Seniors vs. Freshers Cricket Match

***New Blog Feature! More information at the end of this post.***

This event happened a while ago, end of August probably, but I never got around to blogging about it. Basically every year the first year students (freshers) at Tommy More play a cricket match against the seniors (which I think means everyone else). It isn't a real match though, as the seniors heavily cheat to ensure they always win and that the event is no fun. Unfortunately, because this is the first year at Tommy More for us Notre Dame students, we had to play with the freshers.

Cricket is similar to baseball, but much more bizarre and much less interesting (I didn't think that was possible, sorry baseball fans). Two batters stand in the middle of a large oval, about 20 yards apart. The bowler (pitcher) stands next to one of the batters and has to throw to the other batter (throwing is different than baseball because you can't bend your elbow). There are no strikes, just a few wickets that the bowler is trying to hit. The batter is protecting the wickets. If the bowler hits a wicket, or the batter's leg unfairly blocks the ball from hitting the wicket, then the batter is out. The batter tries to hit the ball. If the batter gets a good hit, hitting the ball away from the quick reach of fielders, then he can decide to run. The two batters that are 20 yards apart then run to switch places (there aren't any bases or anything like that, just two home plates basically). Every time the batters switch places, a point is scored. When a batter hits a ball he doesn't have to run, he can just wait for a really good hit. One team bats until all of their batters get out (or if there's less than two batters I guess). A batter is out if the balls hits the wicket on a pitch, or the ball hits the wicket while the batters are switching, or if a batted ball is caught in the air. Cricket games can take up to five days sometimes, since there is no limit on time or number of pitches, it's just however long it takes to get the other team's batters out. Scores are usually in the hundreds. Absurd.

Well of course there is a video/slideshow thing I made to go along with this post. It won't give you a better understanding of the game, but it is kind of funny I think. A few notes before you watch: 1) We didn't play in an oval because all we had was our quad, so there is usually a whole half of the field behind the batter but we just had a building behind us. 2) We used garbage cans instead of wickets. 3) One of the rules of our game was you had to have an open beverage in your hand while fielding, to make it more interesting (by the way, they don't use gloves in cricket at all).




So about the new feature. I've finally figured out a practical use for the quick response buttons at the bottom of each post. Obviously no one is going to say they didn't like a post cause that is just really mean and hurtful, so I've moved away from post rating entirely. Instead, there will be a short yes or no poll at the end of each post. Now you, the reader, can interact with the blog like never before! Yay! (Check the Yes or No buttons next to the Quick Poll under comments)

Today's blog post poll: Have you ever seen a cricket match before?