Cricket

Hey everyone. I am halfway through my finals now, and looking forward to the end. Both my drawing assessment and my Australian Studies final seemed to go well, but I really cannot tell how they will be graded. The courses are just too subjective. Up next is a week of no finals in which I shall attempt to teach myself solid state physics (because the second lecturer was so poor) and brush up on my algorithms for my c course.

Yesterday after I got back from COFA, I went to the TV room to relax a bit. Apparently, yesterday was also the first day of the Australia v. Sri Lanka test match in Cricket. Cricket is an interesting game, and even after watching for about an hour yesterday and 2 today, I am not entirely sure how I feel about it.

For anyone who is not familiar with the sport, think of Baseball. Now take away the four bases and replace them with two wickets. Move these into the centre of a circular field. Take away the fielders gloves and replace the ball with a larger red one. Also, strikes? Those are gone too. And finally, put two batsmen on either wicket at all times who must both dash to the other in order to get a run. There you have the gist of Cricket.

Cricket has a multitude of different types of matches too. A test match, the one I am watching, consists of 4 innings played over the course of 5 days. So each team gets to bat twice and bowl twice (that's right, I forgot to mention: replace the pitcher with a bowler who bounces the ball at the batsman's shins). To turn over play, the batting team has to have all of their batsmen taken out (ten outs) or they need to declare, which means they just decide they have had rather enough, thank you, and take the field instead of continuing to bat. The reason they would choose to do this is simple: if all the innings are not done by the end of the fifth day, the game is a draw. It doesn't matter how big of a run discrepancy there is, the game is a draw.

So far, the Australian team is doing really well apparently. When I left around 2 today (a little before the Tea break I think) we had 2 players who had scored a centurion (one hundred runs) and only 3 outs on the first inning. I expect that by now we have likely declared and the Sri Lankans are batting now.

If it seems rather drawn out and a bit odd, that is because it is. I think I like it though. at the very least, the laid back pace of the game is soothing after an assessment.