Cricket | A bit of a sticky wicket

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

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its not complicated, a handful of positions , then modifiers for closer in, furthur away, in 2 dimensions.

my favourite is "silly" .. which is very close to the batsmen and somewhat dangerous.

Holy sh1t..... It looks like human pinball.....'>........

[Juno]

Khd6ZHBAIbcisi0ZeWOuKOllMpVUZo5DKc1TuiMxkuA.jpg

its not complicated, a handful of positions , then modifiers for closer in, furthur away, in 2 dimensions.

my favourite is "silly" .. which is very close to the batsmen and somewhat dangerous.

Holy sh1t..... It looks like human pinball.....'>........

or pachinko!

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

Yeah, more like that......^^.......

[noddy]

his nickname is "frog in a blender"

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

Since my twittish browser connection blocks tweets:

https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/ ... 88577?s=20

[noddy]

gold.

[Nonc Hilaire]

gold.

Actually, fuscia.

[noddy]

The world cup for T20 cricket just happened and we won.

ranked 7th in the world (which is abysmal) and in the 2 series leading into this we lost badly against the bottom ranked teams in the world.

the favourites where England, India and Pakistan.

the final was between Australia and New Zealand - both of who beat their favoured opponents in the semi final knockouts.

dGok-SX0WKo

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

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[noddy]

in these videos (except the catch one) he has introduced me to the New Zealand local competition

cricket is mostly an international sport - its not often we watch the other countries national competitions, with the exception of the Indian IPL one, which as much a champions league as it is a local one.

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its a real problem, coming to a head at the moment actually , the game has 3 formats running simultaneously and countries have to juggle three teams within their sometimes limited quality player pools.

for the fans, their is 3 local competitions in summer and 3 international competitions running all year, so during the local summers, their is 6 competitions running, interwoven with eachother.

the best players will get torn out of local leagures randomly, to sit on the bench for the international teams, and now we have covid, the state teams are almost down to 3rd string players from the suburban leagues to fill a roster.

with the crowds also covid crippled, its bringing all the ignored long term issues to the fore, the game really needs to rework itself back into something more managable for everyone.

.. the problem being that the hardcore fans, and the long term record books, all favour the older longer formats, the casual fans and the tv rights favour this new , faster format as show above.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

considering how both batsman must cross the line for a run to score, how fast are cricketeers? How often is it that a team will carry someone who hits well but is a slow* runner or doesn't get explosive jumps?

I can't tell by video, and I imagine that much like baseball the camera doesn't capture the speed* of players as well as seeing it live.

*relative to the sports

[noddy]

considering how both batsman must cross the line for a run to score, how fast are cricketeers? How often is it that a team will carry someone who hits well but is a slow* runner or doesn't get explosive jumps?

I can't tell by video, and I imagine that much like baseball the camera doesn't capture the speed* of players as well as seeing it live.

*relative to the sports

yeh modern cricketers need to be fit and fast, you need to be able to hit big and run fast, making runs constantly.

my team wont tolerate the slow guy, as it not only slows down the other guys scoring, you also need to hide him in the field so he doesnt give away extra runs to the opposition batters.

The West Indies (America caribbean) and Pakistan are 2 teams which love a bit of flair and style more than they love boring professionalism, they will both choose the big hitter over the fast running grafter.

the king of them is the West Indian, Chris Gayle, he is probably the only one capable of getting into any team even tho he cant run to save his life.

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to put it in perspective you need to be able to hit 150% in most pro games, 3 runs off 2 balls, and Chris Gayle can hit 200%, even 300% regularly, with every second ball going over the fence - which makes up for the runs he costs the team elsewhere.

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this is something i find interesting about baseball.

all the big hitters like gayle will typically take 3-10 sighter balls to get their eyes in before unleashing, baseball players dont get that luxury.

their are cricketers who can walk out and hit big from ball one, but usually they are the hard running type.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I've heard of Chris Gayle, by why or where I've heard of him, I can't say.

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I'm not sure if that's true- especially with today's technology where they watch pitchers from high speed cameras before at-bats.

1. Batters learn an awful lot from the dugout when a pitcher is coming into the game or warming up between inning halves. Missing lateral movement from the dugout may not be so important because the very strong rule of thumb is that with the exception of the greatest pitchers [which they'll have little chance against anyway] breaking stuff is going to be down, away and ideally out of the strike zone.

2. Dugout communication is pretty key, as is sign stealing or picking up on pitchers body language to see if they are tipping pitches or have a tell.

3. Players in the on-deck circle mime the at-bat before them; technically there is a rule about how far behind the plate the player in the on-deck circle can wander, but it's very loosely enforced.

In fact, this is the only time I've seen an umpire both try to enforce the on-deck circle rules and eject a player over it.

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4. Then, there is the traditional role of the lead off hitter taking as many pitches as possible, to try to get the pitcher to show his hand at what he's capable of tossing at the given moment..what's working, what's not.

Add it all up, most of the tradition sluggers batting in the 3rd, 4th, 5th slots in the order have ideally seen (albeit indirectly) 10+ pitches before stepping up to the plate.

[noddy]

I'm not sure if that's true- especially with today's technology where they watch pitchers from high speed cameras before at-bats.

1. Batters learn an awful lot from the dugout when a pitcher is coming into the game or warming up between inning halves. Missing lateral movement from the dugout may not be so important because the very strong rule of thumb is that with the exception of the greatest pitchers [which they'll have little chance against anyway] breaking stuff is going to be down, away and ideally out of the strike zone.

2. Dugout communication is pretty key, as is sign stealing or picking up on pitchers body language to see if they are tipping pitches or have a tell.

3. Players in the on-deck circle mime the at-bat before them; technically there is a rule about how far behind the plate the player in the on-deck circle can wander, but it's very loosely enforced.

In fact, this is the only time I've seen an umpire both try to enforce the on-deck circle rules and eject a player over it.



4. Then, there is the traditional role of the lead off hitter taking as many pitches as possible, to try to get the pitcher to show his hand at what he's capable of tossing at the given moment..what's working, what's not.

Add it all up, most of the tradition sluggers batting in the 3rd, 4th, 5th slots in the order have ideally seen (albeit indirectly) 10+ pitches before stepping up to the plate.

interesting - the on deck thing has no parallels in cricket, I would never have understood all that without the explanation.

this age of slow motion video has let the next in line batters be more aware of what they are facing, but it hasnt always helped in cricket.

when a fast bowler is tearing the other team apart, a sense of fear develops in the batting line up and they start getting themselves out with over thinking.

[noddy]

something that cricket has that no other ball sport has is a type of pitcher/bowler that throws out of the back of their hand, the leg spinner or wrist spinner.

its an art form that only makes it to pro levels very rarely because developing control over the outcome is very difficult and most people throw up too many hit me balls.

when done right, its really good fun to watch as they are the slowest of all bowlers - 50-60 mph but they can still beat the batsmens reflexes with huge movement in the air and off the bounce.

by rolling the arm, then the wrist , then the fingers over the ball they get massive amounts of spin on it, much more than a normal throw can achieve so it curves and drifts in the air, then on the bounce it can shoot through (flipper/arm ball), bounce high after dipping (top spinner), to the right (leggie) or to the left (wrong un)

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

How often will teams see the same bowlers in a BBL season?

[noddy]

Teams with strong rosters will rotate bowlers in or out to suit specific pitches or batter line ups.

the rest will just play their best team until it gets injured.

[noddy]

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witnessed one of the best hitting displays in the history of cricket last night.

this guy, Maxwell, is an unusual fellow - unlike the baseball type cross batted sloggers or the classical cricket straight bat sloggers his early life was playing hockey, so its all low in his stance and with his wrists.

he can literally hit the ball anywhere from any angle and might end up changing techniques for everyone.

when he is on, he is on like nobody else - this innings was an Australian record, 154 not out off 64 balls - essentially a home run every second or third shot sustained for 64 deliveries.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

That was interesting to watch.

I kept looking for holes in the swing--

it looks like he inside-outs the ball a lot.

So all I keep thinkin' about balls which move down and in.

But one can't really go in when the batsmen is allowed to move so much.

[noddy]

That was interesting to watch.

I kept looking for holes in the swing--

it looks like he inside-outs the ball a lot.

So all I keep thinkin' about balls which move down and in.

But one can't really go in when the batsmen is allowed to move so much.

yep, you called it - all those kind of hitters are vulnerable to that down and in ball, which is called the inswinging yorker in cricket.

the trick is that ball is very hard to pull off, so in most teams their will only be 1 or 2 of their best bowlers who can nail it reliably at 90mph.

the problem is that their is a very small margin for error on where it lands for it to work - it must be in and around the front toe of the batsmen for it to slide in under the bat.

too full, shin high, and its a hit me ball, too short and its a half volley hit me ball.

too slow and no swing, its also a hit me ball.

then with a batsmen that moves around alot, you also need to second guess where he its going to be standing at the time.

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Here's a strange question, how often do cricket bats break?

Are they made of something other than wood in kid's leagues?

Did a quick amazon price check of a cricket bat and they ranged from $40-200, at least on the first page.

Some look to be kid's blades, some are designed for tennis balls...

on a site called "cricket best buy" the price ranges from $500-1000, I assume they are the more serious ones.

[noddy]

they are made from english willow, which is springy and light.

the pro bats are well outside that range but are only available to the pros, their is a handfull of artisan hand carvers with the best of the best wood doing custom bats for those guys and the costs for a mere mortal are probably absurd.

then those shapes are mass produced for the $500-1000 bats and sold to keen amateurs and lower end pro players.

.. as for breaking.

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this picture cheats, he is holding the older bat backwards and the newer bat forwards and tilting it toward the camera , but its still obvious how things are changed.

both bats actually weigh about the same and are made from the same timber.

in my day (bat on the left) you compress the timber to make it stronger, then oil it to make it last and bat breakage is rare.

now, they kiln dry them, leave them completly unoiled, uncompressed and maximum springy and they break quite regularly but have larger hitting power.

... except if you are keen amateur who blew his hobby budget on a $1000 bat and you still oil it and compress it a bit

kids playing tennis ball cricket in the back yard, any old $10-20 plastic or unknown wood thing from the supermarket is normal.

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back before cricket/rounders/softball seperated, it was an underarm game and the bats looked more like hockey sticks.

[noddy]

the guy in the pic was causing a stink about modern bats and got a righteous campaign going about it, saying it was unfair advantage.

they did lots of testing and it turned out that if you give one of the modern big hitters an older bat, he still was easily hitting it furthur then the old days - also if you gave someone who isnt a big hitter a modern bat, they still couldnt easily clear the ground.

the only magor advantage was the thicker sides giving edge hits more weight behind them, so they legislated those back to a smaller size.

most of the new hitting distance was just modern players being bigger, stronger, more trained than the older generations

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

The 1870s Boston Red Stockings of National Association [who are now the Atlanta Braves] were the last team to use english willow for bats, to my knowledge.

.. as for breaking.

5cd3581b2400005500a913ff.jpeg

this picture cheats, he is holding the older bat backwards and the newer bat forwards and tilting it toward the camera , but its still obvious how things are changed.

both bats actually weigh about the same and are made from the same timber.

Whatever difference, the handles look rather thick on both.

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As for the properly old models: the one on the far left would not be out of place on a field hockey team.

[noddy]

The 1870s Boston Red Stockings of National Association [who are now the Atlanta Braves] were the last team to use english willow for bats, to my knowledge.

baseball is quite strict on sizes and woods isnt it ?

--
an article that clearly explains things unlike my rushed incoherant ramblings

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/jon- ... ing-787773