Contemplating the Ashes urn retention and the nature of failure and success

OK, after Australia had a disastrous 98 in their first innings at Melbourne, it was only a matter of time before England, in a somewhat workmanlike manner, won the fourth Ashes test and kept the Ashes urn. I recommend the Daily Mail cricket commentary, but there are other cricket sites around. One commentary piece indicated that the world's number one and two Test cricket teams, India and South Africa, are currently bashing each other in a tight Test series. I'll have to check that out.

But meandering philosophically...

Awhile ago I saw a "Science of Sports" episode where they compared the difficulty of hitting a cricket ball to the difficulty of hitting a baseball. The conclusion was, it's easier to hit a cricket ball with a cricket bat than a baseball with a baseball bat. I agree with that conclusion.

But the thing about cricket is... in a match, you only have two chances to bat, and one mistake means you're out. ONE. In a baseball game, the average player has three or four chances to bat, and quite a few mistakes can be made (those are foul balls that end up in the stands, or ground fouls, things like that).

Baseball has its share of stirring at-bats, where a batter has to get on base, and fouls off a lot of pitches before making getting that critical hit. And there are other instances of such an at-bat where the pitcher finally struck out the batter after numerous fouls. But there are a lot of games in a baseball season, and a lot of at-bats, so a bad day one day doesn't mean a bad season.

So yes, it is somewhat easier to hit a cricket ball, but because it's easier, the consequences of failure are magnified. And it's not just about hitting a foul ball, it's swinging and missing and having the ball hit the wicket, or getting caught leg-before-wicket (where the ball hits the body but would've hit the wicket if the body of the batsman hadn't got in the way).

So when a cricket batsman goes into a slump, it's hard for him to get a chance to get out of the slump against live bowling. A couple of swings and misses, and his entire summer of sport is imperiled. In each five-day game, he only gets two chances to bat, and two mistakes mean he's done!

That takes nerves. So when England batted so successfully in the second Test, you have to realize that they just weren't making ANY mistakes, swing after swing after swing. And that's impressive. Because the margin for error is so slim.