I can't believe it but I stayed up to watch a cricket match for the third time this week. My friend and I watched the Pakistan-West Indies match with wikipedia open and figured out most of the rules. Then I wathed two IPL matches this week. I'm very surprised, it's a really cool sport. Having grown up with baseball I didn't think I would ever watch a cricket match, but I was pleasantly surprised. The 360 degree field makes it a much more complex game.
A few questions though, if you bowl and the batsmen doesn't swing and the ball doesn't hit the wicket, does that count as one of the 6 'throws' in an over? If so, than why not just throw terrible bowls that the batter can't hit (way too high for example)? Also, what if the bowler throws a bad pitch and the catcher (forgot the name in cricket, the guy that stands behind the wicket with gloves) doesn't catch it? Can the batsmen run?
Also, when can you change bowlers? Only in between overs? And why/when you do so? Just to rotate and rest the bowlers? Or is there some strategy involved? Another thing I noticed is that one of Bangalore's bowlers, Chris Gayle (some big Jamaican guy) I think his name was, wouldn't bounce the ball (by that point the quality of the stream was bad, so I'm not 100% sure, but that's what it looked like). He threw it right toward the batsman, who would hit it in the air. Is this normal?
Another thing is that apparently the IPL is new...what did they do before that? How could the world's biggest cricket nation not even have a league? And where did the top cricket players play before the IPL came into being?
A few questions though, if you bowl and the batsmen doesn't swing and the ball doesn't hit the wicket, does that count as one of the 6 'throws' in an over? If so, than why not just throw terrible bowls that the batter can't hit (way too high for example)? Also, what if the bowler throws a bad pitch and the catcher (forgot the name in cricket, the guy that stands behind the wicket with gloves) doesn't catch it? Can the batsmen run?
Also, when can you change bowlers? Only in between overs? And why/when you do so? Just to rotate and rest the bowlers? Or is there some strategy involved? Another thing I noticed is that one of Bangalore's bowlers, Chris Gayle (some big Jamaican guy) I think his name was, wouldn't bounce the ball (by that point the quality of the stream was bad, so I'm not 100% sure, but that's what it looked like). He threw it right toward the batsman, who would hit it in the air. Is this normal?
Another thing is that apparently the IPL is new...what did they do before that? How could the world's biggest cricket nation not even have a league? And where did the top cricket players play before the IPL came into being?