| The
order in which the teams bat is determined by a coin toss.
The captain of the side winning the toss may elect to bat
or field first.
All eleven players of the fielding team go
out to field, two players of the batting team go out to bat.
The remainder of the batting team wait off the field for their
turn to bat. Each batsman wears protective gear and carries
a cricket bat.
The game progresses by the bowling of balls.
The sequence of events which constitutes a ball follows:
The fielding team disperses around the field,
to positions designed to stop runs being scored or to get
batsmen out. One fielder is the bowler. He takes the ball
and stands some distance behind one of the wickets (i.e. away
from the pitch). Another fielder is the wicket-keeper, who
wears a pair of webbed gloves designed for catching the ball
and protective pads covering the shins.
He squats behind the opposite wicket. The
rest of the fielders have no special equipment - gloves to
assist catching the ball are not allowed to anyone but the
wicket-keeper.
One batsman stands behind each popping crease,
near a wicket. The batsman farthest from the bowler is the
striker, the other is the non-striker. The striker stands
before his wicket, on or near the popping crease, in the batting
stance.
The batsman stands with his bat held down
in front of the wicket, ready to hit the ball, which will
be bowled from the other end of the pitch. The batsman usually
rests the lower end of the bat on the pitch and then taps
the bat on the pitch a few times as "warm-up''
backswings.
The non-striker simply stands behind the other
popping crease, waiting to run if necessary. The bowler takes
a run-up from behind the non-striker's wicket. He passes to
one side of the wicket, and when he reaches the non-striker's
popping crease he bowls the ball towards the striker, usually
bouncing the ball once on the pitch before it reaches the
striker.
The striker may then attempt to hit the ball
with his bat. If he misses it, the wicket-keeper will catch
it and the ball is completed. If he hits it, the two batsmen
may score runs. When the runs are completed, the ball is also
considered completed. The ball is considered to be in play
from the moment the bowler begins his run-up.
It remains in play until any of several conditions
occur, after which it is called dead. The ball is also dead
if it lodges in the striker's clothing or equipment. Once
the ball is dead, it is returned to the bowler for the next
delivery (another name for the bowling of a ball). Between
deliveries, the batsmen may leave their creases and confer
with each other.
When one bowler has completed six balls,
that constitutes an over. A different member of the fielding
team is given the ball and bowls the next over - from the
opposite end of the pitch. The batsmen do not change ends,
so the roles of striker and non-striker swap after each over.
Any member of the fielding team may bowl, so long as no bowler
delivers two consecutive overs. Once a bowler begins an over,
he must complete it, unless injured or suspended during the
over.
Another possibility during a ball is that
a batsman may get out. There are ten different methods of
being out - these will be described in detail later. If a
batsman gets out, the ball is dead immediately, so it is impossible
to get the other batsman out during the same ball.
The out batsman leaves the field, and the
next batsman in the team comes in to bat. The not out batsman
remains on the field. The order in which batsmen come in to
bat in an innings is not fixed. The batting order may be changed
by the team captain at any time, and the order does not have
to be the same in each innings.
When ten batsmen are out, no new batsmen remain
to come in, and the innings is completed with one batsman
remaining not out. The roles of the teams then swap, and the
team which fielded first gets to bat through an innings. When
both teams have completed the agreed number of innings, the
team which has scored the most runs wins.
A
Few Words on Cricket | Test
cricket | Equipment
| The
Play | Ways
of Getting Out |
First
Class Cricket | One-Day
Cricket
|
