Take Me Out to the Cricket Match

Cricket is not a sport that's very well understood in America.  The only sport that we can compare it to is baseball.  And while they both involve swinging a bat at a ball and lots of boozing while ignoring the first half of the game, the two games are different.  However as the basic concepts are related, I'll try to provide a basic explanation of cricket using baseball analogies.

Cricket Field

Both games take place on a field.  In baseball the field is diamond shape.  In cricket is oval shaped.  A cricket field consists of a pitch which is located in the middle of the field.  This is where the batsman, pitcher and referees are located.  There is then an infield, an outfield and a boundary.  Now the boundary is not a fence or wall like in baseball.  It is literally just a rope or a white line that encircles the field.

 

Cricket Pitch

  

Most of the action takes place on the cricket pitch.  The pitch itself is long and rectangular.  There are boxed out areas on either end which are defined by white lines.  This is the batting area.  The batting area is set up so that the batsman is in the front part and a wicket is placed behind them at the very end of the pitch.  A wicket is a grouping of three stumps that have two balls placed securely between them.  There are also wicketkeepers (referees) behind the wicket to make their calls.

Wicket

You will notice that there are two batting areas on the pitch.  This because there are two batsmen on the pitch at a time.  Both are there to protect the wickets (more on that later) but only one of them is actually going to hit the ball.  This batsman is called a striker.

Pitcher = Bowler

The bowler (pitcher) doesn't have a pitchers mound like in baseball or an area on the cricket pitch. They actually begin their bowl (throw) from the infield where they get a running start and throw the ball from the corner of the pitch.  Now this probably sounds really violent.  Can you imagine a baseball player getting a running start before throwing a pitch!  But rest assured that the pitchers/bowlers here, have to make sure that the ball bounces once on the ground before it reaches the striker. 

Scoring

To score in cricket, the striker and batsman have to run to opposite ends of the pitch and place either their foot or their bat in the opposite batting area.  If they do this, then they have scored one point.  To score more points they would then have to turn around and exchange places again.  They can do this as many times as possible before the opposing team throws the ball back in to to the pitch and has a change to get an out.  Another way to score is to hit the ball out of the boundary, where you get a score of 6 points.  Alternatively if you hit a grounder and the ball rolls across the boundary, you get 4 points.

Getting an Out

There are various ways to get an out. The fielding team can catch a hit ball in mid-air or try and break the wicket that the batsman and striker are suppose to protect. A wicket is considered broken if its hit by a ball and one of the balls at the top falls out. The wicket can be broken either by the bowler trying to hit it during his pitch or by a fielding member hitting it before one of the batsman has returned to the batting area.

Innings

There are actually only two innings in a cricket match. The first team on offence stays on the field until they have either gotten 10 outs or until they have reached the limit on the number of overs (throws of the ball) set for the game. Once the first inning is over. The other team is then given a chance to either match the first team's score for a draw or they can try and beat their score.

The reason that cricket games tend to be long is that an over is equal to 6 bowls (throws) and there can be a maximum of 50 overs per game! Its also difficult to get ten outs.  We all know how long it can take in baseball to strike get three outs. Imagine if you had to wait until 10 people were out! Luckily there is a shorter version of the game called Twenty20 where there are only 20 overs.  These matches tend to last one evening instead of a few days.

Whew!  That was long!

Cricket Tea Time!

So that in a nutshell is cricket.  As I mentioned before, the games are really long.  They actually have a break for tea and lunch for the longer games.  Its actually quite amusing and very English for the game to stop so that everyone can get a cup of tea and some scones.  However the shorter matches are very reminiscent of baseball.  There are a lot of people just hanging out in the stands drinking beer and chowing down on hotdogs.