Cricket Question: First Batter?

[Bruce]

In cricket, do teams usually have their best batters hitting first in the order?

[Gamma]

No. The usually come in after the first or second out

[Mosiah]

Why tho?

[Islandman]

Opening the batting is supposedly a specialist position...to take the shine and the bounce off the ball before the big guns come in. Sometimes cricket pitches are a bit unpredictable in the early hours of a match as well.

I have some doubts about its validity, just I have doubts about the use of a "night watchman" , sending in a tail-end batsman at the end of the day when the light is not as good instead of the batsman that is regularly scheduled to come next.

If the top batsman will have problems with the pitch or the poor light, why will the lesser batsman do any better?

[Mosiah]

Opening the batting is supposedly a specialist position...to take the shine and the bounce off the ball before the big guns come in. Sometimes cricket pitches are a bit unpredictable in the early hours of a match as well.

I have some doubts about its validity, just I have doubts about the use of a "night watchman" , sending in a tail-end batsman at the end of the day when the light is not as good instead of the batsman that is regularly scheduled to come next.

If the top batsman will have problems with the pitch or the poor light, why will the lesser batsman do any better?

Those have been my questions too, I-Man. And that's why I have always rated Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge who were openers and arguably the best batsmen on the team at one time.

[Gamma]

viv was not an opener. greenidge and haynes were the openers. agree with the night watchman thing though i am ambivalent about using your best batsman to open. chanderpaul is our best batsman and has been for a while but he does not open, so the type of batsman is another factor. young braithwaite is a similar batsman to chanderpaul but he has the temperament to be an opener as well, and wants to open

these days west indies practically have 4 or 5 openers as the #5 & 6 batsmen come in when the ball is still new!

[Mosiah]

these days west indies practically have 4 or 5 openers as the #5 & 6 batsmen come in when the ball is still new!

Funny!

[Islandman]

Yes I would agree with that, it depends on the type of batsman. For example batsmen who love pace bowling would be more suited than those who are less comfortable with it.

The really great batsmen can bat anywhere though.

[Peter R]

The perfect opener (in Test Cricket) is a batsman who can exercise patience and restraint. In modern times that would make Chanderpaul a perfect opener you would think, but here are his stats:
http://www.cricketweb.net/statsspide...13-Test-12.php

Some batsmen like the fast bowling which is what the typical opening bowler delivers. For the uninitiated, Bruce (?), the same ball is used for 80 overs in test cricket. If it is lost during the match it's replaced by one of equal age (by usage). In One Day cricket, the ball is replaced after 34 overs by one of SIMILAR age, but just cleaned and whitened. Test cricket uses a red ball. ODI and T20 use a white ball.

Anyway, the newer the ball, the faster it moves through the air; it's shiny and so less resistance while moving through the air. as the ball ages, it loses its shine and so (traditionally) the slower bowlers come into play.

Your openers as has been said, are there to protect your best batsmen who come in at 3, 4 and 5 typically. They "see off the shine" on the ball. In test cricket, if the openers can between them put between 50 to 100 on the board before one of them is out, they've done very well.

None of the most prolific of test playing batsmen including Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Shiv Chanderpaul et al was an opener. They may have opened at some point, but typically batted in 3, 4 or 5.

This is not to say that there haven't been openers of supreme class, namely Greenidge and Haynes and of course Sunil Gavaskar.

[Mosiah]

In cricket, do teams usually have their best batters hitting first in the order?

And the term is batsman, not batter.

[Peter R]

Nowadays, the term "batter" is being bandied about quite frequently. I don't know if it's because there is deference to the fact that ladies' teams are being recognized more than in years of yore, or if it is because of a baseball influence on the sport. Listen carefully, you'll hear it.

[Tilla]

Similar to people calling the goalkeeper in football goaltender. Some Jamaican commentators seem to like use that term too. Goal tender is a hockey term.

[Mosiah]

Listen carefully, you'll hear it.

Can't tell di last time mi listen or watch a cricket match, so I will take your word for it!