Sports – We Feel Sports

To so help other new spectators I have distilled my understanding of cricket to give a basic rundown of the game and how it is played : A Basic Guide To Cricket Cricket is a bat and ball game played by 2 groups of eleven players. There are some formats of the game but the basic elements are the same in all formats. Cricket matches can go on for a couple of days, or they may be played out in an afternoon. For instance a ‘Test Match’ would be booked to be played out over 5 days, while a ‘Twenty20′ match will be completed in just one or two hours.

The standard cricket game is played over 2 ‘innings’. Each team has the chance to bat twice and bowl twice – it does not always follow that this can occur, as the team that bats 2nd can in principle bowl the other team out twice and having scored enough ‘runs’ to win the match without batting again. The cricket bat is a flat blade of wood ( usually willow ) around 4.25 inches wide and 38 inches long with a handle spliced into the top.

The cricket ball is a hard cork and string construction bound by thick leather with one straight central appear. The dimensions and toughness are like a baseball. The game is played on a field generally an oval shape and measuring anywhere between ninety and 150 metres in diameter, and in the centre, will be the pitch. The pitch is a rectangular strip of hard packed earth with a closely cropped grass surface twenty meters long. At every end of the pitch are 3 vertical wooden ‘stumps’ ( round posts one in. in diameter ) around thigh height with 2 little wooden cross-pieces known as ‘bails’ perched on the top between the stumps.

This structure is commonly known as the wicket. It’s the batsman’s job to offer protection to the wicket and to score ‘runs’ – and it’s the bowlers job to dismiss the batsman thru a number of means, the most blatant being to strike the wicket with the ball dislodging the bails. Before the match starts a coin is tossed to choose the order of play. The team winning the toss gets to choose whether to hit first or to field first. The fielding team will have all eleven players present on the field, while the batting team has 2 players. What’s left of the batting team will remain off field awaiting their turn to hit.

The fielding side will strategically find players round the field to forestall runs being scored by the batting side. One of the fielding players is the Wicket Keeper and he stands behind the wicket to gather the ball if it is bowled past the batsman. The wicket keeper will wear webbed and padded gloves as well as leg pads and a protective helmet. The fielding side will typically only have one wicket keeper but they might have many bowlers each of whom can take a turn to bowl. The bowler will run in and deliver the ball ( with an over-arm action ) down the pitch at anywhere between fifty and ninety miles per hour.

The bowler is hoping to hit the stumps or coax the batsman into hitting the ball to a fielder to be caught. If the wicket is struck by the ball or the the ball is caught by a fielder ( without first touching the ground ), then the batsman is ‘out’ ie he has been discharged and may be replaced by the subsequent batsman in the team. Each bowler will deliver a sequence six balls known as an ‘over’ then was rested while another bowler bowls another over from the other end of the pitch. The batsman who is facing the bowler is ‘on strike’ and the other batsman at the opposite end of the pitch is the ‘non striker’.

The batsmen score runs by striking the ball after it has been delivered by the bowler and running between the wickets as many times as they can before the fielding side can collect the ball and deliver it back to the centre. If, while the batsmen are running between the wickets, the fielding side manage to strike the wicket with the ball before the batsman has reached the ‘crease’ ( a line painted on the pitch just before the wicket ) the batsman is ‘out’ ( discharged ).

Batsman can also accumulate ‘runs’ by striking the ball to the ‘boundary’ of the field. The boundary is mostly marked by a regular line or rope running round the rim. If the ball reaches the boundary having touched the ground the batsman scores 4 runs without even having to run between the wickets. If the ball is struck over the boundary without touching the ground the batsman will score 6 runs, again with no need to physically run. The bowling team hopes to dismiss 10 batsmen while conceding as few runs as possible. The eleventh batsman can’t bat alone, so that the innings comes to a close with the loss of the tenth batsman. The batting team intends to score as many runs as feasible before all 10 batsmen are discharged.

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