God of cricket

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.[69] Innings is the term used for each phase of play in the match.[69] 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 batters.

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. 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 batter has any type of illness or injury restricting his or her ability to run, in this case the batter is allowed a runner who can run between the wickets when the batter hits a scoring run or runs, though this does not apply in international cricket.

The order of batters is usually announced just before the match, but it can be varied.[64]

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 batters in their final innings in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn.

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 batters have been dismissed) have won the match ”by four wickets ”.

In a two-innings-a-side match, one teams combined first and second innings total may be less than the other sides 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.

If the match has only a single innings per side, then usually 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.

In all forms of cricket, the umpires can abandon the match if bad light or rain makes it impossible to continue. 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.