Did you ever felt that Coding is Cricket? While following the Cricket world cup, I’m thinking about both Coding and Cricket. Let’s see, how these are similar.

Coder is a batsman. Customers are bowlers, they bowl bugs and enhancements. Bowlers with more number of variations and high precision are respected. Framework is like ground or pitch, batting and bowling depends on it. Scoring boundary is solving the bug completely. Taking single means hitting the ball to a fielder and asking some questions to him. Fielders are QA or customers. Fielding is set according to the bowler and the way batsman is batting. Fielder fields the ball and throws back, is like answering the query or reassigning the bug. Scoring two or three is nearly hitting boundary, with little lower power. Normally two-three runs are scored when the ball is hit nicely in the gap and two-three fielders come together to field the ball. Umpires and match referee are high level management, their decision is final.

When a batsman is new, he takes some time to understand the pitch. So he plays some dot balls. There is difference between dot balls. If batsman watches the ball till the end and leaves it then it is considered as a good sign. But if the batsman tries to play a rash shot and misses the ball, it makes the teammates nervous. We always expect that the batsman will make up for those dot balls played initially. But playing more dot balls creates pressure on the team especially if the target is huge. It is important to take singles and doubles, rotate the strike if he is not confident enough to hit the boundary.

When a wicket falls, task of that batsman has to be done by another batsman, his teammate. In that case, new batsman again takes time to understand the conditions and thereby reducing the run rate.

Sometimes the ball takes edge of the bat and crosses the boundary line. The batsman himself doesn’t know how he hit it! Sometimes the batsman hits it properly but a fielder standing at the boundary line jumps high, catches the ball and throws it to his fellow teammate and they start celebrating a wicket! The batsman, shocked, thinks, “How is this possible? I had connected the ball well, it must go over the boundary!”

Deep learning is like reverse sweep or scoop. Very few batsmen actually understand how it works, but many others want to use them! But every ball cannot be played using reverse sweep. Batsman has to pick the right ball and hit it properly, only then he can score a boundary. Otherwise he can lose his wicket.

Some deliveries are bouncers. They go over the head. But if batsman is good, he can hit them over the boundary. Some balls are yorkers, nothing much can be done with those, apart from taking singles. Wide balls are out of range of the batsman. Most of the good length balls can be sent across the boundary just by using traditional shots, also known as textbook shots. But if the batsman is not in good form, he can make mistakes while playing it. Experienced batsmen rely on traditional shots to score runs without losing their wicket. The team also needs few power hitters, who take risks and score much more quickly in crunch situations.

In death overs, batsmen try to hit every ball out of the ground and score as much as possible, even if they are facing yorkers and other variations. During that phase, number of runs matter more than how those are scored. Normally death overs runrate is high, but sometimes it may reduce due to mistakes in hitting.

During old days, batting was very difficult. The bowling was fierce, nobody knew how to play them. The targets were also lower than the present. Now with technical advances we can analyse every variation of bowling and train our batsmen to play those deliveries. Pitches are also much more batting friendly now, resulting easier batting and higher targets. The competition has increased, and the expectations from batsmen have also increased. Consistent performance with good strike rate is needed to secure a position in the team!

Sometimes the game is stopped due to inevitable reasons, like rain, inadequate light, etc. If the game cannot be started again, match is cancelled. Otherwise a strange rule (DL) is applied and target is revised. Most of the times, revised target is tougher to achieve!

Everyone likes to bat, right? Next time when we go to work, let’s imagine, this workspace is playground, framework is the pitch and I am the batsman!

© Bhushan Kulkarni