Category Archives: Cricket

International cricket is divided into three forms of the game, which are becoming more distinct with each passing year. The shortest, and newest form, is Twenty-20 (or T20), which is less than a decade old, lasts about three hours, and consists of 120 balls for each team. The next form is One-Day cricket, which has been in existence for nearly forty years and lasts about eight hours, consists of 300 balls for each team. The third, and oldest form of the game, is First-Class or (when played between nations) Test cricket, and can last up to five days. This site divides its blogs into these three categories, and then sub-divides the categories between the rules of each form of the game and news and thoughts about each form.

The Urn Returns Down Under

It was, perhaps, only a matter of time. In 2013, the England cricket team flattered to deceive: barely holding on to draw the series with New Zealand in New Zealand; beating the Kiwis soundly—but without much conviction—when they came to England; and then … Continue reading

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Masahiro Tanaka in the New Year

The major-leagues’ sweepstakes for twenty-five-year-old Masahiro Tanaka, who had an incredible 24-0 record for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the 2007 Japan Pacific League in 2013, is on. Teams figuring to bid high (a lot of money) and far … Continue reading

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The New Breed Is Old Hat

Robinson Cano could not leave $70 million on the table. That is roughly the difference between what the storied New York Yankees offered their star second baseman and what the Seattle Mariners are paying. The Mariners have set Cano for … Continue reading

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Trott Walks

When the South African–born batsman Jonathan Trott joined the England cricket team in 2009, commentators noted how in taking his guard at the start of his inning Trott went through a routine of scratching at the pitch that could only … Continue reading

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Ashes Time Again

The Ashes is upon us again. “Wait,” we hear you cry. “Didn’t Australia and England just play a tournament this summer, and isn’t this contest meant to occur in the respective countries once every two years?” The answer is “yes” … Continue reading

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Farewell, Sachin

Regular Right Off the Bat readers (we few, we happy few) will have noticed that the cricket half of this blog has fallen silent for the last few weeks. Life has taken your cricket correspondent away from the blog for … Continue reading

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Ain’t No Mariano in Cricket

The retirement of Yankees closer Mariano Rivera brings to an end an era in that storied franchise, as it does for yours truly (Martin). Mariano had only been playing for a year in the Major Leagues when I went to … Continue reading

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Tigers Need Scherzer(y)

At 19-1, Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers is compiling one of the all-time Major League Baseball records in 2013. (For cricket followers: The record indicates this pitcher is credited with nineteen wins against one loss.) If the trend continues, … Continue reading

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England Win the Ashes!

England has beaten Australia at cricket! In recent years, this formulation—once so rare a sentence that it could be considered a typographical error—has become common, even a commonplace. Australia’s cricket team is simply not as good as England’s, even though … Continue reading

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Reverse: the Curse

It’s now time to talk about reverse swing. No, it’s not the latest dance craze from California. It’s a relatively new phenomenon in cricket that entails the ball doing funky things previous unknown in the laws of physics. Unlike in … Continue reading

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