Posted by If you like certainty and clarity, two-innings cricket is not for you. The format presents you with details and only backs this up with context once the match has finished. Half the joy is in dissecting goings-on in order to try and shape that context in your mind’s eye as the match develops.
Unpredictable events demand constant revision of the picture you are constructing. Some people – idiots – hate this. They like to be told what’s happening in black and white terms. They deal in absolutes because they can’t work things out for themselves. Other people have the innate self confidence to cope with being wrong. They make predictions but they take more delight in the unexpected.
Flat cap cricket
Yorkshire, powered by Joe Root, are proving a joy this year. Last week, they were bowled out for 177 and then Durham declared four wickets down in their second innings, setting a victory target of 336. Yorkshire got there with Root making 182.
This week, they conceded 475 to Chesney Hughes and Derbyshire and then promptly made 677-7 in reply (Root 236, Jonny Bairstow 186). A draw in the offing? No. They bowled Derbyshire out for 163 with the solidly-named Jack Brooks taking 5-40.
Rounded cricket
You certainly can’t criticise Chesney Hughes, but it’s worth pointing out that he made 15 in the second innings and his team lost. First-class cricket isn’t just about the numbers – it’s about the situations as well. Thus far, Yorkshire are proving to be a team capable of winning in unusual ways. They have coped with difficult situations well, which tends to indicate that they are a rounded team. Things generally don’t go exactly to plan in first-class cricket, so you need to cover as many eventualities as you can. It’s also fascinating to follow for those of us who are happier wrong than right.
If n=4 cricket provides more certainty and clarity than n=2 cricket, it can be argued that n=6 cricket would do it better than n=4, no? Now this would take a longer time — time that people don’t have. So all we need to do is solve the optimization problem. What is the maximal value of n for a minimum t that would still leave room for getting your predictions wrong?
Root is certainly flowering. He could be just the player to ground the Aussies into the dirt.
How could I have doubted you KC?
The game that ended today at Colwyn Bay is a classic example – from Lancashire being doomed to pulling off a famous victory in the space of a couple of hours.
Right until the final ball, I didn’t have a clue how it was going to end, and that’s the whole reason I watch sport. Edgbaston 2005, the Helmet Catch in the 2008 Superbowl, I could go on…
Sorry AP Webster, but you seem to be discussing a second division match. Under the King Cricket rules that is strictly verboten. Please redeem yourself by sacrificing your first-born child to the altar of Rikki Clarke’s beard.
He also seems to be discussing American Football. As such, even a human sacrifice is unlikely to save his soul.
So I am not watching sport, I am actually dissecting the reality unfolding in front of me.
I am unsure as to whether this revelation will increase or decrease my enjoyment of the contest unfolding before me. Perhaps someone will end up dissecting me? Or will I run, screaming in confusion, from the room before that can happen?
There are no answers, only more questions.
Glamorgan are doomed! Doomed, I tell ye.
They need to sacrifice Marcus North on anyone’s altar and only then, all will be well and all will be well.
good post dude. young root is indeed well grounded and all set for growth 🙂
pattinson 15 2 97 1
‘s all i’m sayin’
Is there any evidence that Yorkshire were playing in flat caps?
Under 9s pairs cricket is surprisingly good preparation for the uncertainties of the 1st class game. With batsmen conceding runs when out, but batting on and an arbitrary 200 added to the runs accumulated/lost, it’s hard to know which direction a match is headed.
This was what the players thought when they asked me which team was winning – that, or that I’m a boring man with pen and paper best left alone.