I have friends from India who will gladly wake up at unGodly hours to watch the game on the internet. People are really crazy about it. I believe there is also a lot of money in the Indian cricket domestic leagues.
Until recently (last decade or more??) MOST test matches ended in draws. Nowadays a result is more likely than not. It has evolved, with the advent of the shorter versions of the game into a more attacking and less defensive mindset with most setting out to win rather than save the game.thought I should add just a bit more about the long form of the game, first class or test cricket (test cricket is between two nations).
Each team has two innings, usually played in alternating order. Each innings is over when either ten batsmen are out, or the captain of the batting side declares the innings closed . When all the innings are completed, the team with the most runs wins. If there is a tie, the result stands (this is rare - it has only ever happened twice).
If by the end of the final day's play all the innings are not completed, the game is a draw, no matter who appeared to be "winning". Thus the strategic importance of sometimes declaring an innings closed, in order to have enough time to dismiss the other team and so win the game.
The draw is perhaps the most baffling for outsiders to 'get'. And even more bizarre, most often it is the draw that produces the most nail biting conclusions to the game I spoke of before!
A draw means just that, no team won the game! After five days mind!
As I typed that I found it amusing to see the descriptions that are an everyday part of the game...result, save (ie draw the game) etc. Rather unusual concepts to apply to a sports game, I mean 'what, you can play a game for five days and NOT have a result?" Yep, in cricket.
The most heroic feats, as I said, often apply to a nail biting draw. If you are ahead on runs after your set of innings, to win you MUST get the opposing side out. They already are incapable of exceeding your run total, but none the less you must get them ALL out and close their innings to win, else of course it is a draw.
So it can come down to the wire, the attacking team has 'only an hours play left' (say), which also implies a certain number of balls they have left to get the opposition out, and usually it is the poorest batsmen at the end of the game left to valiantly try to maintain their wicket, ie not get out.
Absolutely riveting, on the edge of your seat stuff.
It is a 'true' game in many other aspects as well. As but one example, seein as how it is over five days, well you can imagine that the weather can and very often does play a major role in the outcome. The ball reacts in different ways under different weather conditions, it can swing wildly one day and be benign the next.
As they play on a strip of turf (called the pitch) and run back and forth on it, it starts to wear in the heavily tracked places. Additionally, the bowlers footmarks add to that wear. So the pitch itself plays differently depending on the day of the game. the rough spots caused by feet become a convenient place for the slower bowlers (employing various different styles, they can spin the ball greatly and in different directions etc). So we have a mix of bowling styles from the pacemen (who can reach bowling speeds of up to one hundred miles an hour) and the slower bowlers who get the ball to bounce off the pitch, out of footmarks etc etc.
Light conditions change (becomes overcast say) and it is late in the last day (you are trying to get the other team out, or not get out and save the game) so you can't use the pace men (too dangerous, the umpires would stop the game) so you use the slower bowlers. It is a game of so many nuances that the casual viewer would simply never pick up on it.
The onfield discussion of placement of the fielders can take time, but if it is tactics you like in a game then cricket is for you haha.
It is quite a cerebral game in many respects. The shorter forms miss an awful lot of these subtleties and opt for the slam and bam.
Here is an example of the slow bowling I spoke of, you can see he hits the footmarks on the pitch and the ball became completely unplayable.
The West Indies used to be dominant. Then it was the Aussies. I remember England being good. Also Sri Lanka. It changes.
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