Cricket

[Murphy]

Watching the T20 game on BBC between the Sassenachs and Oz. “White ball cricket”.

In among the quicks, Rashid’s bowling looks artful. The ball turns both ways, something baseball can’t replicate where pitchers don’t bounce the ball on the way to hitters. No knuckleballs though. Mark Wood and Jofra hitting in and around 90mph. Even from a camera shot behind the bowlers arm, they look devastatingly fast.

I’m not uninitiated. Seen live games at a Trent Bridge (a lovely piece of communal architecture) from county to international test level. Saw Hadlee and Clive Rice there too. Don’t tell my brothers, but I’m slowly getting drawn in further, just have to support Oz is all.

Added to these, watched this with an English mate a while back. That W Indies pace attack throughout.....✔

Fire in Babylon (2010) ⭐ 7.7 | Documentary, Sport

1h 27m | 12

www.imdb.com

 

[IdleRich]

What's a knuckleball? Is a flipper maybe equivalent? Or at least close.... or not at all. I don't really know what a knuckleball is so....

 

[Murphy]

Not to get all Kenny I’m fucking famous Powers, but they have a barely-there fingernail grip on the ball that creates this floaty drift of flight.



English mates regularly still in awe at these, which I then get roped into courtesy of email circulars

 

[IdleRich]

Warne is the best spin-bowler I've ever seen for sure, best bowler probably - and annoyingly handy with the bat too - although I do love to mention Muralithanam if I'm speaking to an Australian, they will start hyperventilating and probably offer outside...

 

[Leo]

knuckleball pitches in baseball are great. the objective is to throw it with literally no spin on the ball, more pushing it at the batter than throwing it. the lack of rotation makes the ball dance and float around unpredictably. while it's an off-speed (aka, slower) pitch, it's notoriously difficult to hit, and sometimes for catchers to catch.

the risk is that the pitch does have a bit of spin and doesn't float unpredictably, in which case it's very easy to hit.

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah I just read about it.
I guess like in cricket where with spin you have off-breaks (which on a right handed batsman goes left to right) and leg-breaks which go the other way, then googly which is an off-break disguised as a leg-break and now doosa which is vice versa... you have the flipper which is back-spin so goes up higher... then you have swing which is movement in the air and reverse swing and fast bowlers can get movement off the seam too.

 

[Leo]

there are at least a dozen different types of pitches in baseball which break in different ways, dependent on the spin. a good pitcher usually has at least three different pitches.

 

[IdleRich]

In cricket you broadly have fast bowlers and spinners. Each will have numerous deliveries and vary them to deceive the batsman.
I dunno how many different deliveries there are, depends how you divide them I suppose. I mean if you count a finger spin off break from round the wicket as different from a wrist spun off break from over the wicket - which I guess it is - then there must be hundreds.

 

[IdleRich]

Apparently fast bowlers do use a knuckle ball too - says it gets less weird movement than in baseball though cos the seem is just a straight ring round the diameter.

 

[luka]

diggedy derek of the wire was a cricket expert. not sure we have any current members that know much. i loved some of the aussies in the late 90s and early 00s. gilchrist, hayden, warne, maybe i even loved ponting? maybe. i never liked clarke. i liked them grizzled.

 

[IdleRich]

Weirdly Lewis used to play to a very high level. When England toured NZ a few years back he was telling me about seeing off the guy who opened the bowling for the Kiwis.

 

[luka]

ive seen him throwing stones in the thames. can throw it quite far for a midget

 

[IdleRich]

I used to play for my school but only cos they were useless. Just cos I was one of the eleven or so people who could throw and catch and so on I was automatically selected even though I batted at number nine or something and rarely delivered an expensive over of slow right-arm long-hops.

 

[luka]

ive never played a game of cricket. im not sure id like it,. the ball is so hard i can imagine physical cowardice kicking in

 

[IdleRich]

I've got another friend who was a similar level fast bowler but they never played each other... although when they met he talked a lot about bowling to L who wasn't impressed, afterwards he told me that the conversation had been like fending off a tediously accurate medium-paced attack for forty overs which I thought was fairly witty.

 

[luka]

dont throw that fucking thing at me you psycho its like a rock

 

[version]

One of my fondest memories of school is Mr. Edwards, a very old supply teacher, getting hit in the balls during a game of cricket. He was bowling under arm and trying to keep everyone playing somewhat conservatively because we were in the gym and this lad batting absolutely smashed it into his groin and left him crumpled on the floor making proper old man noises.

 

[IdleRich]

ive never played a game of cricket. im not sure id like it,. the ball is so hard i can imagine physical cowardice kicking in

Well yeah. And if you play at school - unless you're some kind of rich kid - then you need to wear a box that has been worn by generations of other sweaty little kids.
One time we were in the nets someone twatted the ball out and Mr Barber shouted at everyone to move out of the way and he bent down to field it all professional and it hit a bump or something and it bounced up and smacked him right in the face, that was funny. He got annoyed with everyone, claimed they weren't paying attention and so it was our fault... he had a black eye for months.

 

[IdleRich]

Ha snap!

 

[luka]

if it was played with a tennis ball id be amazing at it. top notch coordintion. a genius of movement. but add the neccessity for physical bravery into the mix and im fucking gone. no way. absolutely no way. not interested in being a man thanks