I’m currently watching FOX Sports, which is showing the Australia national soccer team play Saudi Arabia. It is still in the first half and the Saudis just scored; not looking great for the Aussies at the moment!
Last night I watched a cricket match between Sri Lanka and India. I have to admit, it was the best cricket I had ever seen. I know that isn’t saying much since I had never watched a complete match of cricket until I arrived on the island, but I would imagine many frequent cricket watchers would agree with me. Three batsmen batted centuries. For those of you who want to know, a century is a term used for a batter who batted over 100 runs. Two Sri Lankans and one Indian managed to pull it off in the one-day match consisting of 50 overs per inning. Adding to this, India needed to win with a bonus point meaning they needed to win in 40 overs instead of the 50. If India, who batted second, could score more runs than Sri Lanka in 40 overs, they would have a chance to qualify to play Australia to finish up the Tri-Series between the three countries. The match was interesting alright!
Sri Lanka, batted first, scoring 320 runs for 4 wickets in 50 overs, having a run rate of 6.4 an over. Not too shabby at all for a one day match! India batted second and needed to have a run rate of just over 8 runs an over; it seemed impossible to me. I’m sure the Aussies betting on Sri Lanka to win were happy with the result of the first inning. That’s the other thing, Australians will bet on just about everything; there were even odds advertised for the Labor leadership vote, between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, the other day. Could you imagine betting on the Republican Primaries? I hate to admit it but I don't think I could bet on Paul, even though he's my guy!
The Indians came to bat and, thanks to Virat Kohli, were able to score 321 runs for 3 wickets in ONLY 36.4 overs. IMPOSSIBLE! They had defeated Sri Lanka’s stellar performance, and had done so with 3 overs left! The people I had referred to earlier who were betting for Sri Lanka, more than likely didn’t sleep well last night! I was really surprised, and very pleased to have seen such an exciting match!
If you want more stats on the game, click http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-scorecard-archives/scorecard/10729
If you need an explanation of the cricket rules, click http://www.cricket-rules.com/
If you need something else to do, click http://www.ronpaul2012.com/
School has been going very well this week, but things are starting to get very busy. I was however very surprised at a few students in years 9 and 10 today who had quite a bit of trouble with simple algebra. I was glad to have been able to get through the lesson with many of the student’s showing understanding at the end, but I guess I had forgotten that standards were different here. Algebra and numeracy must come later in schooling. Maybe it’s just me.
The experience teaching some maths (yes, in Australian, there is an ‘s’ at the end of ‘math’) made me realize how much I may enjoy teaching numeracy and maths one day. It doesn’t deal with a lot of student questioning or curiosity, and much of it seems concrete, and "I'm looking for the right answer" kind of discipline (a lot different from what I'm used to and expect from my students), but I felt like I was able to get through to the students to help their understanding. Just a thought…
My post for the night has concluded as the soccer match starts play in the second half (Australia scored one, and the Saudis scored another before the end of the first half) but I will be back as usual tomorrow, possibly to talk about another great sports match. Who knows…