Cricket

Understanding the Game of Cricket

Cricket is the other team sport that has 11 players on each side of the field. The other, more well-known and understood would be that of American football where there are 11 players on the field from each team. This is a bat and ball sport that takes place on an a field that is elliptically shaped. The pitch is the area in the field, 22 yards wide, where at the ends you will find what is called the wicket. The wickets are the parts of the field where team members will stand in order to play the game. There are lines that are drawn through the pitch area and these lines are known as the creases, similar to what you will find in the sport of hockey.

Ways to Score

One player from the team that is fielding the will be at one wicket and through the ball towards the other wicket where a member of opposing will be standing with a bat to strike the ball before it actually hits the wicket. Once the ball is stricken by a member of his team he will run and swap places with another member of his team who is standing in a static position at the other wicket. If the other team gets the ball and throws it towards the other wicket where the new team player is running and it reaches it, meaning that it must hit it, before the new team player it records an out. If it does not it means that a run has scored. Each inning in a game of cricket lasts until there are ten outs. The team with the most runs at the end of the alloted number of innings for that game is automatically declared the winner. If neither team has more runs, then a draw is declared for that game.

Once the ten batsmen have been recorded as out in an inning, much the same as traditional sports such as American football and baseball, the teams then will reverse roles. The team that was pitching will now become defenders and vice versa. As cricket is a very traditional and class-related sport, there are often tea and meal breaks during a match, which can last up to four or five days in some cases. Normally there are matches of two innings played each day for three to five days. A given day of cricket can see upwards of six hours of playing time each day. This is quite extraordinary given the fact that many nations have intense and bitter rivalaries that stem from the world of cricket matches. Some the nations that are more actively involved in this sport are South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, England, New Zealand, and others. If you notice something interesting about these countries, they all originate from colonies once occupied by Britain.