Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

whoareyouguys t1_jacvkr6 wrote

Reply to comment by 5m1tm in New Zealand defeat England by 1 run in the 2nd Test Match at Wellington by IntoThePeople

Oh that makes sense. I didn't think about not wanting to give the other guy turns at the wicket. Thanks! I'm new to cricket

3

5m1tm t1_jacw7jw wrote

No problem! :D

Yeah so the thing is, ideally, you would want to "keep rotating the strike" (i.e., giving the strike to the other batter. It's a common cricketing phrase), because it "keeps the scoreboard ticking" as they say in cricket parlance. And when you're chasing, it's obviously helpful since 1 run regularly would keep getting deducted from your target. But it's only advisable to do this if the person at the other end is a specialist batter or an all-rounder (cricketers who can both bat and bowl), or atleast a tailender who can bat a bit decently. Anyone who comes after the 8th wicket falls is usually not any of those things, and you would obviously not want to lose 10 wickets in a chase coz that means losing the match. So you "farm the strike" (another common cricket phrase) in order to protect the tailenders at the other end.

Cricket is a game of permanent cost-benefit analysis for both teams on the field, in all aspects of the game.

4