Originally Posted by Rachael

If a good bowler sends down a good delivery... and a batsman lofts the ball over the infield with an exquisite shot that would have sailed into the stands at a small ground... is the spectacle really diminished by the ball landing in the outfield and being chased down by a fielder on a bigger ground?

Surely the quality of the "hit" is a matter of how well the ball is struck: whether the result is 1, 4, 6 or out strikes me as neither here nor there.