Quick-Quick Cricket Lesson Two

In this second lesson I launch head on into a real live example of a limited overs cricket match. Come learn how the game works...

In the second of my Quick-Quick Cricket Lessons I thought I'd try and clear up some of the basics. Last week I covered the three different formats of the modern game and introduced some pretty confusing terms. Over the next few Quick-Quick Cricket Lessons I hope to clear up some of your confusions...

I've decided to take the most popular form of the game, the One Day match and use this to show you just how this crazy game works. This is the format used at the World Cups.

Last week we learnt that most one day matches are made up of 50 overs per innings.

So here's how a typical one day match works:

The toss

Ten minutes before the start of play the two captains will meet out in the middle. We call this area where all the action takes place the wicket or the pitch. The cricket pitch is the central strip of the cricket field and measures 22 yards long. On either side of the pitch are three wooden stumps called wickets. Two bails sit on top of each set of wickets and these must be dislodged for a batsman to be given out. (More on that later).

So the two captains meet in the middle with the two umpires. A coin is tossed and the visiting skipper makes the call. If he wins the toss, he gets to choose whether his side will bat first or bowl first. This is a science and a subjective topic that would bore the brains out of most mortals, yet often crucial to the outcome of matches. For instance, if the match is being played at night under lights, the dew factor plays a major role in changing the playing surface. We won't get ourselves in to deep here.

Who's in the team?

So the team that has chosen, or been put into the field then emerges from the dressing rooms after the umpires have taken up their positions. They are followed by the two opening batsmen. A cricket team consists of 11 players. Now the composition of the team is pretty much a free for all and will depend on the opposition and each team's player pool. Generally though - the first six or seven are batsmen and the next four or five are bowlers. One of the batsmen must be a wicket keeper (he's the guy in pads that stands behind the batsmen to take balls that are missed - just like in baseball). Anyway - you also get player called 'all rounder's' who contribute well with both the bat and the ball. That's a brief summary of the composition of a cricket team.

Let the game begin

So the first two batsmen come out to bat. The number one batsmen goes to the end where the opening bowler has decided to bowl towards, the other batsman ends up on the opposite side of the pitch, the side where the bowler will run up to, to bowl the ball.

Bowling

The opening bowlers are know to be lightening quick, and in today's international circuit these speed demons can bowl a ball in excess of 90 miles per hour.

So a bowler is limited to 10 overs in a match. An over is made up of six balls. The bowler has to make sure he bowls the ball fairly straight, otherwise the umpire calls a 'wide' and the batting side gets a free run and the bowler has to re-bowl that delivery. He must also make sure his foot doesn't cross the 'crease' line in front of him, otherwise a 'no-ball' is called and again, the batting side gets one extra run and the bowler must re-bowl.

You get different types of bowlers too. I've mentioned the fast bowlers who bowl fast and generally straight, but you also get bowlers that can bowl fairly quickly and deceptively swing the ball too. Then you get the spin bowlers. These guys are crazy and incredibly devious as they pitch the ball at the batsmen and then depending on how the ball has left the bowlers hand, it will career off the ground in incredible and unpredictable direction. The batsman has only split seconds to work out/guess what's going to happen next.

Fielding

So in short, the fielding side has to bowl 50 overs at the batting side. The fielding side is spread out over the field in a pattern that best suits the current bowler and that they think will limit the number of gaps in the field that the batsmen will be able to exploit.

Batting and run scoring

The side batting first must obviously hit as many runs as possible in this time. If they lose all their wickets before the allotted overs - then tough!

Runs are scored in a handful of ways. Generally one run is scored when the batsman hits the ball into the field and then both batsmen set off running in opposite directions towards each other, and the other side of the wicket. When each batsman makes it to the other side one run is awarded. If the fielders take their time to fetch the ball and get it back to the wicket, the batsmen may run more than one run.

The cricket field is circular and the outer limit is called the boundary. If the batsman hits the ball along the ground and over this boundary he is awarded 4-runs. If he hits the ball over this boundary without a bounce he is awarded 6-runs. These are called boundaries and are extremely exciting to watch as they generally involve some considerable effort and skill from the batsmen.

That's a serious amount to digest... if you're enjoying finding out more about this crazy game, come back next week for Quick-Quick Cricket Lesson Three.

Till then