Wide world of sport (part 2)

Today we're going to talk about Cricket.

Cricket is a ridiculously overly-complicated sport, a version of which can have games that last for up to five days. There are wickets and bowlers and innings and overs and batters (who can score centuries--100 runs in a single at bat) and about 2,679 names for the different fielding positions. You can win by runs, unless you win by wickets. You can retire the batting side by getting them all out, unless you retire them without getting them all out. You can bowl as many overs as you want, as long as you don't bowl two in a row. Like I said, ridiculously overly-complicated. The New Zealand national team (lovingly refered to as the Black Caps) recently played a best of some odd number series with Australia. I read the writeup in the New Zealand Herald after the series to see who had won. I read the entire article and tried to decifer the box scores as best I could, but I still had no idea who won. The article was indeed written in English, but the words seemed to be arranged in nonsensical ways that made absolutely no sense. See for yourself. Here's an except from the article:

New Zealand were a cautious 27 for two after five overs, but then Neil Broom and McCullum took 16 off one Hilfenhaus over. That included a blistering McCullum six over cover which replays showed bounced just short of the rope.

The pair added 61 off eight overs, Broom hitting 36 off 26 before he skied one, leaving McCullum as the anchor.

The required rate climbed, and a two-run over from Hilfenhaus left New Zealand needing a steep 55 off the last five.

Stand-in Australian captain Brad Haddin batted first on winning the toss on an overcast, cool night and labelled 160 as a par total.

Captain Daniel Vettori led the way for his new-look New Zealand side to keep Australia to 150 for seven, taking one for 23 off four overs and two excellent outfield catches.

Say what?!?

After spending about an hour on Wikipedia trying to learn about this silly silly game, I went back and re-read the article. It still didn't make a whole heckuva lot of sense, but at least I was able to determine that Australia won the series. Better luck next time, Black Caps.

May all your wickets be sticky, dear readers. Or not sticky. Whichever way is the good way.

Cheers!