What is cricket?

After reading this article, you will know enough about cricket to be able watch it with your friends. Cricket is a game played with 22 players at a time. There are 2 referees in the ground called umpires and one additional TV referee also known as third umpire. It is played between two teams and each team plays with 11 players.

Cricket is played in an elliptical ground with a 22 yards sandy pitch in the middle. A set of stumps is fixed at each end of the pitch. Stumps is a set of 3 wooden sticks with bails at the top. The peripheral region of the ground is covered by ropes also known as boundary. There are three famous formats in cricket: Test, ODI and T20. We will discuss about each of them in separate articles. 

Before the game begins, a toss decides which team will get to bat or bowl first. One representative from each team, called captain, toss a coin. The winning captain decides whether his team wants to bat or bowl. Batting team bats first and needs to score as many runs as they can. Bowling team which bowls first has to stop as many runs as it can.

Batting: Two players from the batting team go to the pitch to play. One players stands at each side of the pitch. One of the player faces a bowler from the bowling team. This player is called striker. The other player is non striker. A ball is thrown at the batsman by one of the bowler from bowling team. Batsman has to hit the ball with a bat. If ball crosses the boundary without any bounce, batsman is awarded 6 runs. If it bounces before crossing the boundary, batting team is awarded 4 runs. If ball doesn't cross the boundary, then both batsman have to run to the other end of the pitch. One such occurance is called a run. Batsman can complete multiple runs on a ball. 

Bowling: All 11 players from the bowling team are present in the ground. One player becomes the bowler, one player has to be wicket keeper to collect the throw of the bowler and the rest of them are called fielders. Fielders can stand anywhere in the ground. There objective is to stop the ball from going to the boundary. They can not stand on the pitch. They can touch the ball only after batsman plays a ball. A ball is an occasion when a bowler throws the cricket ball towards the batsman. Batsman has to hit the ball to score runs. Bowler needs to make sure batsman doesn't score runs. Fielder needs to stop runs. A bowler throws the ball to the batsman from the other end of the pitch. If batsman misses the ball, it can either crash the stumps or it can run behind and wicket keeper can catch it. 

Runs: A run is completed if both batsman reach the opposite end of the pitch before any bowling team player hits the stumps. Generally a batsman runs maximum 3 times on a ball because by then, any fielder runs to catch the ball and throws back to stumps. A bowler has to bowl 6 balls continuously. After that, non striker batsman gets the strike and a new player becomes the bowler. A group of 6 balls is called an over. In a T20 game, 20 overs are bowled by each team. 

Wickets: Bowling team can finish the game of batting team by taking wickets. If a wicket falls, batsman has to leave the game and a new player comes to the pitch in his place. If 10 wickets fall, batting team's game can be finished before all the 20 overs are bowled. Less number of balls are bowled, then less are the runs scored by batting team. A wicket can fall in many ways. If a bowler throws the ball and batsman misses it and it crashes to the stumps, then this wicket or a dismissal is called 'Bowled'. If a batsman connects the ball with his bat and a fielder catches it before the ball bounces, then it is called a 'Catch'. A fielder can take a catch only inside the boundary. In both these instances, no runs are awarded to the batsman and a new batsman comes to the pitch to play. There are many other forms of dismissals.

Result: A batting team scores some number of runs while batting first. After the allowed number of overs are bowled or 10 wickets fall, the bowling team becomes the batting team and vice versa. This time, the new batting team has to score more runs than the previous batting team to win the game. 

Cricket is a complicated game but if you are familiar with baseball, you can relate to it. In next few articles, I will cover more topics about cricket.