May 29, 2014

SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 13 comments

In last night's Jays/Rays tilt, Flying Kevin Pillar dove at home plate to score the walk-off run for the Jays.

The catcher (not Molina I think, but the other guy) made a swipe tag at Pillar and (from the initial TV angle) might have gotten him. The Jays had already poured onto the field to congratulate/assault Pillar (and then Gose who had the winning bunt/forced-error).

Theoretically, the Rays manager could have called for an instant replay to confirm the tag, but he had already used his challenge (and lost) earlier in the game.

(Subsequent replays showed that it wasn't really close, as one camera angle showed there was a lot of space between the leg/glove.)

Imagine how crazy things could have gotten if Maddon had been able to request a replay review? They would have had to get all the Jays players off the field and back into the dugout, put Gose back on the bases, and then have the crowd sit and wait for it to be official before they could go back to cheering.

posted by grum@work at 03:37 PM on May 29, 2014

I'll be rooting for Portugal as well as the USA in the upcoming World Cup. It's mostly because my ancestry on my mother's side was 100% Portuguese (Her maiden name was Lily Isabel D'Azavedo Lobo) until my great grandfather married an English girl. Now I have even more reason. Here is the Musica Oficial da Selecao Nacional. Kind of a catchy tune. Makes you want to go kick a ball around.

posted by Howard_T at 10:13 PM on May 29, 2014

Pretty good run chase in the IPL a couple of nights ago. Mumbai chased down 190 in 14.4 overs to go through on run rate.

Here's the last over.

posted by owlhouse at 04:38 AM on May 30, 2014

Pretty good run chase in the IPL a couple of nights ago. Mumbai chased down 190 in 14.4 overs to go through on run rate.

Here's the last over.

Fascinating, but I'm a little confused on why they had the last/extra ball. Is it because the rules state you have to have a winner of a match, and because of that they were given an extra ball, and those runs pushed them over the run rate?

posted by grum@work at 08:07 AM on May 30, 2014

grum, here's the final two paragraphs from the official IPL web site with the explanation:

Shane Watson then handed the ball to Faulkner, who conceded a single off the first ball he bowled that over. Rayudu then stepped up to the plate and dispatched a full-toss over the fence. With MI needing two runs off one delivery to make the Playoffs, Rayudu struck the ball to mid-off, and he scampered for a single. However, an over-throw from Brad Hodge saw both batters going for the winning run. But Rayudu was run-out in the attempted second run, as the RR dugout leapt in jubilation.

But there was a twist in the tale. As a result of the tied scores at the end of 14.3 overs, both MI and RR sported identical net run-rates. Hence, as per fresh calculations, it was clear that MI were still in with a chance to qualify, provided they scored at least a four off the next delivery. Then thanks to Aditya Tare (6*), they did not get just a four, but in fact, a big six on the leg side to seal an emphatic win and their passage to the Playoffs.

Unfortunately, that doesn't quite help me with why that happened. Also, why did Mumbai only get 14+ overs?

posted by NoMich at 09:16 AM on May 30, 2014

When Rajasthan scored 189 in their innings, Mumbai's target was set to 190 to win the game, and then everyone calculated how fast they'd have to get to 190 to raise their Net Run Rate, (NRR), enough to get them to the playoffs.

However, 190 isn't the only possible winning score.

Calculations based on 190 showed that Mumbai had to get to the target in 14.3 overs, (87 deliveries), to get into the playoffs.

Mumbai scored one run, (and a run out), on delivery 14.3, which left them on 189 - exactly matching Rajasthan's score.

At that point the game isn't over - no one has won, Mumbai still has wickets in hand and Rajasthan haven't bowled 20 overs. A quick recalculation showed that Mumbai did still have a chance, provided they scored enough runs off delivery 14.4, as Net Run Rate is calculated from the game's final score.

One run would not have been enough. Two or three runs would, but because of a quirk in the way cricket is scored, if they run three, only the first run would have counted, (the winning run), which would have left them short on NRR.

So they had to score either a 4 or a 6, as that score is added to the total without running.

I'm sure that's clear as mud.

Pardon the multiple edits.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:30 AM on May 30, 2014

I'd just come across the Duckworth-Lewis method this week via the fantastic[ally hard] Round Britain Quiz and meant to post it but was going to wait until I wanted to distract grum for a few days so I'd be free to post incendiary claptrap without need for backing evidence.

posted by yerfatma at 09:35 AM on May 30, 2014

Grum + Duckworth Lewis... I have visions of stars collapsing in on themselves.

I'm not sure even Duckworth and Lewis understand Duckworth Lewis.

(I was going to make a Schleswig-Holstein joke here, but given the family name I should probably let that opportunity go.)

posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:39 AM on May 30, 2014

Actually, that helped quite a bit, Mr B. Thanks!

posted by NoMich at 10:01 AM on May 30, 2014

Yes, Mr. B's explanation confirmed what I thought, and explained how a 2-or-3 run option wouldn't work.

Not counting the 2-or-3 run option because the "next run wins" is the North American equivalent of a walk-off hit in baseball only scoring the first run, even if there were multiple men on the base and the ball was hit far enough for more than one to score...unless it's a home run and therefore ALL of the runners count.

(Unless you're Robin Ventura in the playoffs and your teammates don't even let you finish rounding the bases to celebrate, therefore changing your walk-off-grand-slam-home-run into 4-run walk-off-single.)

posted by grum@work at 10:16 AM on May 30, 2014

I think the most amazing part of Mumbai's run down is that they scored 190 runs in only 14+ overs. WTF happened to Rajasthan's bowlers?

posted by NoMich at 11:33 AM on May 30, 2014

If they'd kept up that scoring rate for the full 20 overs it would have been a record for a complete innings.

For incomplete innings, they have some work to do. Faisalabad apparently put up 123/2 off 7.3 overs in 2006 and they're only second in the list.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:59 PM on May 30, 2014

WTF happened to Rajasthan's bowlers?

Two of the last three deliveries were full tosses on the leg stump. I could have probably got a boundary off both or either. Terrible control.

posted by owlhouse at 01:54 AM on May 31, 2014

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