Jiminy Cricket!

This weekend Will's coworker and her fiancé took us to our first cricket match. It was New Zealand v England. I would be lying if I told you I was super excited about it, but it actually turned out to be a great time! Let me clarify: We went to a T20 game which ran about 4 hours as opposed to the other variations of the game which can take up to 5 days. I think the biggest thing that helped was that we sat in a group of rowdy kiwis who were imbibing a few choice beverages. One group of spectators were dressed as Lance Armstrong, there were some men in togas and even a few bananas suits (Megan Fetter). I totally felt like I was back at college. The only way to go to a cricket match is to sit with people who know the game. Will sat in between James and one of his friends and I sat next to Emily, who apparently gave the better explanation because I knew more about the game than Will at the end!

Here's a run down of cricket basics in my words:
-There are 2 batters at a time and they keep batting until they get out by either a wicket or someone catching the ball.
-A wicket is when the fielding team knocks down the "pins" that are behind the batter while he is running between the 2 sets of "pins" on the pitch or if he misses the ball
-You get one point for each time you cross the line while running back and forth, 4 points if your ball touches the outer wall and 6 points if it goes outside the wall
-An "over" is when the bowler(pitcher) has bowled(thrown) 6 balls to the batter.
-During the T20 each team bats until all 10 batters are out, or you reach 20 "overs" which means 120 balls bowled
-T20 games are more exciting because since only 120 balls can be bowled, an out is slightly less significant, so the batters swing for the fences more to rack up the points during the shorter game (not as afraid to get out).
-Part of the game is the spectators heckling the outfielders with intelligent remarks such as "you use too much sun screen" in reference a ginger player.  Couldn't we be a bit more creative?

I think we'll go to another T20 game if the opportunity comes--we had so much fun! It had a great sporting atmosphere and I even got hit on by a very intoxicated young man, which always makes a sporting event better.

Every time New Zealand gets an out, the flames go off!!

Everyone cheers really loudly when the best player and ex-captain Ross Taylor takes the field to bat. Apparently he was removed from being captain in a not-so-nice way by the manager and the public loves him more! 

A six for New Zealand!

Not from the game we went to, but an example of the wicket behind this batter