The Babe Ruth called shot - 2023 Australian style!

[Downunder Dolphan]

Okay, cricket is a different sport to baseball (Robin Williams once described it as being like baseball on valium), but last week's Women's BBL had something extraordinary.

Grace Harris knew her bat had a broken handle, and knew it had to be replaced - but with one ball left, she said "stuff it, I'll still hit it!"

Sure enough, she did - the bat broke, and the ball flew out of the stadium. No one can dispute it either, as it was all broadcast live, every word recorded. Enjoy.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2023/oct/22/stuff-it-ill-hit-it-grace-harris-smashes-six-with-broken-bat-in-big-bash-video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oImsOJgzflA

 

[Dave Gray]

I have watched, played, and even refereed in pretty much every major and several minor sports throughout my life.  I know the basic jist and rules of just about everything.

Yet, cricket is the one thing where I just have no idea what's going on.  I was on an international flight one time and decided to watch cricket and I had no flippin' idea what the rules were or what the objective is.

[Phishfan]

I think most Americans are in the same boat Dave. It just isn't a sport we play.

Imagine what she would have done with it if she really connected with it.

[Dave Gray]

I think most Americans are in the same boat Dave. It just isn't a sport we play.

Sure, but take basketball, for example.  Even if you were an alien, you can probably tell that these guys are trying to get the ball in this hole, these guys are trying to get the ball in the other hole.  You just need to preview it for a few minutes.  I'd say the same is generally true for most sports.  You won't know the penalties and stuff, but you can see what the basic premise is.

I watched cricket and still had no idea.  It's like baseball but they're protecting these sticks from getting knocked over.

[Spider-Dan]

If you think of it as trying to watch a backyard version of the game (i.e. without refs) and figure out what's going on, baseball and cricket are equally obtuse.

Basketball and soccer are immediately intuitive... flag (or touch) football might be, but I'm not sure if the viewer would understand downs.

[Fau Teixeira]

Cricket makes sense to me. you're trying to hit the ball with the bat. if the ball is caught you're out .. if the ball hits the sticks behind the bat and the horizontal little stick gets knocked down, you're out .. if you're running between the 2 bases and the stick gets knocked down, you're out.

keep hitting and scoring runs until you're out .. if you hit them all, you could be at bat for a hundred pitches

i'm sure i butchered the terms and there's some weird british name for "bat" or "horizontal little stick"

[Dave Gray]

I don't recall there being much running in cricket, I guess was the issue I faced.  Are there bases?  It seemed like there was a lot of deflecting going on.  It's been a while.

[Phishfan]

I have never seen more than a single pitch or whatever it is called.  What happens if you crank one over the fence like in the video?

[Downunder Dolphan]

Cricket makes sense to me. you're trying to hit the ball with the bat. if the ball is caught you're out .. if the ball hits the sticks behind the bat and the horizontal little stick gets knocked down, you're out .. if you're running between the 2 bases and the stick gets knocked down, you're out.

keep hitting and scoring runs until you're out .. if you hit them all, you could be at bat for a hundred pitches

i'm sure i butchered the terms and there's some weird british name for "bat" or "horizontal little stick"

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Although a bat is still called a bat (or more specifically a cricket bat)

There are various forms of the game. Originally it was (and still is) in Test format, a 4 or 5 day marathon where each team of 11 players has two innings, the highest cumulative score if one or both teams finish wins, otherwise it's a draw (tie). Traditionally for these games players wear all white and the balls are usually red.

But shorter versions of the game have come in now - a single innings each limited to 50 overs each (like in the current World Cup international tournament) or even more recently Twenty 20 (T-20), where it's just 20 overs for each team. An over is the number of times times the batter faces a bowler (6) until it changes ends (and bowlers and presumably batters).   

[Downunder Dolphan]

I have never seen more than a single pitch or whatever it is called.  What happens if you crank one over the fence like in the video?

It's all part of the scoring. A run is the same as a point.

If you hit somewhere on the field, run to the other end of the batting pitch and touch your bat down past the batting line at the other end it's one run. Reverse and go back to do the same, it's two runs. Go back again and it's three runs, etc.

If you hit a ball to the boundary rope fence/rope of the outfield it's four runs (regardless of what you run on the pitch). Hit it completely over the fence/rope and it's six runs.