A Draw In Cricket

[toalisi]

As an American , and even worse a female, can someone please explain how cricket is the only sport where the result of a contest can be a draw when one side has comprehensively outplayed another over the course of the match.
I thought a draw was where two opponents had the same score!

To take the current test series in South Africa, everyone seems to accept that the South Africans outplayed England in two of the three matches yet those were described as draws leaving the England team apparently one game up after only winning one match out of three?

It seems illogical to me that the system persists.

I welcome answers which are not patronising or abusive- I'd just like to know.

[sir.prize]

orangeand proud- the inference is that a declared innings means the team's innings is finished - ie defined as 'out'.

Referring to your example, if the first team scored 350 and 250, why would the other team bat on until they reached 701 runs?

[ORANGEANDPROUD]

If the side has declared, they are not out, the innings has closed. With regards to the 701, apologies but the maths was wrong as I intended it to be 601.