So, why did I write a ‘cricket explainer?’ I’m no expert. I’m barely a beginner. I literally started watching cricket this week. But, I stumbled on a Major League Cricket game and a couple friends knew about the game and gave me the introduction I never had before. The game was fun to watch and learning about a new game was exciting. So, I emailed my family what I learned. I spent a few hours on that and thought that I hadn’t posted here in a long time (over 9 years), so why not publish it? Maybe I’ll get back to blogging a bit again. Who knows.
Also, after visiting a few explainer sites, I didn’t think they were all that great. Or at least not great for me. They typically start with the rules and try to work out from there. In my case, I was just watching a game and my friends gave me enough background to start to follow the action. So, that’s basically how I wrote my explainer. How would someone who’s familiar with baseball learn about cricket? My family, particularly one of my brothers, know baseball, so I used that framework to explain the similarities. Then, you can branch out into what’s different.
Cricket really is a lot like baseball, but the jargon is so different that it can be weird to pick up on the fly. A guy throws the ball. A guy hits the ball. Another bunch of guys try to either catch it in the air or tag the runner out before they’re safe. That’s kind of it.
Now, how they’re different. They don’t alternate sides very often – typically just once. So, it’s like the Twins pitching until the Cubs get 27 outs. Then, the Twins bat until either they score more than the Cubs or get their own 27 outs. Whoever’s got more runs, wins.
One basic thing to understand are ‘overs.’ An over is key unit of measuring the length of the match and consists of six pitches (or bowls) to the batter. Then, you switch pitchers (or bowlers). One person can’t bowl two overs in a row, but can bowl multiple times a match – Pitcher A, Pitcher B, Pitcher A again, Pitcher C, etc. The newest and shortest match format is called Twenty20 or T20 and has 20 overs or 120 pitches for each side. T20 games take about 3 hr so is a common format. (There’s also T10 matches.) One Day Internationals (ODIs) have 90 overs each and takes about 8 hr, or one day (duh). The famous 5-day events or Test Matches are not tracked by overs but by innings. (Here’s a weird quirk, innings always ends in an ‘S’ even when talking about a singular innings.) Each side gets two innings (total of four). More below.
Runs are pretty simple. A hit it in the air past the boundary is six runs – a homer. A hit that touches the ground but reaches the boundary is four runs – a ground-rule double, maybe? What’s the boundary? Cricket fields are like baseball in that there’s no fixed definition on size. Typically, they’re ovals, but can be other shapes. I guess in the old days, you just found an open area and laid out the boundary wherever you could. The official minimum width is 420 ft and length is 426 ft. Current stadiums are about 450’x500’ and up. Baseball can be played on a cricket field, but not vice versa.
For any other hit, the batter runs from one side of the pitch to the other for one run – a single. It’s not mandatory to run after every hit. Like, if a runner’s on second and the batter hits the ball, you can run to third or not depending on where the ball goes. You also can get multiple runs on a hit if the fielders don’t get the ball back in time – a double, triple, or infield home run.
The last thing I’ll mention are outs or dismissals. Each team has 10 outs per innings. This is how Test Matches determine when to switch sides. T20 games usually reach their 20 overs before 10 outs, but it does happen. Test Matches, however, are not limited in overs, so the outs are more important. Here are the three common ways to get out:
Caught. The easiest to explain. The ball is caught while in the air, just like baseball.
Bowled. The most common method, though, is getting bowled out or just ‘getting a wicket.’ Behind the batter, you’ll see three vertical sticks. These are called stumps. Resting on top of the stumps are two small horizontal bars called bails. All together this is called the wicket and looks like a tall, skinny letter ‘m’. The bails are like tiny versions of the cross bar in high jumping or pole vaulting and can easily be knocked off the stump. The batter is out if the bowler can get the ball past the batter and hit the wicket, which knocks a bail off the stump.
Run out. At the beginning, I mentioned tagging the runner. But in cricket you don’t actually tag the runner, you hit the wicket before the runner (or the bat) gets back to the crease. The crease is the area behind the white line just in front of the wicket. The two creases are 58’ apart, so about 2/3 the distance to first base. Effectively, being in the crease is having your foot on the bag. Technically, you just have to any part of your body or bat across the popping line, which is front edge of the crease. Like, you’re still safe if over run the first base bag as long as you get to the bag before the ball.
That’s already too much. Just remember – Throw the ball. Hit the ball. Catch the ball. Run if you can. Everything else are just quirks and weird names the British gave everything. (Or, the British would say we gave weird names to cricket terms.)
Ash Lad Blog 