A couple cricket questions

curtis290

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1,203
Reaction score
1
Points
36
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?
 
1) Yep. You can't throw the ball too wonky because that'd get called as a wide and the opposition gets two (IIRC) runs, or possibly a no-ball, which means they get a "free hit" at the end of the over which they can't get out on. And yeah, if the bowler bowls it badly and the wicketkeeper misses it the batsmen can run.

2) You can change bowlers only between overs. You can do it for a range of reasons; tiredness, tactics (say if a batsman was bad against spin, change to a spinner) or just plain mixing it up.

Heh. Chris Gayle was bowling what is known as a "full toss". You don't want to bowl them generally, since they're easy to hit.

IPL is new, but there are three forms of cricket. There's five day, 50 over and 20 over. IPL is a 20 over sport. Top cricket players play in leagues all over the world, though England and Australia are the strongest leagues. In both England and Australia they play all three forms of cricket in a season. Not too sure about India's leagues past the IPL.
 
isn't a wide, one extra run and a free hit instead of two?
 
Last edited:
Wides are one extra run and the ball isnt counted as one of the 6 of an over, so for instance if i bowled 2 wides in an over my over would be 8 balls long.

A No ball is given for a few reasons. One reason would be the bowlers front foot is over the line from where he is bowling from(the whole foot has to be passed it).
Another reason is if a ball is bowled without hitting the ground like a full toss but it is above waist height as that is a "beamer" and is very dangerous.
The final reason which is implemented in some forms of the game is if the bowling team bowls over head height after bouncing more than a set limit per over (think your allowed 2 in 50 over cricket and 1 in 20 over cricket).

No Balls award a run to the opposition without wasting a ball of the over and the next shot in 50 over and 20 over cricket becomes a free hit.

Also on a side note, bad balls(like really wide ones) are alot of the time easier to hit
 
also, if a no ball is bowled, the shot can still be played, and if the batter is caught, gets bowled or lbw, it doesn't count, the shot can be played, and you can only get run out on a no ball. i think that's correct...
 
The 360 degree field makes it a much more complex game.

:D That made me LOL. First time i heard someone talking about 360 degree. Mate, it is not at all complex. Trust me..

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?

There is a marking, if the bowler bowl outside that marking, it is called wide and 1 run will be awarded for the batting team and the bowl is not counted as one of 6 balls.


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?

Mate, there is nothing called bad pitcher in the game. If the keeper misses the ball, batsman can run as many as he wants. It is called Byes. These runs are called Extras. Not for the batsman. The guy who stand behind wicket is called Wicket Keeper.



Also, when can you change bowlers? Only in between overs? And why/when you do so?

Rule is bowler cannot bowl consecutive overs. So after 1 over, other bowl should bowl 1 over before the same bowler bowls again.
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?

Yorkers. Bowl that pitch near the foot where batsman can't get any elevation. Hardest ball in the cricket to score. Usually you find so many yorkers towards the end of the game.

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?

IPL is new format with the main intention to promote local talent. But it tuned out into money making machine.

In Cricket club cricket or franchise is negligible, main emphasize is on International cricket. IPL is played for 3 months, and is not officially included in ICC schedule (ICC = FIFA).

And players who are not selected for National team plays county cricket (Involving clubs/states whatever they call)

Hope i have answered your questions and good that you have showed interest to follow this game..

---------- Post added at 07:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 AM ----------

Not too sure about India's leagues past the IPL.

We play Ranji trophy, Duleep trophy, Irani trophy.

Ranji is very prestigious trophy.
 
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)?

Every ball that is bowled is counted, expect for a few circumstances.

a) A ball that is beyond the fell reach of a batsman's bat on his right hand side{also called the offside} (for a right hander) . This is called a wide.
b) any ball more than 6 inches wide of the right hand side of the batsman.{also called the legside} (right hander). This is also called a wide.
c) Any ball that bounces over the shoulders the batsman. This is called a "No Ball".
d) Any ball that is tossed over the hip of a batsman without hitting the ground first (A full toss) . This is also called a No Ball.
e) When the bowler steps over the line while delivering a ball. This is also called a No Ball.

In all cases, the batting team gets one extra run. This run is not added to the tally of the batsman, but goes in a column called "extras". The ball also does not count as on the the 6 in an over. Wides and No Ball's are probably the cricket equivalent of what you would call a 'Ball" in baseball.


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?

If the Wicket Keeper misses the ball, the batsmen are allowed to run. If the ball crosses the line, it is considered a boundary. If the ball isn't a wide or a no ball, it counts to the tally of balls to the over. The runs that are scored when this happens are called byes. If the ball hits the pad's of the batsman, and goes anywhere in the field, they are called leg byes. Both Byes and Leg Byes do count as runs, but do not go into the batsman's score, instead they go into extra's too.

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?

Each over consists of six legitimate balls. No bowler can bowl two consecutive overs. Each form the game, has different rules as to the number of over any bowler can bowl. In test cricket ( The five day version) , a bowler can bowl as many overs as he wants. In the 50 over game, a bowler can only bowl a maximum of 10 overs. In the 20 over game, a bowler can only bowl 4 overs. Things like rotation of bowlers and fatigue come into play, and also if the batsmen are right handed/ left handed , the bowlers bowling hand etc. An interesting fact that you might not have noticed, but in between every over, the strike changes. So the guy who was facing the bowler in the previous over is now at the non strikers end. What actually happens is that the batsmen remain put where they were, but the entire fielding side moves around. So if the bowler was running in from the west end the previous over, he would now have to run in from the east end. This change happens at the end of each over. So this way, the pitch condition, the length of the boundaries, wind direction etc all change with every over. This may also be a factor in switching bowlers.


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?

Like what the person above me said, this ball is called a yorker. The intention of a bowling a yorker, is to pitch the ball after the bat, but before the legs of the batsman, but right in like with the stumps / wicket. This is probably the toughest ball to score runs of when bowled properly, but also an extremely tough ball to bowl as well, because if you don't get it right, the batsman can hit you out of the park; which was what was happening to Chris Gayle.

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?

Cricket is predominately a national sport. But all countries have their own domestic leagues for all formats of the game. The IPL is only four years old, but county cricket in England for at least 150 years and more than 100 years in India. The club version of the sport might never take off and reach the extent of the NBA or the EPL etc because national teams like India are on the road for more than 200 days in a year. The best players might never be able to fully play club level cricket , purely because of the tight national schedules and you will have league teams / clubs filled with has beens or upcoming stars that the majority of the people might not really want to watch.

I hope I've explained as much as I could and in a way that you find it each to understand this complicated sport. It's simple on the surface, but a really complicated sport once to start falling in love with it. I also found you a link, that I've shared with many friends who have moved into this cricket crazy city I live in, and have wanted to learn and understand the game of cricket.An explanation of Cricket - Purdue
 
Sports news
Well these all things are the beauty of Cricket Game and really its going to be very popular in the world after Football Game and especially in Asian Countries because they love to play Cricket so enjoy Cricket all the times with Good shots, free hit and etc
 
Last edited:
Well PSL 5 is coming in home, I would love to watch All match live on tv. Recently PSL SCHEDULE 2020 has announced. All matches will be played in Pakistan, which is positive innitiative by PCB.
 
Top