Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field at the center of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch.

Cricket is a bat and ball game, played between two teams of eleven players each.One team bats, attempting to score runs, while the other bowls and fields the ball, attempting to restrict the scoring and dismiss the batsmen. The objective of the game is for a team to score more runs than its opponent. In some forms of cricket, it may also be necessary to dismiss the opposition in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn.

There are separate leagues for women's cricket, though informal matches may have mixed teams.

A cricket match is divided into periods called innings (which ends with "s" in both singular and plural form). It is decided before the match whether the teams will have one innings or two innings each. During an innings one team fields and the other bats. The two teams switch between fielding and batting after each innings. All eleven members of the fielding team take the field, but only two members of the batting team (two batsmen) are on the field at any given time. The order of batsmen is usually announced just before the match, but it can be varied.

A coin toss is held by the team captains (who are also players) just before the match starts: the winner decides whether to bat or field first.

The cricket field is usually oval in shape, with a rectangular pitch at the center. The edge of the playing field is marked with a boundary, which could be a fence, part of the stands, a rope or a painted line.

At each end of the pitch is a wooden target called a wicket, placed 22 yards apart. The pitch is marked with painted lines: a bowling crease in line with the wicket, and a batting or popping crease four feet in front of it. The wicket is made of three vertical stumps supporting two small horizontal bails. A wicket is put down if at least one bail is dislodged, or one stump is knocked down (usually by...