I went in knowing a little more than nothing about the sport and picked it up as the game went on. A typical "test match" can last 5 or more days. Next down the ladder is the "one day" which consists of 50 overs for each team. Finally there is the 20/20 match where each team only gets 20 overs. There are other differences in the rules for each type of match but I can't say I've figured them all out yet.
The test match is the serious version with strategy akin to a 7 game baseball series'. The one day is more like a 2 or 3 game baseball series, while the 20/20 is a lot like a single baseball game. I believe this is the format used for professional Cricket around the world ? Traditionalists don't like them, and worry it will ruin Cricket. However, its better for TV, better for spectators, and actually pretty exciting.
Australia and South Africa are touring around playing a series of test matchs, one days games, and 20/20s.
The match we went to see was at the MCG and the attendance was 66,000. Which meant the MCG or "G" was a little over half full ! We had seats up in the nose bleeds but the view was pretty good.
It was a bit strang at first but we quickly got into it. It was cool to see the different stlyes of Bowlers ( pitcher ) and to see the different configurations of fielders the teams used. Australia was up first and had 20 overs to get as many runs as they could. Basically that meant they had 120 pitches to get as many runs as possible. They got to keep sending up new batters until they either ran out of outs ( didn't happen ) or ran out of overs. You get out by being caught out, thrown out, or bowled out. To get bowled the bowler needs to hit the wickets with the ball or hit the batter in the case where they are deemed to be blocking the wickets.
This format encourages big hits to get big hits as opposed to strategic smaller hits to get runs. In other words the risk of getting out is removed.
The Australians got a large number of runs and this put the pressure on the S.Africans to get more runs in fewer balls. This is called a run-chase. In the end they got close but ran out of balls. It was actually pretty exciting. The game took about 3 hours. The stars of the night were a young Australian batter who in his first game at this level scored 89 runs before going out, and an Australian bowler who was bowling at 150+ Km/hr .
I've been watching more matches on TV now and I'm starting to actually like it ! With the state of baseball where it is I think I might prefer to watch some Cricket over a regular season baseball game.
Hmmm, wonder if I can get the kids into cricket in Canada ??
