Understanding the Game of Cricket

A Bat-and-ball Sport Contested by Two Teams

(The game of cricket is a favorite sport in England as well as in many Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, the West Indies etc.. A formal game can last anything from an afternoon to several days.) When I visited England last summer I was invited by my host to attend a cricket match at Lord's Cricket Ground in St. Johns Wood in London. For a person who likes baseball and American football, the game of cricket was quite strange to me. Fortunately my British friend was quite articulate and through his clear explanation I was able to understand the play. I was told that basic concept of cricket is similar to that of baseball, even though the game play and rules are different. Teams bat in successive innings and attempt and to score runs, while the opposing team fields and attempts to bring an end to the batting teams innings, which is usually one or two agreed upon before the game. The game is also presided over by a match referee, who watches from outside the field. Off course, the team with the most runs wins the game. My host then explained that in cricket-speak, the word ``innings'' is used for both the plural and the singular. "Inning'' is a term used only in American baseball. My friend continued and told me that cricket ball used in the play is a hard, cork and string ball, covered with leather. It is similar to a baseball, but weighs a fraction less about an ounce or two. Yet the wooden bat is quite different that is used in baseball, as it is broad and flat, like a paddle, unlike the long rounded bat used in the game played in the States. 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 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.