Cricket News from NZ

[kevin_standlee]

While working from home today, I set up my other computer to listen to day 4 of the England-New Zealand cricket test match on RadioSport. (Click on "listen live" to get the free radio feed.) The first three-plus days of the match have been rather listless, and it looked like it was going to be a draw, but things went a bit wild during the later part of the day, including one of the England bowlers taking a hat trick (three batsmen on three consecutive balls). It was an almost overlooked hat trick, because he did it across two overs.

(Cricket is played in "overs" of six balls, each over bowled from opposite ends by different bowlers. In this case the bowler took a wicket (got the batsman out) on the last ball of an over, so there were six intervening balls from the other end by the other bowler before he bowled again, whereupon he got wickets on the next two balls.)

So it looks like they'll go to the fifth and last day of the match tomorrow with a chance of either team winning it, rather than drifting along to a draw.

Like baseball, cricket is a game where something nothing happens for a long time, followed by a bunch of frantic action all at once. And like baseball, it's a pretty good sport for listening on the radio.

Comments

[crookedfeet.livejournal.com]

Lee and I were at the Giants-A's game last weekend, and ended up sitting next to some Giants fans from the UK who now live in the Bay Area. The score got lopsided rather quickly, and the Giants weren't playing the best baseball, so as we had been talking about cricket, asked him if he'd rather be at a cricket match. The score was 8-0 by now, so he said-"Well, it is a cricket score."

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, a score you'd have only a few minutes into a match, though. *laughs*

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with cricket through the radio - and it was nothing (at first) to do with the sport itself. When I was a teen, my best friend was Guyanese. In the early 70s, the West Indies were touring England, and if I wanted to spend time with him, it was clear that I had to spend time also with Test Match Special.

John Arlott's voice. It's been called the sound of summer. Add that to the mix of eccentricity and expertise all through the team, and I just adored it. By summer's end I loved the game as well, but it was the people who got me there.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an interesting analogy to Baseball. This East Coast Living makes it hard to listen or watch Cricket online.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, if you weren't busy this afternoon, you could listen to the first portion of the fifth and final day of the England-NZ match, which will start at 4:30 PM your time.

It's worse for the England supporters who are at home; they have to be up all night if they want to listen/watch their team play.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

My ex-husband used to be a part-time cricket commentator on RadioSport. Turns out it's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Of course back in those days following the New Zealand team was rather less depressing than it is now.