non american sports thread (cricket etc)

stylo · April 23, 2024, 7:08pm

nice video essay on Ganguly and Flintoff, rich and working class, india and england

and how ganguly revolutionized the attitude of indian cricket in the early 2000s

stylo · June 7, 2024, 3:38pm

USA beat Pakistan lol

Mikey · June 7, 2024, 7:19pm

I guess this was a Big Deal because I’ve heard about it in several places!

stylo · June 7, 2024, 11:21pm

yeah! im going on a podcast to talk about it sometime this week. the explosion of USA cricket since I last posted in this thread is actually crazy - in 2023 there was a whole season of Major League Cricket which averaged 80-100% attendance for the entire season.

lots of match recaps and highlights: here’s the chopped down version, ICC hates putting things on youtube instead of their own site but they were basically forced to by the upset. now it has 4.3m+ views

There were nine minutes between the end of USA’s Super Over and the first ball of Pakistan’s, and that phase where no cricket was played painted as eloquent a picture of the story of the game as any passage of actual action.

Every single American fielder was in position at Grand Prairie. Saurabh Netravalkar had ball in hand. A full-time employee at a software giant in Silicon Valley, Netravalkar - who once played for India’s Under-19 side - had taken time off from his day job for USA’s T20 World Cup campaign. He glanced over at the opposition’s dugout of full-time cricketers; they couldn’t quite work out who was best equipped to take on Oracle’s software engineer in the pressure moments they were supposed to excel in for a living. You wouldn’t have begrudged Netravalkar’s impatience, paid time off in the US is rare enough not to be spent waiting around on the opposition’s Super Over choices.

There was no reason for USA to shirk away. This was, after all, the sort of moment those cricketers will have looked forward to for the best part of their careers. They knew they should have wrapped this game up well within regulation time, and it was an excited rather than nervous buzz that pulsed through the home side. As Pakistan, wracked with self-doubt and uncertainty, went back and forth on how to scrape their way out of the hole they’d dug for themselves, it suddenly became hard to tell who the underdog was.

stylo · June 23, 2024, 10:02am

MASSIVE. IN THE WORLD CUP

Watch this!!!

more

They have done it.

If Afghanistan’s group stage domination of New Zealand wasn’t quite impressive enough, try Auatralia in the Super Eight.

Judging by the reactions, as they sealed their most famous ever cricketing win and first over the Aussies, this meant not just plenty, but everything.

It was reward for an enormous two-decade rise up the cricketing ranks and a result that shocked the world far more than it shocked themselves.

Rashid Khan and Afghanistan turned up with plans for both innings, ideas that had the potential to disrupt Australia’s momentum, and executed with aplomb.

They beat Australia at their own game, taking their chances in the field and winning the Powerplay exchange.

Afghanistan had already announced itself as a tournament contender, but other heavyweights are now firmly aware of what this team is capable of.

Gulbadin Naib, who collected a history-making four wickets, confirmed that the best is yet to come for this team. Maybe at this T20 World Cup, maybe not. But make no mistake, as a cricketing force, Afghanistan isn’t going anywhere.

“Our journey starts now,” Gulbadin said when collecting his Player of the Match award.

“(Australia) is a big team, a world champion team, so for our cricket it’s a big achievement (that) we can carry to the next level. In the last 10 years, we achieved a lot of goals, so this is the big achievement in our cricket. It’s a great moment, not only for me, but my nation, my people. We were waiting (to beat Australia) for a long time.”

Captain Rashid Khan echoed Gulbadin’s raw emotion.

“It’s a massive win for us as a team and as a nation,” he said post-game.

“Super proud of the guys and how they delivered. It’s just the beginning now, for us, and (it’s) a big game next one (against Bangladesh) and we have all the chances to get to the semis.”

Rashid’s top-order stuck around, his fielders were clutch and his bowlers stuck to the plan.

Australia’s batting line-up were never afforded a chance to settle into any kind of rhythm.

Eight Afghan players got a chance with the ball – Gulbadin being one of them. And he repaid the faith in spades, becoming the first ever player in World Cup cricket - across both ODIs and T20Is - to take four wickets as the eighth bowling option.

And fittingly, Mohammad Nabi’s catch at long on was the act that sealed the win in the last over – an Afghan veteran that’s been there for much of the team’s mission up the ICC ranks. He’s been a part of wins against 45 nations now.

And if Afghanistan progresses past the Super Eight stage, there’s a chance that number can rise further yet.

stylo · June 23, 2024, 10:28am

good piece on why India let Kashmiri cricket wither on the vine - and the overlap of Indian cricket with politics

stylo · June 24, 2024, 9:00pm

what if I renamed this to the commonwealth sports thread? or the non American sports thread? niche sports?

mostly I want to shoehorn rugby in here somehow but maybe there would be others… sticking to less popular human-driven sports tho, no soccer or f1… you get me?

(cricket and rugby have a lot of overlap in the playing nations - England, Aus, NZ, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, etc - but enough difference to be interesting that way)

MintyJuffowup · June 24, 2024, 11:12pm

I’m for it if only for the off chance someone knows a lot about Pesäpallo

Father.Torque · June 25, 2024, 12:04am

Maybe I can finally commit to following Car Jitsu

eska · June 25, 2024, 6:25am

oh you mean like gridiron?

falsedan · June 25, 2024, 12:12pm

I was gonna make a rounders snipe but

Netball thread

eska · June 25, 2024, 1:00pm

ok does anywhere else in the world have rugby league and rugby union and what’s the difference. i know one’s meant to be fancier or smth. idk one of my little brothers had a perfectly straight nose until he got it broken playing rugby in PE once so i distrust the family of sports

stylo · June 26, 2024, 4:52pm

copy pasting reddit comments… i prefer rugby union to league, league is mostly an australia thing afaik

Rugby Union is the original form of Rugby and the one more popular internationally. If someone says Rugby, they are more than likely talking about the Union form. Union is the more free flowing form of the game. Union has 15 players per side. There, when a tackle takes place, the teams must fight for the ball in either a ruck or maul. It’s not like football where a tackle ends the play with offense maintaining possession. Also unlike football, there are no play limits to union (no turnover on downs). A team on offence keeps the ball as long as they can keep winning the rucks and mauls.

Rugby League arose in England. Originally, Union was an amateur sport. This meant that players could not accept money to play rugby. It was similar to the strict rules of the Olympics in the past. However, poorer communities in England did not really like that. They could not afford to work and play rugby at the same time. So, they decided to create their own League where they could play as professionals. Nowadays, League is still popular in Northern England and in Australia. Rugby union is also professional now adays, so that historical difference between them is no more. Playing wise, League has 13 players per team. More similar to football, a tackle ends the play with a set restart. Also similar to football, the attacking teams has a limited amount of plays before losing possession. The main difference though is that in League, the attacking team has six plays per possession total. They don’t reset after gaining 10 yards like in football. However, those six plays do reset if there is a defensive penalty or the attacking teams recovers their own kick.

Aside from those difference I listed, the general form of the game is the same. You move up the field by passing the ball. No forward passes allowed. No blocking allowed. Not dangerous tackles allowed. You can kick and recover the ball.

eska · June 27, 2024, 12:24am

oh that’s a lot to keep in mind. thank you for the effort but i’ll just stick to aussie rules (nb i don’t know shit about AFL either these days)

scratchmonkey · June 27, 2024, 2:22am

There’s also Sevens, which is basically the same game as Rugby Union, except you play with 7 players per side, instead of 15.

Notably, Olympic rugby is the Sevens version of the game, which allows countries with smaller player pools to be more competitive – Fiji has won both Olympic golds in men’s rugby, with Argentina winning a bronze in 2016.

ETA: Also, arguably the greatest rugby player of all time is currently at the height of his powers in the form of French scrum-half Antoine Dupont:

MintyJuffowup · June 27, 2024, 3:31am

This video marks the first time I have watched rugby for any meaningful span of time. I didn’t even realize players could kick the ball mid-play. What the hell? Does play only stop for goals, out of bounds, and half-time?

scratchmonkey · June 27, 2024, 3:54am

And penalties/infractions. And yes, kicking is actually the only way that you can advance the ball on its own, passing can only be done laterally/backwards.

(I played scrum-half myself in high school and college, although only for a few years each and at a very very low level.)

stylo · June 27, 2024, 4:31pm

The basic way to decode rugby is that you can only pass the ball (I.e. by hand) backwards, and you can kick the ball forwards. So you kick for field position (or to score points thru the uprights: drop goal or field goal) and you pass for running plays.

kicks can be defensive to clear the ball (like punting in football) or offensive to set up running plays (like crosses in soccer)

try (touchdown) = 5 points
conversion (PAT) = 2 points
field goal / drop goal = 3 points

if the ball is moved forward from the hand, that is a foul and play restarts with a scrum (or a kick attempt, at the disadvantaged team’s preference). I’m a little unclear on the specifics of penalties vs fouls in rugby, a lot seems to be up to the referee’s discretion, similar to soccer.

stylo · June 27, 2024, 4:40pm

it’s probably easier to understand rugby coming from American football to be fair. they were basically the same game until the beginning of the 20th century. of course nowadays I would say rugby league has convergently evolved to similar concepts as American football (a set number of attempts to score, play restarts after each tackle, etc).

Australian Football, as I understand it, was essentially an attempt to adapt early English football games to the circular/oval cricket field. So it branched off the whole football family before soccer and gridiron were even distinguished from one another.

1820s - Early English public school football
1845 (ENG) - codification of rugby rules at Rugby School, England
1848-1860s (ENG) - codification of association football (soccer) rules, through the English Football Association; bans carrying the ball by hand
1859 (AUS) - Australian football rules codified, diverges from English public school football
1874-1900s (USA) - college gridiron football rules begin to be codified, diverging from rugby and soccer, after Harvard-McGill match; forward pass adopted in 1906
1895 (ENG) - Rugby League breaks away from Rugby Union due to pay issues, rules diverge; major rules changed in 1906

stylo · June 28, 2024, 3:56pm

ok so while the T20 World Cup is going on - India dismantled England to go on to the final vs. South Africa, Saturday 10:30am ET - the women cricketers are playing a Test match

key things to know about women’s Test cricket -

It’s 4 days, not 5 like the men. For some reason
Women almost never get to play multi-day cricket, one player compared it to ‘cramming for an exam the night before’ since they have very little preparation
India are destroying South Africa right now

Only Test, Chennai, June 28 - July 01, 2024, South Africa Women tour of India

India Women (98 ov) 525/4
South Africa Women

Stumps, Day 1 - IND Women chose to bat.
Current RR: 5.35 • Last 10 ov (RR): 74/0 (7.40)

quick refresher on reading cricket scores for those who need it

98 ov: 98 ‘overs’ bowled (an over is a measure of time comprising 6 balls, so 98 overs = 98*6 = 588 balls bowled)
525/4: 525 runs scored, 4 batters out (of a maximum of 10 outs)
Stumps, Day 1: End of Day 1, out of a maximum 4 days. In Test matches, the end of the day is called “Stumps”
Current RR 5.35: Run Rate = runs divided by overs bowled. 525/98 = 5.35 runs per over.
Last 10 ov (RR): Score and run rate for the last 10 overs of play; 74/0 (7.40): 74 runs, 0 outs, run rate 7.40

that score was made up of two massive scores by India’s opening batters

refresher on reading cricket scorecards

name	got out by	(R)uns	(B)alls	(M)inutes Batted	4s hit	6s hit	(S)trike (R)ate (runs scored divided by balls faced *100)
Batter 1	(c)aught by Fielder 1, (b)owled by Bowler 1	100	50	etc	etc	etc	200
Batter 2	c Wicketkeeper (will have a by their name), b Bowler 2	50	100	etc	etc	etc	50
Batter 3	run out (Fielder 2)	etc
Batter 4	(st)umped Wicketkeeper	etc
Batter 5	not out
Batter 6	not out
Extras	Extra runs scored due to errors or penalties by the bowling team - (b)yes, (l)eg (b)yes, (w)ides, etc. full list	Total extra runs scored

the number of players who got out corresponds to the number of outs in the overall score.