Bat-And-Ball Games – Unique Batting Sports

Bat-and-ball games are among the oldest sports since the equipment is simple. However, simplicity is great since hundreds of millions watch these sports games worldwide. All bat-and-ball games have similar rules depending on the region or country, so the games are easy to follow. Therefore, watching and betting on the following sports is fun!

Popular Bat-and-Ball Games

The first thing to know about cricket is that there are different types of matches. In the traditional version, a game can last for days, but nowadays, shorter matches are the most popular. Two teams play on the field, and each has 11 members. The game consists of a number of innings and overs, depending on the type. It’s similar to baseball, where one team bats and the other pitches until they switch. We have a cricket betting guide if you want to check it out! Cricket and baseball are the most famous bat-and-ball games, by the way!

Cricket is one of the most popular team sports in the world, especially in England, Australia, and South Africa. It regularly attracts hundreds of millions of viewers. In England, it even has a radio station that broadcasts nothing but cricket. People play the sport in every climate, but the most interesting version is the ice cricket on Lake St. Moritz in Switzerland. You can read all about it at online sportsbook sites in the UK! Traditional bat-and-ball games appear in many countries. They are similar, but each version has unique rules!

Lapta from Eastern Europe

There are written records of this bat-and-ball game from the 14th century! Moreover, archeologists have found lapta bats and balls from that time! If bat-and-ball games were a family, lapta would be the Eastern-European cousin of baseball.

Athletes play it on a grassy area half the size of a soccer field. Five players are on the defending team, and the attacking team has five members too. The batter has two chances to hit the ball at a distance of at least ten meters. 

If they succeed, they must run to the other end of the court and then back to their place, but in the meantime, they must make sure that the balls that the opponents aim at them while running do not hit them. If the players manage to run the distance between the two endpoints, their team receives two points. A lapta game consists of two half-hours, and the purpose of the attacking team is to hit the ball as far as possible and run through the lines. 

The team that scores more points during the game wins. Simple, right? According to online sportsbook sites in the UK, it is one of the most interesting and useful team sports. The players must recognize the best opportunities, trust their teammates and their own abilities, run fast, hit hard, aim well, and play to win. Some sources also claim that American baseball developed from lapta in the 18th century.

Bat-and-Ball Games – Pelota

In Basque Country, jai alai means happy holidays, as the version of pelota played during the holidays was called that. By the way, the game reached the United States at the end of the 19th century from the Basque Country through South America, thanks to the Latino-speaking minority.

It is also very popular in the Philippines. Pelota is the ancestor of squash and is said to be the fastest ball game in the world. A pelota player, namely José Ramón Areitio, held the speed record, hitting the ball at 302 km/h. Basque pelota is played in many forms, both individually and in pairs.

The roughest version is where they play without a racket, with bare hands. An interesting fact is that Basque pelota, for the first and last time, was included in the program of the 1900 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The appearance of the game at the Olympics was most likely due to the fact that there was a request for the game’s participation in the Olympics due to the areas of the Basque Country extending into France. The final, which was the first and only match of the tournament, was fought between Spain and France, and the Spanish won the gold.

Hurling is 3000 Years Old!

American football and hockey are brutal contact sports, but at least there is protective equipment. Rugby is even rougher because there is no protective gear there. In hurling, the players wear a helmet, and each athlete has an ax-shaped stick in their hands, with which they try to hit the small ball in the air into the goal.

For billions, this sport is unknown, even though it has a history of thousands of years in Ireland, and its annual championship final fills an 85,000-seat stadium in Dublin. 

The number of spectators shows how spectacular hurling is, and it is considered the fastest team sport played on grass. Hurling is an outdoor team sport of Celtic origin played with a bat, hurley, and a baseball-like ball, sliothar.

Depending on the league level, the team consists of 15, 13, 11, 9, or 7 players. The field is only a few meters larger than the football field, but the goal is the same size. If they score there, it’s worth three points. The two goalposts extend upward by five meters, and if the ball flies through between these posts, it is worth one point. 

In addition, we can often see spectacular collisions. There are no padded clothes, and plastic helmets became mandatory about ten years ago due to head injuries. These 70-100 cm wooden rackets pose a great risk of injury. Irish league games have two halves and last a total of 70 minutes.

There are county leagues in Ireland, and these counties compete in the national championship. North America, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa also have teams. However, in Europe, according to 888sport Sportsbook, only a few, mainly western countries, play professionally, so these teams compete in the European League.

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