When you think of the most popular sport in this country, you should definitely consider cricket on the list. Cricket has been people's favorite game for more than a few decades. Everyone must be familiar with big names in cricket, including Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, or Mithlali Raj, who have made this game so popular.

The first evidence of cricket being played was recorded in 1550 by the pupils of Royal Grammar School, Guildford in England. Now cricket is the second most popular sport besides football, and its popularity is increasing yearly. If you are a fan of cricket but still don't know how to play it, we are here to help you.

How to play cricket?

Cricket is a bat, and ball sport played between two teams. Primarily people may doubt how many players are in cricket. The game is played by two teams of 11, with one side taking a turn to bat a ball and score runs, while the other team has to bowl and restrict them from scoring. According to ICC, there are three formats of recognized cricket: Test, One-day, and T20.

Test cricket: Test cricket is said to be the purest form of cricket, played continuously for five days in fixed hours. Each team will have two innings to bat, and the aim is to score more runs. Teams have ten wickets to play with, and their innings will generally only end when ten batsmen have been dismissed.

One-day Internationals: One-day format has 50 overs for each side, in which the team which scores the most runs will win the match. The team batting second should score more runs than the first within the available overs.

T-20 Internationals: The shortest format of cricket where each team will have 20 overs to bat. The rules are almost the same as that of one-day cricket, and this is the new-age version of cricket. 

Basic Rules of cricket

The cricket match occurs on an oval field with a rectangular pitch at the center, with three stumps on both ends. At the start of the game, a coin is tossed and the team winning the toss has the opportunity to choose to bat or bowl according to their decision.

• The game starts when the bowler bowls to the batsman, and he tries to score from the ball. 
• Each bowler bowls 6 legal deliveries to call it an over, and the bowling end changes after every over.
• The bowler can make the batsman out using several methods, including catch, bowled, LBW, and many more options
• Once a batsman is out, another batsman from the team will walk into the crease to bat
• An innings is said to be complete once the full quota of over is finished or all the batters got out
• In the next innings, the other team must go past the team's score, or they will fail.

Scoring

The batsman has to score runs in the full quota of overs to set up a score that the team can defend or chase the other team's score.

• One run is completed when the striker batsman reaches the non-striker end
• When the balls cross the boundary line, the batsman will get 4 runs
• If the ball goes over the boundary line, 6 runs will be credited
• If the baller oversteps while bowling, its called a no-ball, and the team will get 1 run
• When the ball is wide from the crease, its called wide, which also gets one run
• A "leg bye" occurs when the striker tries to hit the ball with their bat but hits it with their body instead.
• If the scores are level at the end of the match, it is called a tie.

Bottom Line

From a game played by shepherds in their free time, cricket has changed significantly in recent years. However, many people are still unaware of the rules of cricket. If you're new to the world of cricket and would like to learn more about how to play cricket, Sportstoon (the sports learning app) is here to help you.

Sportstoon App provides easy access to learning correct sports techniques and related physical exercises/activities. The same can be learned online without a personalized coach in the initial sports learning stage. You can download the Sportstoon app from the Play Store to start learning about any sport.