Wow...just...wow..

I didn't get to see the end, I had to leave for work early. The whole time I was at work, I was convinced they lost, I was writing a post in my head about how impressed I was, how except for Chris Gayle, this wasn't the team I'd been following with great disappointment since February, that they proved themselves out there, and they certainly weren't going to be #11 when they went home next year. I was ready to complain about how I hate the Duckworth-Lewis Method. Only I got it all wrong.

I wasn't alive in 1980 (I'm only 23 after all) I always thought it was exciting when Al Michaels yelled about believing in miracles, but it had never happened in real time, I've never even seen that game in real time, even on a replay. But out there today two of the Windies classiest acts Chanderpaul and Sarwan got the job done. Most people have a number they will never forget, and will always bring them smiles: 61, 14-14, Dywane Bravo will probably enjoy that 66* for a long time, but for me, I will never forget one simple pair of numbers 19* and 17*

It's too bad Brian Lara wasn't there, he probably would have been looking for someone to hug.


*this isn't actually a footnote, in Cricket if there is a star next to the run total it means they are not or were not out.

Catching you up on England-West Indies

It's the middle of day three as I write this (they're taking their tea break in about an hour) In England's first Innings, which took all of day 1 and most of day two, they went 318 all out, which is a half-way decent score, given the Jamican heat (and leaving Snowy England) and since the late afternoon of yesterday, it's been the first Innings of the West Indies who currently stand at 235/4 which is looking like a very good pace, Chanderpaul and the youngester Nash (only in his 4th test) are at the stumps and Flintoff and Panesar are doing the bowling are doing the bowling (with Flintoff and his two wickets doing most of the work) We'll be sure to keep you up to date as things progress.

Big Happenings (Way Far Away)

Well, well, we're only two days away from the start of two really big Test matches, but they're both going to be big for far different reasons. We're gonna take a look at this from east to west (since east games are going to start earlier in terms of our time) so off we go to...

...NEW ZEALAND where we find an NZ team that was absolutely brutalized by Austrailia last month and dropped all the way to 8th in the ICC rankings. The beneficiaries of that fall? Their oppoents, my friends and yours THE WEST INDIES who moved up to 7th and can maintain that spot with either a win or a draw lose, and they give a spot back to NZ, the previously mentioned Chanderpaul (seen here hitting a century against england)



will be looking to be the star this coming weekend for the West Indies, while Brendon McCullum will hope to continue to do his best and hope that he can get his side to rally around him much better than they did in that miserable Austrailia performance. From New Zealand we travel northwest to...


...India, where after the attacks in Mumbai, there were many open fears about wether this series would even be played, and whether or not the sides could be guarenteed their safety. After a team meeting the English side decided to go ahead with the tour, and look poised to make an impressive performance as one of the best teams in the world. On the other side, India will be carrying the weight of the emotional underdog, after so much strife and stress, how will the players cope? Will they channel that energy into the performaces of a lifetime? We'll find out soon enough. For those who wish to follow live scoring, WI-NZ starts at 4:30 AM EST on Wednesday, and England-India starts at 9. Good luck to all and enjoy the games.

I missed something...

You know, it dawned on me that it would probably help if I explained A) how teams can score, and what a Cricket field looks like beyond "a glorified bocce court". In premise cricket works a lot like baseball (quite frankly, baseball is a cricket rip-off geared towards people with short attention spans) Cricket fields are giant circles with a rectangle in the middle (like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Cricket_field_parts.svg/545px-Cricket_field_parts.svg.png) The bowler runs up from one side reaches the line, and bowls, and it's the batsman's job to try and hit it, the next part is highly based on strategy, as the fielders have to guess where the batsman will try and hit the ball (there are no set positions, in fact there are actually more rules as to where you can't stand than there are to where you can) on the outside of the big circle is a barrier, probably about three inches high. When the batsmen hits the ball he takes off running towards where the ball was just bowled from, he has a team mate who starts from where the batter bowled and starts running the other way, every time they reach the opposite side, that's one run.

They can run back and forth as often as they feel it's safe, there are three exceptions to the rule:
1) If the ball is caught on the fly, then that's a fall of a wicket (an out) and there is no running (cause the batsman is out, so his partner no longer has a partner).
2) If the ball rolls all the way to the barrier, or clears the barrier on the hop, that's a barrier, and it's worth 4 runs. Here are a bunch in a row:


3) If the ball clears the barrier on the fly, it's a six. Shivnarine Chanderpaul shows us how it's done in dramatic fashion.



Essentially, that's it for all the ways you can score, and that was your first introduction to the West Indies team, who I will explain in greater detail next time.