Rules of Cricket!!

• Date | March 4, 2021

In cricket, the rules of the game are specified in a code called The Laws of Cricket (hereinafter called “the Laws”) which has a global remit. There are 42 Laws (always written with a capital “L”). The earliest known version of the code was drafted in 1744 and, since 1788, it has been owned and maintained by its custodian, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London.

Playing area

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played on a cricket field (see image, right) between two teams of eleven players each.^[61] The field is usually circular or oval in shape and the edge of the playing area is marked by a boundary, which may be a fence, part of the stands, a rope, a painted line or a combination of these; the boundary must if possible be marked along its entire length.^[62]

In the approximate centre of the field is a rectangular pitch (see image, below) on which a wooden target called a wicket is sited at each end; the wickets are placed 22 yards (20 m) apart.^[63] The pitch is a flat surface 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, with very short grass that tends to be worn away as the game progresses (cricket can also be played on artificial surfaces, notably matting). Each wicket is made of three wooden stumps topped by two bails.^[64]

As illustrated above, the pitch is marked at each end with four white painted lines: a bowling crease, a popping crease and two return creases. The three stumps are aligned centrally on the bowling crease, which is eight feet eight inches long. The popping crease is drawn four feet in front of the bowling crease and parallel to it; although it is drawn as a twelve-foot line (six feet either side of the wicket), it is, in fact, unlimited in length. The return creases are drawn at right angles to the popping crease so that they intersect the ends of the bowling crease; each return crease is drawn as an eight-foot line, so that it extends four feet behind the bowling crease, but is also, in fact, unlimited in length.^[65]

Match structure and closure

Before a match begins, the team captains (who are also players) toss a coin to decide which team will bat first and so take the first innings.^[66] Innings is the term used for each phase of play in the match.^[66] In each innings, one team bats, attempting to score runs, while the other team bowls and fields the ball, attempting to restrict the scoring and dismiss the batsmen.^[67][68] When the first innings ends, the teams change roles; there can be two to four innings depending upon the type of match. A match with four scheduled innings is played over three to five days; a match with two scheduled innings is usually completed in a single day.^[66] During an innings, all eleven members of the fielding team take the field, but usually only two members of the batting team are on the field at any given time. The exception to this is if a batsman has any type of illness or injury restricting his or her ability to run, in this case the batsman is allowed a runner who can run between the wickets when the batsman hits a scoring run or runs,^[69] though this does not apply in international cricket.^[70] The order of batsmen is usually announced just before the match, but it can be varied.^[61]

The main objective of each team is to score more runs than their opponents but, in some forms of cricket, it is also necessary to dismiss all of the opposition batsmen in their final innings in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn.^[71] If the team batting last is all out having scored fewer runs than their opponents, they are said to have “lost by n runs” (where n is the difference between the aggregate number of runs scored by the teams). If the team that bats last scores enough runs to win, it is said to have “won by n wickets”, where n is the number of wickets left to fall. For example, a team that passes its opponents’ total having lost six wickets (i.e., six of their batsmen have been dismissed) have won the match “by four wickets”.^[71]

In a two-innings-a-side match, one team’s combined first and second innings total may be less than the other side’s first innings total. The team with the greater score is then said to have “won by an innings and n runs”, and does not need to bat again: n is the difference between the two teams’ aggregate scores. If the team batting last is all out, and both sides have scored the same number of runs, then the match is a tie; this result is quite rare in matches of two innings a side with only 62 happening in first-class matches from the earliest known instance in 1741 until January 2017. In the traditional form of the game, if the time allotted for the match expires before either side can win, then the game is declared a draw.^[71]

If the match has only a single innings per side, then a maximum number of overs applies to each innings. Such a match is called a “limited overs” or “one-day” match, and the side scoring more runs wins regardless of the number of wickets lost, so that a draw cannot occur. In some cases, ties are broken by having each team bat for a one-over innings known as a Super Over; subsequent Super Overs may be played if the first Super Over ends in a tie. If this kind of match is temporarily interrupted by bad weather, then a complex mathematical formula, known as the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method after its developers, is often used to recalculate a new target score. A one-day match can also be declared a “no-result” if fewer than a previously agreed number of overs have been bowled by either team, in circumstances that make normal resumption of play impossible; for example, wet weather.^[71]

In all forms of cricket, the umpires can abandon the match if bad light or rain makes it impossible to continue.^[72] There have been instances of entire matches, even Test matches scheduled to be played over five days, being lost to bad weather without a ball being bowled: for example, the third Test of the 1970/71 series in Australia.^[73]

Innings

The innings (ending with ‘s’ in both singular and plural form) is the term used for each phase of play during a match. Depending on the type of match being played, each team has either one or two innings. Sometimes all eleven members of the batting side take a turn to bat but, for various reasons, an innings can end before they have all done so. The innings terminates if the batting team is “all out”, a term defined by the Laws: “at the fall of a wicket or the retirement of a batsman, further balls remain to be bowled but no further batsman is available to come in”.^[66] In this situation, one of the batsmen has not been dismissed and is termed not out; this is because he has no partners left and there must always be two active batsmen while the innings is in progress.

An innings may end early while there are still two not out batsmen:^[66]

• the batting team’s captain may declare the innings closed even though some of his players have not had a turn to bat: this is a tactical decision by the captain, usually because he believes his team have scored sufficient runs and need time to dismiss the opposition in their innings
• the set number of overs (i.e., in a limited overs match) have been bowled
• the match has ended prematurely due to bad weather or running out of time
• in the final innings of the match, the batting side has reached its target and won the game.

Overs

The Laws state that, throughout an innings, “the ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of 6 balls”.^[74] The name “over” came about because the umpire calls “Over!” when six balls have been bowled. At this point, another bowler is deployed at the other end, and the fielding side changes ends while the batsmen do not. A bowler cannot bowl two successive overs, although a bowler can (and usually does) bowl alternate overs, from the same end, for several overs which are termed a “spell”. The batsmen do not change ends at the end of the over, and so the one who was non-striker is now the striker and vice versa. The umpires also change positions so that the one who was at “square leg” now stands behind the wicket at the non-striker’s end and vice versa.^[74]