Comparing cricket and baseball is like measuring a five-course dinner against a fast-food meal.

Both sports originated in England, are played with bat and ball, have teams that take turns to bat and field, and the team making the most runs wins.

But like all distant relations, the differences between the sports quickly become apparent. In baseball, the visiting team always bats first. In cricket, however, the two teams' captains, players who are like baseball managers as they run the teams, toss a coin to decide who bats first. A cricket captain who, having won the toss, makes the right decision as to whether or not to bat first is halfway to greatness. This is because the batting order has a huge impact on a game, due to a rectangular piece of grass in the middle of the ground called the "wicket."