One Day International (ODI) Cricket

NZ = New Zealand
WI = West Indies

Today is the last in the 5-game series... NZ lead 2 games to 1 (one game abandoned due to rain)

A more popular version of Cricket..... perhaps easier to follow than 5 day Test Matches.

These days... played Day/Night... starts at 2PM in the afternoon and continues "under lights" into the evening.

Each side gets to bat once (and bowl once)... set number of overs (50)

Things get a bit messy if rain shortens the game... I wont go there

Who goes first is decided by a toss of a coin... NZ won and decided to bowl (and field) first. The rationale being whatever the opposition score... you KNOW what it is when you bat.. and so KNOW what you need to do. Side batting first really have no way to judge if 250 is a good score or a bad score... some pitches allow for 300 or more to be scored.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

"Experts" are opining that on this pitch an OK score is 265.

My opinion is more like 320 is required
I am not very familiar with the current players (not even most of NZ)... so I don’t know if they are up to it, but it's a glorious day... the pitch surface looks looks even and so ball deviation predictable, and it looks like it will play consistently well for the entire game.

WI batting now... nobody out yet... they have scored 25 runs

SCORE: 25/0

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

WOW... a spectator just won $100,000

They often have these promotional things... some sort of donation for each 6 hit... or a prize for a spectator who catches a ball. This one had a lot of conditions... so by no means a certainty anybody would win. For one thing "hitting a six" is a rare event in cricket....You had to be wearing certain orange (sponsor's) shirt, catch the ball one-handed.... and a guy just managed all that

It's a one-off prize... so all the other people wearing orange shirts miss out

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

First WI player "out"

SCORE: 95/1 (after 12 overs, of 50)

BTW the "out" was a bad decision by the Umpire. (he got it wrong)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

SCORE: 250/3 (after 40 overs)

I was RIGHT the "experts" were wrong

Scoring is always speeded up in last 10 overs... 320 score likely... in fact one of the commentators.. just said what I said at the start "320 is likely"

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Kirk Edwards (WI) Just hit a 4 to take his score to 102... a "Century"... an important personal milestone in any form of cricket

SCORE: 292/3

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

WI just had a good over ... scored 21 runs.... so score has a boost


SCORE: 310/2 (after 44 of 50 overs)


320 will be passed for sure

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

IF WI can get to 350 after 50 overs... it will be a great score.

That leaves NZ to chase that score... given 50 overs....they will need to AVERAGE 7 runs per over. Six balls in an over so that means more than a run a ball. Not hard to do in bursts... but to average that over 50 overs is a task. What often happens is people try TOO hard.... feel they must score off every ball from the start... before getting used to conditions... and so they get out. That is the draw back of batting second.... if its a high score to chase... NZ won the toss and chose to bat second.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Second WI batsman Dwayne Bravo (captain) has scored a century
Bravo: 100

SCORE: 347/3 (in 49th over)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Final score

SCORE: 363/4

After a break... NZ have to chase 364 runs...... at 7.28 per over

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

NZ Batting innings about to start... this could be an exciting session of high scoring.... lots of sixes and fours... or it could be a disaster... players out one after the other. It should be clear which way it will go very early on

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

My money is on The West Indies winning.

One of the reasons I decided to follow the Australian team rather than NZ (several years ago) was NZ's tendency to "choke" play abysmally at times

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

After 7 overs........

SCORE: 37/2

As predicted.... NZ not doing too well. They need more runs than that..... and they need to NOT have players going out.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I am SURE NZ will lose now.

And I remember another reason why I stopped following NZ cricket... the TV commentators are CRAP!!

Boring for a start.... not knowledgeable at times... and blatantly biased... as NZ fails to achieve what they say is essential... they simply make up a lesser target that needs to be achieved

SCORE: 50/4 (in the 11th over)

4 players out this early is the critical factor... they may well be all out in as few as half the 50 overs available.

Required run rate is now 8 runs per over

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Hopeless....

NZ just lost another wicket (player out)

SCORE: 94/6 (in the 20th over)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

NZ now have 8 out

126/8

Last guy simply stepped back onto the stumps

THIS is rare in International cricket
(Even schoolboy cricket)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Another one bites the dust....

SCORE: 151/9

One more out to put us NZ spectators out of their misery!

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

WEST INDIES WIN!!

NZ all out in the 30th over


NZ 160/10 In reply to WI 363/4


The ODI 5 match Series is a DRAW... 2 games won each and one game abandoned (rained out).

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light