Cricket - it`s not a six legged insect

Cricket
It’s not a six legged insect
An absolute beginners guide to the game
G Benari
cazpoo on flicker
Life is a slow and inaccurate metaphor for a game of cricket
What this book is:
An explanation of the basic concept of the game of cricket.
What this book is not:
A comprehensive guide to the game.
How to use this book:
Read it from cover to cover.
Michael Woodward on flicker
Once you read this book you should be able to watch a cricket
match and understand what is going on.
TOC:
There are many good books and websites explaining the rules
and intricacies of the game in great detail, some of my
favourites are listed at the end.
Words with many meanings.. 11
The game................................ 1
More on cricket ..................... 12
1
The purpose of the game is to score points.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Points in cricket are called runs; you get runs by hitting the ball and running
from one end of the pitch to the other.
Oval
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4
Pitch
The pitch is a strip of grass 22 yards long by 10 feet wide. It is located in the centre of the cricket field, called an oval.
You can also score runs by hitting the ball out of the oval: if the ball goes in the air you get 6 runs, or if it touches the ground
on the way out you get 4 runs.
2
The person hitting the ball, the batter, has another
important job - to protect his or her Wicket.
The wicket is a wooden structure made up of three
upright stumps and two horizontal barrel-like shapes,
called bails, that sit on the gaps between the stumps.
~Prescott on flicker
The wicket forms a rectangle 22 inches tall by 9 inches wide.
stum
ps
9 in
22 in
Bails
The Wicket
There are two sets of wickets, one at each end of the pitch.
3
The batter stands at one end of the pitch, in front of the wicket,
while the person throwing the ball, the bowler, stand at the other end.
Batter
Bowler
G Benari
The bowler’s job is to remove the batter, or get him or her
out.
The bowler does this by throwing or bowling the ball at the batter and trying to hit the wicket.
The bowler is one of 11 fielders placed around the field who try to stop the batter from making runs and try getting them out.
In cricket each team gets to bat once and bowl once, each of which is called an innings.
4
There are 11 ways to get a batter out. These are the 4 most common ones:
1. Bowled
The bowler hits the wickets.
2. Caught
A fielder catches the ball
before it touches the
ground.
3. Run out
When the batter is running
to the other end, a fielder
throws the ball and hits the
wicket before the batter
gets there.
4. LBW
(Leg Before Wicket)
When the batter uses his
or her leg to block the ball
from hitting the wicket.
Arguably the most complex
law in any sport.
The fielding team have to ask the umpire if the batter is out. They do that by asking the question “how was that?”
“HOWZAT?”
In practice they turn to the umpire and shout:
If it’s good, the umpire raises his finger to signal the batter is out.
5
The batting team also has 11 players, and there are always two batters on the field at any time.
The batters stand at opposite ends of the pitch.
The batter facing the bowler is called the striker.
The batter at the opposite end is the non-striker.
The non-striker’s job is to run to the other end of the
pitch every time the striker hits the ball and runs to
the other end.
~Prescott on flicker
If the batters run an odd number of runs then the non-striker becomes the striker and vice versa.
6
Just as batters operate in pairs so do the bowlers.
Each bowler bowls
six balls at a time, called an over, and then it is their partner’s turn to bowl from the other end.
A bowler can not bowl two consecutive overs, but may bowl an unlimited number of overs from any end.
Because bowlers don't switch ends during an over but the batters do, it is possible for the same bowler to bowl at both
batters in the same over.
Overs are the internal clock of cricket, the game is ordered around the completion of
overs.
The innings comes to an end when all eleven batters are out or when the allocated number of overs is complete. Then the
teams switch and whoever has the most runs at the end of the second innings wins.
7
A passage of play:
11 fielders are spread around the field in
strategic positions for blocking and catching.
The striker stands at one end, ready to face the
first ball of a new over. The non-striker is at the
other end, ready to run.
The bowler runs up and bowls the first ball of
the over, the batter hits the ball into a gap in the
field. He sees a potential for a run and shouts,
“yes”, to the non-striker. They charge across
the pitch to opposite ends. When they get there
they pause briefly to see if they can run again.
They go for it, “yes”, and they are off. As the
batters hurry across the pitch, a fielder picks
the ball up and throws it to the closest set of
stumps, but the batter is safely home having
scored two runs.
At this point the ball is dead, meaning that the
play has been completed.
The captain of the fielding team rearranges the
field for the next ball, when all is set the bowler
signals he is ready to bowl and the batter
hughiethethird on flicker
takes guard. This time the batter lets the ball
go past him, it is too far from the wicket and too fast for hitting. The ball flies past him and gets caught in the gloves of the
wicket keeper. The ball is dead and the process repeats itself until 6 balls are bowled and the over is complete. It is then
the turn of the other bowler to start bowling the over from the other end.
8
The many forms of the game.
A cricket match can last from as few as 20 overs up to five days.
20 Twenty (pronounced twenty-twenty) — each innings lasts 20 overs. The team with the highest score at the end wins.
One day game — each innings last between 40 to 50 overs. The team with the highest score at the end wins.
Five day match or Test match — each team plays two innings (they bat twice and bowl twice).
To win, a team has to accomplish two things:
1. Get the highest total score (both innings combined).
2. Bowl the opposition out twice.
If the team with the highest score can not bowl the opposition out at the end of the five days then the
match is a draw.
In a five day match the innings are not defined according to a number of overs. An innings comes to an
end when all the batters are out or if the batting team declares — decides it has made enough runs and
is ready to bowl.
The five day game is often likened to a game of chess: strategy is everything.
The first two, 20 Twenty and the one day game, are called limited overs games because the duration of the game is
determined by the number of overs. The alternative is to define the match according to its duration, hence the five day
match.
9
Reading the score
Cricket scores are defined by runs and wickets i.e. how many runs the team scored and how many wickets it lost.
Team name
number of runs scored
number of wickets lost
number of overs batted
Champs - 245 / 7 (50 ov)
A result looks something like this:
W.I.N.N.E.N.R.S - 245/7 (50 ov) vs L.O.S.E.R.S - 240 (50 ov)
And is pronounced like this:
“Winners are two hundred and forty-five for seven (or seven for two hundred and forty five). Losers are two hundred and forty, all out.”
“The Winners won by five runs and three wickets”.
10
Words with many meanings
term
meanings
run
point
run between the wickets
pitch
strip of grass in the centre of the oval
the condition of the pitch — e.g. a dry pitch, or fast pitch
pitch of the ball or where the ball pitches, refers to the point where the ball hits the pitch — e.g. “the bowler is
pitching the ball short of a length”, means the ball is pitching further away from the batter and will bounce higher
wicket
a structure made up of three stumps and two bails that stands on either end of the pitch
condition of the pitch — e.g. a slow pitch or a good batting pitch, see also pitch
the batter’s turn or ‘life’ on the pitch —as in “he lost his wicket” i.e. was bowled out
what bowlers ‘take’ when they get a batter out — as in “the bowler has three wickets for 40 runs”
wickets the plural and singular are interchangeable depending on the use of the word
stumps wooden pole which form part of the wicket
the end of a day’s play, as in “and that is stumps for the day”
stumping is a way of getting a batter out
ball
the cricket ball
a way of counting the number of times a bowler bowels in an over — as in “he has bowled three balls so far and they
are all rubbish”
the number of times the batter faces the bowling as in “he made 50 runs from 75 balls”
innings segment of play in which one team either fields or bats
the batter’s time batting until they are out — e.g. “what a great innings, he batted for five hours and made 150 runs”
11
More on cricket
Books
What is a Googly? The Mysteries of Cricket Explained Rob Eastway 2003 It’s topical and relevant (hat tip Saul Levitan)
Jargonbusting: Mastering the Art of Cricket Simon Hughes 2002 Everything you need to know about the game
Cricket and all that: An Irreverent History Henry Blofeld 2002 History, a good laugh with a glass of wine
Cricket: The Spirit of Cricket International Cricket Council A brilliant little illustrated guide to the game
Online resources
BBC Cricket A good place to start, great explanations www.bbc.co.uk/cricket/rules_and_equipment
Cricinfo An even better place to start: everything about everything cricket www.cricinfo.com
Laws of cricket The official stuff www.lords.org/laws-and-spirit/laws-of-cricket
Fun & games online:
Cricinfo games The cricket equivalent of shoot’em-ups www.cricinfo.com/games
The Ashes Game A good cricket simulation www.theashesgame.com
G Benari 2009 Creative Commons Licence
Download a copy at www.besprent.com
Contact: gbenari[at]ymail[dot]com
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