Mark, we're ready to learn!

Go wasy. Make it simple at first please.

Mark is so good at this stuff, but as I write, it is midnight for him. Thanks for creating this topic, Terry. I know there is interest out there for this. I shall send the URL to a Droolian lady who used to play cricket and whose whole family has done so. Perhaps Mark will even tell you of the Freudian slip I did in a letter to him as we discussed the sport...it was so funny!!! And, when it occurred to me that I had made the error, I was all giggles...you will see. Rught now, however, it is 2330 GMT nd I hope he is abed and sleeping soundly! I shall wish him a Hawaiian Good Morning Aloha Kakahiaka!

First of all, Cricket has to be the most "couth" game in the universe. They break for tea, then for dinner. Also for drinks, but not as long as the previous two...How civilized!

You should have been British, Marcia.

I was until my grandfather came to America for his health (tuberculosis, supposedly) and married a local lady who was to become my grandmother...When I step onto England's green and pleasant land...I am HOME in the most visceral way. My genetic code relaxes, my bloodline is happy and my innards get all excited by the food. Yes, they have excellent food in Britain, and I will take on all comers who disagree!

You are one of the few (Americans) I've heard defend British food. But since you consider yourself a Brit, that would only make sense. I always hear (and in all fairness, only know from hearsay) bland and tasteless (except for kidney pie, which seems to revolt some). I do like Shepherd's Pie, but I don't know if the American version is spicier. I do know that it at least has salt and pepper, which I find necessary in most food.

The British (I consider myself American, btw!)have some of the best meat in the world...they do not need to hide it under obscuring sauces and spices. To me, meat is best when it tastes like what it is..just a little salt and pepper...that is really all it needs. Soups and stews are wonderful with Worcestershire Sauce...! There are things British I have not attempted - like jellied eels..! Yeesh!

The only place on earth I can stomach stewed prunes and Brussles Sprouts is Britain. They turn them into things poetic. Clotted cream is to die for...You cannot imagine it because there is no way to describe it in words. Like making love, it must be experienced to understand how incredible it is.

I like a good cut of meat with just salt and pepper (maybe a little onion and garlic doesn't hurt, as well). Worcestershire sauce is excellent--and spicy. Fair enough on the jellied eels...have you tried kidney pie?

Somehow clotted cream would have to taste different than it sounds to be "to die for." It sounds like something "to die of."

Cornish pasties (not pronounced the way the strippers do) and meat pies of all sorts - including Shepherd's pies are excellent and just the right thing to set you off for the fells to go climbing or moors for hiking. Lovely stuff, and not one indigestible one in the batch!

re: clotted cream...you did note with what I compared it?! I do not minimize my favorable impression of the stuff, and this is from someone who throws away whipped cream as too greasy and tasteless...!

yes...the name just sounds so unappetizing and unimaginative

BTW, I love most melted cheeses, but there is not enough melted cheese in the universe to get me to eat a Brussels sprout...ugh....I went days without eating as a child because my mom insisted I eat those she gave me before I could have anything else.

My mom. too. Bitter nasty little green cabbages, was how my Father called them. They are buttery and mild in the tight little island...*sigh*

Brussel Sprouts - love em, very popular here in Oz, with roast beef or lamb, roast potatoes, carrots and mince sauce for the lamb and horseradish for the beef, with yorkshire pudding!!!!!!!!!

Brussel Sprouts - love em, very popular here in Oz, with roast beef or lamb, roast potatoes, carrots and mint sauce for the lamb and horseradish for the beef, with yorkshire pudding!!!!!!!!!

Now, Anne, my lady cricketer and explainer...please give a brief resume' of the stuff of cricket...we were talking food until you and Mark arrived. He is in England, so we will not get his take on this for about 5 more hours...Please tell us about things cricket. Terry wants to know and he is totally in the dark about it. I wish to know more...and John is curious, too. We await your comments.

Please explain "clotted cream" to me, also. All I have is a sexual metaphor. And Marcia, you seem to be avoiding the kidney pie question.

never had kidney pie in Britain. In America had one which tasted like the kidneys were still functioning as God intended. It makes me think of that every time I see one... Clotted cream comes from very special cows whose milk is so rich that this thick cream forms on top when left to sit and settle. It is almost like butter, but nothing like as greasy. Frank liked it enough that he had it on chocolate ice cream which I considered highly decadent. It is wonderful on fruit tarts and fresh fruit and on gym socks and on your tongue and anything else you can get it on. I think your sexual connotation might be highly likely as an enjoyable idea.

Certainly sounds like it would beat Crisco...

...but not for making pie crusts...

To make that pie crust perfect and glossy, brush beaten egg white over it before baking.

A cricket topic with 25 posts already! What's going on? First of all, British food is pitiful and defenceless - and the sad thing is, we all like it. Oddities like clotted cream, steak & kidney pie (or pudding), spotted dick, toad in the hole only appeal to some even here, but boy when they appeal... Back to cricket. The essence of the sport is to score more runs than the other team. Runs are achieved by hitting the ball away when it has been bowled and running to the other end of the "wicket" (22 yards away) while your batting partner runs the other way. However, you are out (i.e. your own innings is ended) if you are: 1 Bowled - the stumps behind you are hit by the ball 2 Caught - a fielder catches the ball before it bounces 3 Run out - the fielder hits the stumps with the ball before you have reached them in running 4 Leg before wicket - the umpire judges that your body saved you from being bowled There are six other increasingly strange means of getting out. To ensure that you do not get either caught or bowled, you spend a lot of time blocking or leaving deliveries, and the most traditionally elegant scoring shots are all along the ground (therefore cannot be caught). The field has boundaries which count as four runs (or six if you clear them). Scores can get very high (at my level, 250 runs for the team - the highest score ever recorded was over 900, I think). Each team bats through its whole line-up (10 men get out, because the last one left in cannot go on without a partner) once - except in "first-class" cricket, which has two innings. If the end of the game arrives and the side batting second has not reached the target score, but is not all out, the game is a draw. A form of cricket which ensures a winner has become enormously popular (limited-overs, or "one-day" cricket") and forms the basis for the World Cup, which happens every four years, and was won by Australia this year. The ball is heavier than a baseball with a seam running round it, which helps bowlers to swing or spin it - because bowling requires a straight elbow, the only real method is to run in and whirl the arm over. However, as the ball can bounce on the way to the batsman, spinning it is an alternative to sheer speed. The bat is, I think, 3.5 feet long (about as long as the 3 stumps), and as John says, its back is triangular looking. That's cricket - I expect I missed something out that is crucial, but hey

Now, I can take my first baby step toward understanding cricket, that's good. This topic is like cricket, a long food break, then back to the game, long, liesurely, like a Sunday afteroon cricket game. I'll have to watch one sometime, there must be cricket in Austin somewhere, I've heard that there is down in Zilker Park.

OK, Terry, if you see this, you're in the right place. This is meant to show a wicket, i.e. a set of stumps with bails on top, the object that the batsman defends from the bowler. Of course being cricket, a word can mean several different things, so a wicket is also the term for an out, or a dismissal - "He took my wicket with a great ball", "That bowler's got five wickets today". And a wicket can be used to refer to the 22-yd strip o grass between the stumps, e.g. a green wicket or a sticky (i.e. wet) wicket.

Question of the day. What's a googly?

A leg-spinner normally bowls a delivery that, when it hits the ground, turns away from a right-handed batsman. However, by twisting his wrist round further, he may be able to bowl a ball that looks similar, but turns the other way (in towards a right-hander). This is a googly. Where the name came from nobody knows.

In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, "Great googly moogly!" Now I have a certain rudimentary understanding of what the Samoans I've been watching were doing. Thank you. The baseball equivalent of a googly is a screwball. Any sport which breaks for tea and bickies--and especially for dinner--is ok with me.

I believe the screwball, like leg-spin, is a bit of a dying art? In fact though leg-spin is reviving, you don't see many googlies nowadays. The top leg-spinners like Shane Warne bowl a ball called a "flipper" instead! Would you believe that at the end of the season one of the factors we've been known to discuss when deciding our fixture list for next year is which teams served the best (or worst) teas?

The screwball is a dying art. It puts too much strain on pitchers' elbows and ultimately shortens their careers (case in point, Fernando Valenzuela). What does the flipper do? I know a few Brits and I am impressed what a serious business tea is to them. No bags, loose leaf, water boiled just so...

Did I not tell you this was an esoteric sport of gentlemen interested in the purity of all phases of the game?! How bad can a tea get?! Just hot, flavored water and nothing solid to munch on, or was it tepid? How gauche! I'd imagine the best ones were the sort out of which you could make a good meal. Do let us know about this part of cricket they do not discuss on short wave radio! John, where are you watching cricket locally?!

Sorry, tea is not just the drink (yuck!) but also the whole "meal" that goes with it - so a bad cricket tea will consist of an egg sandwich, a tuna & cucumber sandwich, a sausage roll, a piece of sponge cake, and a plastic cup of tea. The minuscule size of all these items I just cannot describe to Americans. I'm not sure that I know what a flipper actually is - I get the impression that despite a loopy trajectory, it skids fast at the batsman on hitting the pitch (this used to be called a plain old top-spinner, I'm sure) Was that guy Joe Niekro (or was it Phil) a screwballer? Didn't he get caught throwing sandpaper away when he was frisked?

He was actually a knuckleballer, and yes, he was hiding a piece of emory board. Scuffing the ball causes it to defy the laws of physics, although a good knuckleball (a misnomer) can do that without scuffing. It is held quite tightly with all fingernails (you must have long, strong nails) and then pushed in a fashion towards the batter. It is a slow pitch without any rotation on the ball, but seems to move in any unpredictable direction. A good knuckleball makes hitters (and catchers as well) look stupid. A bad knuckleball (which has even one rotation) is just a batting practice lollipop and can become a home run pitch. Joe Niekro's older brother. Phil is a baseball Hall-of-Famer. Joe Torre said of Phil Niekro: When I was his teammate, I couldn't catch him. When I was his opponent, I couldn't hit him. Later, I found out I couldn't manage him, either. Baseball comedian Bob Uecker, who was once a Braves catcher said, "I figured out how to catch Phil Niekro. You just wait until the ball stops rolling, pick it up and throw it back to him. If there are people on base, you just shut your eyes and hope the ball hits you and stays in front.

From AnneH in Australia: My greatest cricketing memory was sitting on the grass at the Oval Cricket Ground in 1958 with my brother. Fred Trueman was bowling wonderfully, he was just off 3 for 300 wickets. He bowled and got two wickets - on a hat trick for his three hundred and got it. I have never seen such excitement. Wonderful day, wonderful weather, and it was just a week before I left home to take up nursing so I have strong memories of it all.

Is AnneH Anne Heche? I don't see any cricket locally...I used to see it at Ke'ehi Lagoon and Kapi'olani Park in Honolulu and when I visit, if I'm driving by and see them playing, I'll still stop and watch if I have time. I don't know the game, but I do know atheticism when I see it.

Even if I can't spell it *SMILE*

AnneH is Anne Hale who has played cricket her whole life - born and bred in England and currently living in Australia. She is a very good friend of mine *smile* ( I have misspelled it on occasion, too)

see post 19 this topic to see if she is real...she has problems posting and I leap to her aid when possible.

Re: "Bad tea" (American style). Kool-Aid (any flavor), vanilla wafers, and bologna on chicken in a biscuit crackers.

Ooop, time for a spot of tea again.

I have spots where I stained my shirt with spilled Lipton...

Googlie is a screwball, that figures. Hmm, should I search google for googlie? Well, I found this crickettalk: Dave 'DT' Taylor, the 'genial guru of googlie', 'sensual sorcerer of spin', 'titilating temptress of turn', 'ovulating overlord off break'(eh?). 'DT' is to spin bowling what Grocer is to financial planning (work that one out!). Without doubt one of Gowers entertainers. Comical genius in any role. The Chaplin of the long walk, 'DT' provides the lighter side of the game. Regularly inspiring chants from the pavilion of "Coco! Coco! Coco!". Dave was successfully introduced to stud earlier this year, resulting in the recent addition of Cameron to the Gower parish. We can only hope that not everything is passed on genetically. It was on http://home.ust.hk/~ttslack/Gower/profiles/CCCprofiles.html

And there's a lot more information on "cricket clubs" here http://home.ust.hk/~ttslack/Gower/

I'll have to make "google" me default search engine.

whilst we await Mark's return, Karen posted this in drool and I am borrowing it For those losing sleep because they don't understand cricket, I found this website that looks incredibly comprehensive. There is actually a diagram of a googley, among other strange things. Can't wait to study this one. http://www.ozsports.com.au/cricket/cricket_exp.html

Here you go, pictures:

Mark, the equivalent in America is discussing which ballparks serve the *best* hotdogs, as if there were such things! Or maybe nachos!

As regards British food, there are far better restaurants in London now than there were a number of years ago when I first visited. Brussel sprouts are wonderful. Most people overcook them and that's why they have such a bad reputation - the smell. Clotted cream is used like butter, spread on scones, etc. It's not at all like whipped cream. Can buy it here, and actually have some little gift packages with strawberry preserves in the fridge right now.

That is Fantastic, Karen!!! Mahalo Nui Loa. I am about to import AnneHale's descritpions from 119 if she does not get home from the cricket match (where she actually is this weekend)and tell us all about it...We need all the help we can get. I understand just enough to follow the game on Short wave but not enough to tell anyone else much about it.

Oooh Clotted Cream....*sigh* How incredibly delightful. You bet the Brussels Sprouts are splendid and buttery over there - fresh and cooked only till tender. We have no idea here how to cook them!

I can't even follow those diagrams myself, and I know what the actual deliveries look like! Good luck to anyone trying to learn from them. True that London restaurants are improving - serving French & Italian food, Chinese, Indian, Tex-Mex, whatever. Haven't seen sprouts and clotted cream in a top restaurant in a while.

At least it's comforting to know my lack of understanding of the diagrams is not just a byproduct of my own terminal ignorance.

Better still, Mark's comments were reassuring to this cricket beginner...I thought I understood the rudimants of the game, but I could get nothing from the diagrams. Thanks...now, we need more information or I will have to paste the stuff from Drool - and I'd rather not. (Too bad about the dearth of sprouts and clotted cream in fine dining...!)

If I ever see another Brussels sprout in this life, it will be too soon. Clotted cream I will reserve judgment on for if the day comes I actually have some.

Maybe it is one of those thing, like Kona Coffee, that is best consumed in the land of its perfection.

If you get real Kona coffee, fresh, it's great anywhere.

...true...but our AD makes it too strong and it is bitter and nasty like that. Of course, you are used to Navy coffee, and if it is anything like Marine coffee, it will eat the bowl out of your spoon! (my email is not working. Welcome home!)

When did clotted cream and brussels sprouts become the hallmark of fine dining? Clotted cream gets served at tea, with the jam and biscuits. Had it in a little teashop somewhere in the Cotswolds.

At the risk of getting verbally swatted by you again, Karen, I don't think anyone said it was. Marcia mentioned they were two of her favorite memories of British food. She's the only non-Brit I ever met who claimed to like English food (I've been to Ireland, but not to England). Here in Hawaii, a surprising number of top students go to England for a year or two to study, and they almost all come back thinner and complain about the food. Marcia, I never liked--nor did I get used to--Navy coffee. I've been spoiled by drinking good coffee since my late teens. And you're right, BT makes lousy coffee, but I don't think he drinks the stuff.

Clotted cream is delightful in its place (which is, ideally, a Cotswolds teahop), but like all English food is not haute cuisine. I was just saying that London restaurants may have improved, but English food has stayed the same. I didn't want to comment on AnneH's Trueman memory until I'd researched it, but that afternoon was in 1964, Anne, not 1958 - you may be six years younger than you thought? Apparently all through the lunch interval the Oval was agog with the excitement of whether Trueman would achieve his 300th Test wicket with a hat-trick - though the book says that he actually became the first bowler to get there about 20 minutes later. When asked if he thought anyone would ever reach 300 again, he said "If they do, th y'll be bloody tired!"

Mark, that's funny even though I don't understand it. A hat trick in hockey is three goals in a game, a hat trick in baseball is striking out (as a batter) three times in a game. What is a hat trick in cricket?

Oops, John, should have explained a hat-trick in cricket is three wickets taken in successive balls (even with a lunch interval in between). That concept could never really translate to soccer and hockey etc. I guess there's no need for a term for striking out a batter with the first three pitches he receives (except maybe "useless")?

I call it "whiff-o-rama"..that of course is not official baseball lingo. But the hat trick makes sense to me...it is always something thrice. In baseball, striking out four times in a game is the "big sombrero," five times is the "golden sombrero." The game certainly has a Spanish flavor now with the large influx of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans into the major leagues.

At the risk of getting verbally swatted by you again There are worse things in life... was in 1964, Anne, not 1958 - you may be six years younger than you thought? LOL!! Oh, that it worked that way. Did I not notice something in those cricket pages about something called a "Golden Duck"?

A golden duck is a batsman's dismissal from his first ball received. In a sport in which you hope to bat for over an hour this can be very frustrating. Still there will always be a team-mate on hand to shout quack-quack or ask you why you played such a careless shot first ball. I have heard losing your wicket to the first ball of the innings described as a platinum duck, but my team ran out of metals when someone was bowled out by the first ball of a new season. (Etymology: a duck is a score of nought, probably from comparison of the figure with a duck's egg; so a more special version (out first ball) is a golden duck)

Other unusual cricket terminology: Maidens: an over (six balls) bowled without conceding any runs is described as a maiden - cue endless jokes about "bowling a maiden over" - a bona fide cricket term or very stiltedromantic metaphor. Note: Marcia remembered this term as "virgins", which is funnier. Silly point: The fielding positions of point, mid-off and mid-on can all move closer to the batsman, to the point at which they are described as "silly", principally because of the risk of injury. Many other fielding positions have daft names, e.g. extra cover, short square leg, third man, fine leg, fly slip. Chinaman: normal delivery of a left-arm wrist-spinner. Beginning to fall foul of the politically correct lobby, but enough of a rarity that it doesn't matter yet. More on request

At the risk of getting verbally swatted by you again "There are worse things in life..." If you're not kidding, you're appallingly arrogant.

Wow! I don't get this .. what was appallingly arrogant? Karen misinterpreted a throwaway of Marcia's, was corrected, smiled back : end of story. No? Actually, on second thoughts, scrub that. When this girl gets at it with the rapier, there's usually a body count. Swat away!

To put things in their proper perspective, there are worse things in life than root canals (such as subdural hematoma, massive coronaries which leave you still breathing, and metastasized malignant tumors). That doesn't mean I am praying for a massive coronary any more than I am a cheap shot such as (Mr. Mariah Carey...or was that Jennifer Lopez?) It was not being corrected on a point where I was clearly wrong that I object to. I actually appreciate it if it's done with some sense of tact rather than d gnity-stripping disdain. If it was my assessment of Costner as a mediocre actor which got your dander up originally, it is just an opinion and I have a right to it. I also conceded that he has been in some excellent films. I am impressed with your brains. I understand that you have been on Jeopardy...even passing the test to get on is quite the accomplishment. But that doesn't mean that being kicked by you is a privilege.

I'm outta here.

Ok, children, back to cricket and the terminology. More Please, Mark? I love the term "worm Burner" for a keenly hit grounder. For the real feel of cricket and its history try http://www.lords.org/ecb/coaching/index.html from the home of cricket, Lords Cricket Ground. Will get more, but I am recovering from a Root canal and my brain is on the 'numb' setting.

Mark... This is something that started somewhere else and has been festering in me for quite some time. Sorry. But she won't see me in "Drool" again, either. That was MY mistake.

I am reposting AnneH's comments on Cricket from Drool 119 since most of you do not go there: I used to play cricket years ago. My favourite game, I spend hours in the summer watching it. The pitch is between two wickets - 22yds long. The aim to bowl out the batsmen any way possible by hitting the wicket, by lege before wicket or by a catch. The batsman's aim is to score as many runs as possible. A ball running to the boundary is a four, a ball going high over the boundary is a six. All the other runs are scored by two batsman running between the wickets and score as many runs as possible wi hout being run out by the ball being thrown at the wicket. In a test match they play for five days, two innings each. The other is a one day match with 50 overs bowled - they hopefully the bowlers that is try to bowl maidens!!!!! I will carry on if any one is interested. Average scores can go from 400 to 100 or until all batsmen are out or at least 10 of them. Anne H

Mark posted this on Drool 72 The reason more balls aren't caught in cricket is that the batsman doesn't have to run when he hits it. So they normally hit it downwards. This way they can stay in for ages while amassing big scores (a 5-day "test match" is thirty hours of play (for a maximum forty outs!). Incidentally in Flashman's Lady the umpire doesn't reverse his call, an appeal is a request rather than a complaint. But don't get me started, I'm a major cricket bore.

I'm a major boxing bore (maybe you cold even drop the adjective--in this case--boxing), but we're here because we want to find out about something related to us, yet quite mysterious to most Americans. I probably won't post again because of my innate gift of pissing people off (which doesn't mean drunk in the American vernacular), but I will read, so by all means, "Bore away!!!"

Further to "worm-burner", which I like, a delivery that shoots along the ground on landing is known in cricket as a daisy-cutter (I have heard other terms and forgotten them). A South African professional recently got fined and banned for using the traditional SA term for such a ball: "coolie-creeper". A dolly is an easy catch - is that a deliberate pun, I wonder? A rabbit is a poor batsman, and consequently a ferret is an appalling batsman (because he "goes in after the rabbits") Cow corner is the derisive name for the fielding position placed when an "agricultural" batsman comes in - one who swipes at the ball.

Stick around John, you ain't pissin' me off. You can go a few more rounds! I am going to have to actually see a cricket match one of these days to really grasp it. How many folks here have seen a match at least once? How many actually play it?

I used to watch Samoans play cricket at a couple of places in Honolulu. Kapi`olani Park in Waikiki, and Ke`ehi Lagoon Park, near the Honolulu Airport. I was always fascinated by it although I wouldn't have known when something was happening except to hear the cheering. I kept my distance and never asked questions as Samoans in Hawaii are very clannish and wary of Caucasians and most other outsiders as well (unfortunately, in their history, they've had good reason to be). I know it's a stereotype, but a large percentage of Samoan people are also large, muscular, and excellent athletes. Reading Mark's posts has helped me to gain some insight, in retrospect, to what was actually happening there. I'm sure their teas and lunches were quite different from those in England, though.

Very little cricket is played in the US, I believe, although there are odd pockets of English (and other) ex-pats in NY and Philly. A Hollywood eleven used to receive some press and play sides on tour, I heard, and just recently someone used cricket to help convert L.A. street-gang kids from violence to sport. (At least that's what the publicity for the volunteers would have us believe - needless to say the British press swallowed the story whole without finding out if the kids knew one end of a bat from the other). On Samoan size and clannishness: all testified to by supporters following teams from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji during the current Rugby World Cup currently. Tiny nations, but they sure can play rugby!

Oooh! Goody...Cricket being discussed. (John, don't you dare leave me all alone in here! You are anything but a bore...anyone who can judge boxing matches and write poetry is a wonderful thing. I promise to give you back rubs or whatever if you'd like!) Mark, I love the terms (including the SA one) for what we call grounders in baseball. Another thing about Samoans; we had a girl on the volleyball team who had just played her last game for us (the UHHilo Vulcans) before graduating. A goodly contingent of Samoans were there to applaud her efforts. As the teams were preparing to leave, the Samoans broke into an impromptu song and dance that made your hair stand on end. It was magnificent...and no one left while they were performing. Incredible stuff! BTW, the New Zealand announcers used the term "worm-burner" if I am remembering correctly!)

Here is a really complete Cricket site with lots of hot links to wherever you need to go - and it is from Cricket USA...! http://www-usa.cricket.org/

For cricket coverage and more From Wisden Cricket Monthly (Thanks MarkG !) http://www.wisden.com Radio Australia coverage and frequencies for shortwave and internet broadcasts http://www.abc.net.au/ra/sport/sptransmit.htm#ra Radio New Zealand International coverage and frequencies for same: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/sports.htm

Australia vs Pakistan is in the second day of 5 days of test match Cricket. You can listen on the internet at http://www.abc.net.au/cricket/broadcast/ Or on short wave at 17.580 MHz (lots of QRM last night!) Check the score card from the first day of play http://www.abc.net.au/news/cricket/scorecard.htm

check http://www.abc.net.au/cricket/test/#timezone to see what time it will be played for your area of the world.

Wow I'll try it on my mobile shortwave rig, the Yaesu FT-100.

And you sitting inside of the best conductor around...How can you miss?! I not the frequency is very noisy here but it should be getting dark in Austin about now. It should begin around this time, if my calculations are correct. Off to check the internet connection. (2pm HST or 6pm Austin)

Terry the match has just begun and the internet connection is crystal clear!!! Whoopee!!

'Tis almost lunch time. Is everything clear? Understand what all those terms like maidens, overs, no-balls and none-for-12, and all that mean? It seems incredible that one side scores 367 runs before the other side gets their innings. Stay tuned, fans, we have some experts waiting to help us understand.

If you are using Real Player and it goes silent on you, hit the pause button on your player (the 2 parallel lines) then hit the arrowhead on the left (play button) . That sould kick it back into action.

The day's match is about to begin...tune in Radio Aussie either on the internet or on short wave 17.580 http://www.abc.net.au/cricket/broadcast/

Will it go on for a couple of days?

This is the third of 5 days of play, unless one team concedes defeat. And, you carry your score with you. If you dig yourslf a hole, you are stuck in it for the duration!

Oh, and the Test Match against India will be broadcast the same way, as well.

It was a very, very faint signal on my FT-100 last night on the way in to Austin. Is it still playing?

It usually goes till 10pm HST which would be 2am for you in Austin. The QRM was really bad later on in the day. They will be playing today again beginning the usual 6pm for you and 2 pm for me. Do try listening on the Internet. It was spectacular!

I think this Test is a sure-fire draw - unless Pakistan have an early collapse on Day 5. The great thing about almost all cricket games is that the commentators can say "I think this session coming up is probably going to be the most important of the entire match" before every session, and mean it! Partly because they're kidding themselves, and partly because the match can go through big shifts of dominance relatively quickly.

As they say in the US, "It ain't over till it's OVER" (Yogi Berra?!) Last day of this test match today commencing at 2pm Hawaiian time, 6pm Austin time. 0000 Zulu.