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How to Play Professional Cricket

Cricket is a game that requires physical agility to bat, bowl, and field. Two teams of 11 players and 4 substitutes each play at one time. A set of rules are designed for the game by ICC.ICC is the International Cricket Council which manages all the cricketing action across all the formats for men, women as well as for the blind teams. The rules are same for both men and women players. The game begins with captains of both teams and match referee gathering for the toss. The toss-winning captain is allowed to elect to bat/field first. The dress code and fielding restrictions vary for each format. It is mandatory for players to wear all white for a Test match, and coloured tees and trousers for ODI and T20.

Umpires have a key role in the game as they monitor the proceedings. They decide whether the batsman is out, decide on no-ball, wide, and ensure both teams are playing according to the rules.

In this section, we will understand few laws of the game and how a cricket match is played. The cricket game begins with the on-field umpire’s signal “Let’s play!”

A Glimpse of the Game

• Two batsmen from the batting-side and 11 players from the fielding-side take positions. Two umpires also join them on the field. One stands at the pitch and the other on leg-side.
• Suppose “A” and “B” are two teams playing a limited over cricket match. Captain of “A” wins the toss and elects to bat first.
• The game starts with bowler from “B” team bowling to the first batsman of “A” team. They are usually called opening-bowler and opening batsman. The first two batsmen are called openers as they start the innings of their team.
• The batsmen have to hit the ball and attempt to score runs. Fielders attempt to stop the ball that is hit and even catch them to get the batsmen out.
• Each bowler bowls 6 legal deliveries to call it an over.
• The bowling and batting ends change after every over. The non-striker at the end of every over becomes the striker of the next over.
• The wicket-keeper has to change ends after completion of each over.
• An innings is regarded as complete if all the batsmen of team “A” are out or team “B” has bowled their full quota of overs.
• Now, team “B” comes on to bat in the second innings to chase the target set by team “A”.
• Team “B” is accorded as winners if they achieve the target else, “A” is victorious.
• If the scores are level at the end of a match, then it is called a tie. “A” super-over is conducted if the result is tie during important matches like quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Each team gets to play 1 over.
• If team “A” bats first and scores a certain amount of runs and team “B” is unable to chase it then team “A” wins but if the target is chased, Team “B” wins.

Scoring

• Manual and electronic scoring is done during the match to avoid any errors.
• The scoring is done on a cumulative basis. All the runs scored with the bat, extra runs like no-ball, wide, etc. are added to team’s total.
• In some instances, on-field umpires find it tough to give few decisions like boundaries, out, no-ball, etc. Therefore, they seek the help of another umpire, called third-umpire.
• The third-umpire looks at video visuals and gives a final decision.

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for similar Cricket Gyaan articles.

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