Owzat?!

[Anthony]

For those who do not know cricket, Owzat? (How's that) is the traditional request to the umpire to declare a batsman out.  

[Anthony]

Some more.

[Akira]

Anthony, thank you for sharing.

It's funny that I do understand that you captured critical moments successfully, but, since I have no idea of the rule or the way of playing cricket, I cannot relate the moments you captured with this particular sport at all.  Very weird!   

[Ann]

"Owszat?!"

I reckon that you hit a Six?

But colored uniforms (instead of whites) and helmets (really sensible however) show changing times.

[Tom Hook]

Very nice, caught in the moment photos. To this American baseball fan - as I sit watching the Yankees play the Astros on my teevee - I kind of get Cricket, but sadly, not completely. Keep posting and maybe I'll understand a bit more, it looks like fun. In baseball, nothing is better than hitting the ball on the sweet spot of the bat, cricket too I imagine. The bat sings!

[tommiejeep]

Anthony, love the first one but you did a great job on all.  What gear, I could not get the exif from Opanda ?  Cricket is something I have never really enjoyed shooting compared to Soccer.  I have a  ton of images with the heat atmospherics.  Even with the D3S I could never get the exact moment of ball hitting the Stumps.   I usually spent more time on getting the ball leaving the Bowler's hand or using the 300 2.8 to capture the wider action scene.   Many thanks for sharing.   My cameras hated the Cricket Whites in the harsh, bright light  and we do not have that grass
Tom

[Anthony]

Thanks, all, for your comments.

The match was a 50 over game between Middlesex and Essex at Radlett.  Essex won comfortably. 

I used the X-T2 and 100-400, mounted on a Wimberley gimbal.  This worked very well.  Shutter speeds were 1/1600 or above, which was fine in the good light which we enjoyed.  Cricket, I discovered, gets through a lot of memory, because every ball has the potential to create drama, and at close to over 500 balls in a day that is a lot of shooting.  I was shooting at 11 fps with the grip and boost mode.  I shot around 3,500 frames in the day, and got through just over three WP-126s batteries (which are small).  There was quite a lot of image review (in the EVF), so over 1,000 frames per battery was very good performance.

Here is a description of cricket for those not familiar with it  http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/cricket/rules/the_basics/newsid_3794000/3794981.stm

And here is another description, entirely confusing except for those who know the game  https://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/12/27/cricket-explained-to-a-foreigner/

[ColinM]

Thanks for posting these Anthony.
I especially like 1, 3 & 4

All the better for seeing these on a day when the national side remembers how to play too!

[Anthony]

Thanks, Colin, glad you like them.

[rosko]

Nice sport series, Anthony !

Perfect framing and colours. We feel in the centre of action.

Thanks for sharing,

Francis.

[Anthony]

Thank you, Francis.

[Akira]

Anthony, thank you for the links.  I would need to watch the game with those explanations at hand while I can materialize my understanding.