The Basics of Cricket For Beginners

cricket
by Amina Azizi

 

Cricket is sometimes referred to as the hardest game to understand but it’s not as complicated as you might think. Cricket is quite similar to baseball but the rules are completely different. This guide will give a better insight about the game of cricket and how it’s played.

The Equipment’s (main gear used to play the game): 

For hard-ball cricket, you’ll need equipment’s such:

  • Bat
  • Ball
  • Helmet
  • Stumps
  • Bails
  • Pads
  • Gloves
  • Spikes (Cricket Shoes)

Hard ball cricket is for professional and club levels cricketers which cannot be played without the appropriate gear due to safety reasons.

If you’re playing a casual game of soft-ball cricket, all you need is comfortable clothing, energy and enthusiasm! Even if it’s you and your mate in the yard, you can still indulge a game.

Different Formats (international cricket)

  • Twenty20 (T20) overs: is the shortest format of cricket played on international level. Each team is allowed to play 20 overs max, one bowler can bowl a maximum of 4 overs in T20s.
  • One Day International (ODI): ODI is also limited overs format, the maximum number of overs one side can bat/bowl is 50 overs. One bowler can bowl a maximum of 10 overs.
  • Test game: test is considered the highest standard of cricket, it is the longest format and can last for as long as five days.

 

Basics of the game:

  • Cricket is a team sport played between two teams at a time, each team consists of 11 players.
  • International/Club cricket is usually played at a proper cricket ground, the ground is normally a circular or oval shape covered by grass, surrounded by boundary marker and the pitch is placed in the middle of the ground.
  • The order of a team’s batting or bowling is decided by tossing a coin. The captains that wins the toss decides whether his/her team is going to bat or field/bowl first.
  • Both teams will have the chance to bat and field, there will be two batsmenof the batting side playing in pairs, and eleven Fielders of the opposition fielding to restrict the batting side to a low score or get them all out. Two out of the eleven fielders will have special roles, one bowling (throwing/releasing the ball after swinging the arm for at least one full revolution) and the second person doing wicket keeping (Wicket keeper), which means that he will have special protection (helmet, pads and gloves for safety reasons, as the ball is thrown at him with pace) and would stand behind the wickets/stumps.
  • Stumps are normally spaced 22 yards apart. Stumps are three upright wooded posts place in the ground, two bails (small sticks) laid horizontally on top of the stumps.
  • The batting side players will have to run between the stumps (22 yards distance) to score as many runs as they possibly can.
  • A team can bat until they have completed the allowable over (depends on the format of the game, e.g. 20 0ver, 50 overs test) or, if ten of their 11 batsmen have been dismissed by the opposition.
  • A batsman is declared out when he/she is bowled, caught, stumped, run-out, Leg Before Wicket (LBW), or hits the wicket (other ways could be when obstructing the field handled/ling the ball, timed out or hits the ball twice).
  • One over is 6 balls/deliveries, bowled by the bowling/fielding side.
  • When a bowler gets three back to back wickets (in three consecutive deliveries), it’s called hat-trick.
  • When a bowler completes an over without conceding a run, it’s called maiden over.
  • When a batsman scores 50 runs, its referred to as half-century or fifty.
  • When a batsman scores 100 runs, it’s called century.
  • The team with the highest score (runs) wins eventually.