Cricket for Dummies

[Elta]

I understand this much about cricket, knocking the pins down in the back make someone out, thats about it
On another thread someone suggested that they could expalin cricket if I created this thread, so I did

 

[Stapel]

Lesson one:

There are two sides, both have eleven players. One side is fielding, the other side is batting. The fielding side has all eleven palyers in the field. The batting side has 2 batsmen in (always two, one is not enough).
Important trick to help to understand cricket: The fielding side is the attacking side, the batting side is the defending side. Keep this in mind. It really helps understanding the King of Sports.

 

[Stapel]

Lesson two:

The fielding side (the attacking side) tries to get the batsmen out. They only need to get out 10 batsmen out of 11, because the batting side needs two. When ten batsmen are out, we say "all out"; this can be confusing because technically there is still one batsman "not out".
When the batting side is "all out", their innings is over (one innings - two innings), and the sides change (the batting side goes fielding; the fielding side goes batting). Orginally, both sides play two innings each. This is still the case with internation Test Matches.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

There are 10 ways to be out, I'll see if I can remember most of them... [no, I cheated and looked at the BBC website for the last few]

1) Bowled. Ball hits stumps when bowled.
2) Caught. Ball is caught after hitting the bat or gloves by the fielder before it hits the ground.
3) Leg Before Wicket (LBW). Ball bounces in line with the stumps and hits batsmans legs, he doesn't hit it with the bat, and the ball would have gone on to hit the wicket. There's a bit more to this than what I said but this is the simple version.
4) Stumped. Batsman is forward of the crease (the line in front of the wicket), and the wicket keeper catches the ball and knocks the bails off the wicket with the ball while holding onto it (i.e. you can't throw the ball at the stumps here).
5) Run Out. When running, the ball is thrown at the stumps by a fielder and the bails are knocked off, AND the runner has no part of his body or bat ON THE GROUND in the crease.
6) Hit Wicket. The batsman hits his own wicket with the bat or his body while playing or avoiding a shot. Duh.
7) Timed out. Never hapens. The next batsman doesn't arrive within 3 minutes of the last wicket.
8) Double hit. Deliberately hitting the ball twice. This is however allowed if they are protecting their wicket i.e. stopping the ball from rolling onto the stumps.
9) Handled the Ball. If they are protecting their wicket (see above), the batsman is also out if they use their hands to stop the ball hitting the stumps.
10) Obstructing the field. Very rare also. A batsman stops a fielder from taking a catch or some such event.

 

[Stapel]

Lesson three: Fielding, or how to get 10 batsmen out.

Getting a batsman out is usually refered to as “taking a wicket”. The wicket is the combination of three vertical pieces of wood (stumps) with two horizontal pieces of wood (bails) on top of it. It is the batsman’s task to protect his wicket.

How can the fielding side take wickets (getting batsmen out)?
First their captain sets the field. He needs a wicket keeper, (the dude right behind the batsman, the only fielder allowed to wear gloves), and a bowler (the dude that bowls the ball towards the batsman / wicket). The other nine can be placed all over the field, as the captain wishes (actually, there are restrictions, but these are not important to understand cricket).
The bowler bowls 6 balls (this is called an “over&#8221. After this over, another fielder must bowl 6 balls from the other end. As the batsmen generally (more about batsmen later) do not change position, it is now the other of the two batsmen that has to protect his wicket.

The bowler tries to take a wicket by bowling the ball on the wicket. usually he makes the ball bounce once. The batsman tries to protect his wicket by stopping or hitting the ball with his bat. If he fails to do so properly, he risks losing his wicket. There are 5 common ways for a batsman to lose his wicket and 5 rare ways (which I will not address here):
-Bowled: the batsman fails to stop or hit the ball, the ball flies through and hits the wicket. If one of the bails fall off, the batsman is out.
-Caught: the batsman does stop (or hit, or touch) the ball with his bat, but one of the 11 fielders catches the ball before the ball has touch the ground
-LBW (leg before wicket): the batsman stops the ball with his body (usually legs) AND the umpire is 100% certain the ball would otherwise have hit the wicket (there are a dozen extra details to this, but this is enough right now
-Stumped: the batsman fails to stop or hit the ball, the ball flies through and misses the wicket, but the wicket keeper does collect the ball. The keeper kan now throw off the bails. The batsman is out, if he is out of his crease (marked with a white line, 4 feet in front of the wicket). IF the batsman tries to hit a ball, but misses, there is a good chance the momentum brings him out off his crease
-Run out: If a batsman hits the ball, he can decide to make a run (more about that later). He has to run from his own crease, to the one on the other side. If the fielding side manages to hit the wicket with the ball, while the batsman is no yet in the crease, he os out. It should be noted that also the other batsman (the non-striking batsman) has to run. He can be run out too! But as I said: more about running comes later.

 

[Stapel]

Lesson four: batting and running

As you might have guessed, the batsmen not only have to protect their wicket, they also are supposed to score runs. This lesson is put on the end with a reason: It IS the batsmen first task to protect their wicket!

If a batsman hits the ball properly, he can take one or more runs. Usually the batsmen watch where the ball goes and if they think it's safe (the risk getting run out, remember), the take a run. When the run is completed (i.e both batsmen have safely reached the other crease) they watch again and can take another run. There is not a maximum, though 3 is usually the limit. If the batsman hits the ball so hard that it rolls out off the field, he gets 4 runs. If the ball flies out off the field without bumping, he gets 6 runs.

If the batsmen run an uneven number of runs, they thus change the strike, unless it happens to be the last (sixth) ball of the over.

When the batting side is "all out", they can see howmany runs they have scored. The sides change and guess what: the side that goes batting next, needs to score more runs, before losing their 10th wicket, to win the match!

 

[Elta]

I have a question, Where can I watch a game of cricket online?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Try this site...

http://www.action8cricket.com/

I haven't had a detailed look at it though. It's Scotland vs. West Indies today apparently.

EDIT: I predict - an easy win for WI. Scottish players who are any good get to play for England!

 

[NKVD]

great writing i always wanted to ask too...

 

[Elta]

BAH! I am not gonna pay 15 bucks for a membership, I'll wait till a game is on sky sports and refer back to my notes here

 

[dutchfire]

@Stapel: So it's a bit like baseball actually?

 

[Stapel]

@Stapel: So it's a bit like baseball actually?

No, baseball is a bit like cricket ....... The first cricket club was founded in 1787.

 

[Berrie]

Stapel, can you explain these test matches and why they take several days?

What are the major tournaments? Is there a WC?

EDIT: And if I see the result of a cricket match, I can never understand the scoreline and who has won

 

[Rambuchan]

Nice work Stapel. You've come a long way

Lesson Five:

Stop for cups of tea and finger sandwiches at regular intervals during the day.

 

[Stapel]

Stapel, can you explain these test matches and why they take several days?

A test match is a match between two countries. Both teams get 2 innings, so in total, 40 wickets need to be taken. That might take up to 5 days, because batsmen tend to take little risks!

What are the major tournaments? Is there a WC?

The answer is in the question. The Worldcup was held this year in the West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados andsoforth). Australia has won it. After the Olympics and the WC football, the WC cricket is best watched TV event in the world. During this world cup, not test matches were played, but "One-Day-Internationals", aka ODIs. An ODI is supposed to be played in one day (duh....) and thus there are limited overs (remember, in one over, a bowler bowls 6 balls). ODIs typically have 50 overs (thus 300 balls) in one innings. This means that the batsmen take more risks. If they would simply stay in and defend their wickets, without scoring runs, they might end up with a low total after 50 overs. Otoh, if they go berserk, they might lose 10 wickets before the 50 overs are gone. The side that scores most runs, wins the game.

EDIT: And if I see the result of a cricket match, I can never understand the scoreline and who has won

Forget ODI, think test match cricket again. I'll give a few examples.

-Team 1 bats first. They score 300 runs, then their 10th wicket falls.
-Now it's team 2's turn: they score 250 runs, then their 10th wicket falls.
-Team 1 again. They score 200 runs this time (so in total 500 runs)
-Team 2's 2nd innings. They score 200 runs.

Team 2 has scored a total of 450 runs. Team 1 has scored 500 runs. Team 1 has won with 50 runs. Easy, not? Notice that team 2 needed 251 runs in their 2nd innings to win.

Next example (nearly the same, only the last innings is different)
-Team 1 bats first. They score 300 runs, then their 10th wicket falls.
-Now it's team 2's turn: they score 250 runs, then their 10th wicket falls.
-Team 1 again. They score 200 runs this time (so in total 500 runs)
-Team 2's 2nd innings. They score 251 runs.

Now team one has a total of 500 runs and team 2 has a total of 501 runs. Team 2 has won, obviously. However, they have not won with 1 run, but with the number of wickets still in hand. In this example we say that thye had lost 7 wickets when they reached 251 runs. Team 2 had 3 wickets left, thus they have won with 3 wickets.

 

[Stapel]

Nice work Stapel. You've come a long way

Lesson Five:

Stop for cups of tea and finger sandwiches at regular intervals during the day.

Actually these things only confuse things! you can't explain cricket by telling it's 110/2 at lunch or 281 all out at tea.

But of course, tea is an important factor in cricket. As is rain .

 

[obliterate]

Don't forget declaration.

 

[Harbourboy]

The basic idea of cricket is that you have to score more runs than the other team. Like baseball, the team with the most runs after all the innings have been completed wins.

Comparison to baseball:
Runs: you score 100s of runs in cricket, only a handful in baseball
Outs: In cricket you get to have 10 outs per batting innings, in baseball you get 3
Scoring: In cricket you score runs by hitting the ball and running between wickets or hitting over boundary. In baseball you score runs by running around bases or hitting over boundary.
Batting: In cricket, a batsman could bat for hours if he didn't get out. In baseball you only get to face a handful of pitches before scoring or getting out.
Dominance: The cricketing batsman is more dominant over the bowler (generally) than in baseball. In baseball, the odds are all in favour of the pitcher, as the most likely outcome for a batter is to get out. In cricket, you might play for several hours without anyone getting out. A cricketing bowler sometimes has to toil away for a long time.
Delivery: The baseball pitcher stands and throws the ball. The cricketing bowler runs or jogs up to the mark and then delivers the ball overarm, with the ball usually bouncing once before getting to the batsman.

 

[NKVD]

is the pitcher in the obligation to make the ball bounce or could he throw it like in baseball directly on the wicket (or whatever is the name of those wooden stick)

 

[The Gonzo]

is the pitcher in the obligation to make the ball bounce or could he throw it like in baseball directly on the wicket (or whatever is the name of those wooden stick)

Yes, the pitcher (or "bowler") has to make the ball bounce once and only once.