Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of
eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a
rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket (a set of three
wooden stumps) at each end. One team bats, attempting to score
as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents field. Each
phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen
have been dismissed or a fixed number of overs have been
completed, the innings ends and the two teams then swap roles.
The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including
any extras gained, during their innings. At the start of each
game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play.
The play begins when a member of the fielding team, known as
the bowler, delivers the ball from one end of the pitch to the
other, towards the wicket at that end, in front of which stands
one of the batsmen, known as the striker. The striker "takes
guard" on a crease drawn on the pitch four feet in front of the
wicket. His role is to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps
by use of his bat, and simultaneously to strike it well enough
to score runs. The other batsman, known as the non-striker,
waits at the opposite end of the pitch near the bowler. A
dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces
him. The bowler's objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs
and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries
bowled by the same bowler. The next over is bowled from the
other end of the pitch by a different bowler. The most common
forms of dismissal are bowled, when the bowler hits the stumps
directly with the ball; leg before wicket, when the batsman
prevents the ball from hitting the stumps with his body instead
of his bat; and caught, when the batsman hits the ball into the
air and it is intercepted by a fielder before touching the
ground. Runs are scored by two main methods: either by hitting
the ball hard enough for it to cross the boundary, or by the
two batsmen swapping ends by each simultaneously running the
length of the pitch in opposite directions whilst the fielders
are retrieving the ball. If a fielder retrieves the ball quickly
enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached
the crease at that end of the pitch, that batsman is dismissed
(a run out occurs). Adjudication is performed on the field by
two umpires.
