comeback, and it looked grim for the English. IIRC, Warne, a class bowler (like a pitcher) was batting when he accidently kicked his wicket over. Basically, he tripped over some sticks in the ground, and for reasons not worth discussing, this means that you are out. I saw the replay on the news, and it just looked like a stupid error -- the kind of thing a pitcher would do when batting in baseball. This was within about 80 runs of the win target, so this put a lot of pressure on the last two batsmen -- there was no room for error.

Anyway, as Australia was within 2 runs, the English hanging their heads in imminent defeat, and the Aussie batsman doesn't quite get all of the ball, and the wicket keeper (like a catcher) makes a spectacular catch to win the match.

For some reason, the English think that they have a chance to take 2 of the next 3 after backing into this victory. IIRC, I think the Aussies have some key injuries -- not sure. Anyway, Ladbrokes have England as a 5/2 favorite to win the Ashes -- this must be English over-optimism. I'm thinking of taking a big part of that bet.

Any English folks want to explain to me why I shouldn't?

[edited for spelling]
Last edited by Kuso on Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby MVPSPORTS » Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:30 am

Kent... just another funny Brit thing... Somethin that keeps em busy and another reason to hit the pubs... .
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Postby Felonius_Monk » Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:15 pm

Australia should be overwhelming favourites for the series, still. Their best bowler (pitcher) Glenn McGrath is injured at least for one more match, though, and their quickest one (Brett Lee) might be out for the next one too, which gives England a chance. They still have Warne who is maybe the greatest bowler ever, though, and who has the most wickets (errr dismissing an opponent's batsman) in test cricket history.

Cricket is a game for 11 players. Both teams bat twice, and the team at the end with the most runs wins (very much like baseball). Unlike baseball, the advantage is very much with the batsmen and not the bowlers, so scores of 400+ runs occur pretty often.

At the start of the match the two captains toss a coin, the winner can choose to bat first or second; usually they'd bat first, though the australians made a mistake in this particular match by putting england in to bat, under the impression that the weather conditions and first day pitch would offer the best conditions to bowl england out (it didn't as they piled on 400 runs in quick time). The batting team send out two batsmen whose job it is to hit the ball bowled by the bowlers of the other team. The bowlers deliver six balls at once (an "over") before another bowler has to take over from the other end. The pitch that they bat on is about 22 yards long and there's a wicket at each end, basically some vertical sticks. The fielding side spread out around the pitch in more attacking or defensive fielding positions, depending on what is required by the game state. One of the fielding side has gloves and acts pretty much like the catcher in baseball, stopping any balls that go past the batsman.

The job of the fielding side is to get 10 wickets (or rather, dismiss 10 batsmen) from the opposing side to bowl them out. There are a number of ways a batsman can be out - if the ball gets past and hits the stumps (the wicket thing behind him), he's out bowled (similar to being struck out in baseball, except you only get one chance!). If the batsman hits the ball in the air or edges it behind him to the wicketkeepr or slips (attacking fielders who stand behind the batsman in case the bowler can induce him to flick it off the edge of the bat) he's out caught (like a fly-out in baseball). If the ball hits the batsmans legs or body and would go on to hit the wicket (adjudged by the umpire), providing it's in a line between the wickets at either end, he's out lbw (leg before wicket). If the batsmen hit the ball and run between the wickets (each time they cross to the other end they score one run) and a fielder picks up the ball and throws or knocks down the stumps at the other end, they're run out (yep, like being run out in baseball). There's a few other ways to be out, like Warne was out hitting his own stumps. Whilst it looks dumb from a distance, part of the reason is that he's a bowler (and thus not very good with a bat in his hands) and england's two quickest bowlers (harmison and flintoff) both bowl at over 90 mph and are both about 6 foot 6, meaning the ball comes at brutally fast speed and may cause some real hurt if it hits (it's similar in weight and hardness to a baseball, but there's no rule preventing you bouncing it off the pitch directly at the batsman's head or body in test cricket). He got pinned further and further back by the bowling, hence he was standing too near his wicket and under the pressure i guess he went off balance and trod on it.

As for the batting team, they're trying to avoid getting out whilst racking up runs. Each time they hit the ball, they can run from one end to the other (22 yards or so), scoring a run for each time they get in at the other end, so one shot can pick up 2 or 3 runs if it's hit far enough and they run across enough times. If they hit the ball all the way to the outside of the field, usually 70-odd yards away, without a fielder stopping it they get four runs (a boundary) and if they hit it all the way in the air, they get 6.

Like baseball, there's tons of subtleties that take a while to get used to. Unlike baseball, the batters have more than about 2 possible shots, and can play with a vertical, horizontal, or even reversed bat and hit it in any direction, although there are some more conventional ways to play. Some of the most fun times comes when the bowlers of one team have to bat at the end of their innings, they're usually the last ones in because they usually can't bat as well as the batsmen, and often make a real mess of things whilst trying to smash the ball to all corners. The subtleties of bowling are too many to go into, but, like in baseball, with the different pitches, there's a lot of ways to make the ball do things to get the batsmen out:

Bowlers are mainly separated into two groups (though there is some overlap); quick bowlers, who bowl it as fast as possible and who can make the ball deviate from the pitch by hitting the seam in the centre of the ball, or by swinging it through the air like a curve ball, and who (unlike in baseball) are fully allowed to attempt to knock the batsman's head off with a leathered cork ball at 90mph (although some of the best bowlers, like Australia's Glenn McGrath, achieve their success by being awesomely accurate, and putting the ball at a slower speed into exactly the areas the batsmen don't want it, i.e. directed right at their wicket every single ball). Spin bowlers intentionally bowl it slower but use a flick of the wrist or fingers to make it spin or bounce in unusual ways off the pitch. Shane Warne, who plays for Australia, is the best spin bowler in the history of the game.

England and Australia are traditionally two of the best teams in cricket, the other main ones being the west indies (a combined caribbean team which had the world's fastest and meanest bowlers in the 70s, 80s and 90s, but which sucks now) and south africa (who were banned for years because of apartheid). Cricket is the number one sport in the asian sub-continent and the fastest growing one too, with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all having teams of varying levels of ability. Some african countries and new zealand also play.

In recent years the australian team has been basically unbeatable and one of the best ever. This year England have improved massively; in the last 18 months they won 4-0 over 5 games in the caribbean, swept new zealand and west indies 3-0 and 4-0 in home series, and then won a tight but deserved 2-1 victory in south africa, before beating a poor bangladesh team 2-0 in two games this summer. So they're expected to give australia a tough fight in what is the biggest test series in world cricket, the ashes.

In the first game in London, England rattled the aussies with some wuick bowling to knock them over for 190 in the first innings in a couple of hours, but australia fought back, bowled england out for even less and then went on to win it.

In the second game, Australia's main fast bowler Glenn MccGrath got injured in the warm up and Australia chose to let england bat first, england smacked 400 runs in double-quick time, bowled australia out for 300 and then collapsed to get knocked over for 180 in their second innings. Australia needed 282 to win, England knocked over 8 of their ten wickets quickly and then the aussie bowlers gave a proud fightback to almost win in an incredible turnaround, before england's best bowler, steve harmison, bowled a fast bouncer at their number 11 batsman and had him caught by the wicket keeper with only 2 runs needed to win. Man of the match was england all-rounder Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff, who took 7 out of australias 20 wickets, and scored 70-odd in the second innings including smashing some of the aussie bowlers out of the stadium.

So it's 1-1 with 3 games to play, and because these two teams are aggressive there's likely to be no draws. England probably need to win the 3rd game with McGrath still injured to have a chance of winning the ashes, which has been in australian hands for 16 years and about 8 series now. At the start of the summer I thought 3-2 to australia, i'd still go along with that I think.

Kuso, if you can get better odds than about 2:1 on for australia I'd definitely take them. Odds on for england is outrageous; it's a real home-team odds, that. I'd say australia are about 3:2 on to win, england should be maybe 2:1 against at best. Draw is unlikely.

Next test starts this thursday, keep up-to-date with it at www.bbc.co.uk

Monk
xxxxx
The Monkman J[c]

"Informer, you no say daddy me snow me Ill go blame,
A licky boom boom down.
Detective mon said daddy me snow me stab someone down the lane,
A licky boom boom down." - Snow, 1993
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Postby Felonius_Monk » Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:26 pm

Photos from the 2nd test can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket ... 126724.stm
The Monkman J[c]

"Informer, you no say daddy me snow me Ill go blame,
A licky boom boom down.
Detective mon said daddy me snow me stab someone down the lane,
A licky boom boom down." - Snow, 1993
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