Cricket World Cup 2015

How come NZ had to get 298, rather than 281 that SA got? They would have played the same amount of overs so why did they need to get a higher score?

I really do despise the D/L method. It's basically trying to predict the future. Oh SA missed out on 7 overs and had 6 batsman left over so let's give them more runs, wait hold on what if NZ were to take 4 wickets in 6 balls?

If I want to learn about the sport of cricket, it's basic rules and whatnot, where'd be a good place to start?

At its basic level its not that difficult. The version of cricket we're talking about at the minute is One Day cricket where each team has a maximum of 50 overs to bat. An 'over' is a set of 6 balls ('pitches' if you're used to baseball terminology) bowled by one bowler. After that they swap and another bowler bowls another set of 6 balls from the other end.

One team bats in pairs of two and the other team fields. Once the fielding team has taken all of the batting teams wickets (got the 10 batsmen out) or they have bowled the 50 overs they swap over and they try and chase down the score the first team got.

For the batsman to score runs (points) you have to hit the ball, after that the batsmen either physically run between the wicket and you get one run for each time you run from one end to the other or you hit the ball over the rope around the edge of the ground. If it bounces before it goes over the rope its worth 4 runs, if it doesn't bounce its worth 6.

The three most common ways for a batsman to get out are to be caught, bowled, and out Leg Before Wicket. Caught is self explanatory, bowled means that the batsman bowls the ball and it hits the wicket (three stumps with bails on top) that the batsman is defending.

Leg Before wicket is the most complicated, but essentially if the bowler bowls a ball that would go on to hit the stumps and the batsman stops it from hitting them using any part of his body (but most commonly his leg) then he is out.

You can also be out run out (when attempting a run), stumped, hit wicket, for hitting the ball twice, handling the ball, and obstructing the field. The last 4 are fairly uncommon though.

There's more to it than that, some of the terminology is confusing, and some of the rules no one knows, but that should be enough to understand whats happening 90% of the time.

Pairs of two? As opposed to pairs of 3 or 4?

Also, did you see Guptill's big innings the other day? Near the start he chopped one down that may have gone on to hit his wicket after it bounced between him and his stumps. He knocked it away with the back of his bat, how is this not out according to the hitting the ball twice rule? I play(ed) cricket and have watched cricket all my life and still dont get it.

Random question, if the batsman plays a defensive shot for example, so angles the bad downwards towards the ground, the ball hits the bat, hits the floor and hits the bat again, what happens?