It's Not Really Cricket, Is It?

Actually, it is, direct from the Oval, home of the Surrey cricket club. This was the equivalent of a major-league baseball game, Surrey County (the blokes in the gray kit) vs. Middlesex County (in the pink kit) in a match of twenty20.

Cricket purists will tell you that twenty20 is an Americanized form of cricket, and it kind of is. Each side bats for 20 overs, an over being six bowls. Given that in baseball, a pitcher often is replaced after 100 pitches, which is usually around the sixth or seventh inning, a match of twenty20 lasts roughly as long as an American baseball game, as opposed to an all-day match or (God help us all) the five-day tests that tend to define the sport to outsiders.

Technically, Mrs. Werbenmanjensen and I should have been cheering for Middlesex, since that is the county where we live, but our host was a Surrey fan, and we were in the Surrey home stadium, so we decided to pull for Surrey. We had the good fortune of sitting near the aisle leading from the field to the clubhouse, so we got to see the players from both side as they came to and from the field.

Here's a little video of the action from early innings:





Was it exciting? Sure thing. The English, while not regarded as the absolute best cricketers anymore (that would be the Australians), still have enthusiastic fans (the national team's fans are known as the Barmy Army) and Surrey's fan's no less enthusiastic. I was waiting in the bar when a fairly sustained wave was running through the stands. And as for suspense, Surrey pulled out the win in the final over, with just four balls to spare--on a six, the cricket equivalent of a home run.