Saturday, 27 December 2008

Champagne super-over

The Guardian ran Andy Bull's piece with Harold Pinter today, an interview that turned out to be Pinter's last. The great playwright was talking about his lifelong love of the game. 'Drama happens in big cricket matches,' he said, 'but also in small cricket matches'. 

He was talking about 'big' and 'small' in terms of pro and amateur, but the dramas that appealed to his gimlet eye were the ones that came along ball by ball, with their capacity to provoke instant and overwhelming emotion. 

Dramas don't get much shorter than the super-over shoot-out between West Indies and New Zealand, an event Pinter didn't quite live to see but most probably would have been stirred by. It was the game squeezed down to its smallest unit, a reduction that should have been absurd, but that turned out to be glorious.

Chris Gayle hit Daniel Vettori, who had match figures of 4-0-16-3, for 25. By any measure it was superlative batting, not a contraction of the game but an expansion of it, an expression of what's possible. 
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 December 2008 at 03:58

    The match has forced vettori to say that he was pretty happy with a tie. He questions the need to produce a result when a match ends in a tie. By the way, why wasn't there a bowl out?

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  2. The Old Batsman28 December 2008 at 07:37

    Good question. I was watching Sky's early re-run and it just kicked in without much explanation. Change of playing conditions I guess. It does seem more equitable than a bowl out, and more exciting in a lunatic way. I kinda like it...

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  3. Anonymous30 December 2008 at 05:05

    I didn't see this One1 but honestly how long before some genius comes up with 10 One1 innings instead of two 20 over innings because its more action packed? And what about running every time you touch the ball? And if you don't plan to hit the ball you shouldn't be there. And finally we need more batsmen on the pitch at the same time otherwise there are too few stars on the field at any given time.
    Its not that I'm against T20s, I just don't like baseball.

    Btw, Champagne Super-over and Michael Vaughan Stop All the Clocks... I'm detecting a heavy Noel Gallagher influence :)

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  4. The Old Batsman30 December 2008 at 05:12

    T10 is nuts, natch, but I'd like to see a 40 over match consisting of two T20 innings each. Would add a tactical dynamic and might be fun.

    I'll fess up to the NG for champagne super-over (terrible pun, I know), but didn't know they had a 'stop all the locks'. That was my terrible stab at WH Auden...

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  5. price per head23 January 2013 at 22:52

    I cannot understand Vettori's point of view and position about the tie, I think they had to win and not to get satisfied with a tie

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