How to Play Cricket – Cricket Basics

The Bowling team take turns having a player at a time who may take a run up and “bowl” the ball from one end of the pitch without their foot crossing a line that is called the bowling crease towards the wicket. The aim being to hit the wicket, knocking the bails off of the top. This is called being “bowled out,” and that batsman is dismissed from the pitch.

Six balls are bowled in a row and this is called an “Over” after a maximum of two overs the bowler must change. The bowling team also has the remaining players “fielding.” The fielders aim is to stop the ball if the batsman hits it or if the ball is struck into the air and caught before bouncing, catch it. Catching the ball in this way will also dismiss the batsman this is called “caught out.”

Another way of being out is if a member of the fielding side has broken or “put down” the wicket with the ball while the nearest batsman was out of his ground; this usually occurs by means of an accurate throw to the wicket while the batsmen are attempting a run, although a batsman can be given Run Out even when he is not attempting a run; he merely needs to be out of his ground, If the Batsman’s body, hits the ball and deflects it and the Umpire (the referee or judge of the match in any cricket game) determines it would have gone on to hit the stumps this is called “Leg before wicket” or simply LBW and also dismisses the Batsman.

The Batting team aim to hit the ball bowled at them, defending the wicket by hitting the ball and therefore preventing it from striking the wicket. In addition they aim to hit the ball as far from the fielders as they can. If the ball is hit far enough and the batsman feels there is time they can run from one wicket to the other. If they succeed in running from one wicket to the other without the fielding team stopping the ball, then striking the wicket (Run Out) with the ball before the batsman runs past the popping crease (see the pitch diagram above) they score 1 run. The batsmen can make as many runs this way as they feel safe doing.

If the Batsman succeeds in hitting the ball all the way to the marked boundary without it touching the ground this is called a six and six runs are awarded to that team.

If the Batsman hits the ball all the way to the marked boundary but the ball touches the ground before crossing the boundary line this is called a four and four runs are awarded to that team.

In a cricket match, in order to continue batting the team must have a batsman at either end of the pitch. This means that once 10 men are dismissed from the pitch the team is declared All Out.

Once ten men are dismissed from a pitch this would be called an Innings the standard in cricket games is most often for each team to have two innings.
Obviously this could go on for a long time if one team is significantly better than the other so the innings will be limited by either time in three or five day test matches, or often overs, the most common number of overs is 50.

Furthermore included in the Cricket basics is the chance of a team that bats last is all out having scored fewer runs than their opponents, the team is said to have “lost by x number of runs” if the team batting last scores enough number of runs to beat the other teams score they have “won by x number of wickets.” So if a team only has three batsmen dismissed they will have won by 7 wickets.

In a two-innings-a-side match, one team’s combined first and second innings total may be less than the other side’s first innings total. The team with the greater score is then said to have “won by an innings and n runs,” and does not need to bat again: n is the difference between the two teams’ scores at that point.

It is important to be familiar with Test Cricket to fully answer the question what is cricket and how to play cricket. Below, you can find the list of countries that play cricket.

Cricket is mostly played by countries that were or are members of the British Commonwealth the most famous are –

• England and Wales (Play as England)
• India
• Australia
• Pakistan
• South Africa
• West Indies

These teams play “First Class Cricket” this is the top level of the sport, first class cricket is also played by teams from regions in these countries so when playing against each other matches with these countries are called Test Matches or Test Cricket.