Explaining Cricket (or at least the World Cup) to Americans...

Earlier this week I had dinner with a former boss, a Texan, who is in the UK meeting the team in his new role. He happened to mention that he'll be flying direct to India from here to meet the team there as well, so I suggested he'd better get a refresher on Cricket since there's a good chance India will be playing in the World Cup Final on Sunday and his team over there will be following it...

The first thing to remember is that Cricket in India is *more* popular than Football in the UK; in US terms, Cricket is about as popular (proportionately) as Basketball, Baseball, American Football and NASCAR combined. If you're there, and India (or pretty much anyone else!) are playing, then you're going to see it on TV, read about it in the papers and get asked about it in meetings. All of that goes double for a major event such as the World Cup.

I won't go into the rules here (others have done that), but a few notes on the World Cup and some of the key players seem appropriate:

When and where? The World Cup is played every 4 years; this time it's in the UK. Semi-finals are being played this week and the final is on Sunday 14 July.

Who's playing? The competition started with a round-robin of 10 teams, the best 4 contest the semi finals. India are playing New Zealand today and England will play Australia tomorrow.

Note: in baseball terms, this is like Yankees/Red Sox and Cubs/Giants in the league finals ahead of the world series - the long-term favoutites (India and Australia) against consistent over-performers (New Zealand) and the rising stars (England).

How does it work, how do I tell who's doing well? The World Cup is played as one innings per team (in Baseball that would be a one-innings game, Cricket says it's two), with 300 balls bowled (pitched) and a maximum of 10 wickets (outs). Your innings is over after 300 deliveries (btw, these are grouped into batches of 6 called 'Overs' - so this is a 50-Over game) come what may, but will end sooner if all 10 wickets fall. Scores this competition vary widely, but anything over 300 runs is pretty good and teams have won after scoring only 240-250. If your team has scored 200 runs for the loss of 2 wickets after 35 overs, they're doing pretty well. 30 runs for 5 wickets after 10 overs, is less good...!

What makes a good player?

• Batsmen (batters) are measured by their average (runs scored per innings) and strike rate (runs per ball faced as %). In this format, a strike rate over 90 is achievable and an average of >40 is excellent (think of a Baseball batter with an average of 0.400!)
• Bowlers (pitchers) are rated by economy (runs against/over - similar to ERA) and bowling average (wickets (outs)/runs against). Economy under 5 is pretty good and the best bowlers have an average around 20.

Who should I watch out for? Every team has it's star players as well as unsung heroes, here are a few to watch out for:

India

• Virat Kohli - Batsman and captain, averages 63 this tournament at a strike rate of 95%
• Jasprit Bumrah - Bowler, has taken 18 wickets at an average of just over 20 runs/wicket and economy of 4.4 run/over

New Zealand

• Kane Williamson - Batsman and captain and has scored over 30% of his teams runs by himself! - averages 91 at a strike rate of 75%

Australia

• David Warner - Batsman with over 600 runs in 9 innings - average of 80 at a strike rate of 90%
• Aaron Finch - Batsman and captain, 500 runs at an average of 56 and a strike rate of 102%
• Mitchell Starc - Bowler, leading wicket-taker with 26 in 9 innings at an average of 16 runs/wicket and economy of 5.2

England

• Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy - Batsmen (remember, you need two at a time in cricket), the best partnership in the tournament. Together they average 85 runs and have made 100 between them 3 times in 5 innings. Individually Bairstow averages 51 at 97% strike rate and Roy 68 at 114%!
• Joe Root - Batsman, England's top-scorer with 500 runs at an average of 62.5 and a strike rate of 91%

How do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? In this type of Cricket it's mostly about scoring runs quickly - because you only have 50 overs available, it can be better to score 40 runs in 30 balls than 70 in 120. This is a list of the occasions that the semi-finalists have had someone score 30 runs or more at a strike rate of >100%. I'm not saying it's any kind of a predictor, but it might give you an idea of who is likely to make a big score; and at the very least it should provoke some interesting arguments.

Caveat Reader: While I've been writing this; India, playing New Zealand, have just lost 3 wickets for a total of 5 runs, chasing 240 to win. Their likelihood of winning has gone from 98% to <50% in about 20 minutes - these things can change awfully quickly and my old boss' team in Pune may be finding something else to do on Sunday...!