Cricket

Cricket is one kind of outdoor game.Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each one the field at the center of  which is rectangular 22 yard long pitch .Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields.Each turn is known as an innings.

The bowler delivers the ball to the batsman who attempts to hit the ball with his bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run.Each batsman continues batting until he is out.The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat.

Cricket was played in southern England in the 16th century.By the end of the  18th century, it had developed to be the national sport of England.The expansion of British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international match was held.Now it is a game of international status and now match-games of cricket are being played in international tournaments.The game is most popular in Indian subcontinent, Australia, England the West indies and South Africa.Cricket match is always played between two teams.It has three forms till now.One Day Cricket match ,Test Cricket match and T20 Cricket match.One day cricket match consists of 100 overs,Test Cricket consists of 450 overs at the maximum and Twenty Twenty cricket has 40 overs in a match.

Image Reference:

https://Art of cricket.com/

Pitch,Wickets and Creases

Cricket is played in a round field.The playing area shall be minimum of 150 yards from boundary to boundary square of the pitch.The law also states that the straight boundary on the both ends of the pitch are supposed to be no less than 70 yards in length.The pitch lies in the middle of the cricket field.The pitch is a rectangular area of the ground 22 yards in length and 3 meters width, apart are placed wooden targets,known as the wickets.Each wicket on the pitch consists of three wooden stumps place vertically, in the line with one another.They are surmounted by two wooden crosspieces called bails.The total height of the  wickets  including bails is 28.5 inches  and the combined width of the three stumps, including small gaps between them is 9 inches.

Four lines, known as creases, are painted onto the pitch around the wicket areas to define the batsman's "safe territory" and to determine the limit of the bowler's approach.These are called the "popping" crease, the bowling crease and two "return' creases.

The stumps are placed in the line on the following creases and so these must be 22 yards apart.A bowling crease is 8 feet 8 inches long, with the middle stump placed dead center.The popping crease has the same length, is parallel to the bowling crease is 4 feet in front of the wicket.The return creases are perpendicular to the other two they are adjoined to the ends of the popping crease and are drawn through the ends of the bowling crease to a length of at least 8 feet.

When bowling the ball,the bowler's back foot in his "delivery stride" must land within the two return creases while at least some part of his front foot must land on or behind the popping crease.If the bowler breaks this rule, the umpire calls "No ball ".

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https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/

Cricket Kit,Fielding Positions,Batting Format

Cricket Kit:

Cricket is played with a ball, a bat and wickets. The ball, the bat and the wickets are properly sized for this game.They are called cricket-ball, cricket-bat and cricket-wickets.The batsman wears hand-gloves, arm-guard, leg-guards, thigh-guards, shoes and helmet as safe against injury.

Fielding Positions: 

Cricket is played between two teams.One is the bowling side and the other is the batting side.There are eleven players in each team.Beside, there are two umpires, one stands just the back of the wicket of the bowling side and the other stands some yards away, left or right of the wicket of the batting side.The players of the bowling side play in different positions such as: Bowler, Wicket keeper, First slip,Second slip,Deep point,Deep cover,Mid off,Mid on,Cover,Extra cover,Point,Backward point,Short man,Silly point,Gully,Short leg,Silly mid off,Silly mid on,Long off boundary,Long on boundary,Deep mid wicket,Deep square leg,Long leg,Deep fine leg,Backward square leg,Third man,Mid wicket.The players of the batting side come to play as two openers, first down, second down, third down, fourth down, fifth down, sixth down, seventh down, eighth down, ninth down.

Batting Format:

The bowler bowls the ball aiming at the wickets and the batsman tries to drive this ball with his bat.When the ball is batted off,the batsman runs from this wicket to that wicket and from that wicket to this wicket as many times as it is possible for him before the ball is obtained by the players of the bowling side.If the batted ball crosses the boundary line it is declared four and if the ball crosses the boundary line in air it is called a six.If a player of the bowling side catches the batted-off ball before it falls on the ground he earns the credit of a catch and the batsman is ousted.If the stumps of bails are bowled off the batsman is ousted.Similarly run out,hit wicket etc.In those cases another player of the batting side comes to his positions.If a batsman makes one hundred runs in an innings, he earns a century.In the second turn of the game the bowling team, becomes the batting team and the batting team becomes the bowling team. During the game, the runs of each team are counted. The team winning the greater number of runs is proclaimed winner.

Image References:

http://www.maxfairness.com/

http://fieldingpositions.com/

http://visual.merriams.com/

On-Field and Off-Field Umpires

On-Field Umpire:

Traditionally,cricket matches have two umpires on the field, one standing at the end where the bowler delivers the ball,and one directly opposite the facing batsman.However,in the modern game,they may be more than two umpires, third umpire who has access to video replays ,and a fourth umpire who looks after the match balls,takes out the drinks for the on field umpires,and also arranges travel and meals for all the umpires.In cricket,on field umpire is a person who has the authority to make judgement on the cricket field,according to the laws of cricket.Besides making decisions about legality of delivery,appeals for wickets and general conduct of the game in the legal manner, the umpire also keeps a record of the deliveries and announces the completion of an over.if the field umpire have any doubt he will refer to the third umpire.

Off-Field Umpire:

In international cricket matches the third umpire is an off field umpire who makes the final decision in questions referred to him by the two on-field umpires.In the case of a run out or stumping,,a batsman may be declared "out" if the wickets put down.The wickets is down if a ball is removed from the top of the stumps or a wicket is struck out of the ground, whether by the ball, the bat or the striker's person.If the batsman is caught between the two popping creases and the wicket is put down, the batsman is declared out.In most cases,the event occurs in a fraction of a second.If the field umpires are unable to accurately come to a decision on the dismissal of a batsman,the umpire requests the third umpire to ascertain whether the batsman had made it home.The third umpire then looks at various TV replays from different angles and comes to a conclusion by pressing the appropriate signal.

Signals:

Originally decisions were conveyed in traffic light style a red light indicating a batsman's dismissal, a green light not out, it is now common practice to display the decision via the large screen scoreboard,if available. If the umpire is unsure if a batsman is out or not, due to lack of conclusive evidence, the usual procedure is to acquit the batsman , known in cricketing parlance as "the benefit of the doubt".

Image References:

http://Cricket Umpire.com/

http://third umpire.com/

http://out decision.com/