Here we are again. Every four years the Cricket playing nations of the World gather to see if they can defeat Australia. England is the host of this year’s Cup.
New to Cricket details
This is one-day cricket. One team does the batting for 50 overs (or until all batsmen except one are out), then they switch. An “Over” is when the bowler (like a pitcher in baseball) delivers the ball to the batsman 6 times. So 50 overs means that 50x6 = 300 deliveries will be made to the batsman. If a team scores in the high 200s off those 300 balls, that’s usually a respectable score. However, these days in International Cricket don’t be surprised to see scores in the high 300s.
I’m particularly excited about the change in format. They’re going back to the format they haven’t used since 1992: 10 Teams qualify for the World Cup finals, and each team plays the 9 other teams. The top four teams at the end of the round-robbin round go into the semifinals.
Here are the teams:
The first match is this Thursday, May 30, and the tournament goes until mid-July. Do circle June 16th on your calenders, since that’s the India-Pakistan match.
Primarily One Day International Cricket is still the main form. That’s what the World Cup follows, 50 overs each, lasts about 8 hours, including a lunch break between innings.
5 day test matches and series can actually be quite thrilling, but there’s no World Cup type format for that type of thing.
The new hot thing in Cricket is 20-20. In that one each side does 20 overs instead of 50, and the match lasts about as long as a standard sports match in the U.S.: 3.5 hours or so at most. There is a T-20 World Cup now, even though it’s a young format, it’s quite exciting also.
