Originally posted by Bert Bates:
Is there any chance at all of explaining why this is unusual, for those of us who know nothing about cricket except that sometimes they can play for 5 days, have two wildly different scores, and call it a draw?
It is very rare(almost 0% possibility) for this kind of field placement in cricket.
You have to consider the fact that fielders are place all over the 360 degrees in the field(including behind the stumps, very different from baseball). It is almost like having nobody on the 2nd, 3rd bases and outfield & everybody jamming around the 1st base. The chances of the ball going along the 1st base direction is more in cricket.