Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven, each taking turns to bat and bowl across one or more innings. The team that scores more runs, within the limits of the format being played, wins the match.
Objective
The batting side tries to score as many runs as possible while protecting its wicket, while the fielding side tries to dismiss batters and restrict scoring. Depending on the format, a team wins by scoring more runs than the opposition across the innings allowed, whether that is a fixed number of overs or, in Test cricket, up to five days.
Rules and regulations
- The International Cricket Council, based in Dubai, is the sport’s global governing body and sets the playing conditions for international cricket, while the Board of Control for Cricket in India governs the game domestically, including the Indian Premier League.
- The main formats are Test cricket, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals, each with its own overs limits and playing conditions.
- Batters can be dismissed in several ways, including bowled, caught, leg before wicket, run out and stumped.
- From 2025, the ICC extended the stop clock, which requires the fielding side to start each over within a set time or concede penalty runs, to Test cricket, having already used it in white-ball formats, and also restored teams’ right to apply saliva to the ball, a practice that had been banned since 2020.
Equipment and playing area
- Matches are played on an oval field with a rectangular pitch at its centre, measuring 22 yards between two sets of three stumps topped with bails.
- Bowlers deliver a hard leather ball weighing around 156 to 163 grams, and batters use a flat wooden bat along with protective pads, gloves and a helmet.
Scoring
- Runs are scored by batters running between the wickets, or automatically when the ball reaches the boundary, four runs if it crosses the rope along the ground and six if it clears the boundary without bouncing.
- Innings totals decide the result: a win, a loss, a tie, or in Tests, a draw if no result is reached in time.
- In league tournaments such as the World Cup or the World Test Championship, teams accumulate points from wins, and sometimes bonus points, to determine their position in the standings.
