The Oregon club cricket team doesn’t have a home field to practice on.
Up until about three months ago, five of the 11 players on the Ducks’ squad had never even played the sport.
But the team is willing to travel. So they agreed to battle Oregon State in Corvallis to begin their regular season.
The odds seemed to be against Oregon, considering it was on the road and captain and coordinator Vijay Thangarasa said the Beavers are always talented and experienced.
None of that mattered on Sunday though.
The Ducks beat Oregon State by 21 runs over the weekend to kick off a perfect beginning to their season.
In cricket, a player from the fielding team is called the bowler. He or she sends a hard, leather ball from one wicket to another toward a batsman, who uses a wooden bat. The ball is usually throw in a way where it bounces before reaching him or her. If the striker hits the ball, they run between wickets – comparable to running bases in baseball – and exchange ends with a non-striker in an action performed to score runs. The team with the most runs, wins.
In a 20-overs-per-side match that saw Oregon bat first, the Ducks recorded 106 runs in 19.2 overs all-out. “All-out” means by the time ten out of the eleven batsmen get out, or dismissed.
The Beavers managed to only score 85 runs in 18.4 overs all-out.
Each inning in cricket is divided into overs, which consist of six straight deliveries bowled by the same bowler. After every over, the field positions are adjusted and the batting and bowling ends are swapped.
Oregon batsman/bowler Ali Abbasi scored 50 runs in 37 balls and picked up two wickets. Suraj Yalamuri bowled four overs and recorded four wickets while allowing 15 runs.
“Overall, we all did a good job,” Thangarasa said.
Oregon has three more games in its 2007 Oregon Cricket League 20/20 tournament, Thangarasa added.
“We worked really hard over the last few weeks for this and are very delighted by this victory,” Thangarasa said. “We beat a good team.”
The Ducks next battle Saturday in Corvallis against HP Corvallis.