Could someone explain cricket to me?

[wtiberon]

I have NO idea how cricket is played except that its suppose to be similiar to baseball. If someone minds taking the time to explain it I would be more than happy to explain American Football (I know alot of people are confused by this sport as well). Thanks.

 

[lord_byron_nz]

Here goes:

Cricket for Dummies v1.0

Two teams of 11 players play cricket. There are two forms of the game but both have similar principles. At all times, on side is fielding and one is batting. The fielding side has all 11 players on the field at all times and aims to keep the other side (the batting team) to a low a score as possible.

The fielding side has to bowl at the batting team. This is done in "overs". An over is a group of six balls bowled by one individual. After an over is completed another player bowls another over. No player is allowed to bowl 2 overs in a row.

The batting side aims to score as high a score as possible by accumulating "runs". One run is scored when, after a ball has been bowled, the batsmen run to the other end of the pitch, crossing as they go, and saftely make their ground. The batsmen can continue to choose to run 2, 3, or as many runs as they can safetly make in this time. Alternativley, If a ball has been hit by the batter striaght to a fielder or to another dangerous position, the batsmen may choose not to run at all and no runs are added to the total. (An automatic 4 runs are scored if the batsmen hits the ball to the limits of the playing area. 6 runs are socred if this occurs without the ball bouncing.) While the batsemn are running to accumulate runs, the fielding side attempts to gateher the ball quick enough to "run out" the batsmen by throwing the ball and hitting the "stumps" at either end of the pitch. if this happens before the batsemn has safetly made his ground then he is deemed "out".

When a batsmen is out, he is replaced by another team mate. This continues until ten batsmen are out in the team of 11. Batsmen can be out in a number of ways:

Run out - See above
Bowled - The bowler bowls a ball that hits the wicket behind the batsmen
Caught - A batsmen hits a ball to a fielder on the full
LBW - The ball hits the batsmen on his body when it would have gone on to hit the wickets behind him

Also a number of les common ways such as Obstructing the field.

In One Day matches, both teams have 50 overs in which to score as many runs as possible before their overs run out or they have ten batsmen out. Each bowler may bowl a maximum of 10 overs each. The team with the most runs wins

In Test Matches, a game is played over 5 days. Both sides have two innings to score as many runs as possible and the team with the highest aggregate score wins. There are no over restrictions and teams bat until they are all out or they choose to end their innings.

I'd imagine you still have a lot of questions so don't hesitate to ask anything.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

Cricket is a simple game:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side’s that out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out including the not outs, that’s the end of the game.

OK, just a joke so don’t take any notice of the above

Just to add a few things about cricket (I have tried to compere it to baseball but my knowledge of baseball is a bit limited):

It’s a bit like a game of baseball with only two bases in the middle of a field which is about the size of a baseball arena. The two bases (actually called wickets) are 22 yards apart. A bowler bowls (pitches) a ball from one wicket to a batter at the other wicket As mentioned, a run is scored when the batter runs from one wicket to the other.
There are two batters out in the middle at any one time – one at each wicket and they cross over as they make their runs.
When they hit the ball, the fielders have to gather it in just like in baseball and if they get the ball back to a wicket before the batsman reaches it , the batter is out (similar to baseball when they fail to reach one of the bases).
In Test matches (between countries) the number of runs scored in an innings is typically 250 to 450.
Could go on and on..

 

[wtiberon]

Originally posted by lord_byron_nz
Here goes:

Cricket for Dummies v1.0

Two teams of 11 players play cricket. There are two forms of the game but both have similar principles. At all times, on side is fielding and one is batting. The fielding side has all 11 players on the field at all times and aims to keep the other side (the batting team) to a low a score as possible.

This is similiar to baseball so far so good

The fielding side has to bowl at the batting team. This is done in "overs". An over is a group of six balls bowled by one individual. After an over is completed another player bowls another over. No player is allowed to bowl 2 overs in a row.

Is it always 6 balls? What if you get an out or the player gets a hit?

The batting side aims to score as high a score as possible by accumulating "runs". One run is scored when, after a ball has been bowled, the batsmen run to the other end of the pitch,

pitch is this similiar to a base?

crossing as they go, and saftely make their ground. The batsmen can continue to choose to run 2, 3, or as many runs as they can safetly make in this time. Alternativley, If a ball has been hit by the batter striaght to a fielder or to another dangerous position, the batsmen may choose not to run at all and no runs are added to the total. (An automatic 4 runs are scored if the batsmen hits the ball to the limits of the playing area. 6 runs are socred if this occurs without the ball bouncing.) While the batsemn are running to accumulate runs,

Ok let me get this straight...a batsman (batter) gets 6 overs (or pitches) and in this six over series if he hits the ball he tries to run to one stump and back to the other as many times as possible. What if he gets a hit on the first over and only makes it to the first stump? Does he continue with the 6 overs and no run is scored or does he stay at the stump and a new batsman replaces him?

the fielding side attempts to gateher the ball quick enough to "run out" the batsmen by throwing the ball and hitting the "stumps" at either end of the pitch. if this happens before the batsemn has safetly made his ground then he is deemed "out".

When a batsmen is out, he is replaced by another team mate. This continues until ten batsmen are out in the team of 11. Batsmen can be out in a number of ways:

Run out - See above
Bowled - The bowler bowls a ball that hits the wicket behind the batsmen
Caught - A batsmen hits a ball to a fielder on the full
LBW - The ball hits the batsmen on his body when it would have gone on to hit the wickets behind him

Also a number of les common ways such as Obstructing the field.

In One Day matches, both teams have 50 overs in which to score as many runs as possible before their overs run out or they have ten batsmen out. Each bowler may bowl a maximum of 10 overs each. The team with the most runs wins

In Test Matches, a game is played over 5 days. Both sides have two innings to score as many runs as possible and the team with the highest aggregate score wins. There are no over restrictions and teams bat until they are all out or they choose to end their innings.

I'd imagine you still have a lot of questions so don't hesitate to ask anything.

What advantage would be gained by choosing to end an inning?

 

[lord_byron_nz]

Ok - I just realised how difficult cricket is to describe purely with words. I'll try and break it down a little more for you, because I think we're not going down the same path here.

An over is always 6 balls, no matter if a player gets out or how many runs are scored. The only time an over is more than 6 balls is if there is a "wide" (The ball is bowled so that the batsmen could not have possibly hit it) or a "No Ball" (A technical infringment i.e. Bowling from too close to the batsmen etc.)

An over is made up of 6 balls or "pitches" as you would proabaly call them. There is no limit to the number of balls a batter can face until they're out. Their aim will be to build a high score by trying hard not to get out and and scoring runs in the process. There are always two batsmen in the middle at one time and (try and vislualise this) if they only scored one run then they would be at opposite ends aster the run was completed. So, for the next ball, or pitch, the person who was not facing the prevous ball will be facing. Runs are credited to the person who hit them (the person facing) even though both players have to run up and down the pitch.

The pitch is the oblong strip on which the ball is bowled from one end to the batsmen at the other.

I'm sure you'll just be more confused now, so keep asking questions!

 

[lord_byron_nz]

Perhaps some visual aids:

The bowling action, this is how the bowler pitches the ball

The "batter":

An almost "run out" (you need to get past the white line (the crease) before the stumps are broken.

 

[MrPresident]

What advantage would be gained by choosing to end an inning?

If you have a very high score that it is unlikely the opposition will reach you will end your inning in order to have enough time to bowl them out. If they don't get bowled out then the game is declared a draw. This is tactic is used a lot by Australia against England in England because they score a lot of runs and have to contend with English weather.

This shows all the position of the fielders.

This is helps explain the LBW rule.

•Ball pitches at 1, hits imaginary pad following line indicated: not out. Ball pitching outside line of stumps, hits pads outside line of stumps, batsman playing a shot. WARNING - if no shot played and umpire thinks ball would have cut back enough to hit stumps then you can be given out!
•Ball pitches at 2, hits imaginary pad following line indicated: out. Only saving grace would be umpire deciding ball would rise over stumps, or batsmen getting a big stride down the wicket to introduce doubt as to possible path of the ball.
•Ball pitches at 3, hits imaginary pad following line indicated: out. Only saving grace would be umpire deciding ball would rise over stumps. Big stride unlikely to save you from a straight ball!
•Ball pitches at 4, hits imaginary pad following line indicated: out. Only saving grace would be umpire deciding ball would rise over stumps, or was cutting back emough to miss the off stump.
•Ball pitches at 5, hits imaginary pad following line indicated: not out. Batsman cannot be given out LBW if ball pitches outside leg stump.

This is what an umpire does when a six is hit.

This is what an umpire does when a four is hit.

And this is what he does when England are batting.

 

[phoenix_night]

Originally posted by MrPresident

And this is what he does when England are batting.

anyway, nothing to do with the original question but since people are posting about cricket may i remind you all about england's thrashing at the hands of wales last year and tell you this happens again in june.

 

[JamesL]

As you can see cricket is pretty hard to explain. However, you try this webpage which is meant to explain it in Yank terms

http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_...T/EXPLANATION/CRICKET_EXPLAINED_AMERICAN.html

James

 

[Matt P]

Kudos to anyone who has no knowledge of cricket trying to take a genuine interest in the game. I sort of take it for granted having grown up watching it on TV all year round and playing it for many years.

If you really want to understand it, the best way is to watch a match on TV or even better, go to a game live. But that may be difficult considering where you live.

It is a fascinating game to watch, considering all the tactics that can come into it, especially in a test match. It's also very enjoyable if your team happens to win nearly all the time

 

[Bose]

It's definately a hard game to learn if u haven't grown up playing it.

While we're asking questions, why do those 4 threads have sticky's on them when noone hardly uses them at all? I've tried to read a couple of them, but made NO sense at all...