The Rules

Cricket rules must be adhered to throughout the game. Two umpires make the decisions and notify the scorers. There is a third umpire outside the field who makes video decisions i.e. he reviews and replays videos to make a judgement. Like in baseball, the teams take turns batting in the field. The batter is referred to as the batsman while the pitcher is the bowler who aims at knocking down the wicket's bail. The batsman does everything possible to deter the bowler's attempt to hit the wicket and score runs if possible. During the game, the fielding team can outdo the batsmen in the following ways:

• Hit wickets with a ball while bowling

• Catch a shot from the batsman on the full

• Hit the leg of the batsman in front of wicket i.e. LBW

• Hit wickets before batsmen run to the other side of the ground

To score the highest possible runs, the batmen can take a number of actions:

• Hit ball over boundary on the full (6 runs)

• Hit ball over boundary along the field (4 runs)

• Hit ball and run between wickets and them reach the other side before the fielders hit the wickets with a ball (1 run)

The fielding team needs to have 10 batsmen out before changing over and batting again. Each team strives to get as many runs before the other hits 10 wickets.

The Structure of the Cricket Game

Cricket spans over 2 innings. So, a team must bowl out the rival two times to score more runs in order to win. Test cricket and other forms of cricket differ in terms of the innings length. There is no limit in test cricket but the number of 'overs' in say Twenty20 cricket and one-day cricket are definite. At the start, the captain decides on what team bats or fields first. Even though there are 11 team members, only 10 of them have to be bowled out such that only one is left batting alone. Note that batting happens in pairs.

When the first team is bowled out, the counterpart goes into bat. If the second team is bowled out, it usually returns to batting again as the first team except in the case of the follow-on. In follow-on, the first team makes 200 runs or more than the second one. So, they force the second team to bat again. This is very common during bad weather when there is no time for full innings. Here, the captain can forfeit innings anytime (declaration). If none of the teams have bowled out two times, the captain declares the game a draw.

Other Ways to Score Runs

According to cricket rules, runs scored by the wide ball, no ball, leg byes, and leg are awarded to teams rather than individual batters. These scores are declared by the umpire.

a. Wide Ball

This occurs when the batsman did not get a reasonable chance to make a score off the delivery. A wide ball delivery gives the batting team 1 run plus any runs the batsman scores.

b. No Ball

It is declared when delivery is bowled over the head of the batsmen. It also applies when the ball is bowled from the wrong position such as on the body of the batsmen on the full. It can also happen when the fielder is in an illegal position.

c. Leg Bye

Here, the player hits the batsman rather than the bat. The ball must not be wide or no ball. But there is no score if the batsman was trying to avoid the ball or did not attempt to get a shot.

d. Bye

In a bye, a ball (neither wide nor no-ball) passes a striking batsman and scores without the batsman actually hitting it.

Cricket involves two teams, each composed of 11 players. The twelfth man is the reserved player or a substitute fielder who can take over if one player sustains injuries. The objective is to score runs with a bat and dismiss the opposing batsmen.