Overview

Overview

A traditional cricket ball. The white stitching is known as the seam.
As one-day games are often played under floodlights, a white ball is used to aid visibility.

A cricket bat, front and back sides.

The aim of the batting team is to score as many runs as possible. A run is scored when both batsmen successfully move to their respective opposite ends of the pitch (the pitch is sometimes referred to as the "wicket", a term with multiple meanings). (The batsmen will usually only attempt to score runs after the striker has hit the ball, but this is not required by the rules—the batsmen can attempt runs at any time after the ball has been bowled.) Runs are also scored if the batsman propels the ball to the boundary of the playing area (scoring six runs if the ball crosses the boundary without having touched the ground or four runs otherwise), or if the bowler commits some technical infringement.

The aim of the bowler's team is to get each batsman out (this is a wicket, or a dismissal). Dismissals are achieved in a variety of ways. The most direct way is for the bowler to bowl the ball in such a way that it hits the stumps, dislodging the bails. While the batsmen are attempting a run, the fielders may attempt to dismiss either batsman by using the ball to knock the bails off the set of stumps to which the batsman is closest, before he has grounded himself or his bat in the crease. Other ways for the fielding side to dismiss a batsman include catching a struck ball before it touches the ground, or having the batsman adjudged LBW (leg before wicket, i.e. attempting to block the ball from hitting the stumps using his body, which is prohibited). Once the batsmen are not attempting to score any more runs, the ball is "dead" and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling the ball is a ball or a delivery).

The game is divided into overs of six (legal) balls. At the end of an over, the batting and bowling ends will be swapped, and the bowler replaced by another member of the fielding side. The two umpires also change positions at this time (the umpire previously at square-leg becomes the bowler's umpire at what is now the bowling end, and vice versa), and the fielding positions are rearranged.

Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman in the team's line-up. (The batting side can reorder their line-up at any time, but no batsman may bat twice in one innings.) The innings (singular) of the batting team ends when the tenth batsman is given out, since there always must be two batsmen on the field. When this happens, the team is said to be all out. (In limited overs cricket the innings ends either when the batting team is all out or a predetermined number of overs has been bowled.) At the end of an innings, the two teams exchange roles, the fielding team becoming the batting team and vice versa.

A team's score is reported in terms of the number of runs scored and the number of batsman that have been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen have been given out and the team has scored 224 runs, they are said to have scored 224 for the loss of 5 wickets (shortened to "224 for 5" and written 224/5 or, in Australia, "5 for 224" and 5/224).

The team that has scored more runs at the end of the completed match wins. Different varieties of the game have different definitions of "completion"; for instance there may be restrictions on the number of overs, the number of innings, and the number of balls in each innings.

Results

Main article: The result in cricket

If the team that bats last has all of its batsmen dismissed before it can reach the run total of the opposing team, it is said to have lost by (n) runs (where (n) is the difference between the two run totals). If however, the team that bats last exceeds the opposing team's run total before its batsmen are dismissed, it is said to have won by (n) wickets, where (n) is the difference between the number of wickets conceded and 10.

If, in a two-innings-a-side match, one team's combined first and second innings total fails to reach its opponent's first innings total, there is no need for the opposing team to bat again and it is said to have won by an innings and (n) runs, where (n) is the difference between the two teams' totals.

If all the batsmen of the team batting last are dismissed with the scores exactly equal then the match is a tie; ties are very rare in matches of two innings a side. In the traditional form of the game, if the time allotted for the match expires before either side can win, then the game is a draw.

If the match has only a single innings per side, then a maximum number of deliveries for each innings is often imposed. Such a match is called a limited overs or one-day match, and the side scoring more runs wins regardless of the number of wickets lost, so that a draw cannot occur. If this kind of match is temporarily interrupted by bad weather, then a complex mathematical formula known as the Duckworth-Lewis method is often used to recalculate a new target score. A one-day match can be declared a No-Result if fewer than a previously agreed number of overs have been bowled by either team, in circumstances that make normal resumption of play impossible—for example, an extended period of bad weather.

Laws of cricket

For more details on this topic, see Laws of cricket.

The game is played in accordance with 42 laws of cricket, which have been developed by the Marylebone Cricket Club in discussion with the main cricketing nations. Teams may agree to alter some of the rules for particular games. Other rules supplement the main laws and change them to deal with different circumstances. In particular, there are a number of modifications to the playing structure and fielding position rules that apply to one innings games that are restricted to a set number of fair deliveries.