1The big idea

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game between two teams. One team bats and tries to score as many runs as possible. The other team bowls and fields and tries to stop them — by limiting runs and getting batters out.

Then the teams swap. Whoever scores more runs wins. That's it — everything else is detail.

2Two teams of eleven

• Each team has 11 players, led by a captain who sets the field and chooses the bowlers.
• When batting, only two batters are on the field at a time — one at each end of the pitch. The rest wait their turn.
• When fielding, all 11 are out there: one bowler, one wicketkeeper behind the stumps, and nine fielders.
• Players are usually known for a speciality — batters, bowlers, all-rounders (good at both) and the wicketkeeper.
• Two umpires on the field make the decisions.

3The field and the pitch

The game is played on a large, roughly oval grass field with a boundary rope around the edge. In the middle is the pitch — a 22-yard (20.12 m) strip of firm, short grass.

At each end of the pitch stands a wicket: three wooden stumps with two small bails balanced on top. The bowler tries to hit it; the batter defends it.

Want to see it? Open the Cricket Simulator to look around a full 3D ground.

4Balls and overs

• The bowler runs in and delivers the ball overarm at the batter, usually bouncing it once on the pitch first.
• Six legal deliveries make an over. After each over, a different bowler bowls from the other end.
• No bowler can bowl two overs in a row, and in limited-overs games each bowler has a maximum quota (for example, 4 overs each in a T20).
• Games are often described by how many overs each team gets — that's what "T20" or "50-over" means.

5What is an innings?

An innings is one team's turn to bat. It ends when either:

• 10 batters are out ("all out" — the last batter has no partner left), or
• the team has used all its overs (in limited-overs cricket), or
• the captain declares — chooses to stop batting early (Test cricket only).

Before the game the captains toss a coin; the winner chooses whether to bat or bowl first. The team batting first sets a total. The second team then chases it — they need one more run than the target to win.

In limited-overs games each team has one innings. In Test cricket each team has two.

6How runs are scored

• Running: after hitting the ball, both batters run to the opposite end. Each completed swap is one run. They can run 1, 2, 3 or more.
• Four: the ball reaches the boundary after touching the ground — 4 runs, no running needed.
• Six: the ball clears the boundary without bouncing — 6 runs.
• Extras: runs given away by the fielding side, such as a wide (too far from the batter to hit) or a no-ball (an illegal delivery, often overstepping the line). These add a run and the ball must be bowled again.

7Getting out

A batter who is out (a wicket falls) leaves and the next batter comes in. The most common ways:

• Bowled — the ball hits the stumps and knocks a bail off.
• Caught — a fielder catches the ball off the bat before it bounces.
• LBW (leg before wicket) — the ball would have hit the stumps but hit the batter's leg/pad instead.
• Run out — fielders break the wicket while a batter is still running between the ends.
• Stumped — the keeper breaks the wicket while the batter has stepped out of their ground.

A score like "145 for 6" (or 145/6) means 145 runs scored with 6 wickets lost.

8The formats

Grassroots and junior cricket also use shorter modified formats with softer balls and smaller fields so everyone gets a bat and a bowl.

9How is the winner decided?

• Won by runs — the team batting first defends its total. E.g. 180 vs 165: "won by 15 runs".
• Won by wickets — the chasing team passes the target before losing all its wickets. E.g. reaching the target with 3 batters out: "won by 7 wickets".
• Tie — both teams finish on exactly the same score. In T20s a Super Over (one over each) is often used to break the tie.
• Draw — Test matches only. If time runs out before one side can bowl the other out twice and pass their total, the match is drawn — no winner.
• No result — the game is abandoned (usually rain) before enough play has happened.
• Rain-shortened games — in limited-overs cricket, the DLS method (Duckworth–Lewis–Stern) recalculates a fair target when overs are lost.

10Words you'll hear

• Duck — out for zero. Golden duck — out first ball.
• Century / fifty — 100 / 50 runs by one batter.
• Maiden — an over with no runs scored off the bat.
• Hat-trick — a bowler taking wickets with three balls in a row.
• Run rate — average runs per over. Required rate — what the chasing team needs.
• Partnership — runs added by the two batters currently together.
• Powerplay — opening overs in limited-overs games with fielding restrictions, so batters attack.

Ready for more? Pick a topic on the left — Fielding and Laws & field are good next stops.