h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK I'm from the US and know squat about Cricket until just then. Now I know squat plus one outstanding page that reviewed a lot for me.
Unfortunately there is not a short page written for the TOTALLY UNKNOWING about cricket. There should be one in the edited guide.

I mean:
Who do I keep score?

What are the positions?

What are the OTHER rules for an out?

What are common tactics for a bowler/batter?

You see?

I mean basic. I know loads about sports, but cricket takes so long and is totally indecipherable without good help.
Anywa, your page helped. Thanks and well done!

Friar

Hey Cricket is simply posh baseball. Albeit with more complex bowling.

Other ways of being out...

1. Caught out. Same is in baseball, if a fielder catches the ball before it bounces (after being hit by the bat or gloves) then the batsmen is out.
2. Run out - explained in the above entry.
3. Stumped - if the batsman is outside the popping crease (again explained in the above entry) after the bowl is delivered then the wicket keeper (similar to the backstop) can knock the bails of the wicket with the ball in hand.
4. Hit wicket. The batsman knocks a bail off by hitting them off accidently with his body, clothing or bat.
5. Handled ball and hit twice. mentioned in the above entry.
6. Two minute rule. If a batsmen is not at the crease within two minutes of the previous batsman being out then he is out.
7. LBW - above.
8. Ball hits and obstruction. If the batsman leaves an obstruction on the pitch (such as he takes his helmet off and leaves it on the ground because he's hot and the bowler doesn't scare him) and after he hits the ball it hits this obstruction then he is out.
9. Bowled. Batsman can't defend his wicket. The bowler simply delvers the ball and it hits the wicket knocking off the bails. This is the preferred method for most bowlers

er... I think that's it. Certainly the important ones are there.

There are two innings in a match for each team (in Test Match Cricket anyhow). The team that scores the most runs whilst bowling the other team out twice wins (sometimes a team 'Declares' their innings. This is usually when the other team can't bowl them out and they amass a huge score).

To score the batsman hit the ball and run between the wickets. One batsman at each end. They exchane places successfully once without being run out and they have scored one run. Naturally the further they hit the ball the more runs they can amass. To prevent huge hits meaning the fielders spend forever looking for the ball there is a 'Boundary' If the ball crosses this then they automatically score 4 runs. If it crosses the boundary before it bounces then they score six (hence the phrase Being Hit for a Six - not nice for the bowler).
No balls and wide balls are counted as extras for the batting team as well as balls that are not hit but still allow the batsmen to run (byes).

Fielding positions are complex and a diagram is really needed. The easiest to explain is the bowler who delivers the ball to the batsman - obvious. The next is the wicket keeper who stands behind the batsman and the wicket to catch the batsman out if he edges it (ball flies through after just clipping the edge of the bat) and to rescue any deliveries that the batsman misses. There are fielders called Slips just next to the wicket keeper who also stand on the lookout for edges. THese are on the 'Off' side, ie. the side of the batsman where he wields the bat. Further out from the slip, essentially facing the batsman as he stands sideways is the 'Gulley'
If you face the bowler and look in a northeast direction (assuming the Bowler is North) then you have the 'Covers'.
General fielders can be 'long' which means they are standing a long way away from the batsman (generally on the boundary - to save fours and do long catches). So 'Long on' will be an onside (legside) fielder on the boundary. 'Silly' filders are those who stand ludicrously close to the batsman. Presumably they are silly because they have no regard for their own safety. Certainly a good clobber by the batsman would take their head off if they didn't take swift evasive action. Usually such fielders wear helmets for safety from death.
There's loads more but a diagram would be needed and it all swaps around for a left handed batsman. That's why leg and off stump are referred to as opposed to left and right.

The bowling consists of 'overs' consisting of six (legal) deliveries. At the end of each over another is bowled from the other end of the wicket by a different bowler and the entire field changes accordingly (wicket keeper and slips change ends etc.)

Boring as cricket may seem to the uninitiated, believe it or not, there is actually an 'Over Rate' that the bowling team must at least achieve unless they are prepared to be fined. This is to prevent slow play and ensure that at least 90 overs (I think) are bowled each day of a test match.

One day cricket is slightly different but I can't be arsed to go into that.

Hope that helped anyhow.

Orcus

Brilliant Orcus!

Then they really *do* run back and forth between the wickets.

Well mostly

Sometimes if injured or incurably fat and lazy the batsman can have a runner. In which case, they do the hitting and the runner does all the hard work of actually running between the wickets.
Again it might not *look* like hard work but a Batsman scoring a century (likely to take most of a day) is going to have to run a long way and if there's a chance of a run out, then that running must be very quick!

Thanks And I didn't even go into the tactics as asked.

Actually rereading my post above I think I might be wrong about the obstruction rule. I only know about that one because I saw it happen once.

I now suspect it might be the fielding side who get penalised I think it may be 4 byes automatically if the ball hits an obstruction on the field.

Orcus, it simply depends who put the obstruction there. If it was the batsmen, they can be out Obstructing the Field (The law states you should not hinder the field by word or action), if it was the fieldsmen they are penalised by runs being given to the batsman. He gets five if they tried to make a catch in a helmet, which goes back to the days when cricketers wore top-hats (otherwise ideal for making catches).

5 runs, actually, which is why the helmet (of a fielder) normally gets put directly behind the wicket-keeper so it's less likely to be hit. Batsmens helmets are taken off the ground by the 12th man (an extra player who is basically a substitute fielder and general odd-jobs person ).

As for getting out, obstruction normally refers to one of the batsmen deliberately obstructing the fielder fielding the ball. Normally (and it only happens very rarely) this is when the batsman has blocked the ball down very close-by and the bowler has to do the fielding - like a bunt in baseball. The batsmen can run in between the fielder and the stumps (to try to block the stumps from a throw) but they can't stop the fielder getting to the ball or actively try to block a throw by waving their bat in the way, kicking at the ball, jumping up and down in front of the fielder as though playing piggy-in-the-middle, etc. In other words, so long as he's just running to make his ground he'll be okay.

Unless, of course, the ball gets there first.

In which case he'd have to try awfully hard to be out for obstruction

I'm still confused by the five run rule (and this after a months long discussion a year or more back). Why is the fielder's helmet left behind the wicket keeper while the batsman's helmet is taken off by the 12th man? And more basically why would the batsman take his off?

As an aside, I do recall someone saying that the umpire will hold some objects, but maybe only the bowler's sweater?

We had an exhibition here in Houston, Texas, USA of "double Wicket Cricket" a month or so back. Two man teams from big time cricket countries, with fielders from local clubs. I don't recall seeing any fielders with helmets or any headgear, nor any batsmen without helmets.

Probably I'm confused by baseball, where batters wear hard protective helmets to avoid being killed by 100 mph fastballs, but fielders wear only soft caps to shade the sun from their eyes.

A batsman doesn't need a helmet to play against a slow bowler, who aims to get him out by deception rather than speed. This can work, as is demonstrated regularly by Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitheran (I hope I got the spelling right there). But close fielders will wear helmets against a fast bowler for their own safety, at least in first-class cricket. Bowlers elsewhere usually aren't quite that fast.

Also slow bowlers (spin bowlers usually) don't tend to aim at the Batsman's head.

Fast bowlers will most certainly do so. A bouncer (as such deliveries are called) may only be bowled once an over though. They are bowled purely to intimidate the batsman although occasionally they do get caught out by trying to pull or hook it and hit the ball in the air.

Incidently, a bouncer (ball pitches halfway down the pitch, and then rises toward the batsman's head) is perfectly legal *if* the batsman can deal with it. A beamer (ball goes direct for the batsman's head) is illegal. But you'd definitely need a helmet.

And to think. . .I had lost hope for a response, and then! I get this wonderful reply.
Well, thanks Orcus, et al, my sports knowledge continues to grow (to the dismay of my wife I am sure).

Friar

All in a good cause then

Can the batsman choose to hit the ball, even though it's not even slightly a threat to the wicket?

Can a bowler throw a ball in such a way that it skitters with low bounces along the ground, or does it need to be a direct toss at the wicket, or a bouncer?

The batsman can hit the ball (first time) wherever it is and as hard as he likes -- it's the bowler's fault that he's not at risk.

In theory, the bowler can let the ball bounce twice. In practice he'd be mad to, because it would be very very easy to hit, slowing the ball down and giving the batsman plenty of time. (N.B. He cant *throw* the ball. That would mean he'd bent his elbow, and that's a no ball.)

The bowlers often (very often) do *not* bowl at the wicket itself as in practice with expert batsmen it is very rare for them to be clean bowled. Instead they often try to swing the ball (achieved by polishising the ball on one side which is why you see them rubbing the ball suspiciously close to their nether regions) and tempt the batsmen into a poor shot or an edge that can be caught out.

Many are the tactics of the bowler. Also, mostly you will find that the deliveries which the batsmen spank for four are those which are short or otherwise poorly delivered. A good, well pitched on line delivery is often best dealt with by a defensive stroke achieving no runs but with that batsman still not out.

In terms of a 'grass cutter' as rolling the ball on the ground is concerned there was a famous incident in a 1-day match between New Zealand and Australia (I think) many years ago when I believe the opposing team needed 6 runs to win from the final bowl of the day. The New Zealan bowler thus proceeded to underarm deliver it along the ground thereby rendering hitting a six impossible.
This caused a huge furore and I believe it ended up as a diplomatic incident where the New Zealand Prime Minister had to apologise. Definitely *not* Cricket!

Oooo, the Kiwis won't be happy with you Orcus! It was the other way around actually, us horrible Aussies bowled the famous underarm rolling-along-the-pitch delivery

Oh, and a throw is defined as a *straightening* of the arm, not a bending... you can have your elbow bent when you deliver the ball, but you cannot straighten it.

Oops, to the Kiwis. For some reason I thought it was Richard Hadlee who did the dastardly deed

I might have known it would have been the Aussies!


Our Ashes squad has just been anounced. Let's get ready for anouther trouncing this winter