cricket live guide

cricket live guide

Two batsman take up positions on the pitch, at either end. One begins as the ‘striker’—similar to the hitter in baseball—and one begins as the ‘non-striker’—similar to a baserunner. The fielding team have roles roughly analogous to the fielding set-up of a baseball team: one ‘bowler’ delivers the ball to the batsman (as does the pitcher in baseball), one ‘wicket-keeper’ stands behind the batsman to receive the ball if it is not struck by the batsman (as does the catcher in baseball), and the remaining nine members of the fielding team arrange themselves around the field.

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As in baseball, the bowler delivers the ball to the batsman, but, crucially, the bowler must deliver the ball with a straight arm. So, throwing is not allowed; the bowler must deliver the ball in a windmill action. The ball bounces on the pitch once before reaching the batsman. (It may bounce twice or not at all, but neither is desirable, and the ball is not allowed to arrive above the batsman’s waist without bouncing). There are no restrictions on the permitted batting style, but the traditional stance is similar to a baseball stance, but with the bat held at hip-level with the end pointing back towards the wicket-keeper.
A cricket ball—cork covered by leather—is rock-hard, and will leave a fair bruise. The batsmen wear pads on both legs, one thighpad, a cup (or a ‘box’, as it is called in cricketing parlance), gloves, and a helmet. In a marvelous illustration of the importance of priorities, boxes were worn to protect male cricketers’ crown jewels right from the dawn of the game in the 16th century, while helmets weren’t worn to protect their skulls until the 1970s.

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The bowler runs up to one end of the pitch, and bowls the ball to the on-strike batsman, who is standing at the other end of the pitch, guarding his or her stumps. The batsman attempts to hit the ball to a vacant area anywhere in the 360 degrees of the field, in order to score runs.

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If the Batsman A hits the ball to a suitably remote and vacant part of the field, the two batsmen may—but are not obliged to—run from their end of the pitch to the other, passing by each other as they go. If both successfully make it from one end to the other without the fielding team striking their stumps with the ball, one run is added to the batting team’s score, and also to the individual score of Batsman A (but not to the individual score of Batsman B). Now, Batsman B is on strike, and the next ball will be bowled to him or her, while Batsman A stands at the non-striker’s end.
So, Batsmen A and B are equals in that they can both contribute to their team’s score equally, just as any of the five players on a basketball court can score on any given possession. But only the on-strike batsman is able to score off of any given delivery, in roughly the same way that only one basketball player may shoot the ball at any one time.
The rule that one run is earned for running once extends to infinity. If Batsmen A and B manage to run all the way up and all the way back, their team scores two runs. If they run three times, their team earns three runs. And if they can run eleventy-hundred times, their team would earn eleventy-hundred runs. In practice, there is a limit to how many times the batsmen can physically run 22 yards before the fielding team retrieves the ball from the finite expanse of the field, so it is uncommon to see batsmen run even four times. (Cricketing lore is filled with likely apocryphal tales from years past of batsmen running dozens and even hundreds of runs as fielders struggled to find a ball lost in long grass, or fetching an axe to chop down a tree in which a ball lodged.)

The batsman can also score by hitting the ball all the way to the boundary at the perimeter of the field. If the ball is hit to the boundary, touching the ground at least once, the batting team scores four runs. If the ball is hit all the way over the boundary (like a home run in baseball), that’s six runs. These are simply known as ‘fours’ and sixes’. The batsmen do not need to run in order to earn these scores, unlike in baseball, where a player must round the bases after socking a dinger.
On the other hand, a delivery may produce no action. The batsmen may choose not to swing at the ball and let it sail harmlessly to the wicket-keeper, or may choose to strike the ball with his or her bat but then not run, unlike in baseball where running on a live ball is compulsory. There are no balls and strikes; as long as a player is not given out, there is no penalty for, say, swinging and missing at a delivery. There is also no strike zone, nor any ‘live-ball’ part of the field—the whole of the field is fair-play territory, and the batsmen can hit the ball anywhere they please in order to score runs.
As in baseball, the play is not continuous: once a ball has been bowled and play has come to a stop, the ball is deemed ‘dead’, and play only resumes when the bowler delivers the next ball.