A Draw

Three days in to the cricket match, South Africa was in a dreadful hole – over 300 runs down with England waiting to bat last and quickly erase any small lead they could manage. 

 

Fortunately in cricket there is both a set number of outs (like baseball) and a time limit of sorts.  Your batsmen can keep batting as long as they don't get out, but if both teams don't get to bat twice within the 5-day time limit, the match is a draw.  Thus, even if your team is down by hundreds of runs, you can still hope to salvage a draw by running out the clock.  South Africa managed to make their turn at bat last for two full days, forcing a draw.

 

There have been a number of times in the past few weeks when we have felt that we've dug ourselves enough of a hole that just “staying alive” would be a victory.  Packing up our apartment in Vermont is a good example – we stayed up almost the whole night before leaving, just getting everything out.  Our ambitions of actually packing everything properly in numbered and labeled boxes were long gone.  Once we were in Massachusetts, we tried to organize things before dumping them in storage...but once again, we had to leave some disarray in order to actually get on the plane in time. 

 

Here in Cape Town we have not had time to dig ourselves any holes...plus we are able to give our full concentration to getting ourselves settled.  Still, there are very few situations where we emerge victorious.  Each one is a learning experience, so we are hopeful that within a few weeks we will experience more tangible success.  In the meantime, we'll take a draw.

 

Are you intrigued or bored by what you've heard so far about cricket?