Chakde India!

So I have a new favorite thing in this world. And that is the rousing sport of Cricket (the game not the small insect). Any who have had the pleasure of being outside of the states in one of our fellow former British colonies, would know that Cricket is no laughing matter as silly as it may look to our mindless football sensibilities. It took me a while to understand the game but now that I do, I fond it one of the most interesting sports to watch, I think I'll start a club when I get back home to introduce it to the unknowing Nevada population. Last night was a particularly exciting one in the world of Cricket and India, because you can't have one without the other. The Twenty20 World Cup Cricket match was held in South Africa these last couple of days and the teams to reach the finals were none other than my own India and Pakistan! As you can imagine there is quite the rivalry between the two and it wasn't really expected that either would make it to the finals so there was a lot of hype for it. It was a rousing game and for quite some time I expected Pakistan to take the lead and win but in just the last few balls of the game, one of the fielders caught the ball from the air and struck the last Pakistan batsman out! It was very exciting! And for hours afterward there was joyous yelling, and loads of fireworks resounding through the streets. It was hard to sleep.

For you who do not know Cricket lingo, I will enlighten you so you won't be confused when I get home and want to talk about it. Alright now:

Wickets= three 'sticks' that stand behind the batsman, the Bowler (see Bowler) tries to bowl the ball so that it hits the wickets thus getting out the batsman
Batsman= the guy who holds the bat, which is long and flat
Bowler= Think of him as the 'pitcher' if you will, except he throws it much harder and usually throws the ball into the ground so that it rebounds and hits the wickets
Wicket Keeper= He stands behind the wickets and catches the ball, he can also hit over the wickets if the batsman isn't on his base.

Now I know that that probably hasn't helped you understand the game any better in the slightest but if you have any question about it, I now consider myself quite 'in the know', well as far as Americans go anyway. Have a great day ad watch some cricket if you can!