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Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport contested
by two teams, usually of eleven players each. A cricket
match is played on a grass field, roughly oval in shape,
in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22
yards (20.12 m) long, called a pitch. At each end of
the pitch is a construction of three parallel wooden
stakes (known as stumps) driven vertically into the
ground, with two small crosspieces (known as bails)
laid across the top of them. This wooden structure is
called a wicket. |
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A player from the fielding team,
known as the bowler, hurls a hard, fist-sized, cork-centred,
leather-covered ball from the vicinity of one wicket
towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before
reaching a player from the opposing team, the batsman,
whose job it is to defend his wicket from being struck
by the ball. In defence of the wicket, the batsman uses
a wooden cricket bat to deflect the incoming missile.
Meanwhile, the other members of the bowler's team stand
in various positions around the field as fielders, players
who retrieve the batted ball and throw it back toward
the pitch in an effort to "dismiss" the batsman.
The batsman, if he or she does not get out immediately
(by having his wicket struck by a bowled ball, by having
his batted ball caught in the air, etc.), may then choose
to run between the wickets, exchanging ends with a second
batsman (the non-striker), who has been waiting near
the bowler's wicket. Each exchange of ends successfully
completed constitutes a run, and the match is won by
the team that scores more runs. |
Cricket has been an established team sport for hundreds
of years. It originated in its modern form in England
and is most popular in the present and former members
of the Commonwealth. Cricket
is the second most popular sport in the world.[1][2][3]
More than a hundred cricket-playing nations are recognised
by the International Cricket Council.[4] In the countries
of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport.
It is also a major sport in England and Wales, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the English-speaking
countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively
known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies. There
are also well-established amateur club competitions
in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Kenya,
Nepal and Argentina, among others.
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The sport is followed with passion in many different
parts of the world. It has even occasionally given
rise to diplomatic outrage, the most notorious being
the Basil D'Oliveira affair which led to the banning
of South Africa from sporting events. Other examples
include the Bodyline series, played between England
and Australia in the early 1930s, and the 1981 underarm
bowling incident involving Australia and New Zealand.
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Overview
The aim of the batting team is to score as many runs
as possible. A run is scored when both batsmen successfully
move to their respective opposite ends of the pitch
(the pitch is sometimes referred to as the "wicket",
a term with multiple meanings). (The batsmen will
usually only attempt to score runs after the striker
has hit the ball, but this is not required by the
rules - the batsmen can attempt runs at any time after
the ball has been bowled.) Runs are also scored if
the batsman propels the ball to the boundary of the
playing area (scoring six runs if the ball crosses
the boundary without having touched the ground or
four runs otherwise), or if the bowler commits some
technical infringement.
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The aim of the bowler's team is to get each batsman
out (this is a wicket, or a dismissal). Dismissals
are achieved in a variety of ways. The most direct
way is for the bowler to bowl the ball in such a way
that it hits the stumps, dislodging the bails. While
the batsmen are attempting a run, the fielders may
attempt to dismiss either batsman by using the ball
to knock the bails off the set of stumps to which
the batsman is closest, before he has grounded himself
or his bat in the crease. Other ways for the fielding
side to dismiss a batsman include catching a struck
ball before it touches the ground, or having the batsman
adjudged LBW (leg before wicket, i.e. attempting to
block the ball from hitting the stumps using his body,
which is prohibited). Once the batsmen are not attempting
to score any more runs, the ball is "dead"
and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling the ball
is a ball or a delivery).
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The game is divided into overs of six (legal) balls.
At the end of an over, the batting and bowling ends
will be swapped, and the bowler replaced by another
member of the fielding side. The two umpires also
change positions at this time (the umpire previously
at square-leg becomes the bowler's umpire at what
is now the bowling end, and vice versa), and the fielding
positions are rearranged.
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Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman
in the team's line-up. (The batting side can reorder
their line-up at any time, but no batsman may bat
twice in one innings.) The innings (singular) of the
batting team ends when the tenth batsman is given
out, since there always must be two batsmen on the
field. When this happens, the team is said to be all
out. (In limited overs cricket
the innings ends either when the batting team is all
out or a predetermined number of overs has been bowled.)
At the end of an innings, the two teams exchange roles,
the fielding team becoming the batting team and vice
versa.
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A team's score is reported in terms of the number
of runs scored and the number of batsman that have
been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen have
been given out and the team has scored 224 runs, they
are said to have scored 224 for the loss of 5 wickets
(shortened to "224 for 5" and written 224/5
or, in Australia, "5 for 224" and 5/224).
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The team that has scored more runs at the end of
the completed match wins. Different varieties of the
game have different definitions of "completion";
for instance there may be restrictions on the number
of overs, the number of innings, and the number of
balls in each innings.
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