An Introduction To The Game Of Cricket

If you have been countries to outside of North America you may have noticed a major sport in places such as England and Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the Caribbean that is known as "Cricket". Cricket is extremely popular in many countries of the world and is considered to be one of the most popular spectator's sports in the regions it is played in.

Cricket is a sport that utilizes a bat and ball, in some ways similar to baseball. Although at first glance the two games may seem similar, there are stark differences between the two sports. To someone unfamiliar with cricket, the game may seem confusing at first.

The game shares many facets with baseball, and indeed cricket can be very similar at times. Like a baseball game, a cricket match is divided into segments called "innings". Also like baseball, during a cricket inning one team bats while the other "bowls" and "fields".

The side batting first gets to set the target, which the second team has to match. The team that is bowling or fielding first tries to control the points or 'runs' being scored by the batting side. The team batting has one or two batsmen on the field. Making a batsman out is called 'taking a wicket'. A team completes it batting innings and is declared out when 10 of its batsman are declared out.

At the end of the game the winner is declared by counting the runs. If the losing team bats last, the team is said to have "lost by (the number of runs) that is the difference in their scores", while if the winning team is the team that bats last, they are said to have "won by (the amount of) runs". A cricket match can also result in a "tie" or "draw".

There are very obvious differences between a baseball bat and a cricket bat. While a baseball bat is round and essentially tube shaped, a cricket bat is shaped more like a paddle. The cricket bat is made up of a long handle and a flat surface, reminiscent of a boat paddle. Batting is done in a style similar to batting in baseball, but not quite the same. The same can be said for pitching and fielding.

When the ball is hit by the batsmen in cricket it is called a stroke (or shot). Sometimes the batsmen will hit the ball with the side of the bat (as opposed to hitting it with the flat surface, it is hit with the edge). This is referred to as a "snick". Batters bat in a batting order which may be changed up to any point in the game if necessary to obtain a strategic advantage over the opposing team.

Cricket has become a recreationally compelling game both for the players and the spectators because of this subtle difference in strategy. These subtle differences do make a different experience in both playing and watching the game.

If you have an opportunity, you should look into cricket if you are visiting one of the countries in which it is popular. Cricket is great fun once you get over the steep learning curve required to pick up the jargon and nomenclature for the sport that is enthusiastically used to communicate the details of the game that so many people love and enjoy.

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About the author: Jeremy Rearden is the chief writer at Focus on Cricket, the web's premier location when you're after accurate up to date advice and ideas about Cricket. For questions or comments about any of our articles visit: www.focuscricket.com/articles You can swap links with us by going to: www.focuscricket.com/links
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