<!--quoteo(post=99884:date=Jun 4 2010, 07:59 PM:name=bz)-->QUOTE (bz @ Jun 4 2010, 07:59 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I don't understand cricket. I've read up on it, watched games and I still don't understand it. How do you score points? What the hell are the wickets for?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'll try and explain as simply as I can (I cannot guarantee in any form that it will make any sense, or will be in any way conclusive).
I'll talk about the traditional form of the game, Test Matches, which have a time limit of 5 days (each day is split into three sessions of 2 hours).
Each team has two innings (kind of similar to a baseball inning I guess, but the opposing team has to get 10 outs, 'wickets', to finish the inning). There are always 2 batsmen out 'in the middle' at once, hence why you need to only take 10 wickets and not 11, the last guy not to get out will be stranded all be his lonesome.
You score runs by hitting the ball, and then the two batsmen running (i.e. swapping ends). Each time they swap ends they get a run for the team, and you can run up and down as many times as you want/can before the fielding team throw the ball in from wherever you hit it. If you hit it 'out' of the ground (over the boundry rope) with it bouncing before it gets there, you get 4 runs, if you do it without it bouncing (like a home run) you get 6 runs.
Wickets can be got by 'bowling' a batsmen (hitting the three stumps behind him with the ball you bowled), the batsmen being caught after hitting it, running one of the batsmen out when they're trying to take a run, or something called L.B.W, which stands for Leg Before Wicket. Basically this is if the ball hits the pads on the batsman's legs without him hitting the ball with his bat, and the ball was going to go on to hit the stumps (in the umpire's mind, celearly they can get this call wrong pretty often).
Bowlers take it in turns to bowl 6-balls at a time (one after the other obviously, not all at the same time!) at the batsmen from one end of the pitch. At the end of each over, the fielding team then bowls from the other end for the next over, and it carries on switching like this. So what you tend to get is one bowler bowling from one end and another from the other (the same bowler can't bowl consecutive overs).
So one team bats until they lose 10 wickets, scoring as many runs as they can, then the other team bats until they lose their 10 wickets. This then happens again, and it's the aggregate total of the scores that wins (unless you run out of time, so you can draw).
There are two other forms of the game played internationally, both which take place over the course of 1 day. There is the 50-over game, where each team bats 1 inning of 50 overs, scoring as many runs as they can (their inning will end prematurely if they lose their 10 wickets). The team batting second has to beat the other team's score in their 50 overs to win. There is also 20-20 cricket (a recent thing), which is just like the 50-over game, but each team only gets 20-overs to bat, so you basically just have batsmen going out trying to batter the ball as far as they can, making the game more 'exciting' (I don't think I really agree with that, but that's another story).
So yeh....that most likely made no sense whatsoever, but I gave it my best shot! Clearly there's a whole load of minor-rules and whatnot, and shit-loads of subtleties, but I assure you it's an amazing game once you figure out just what the bloody hell is going on. In the 5-day format, I don't think there's anything quite like a game going down to the final wicket in the final session of the final day, after 5 days worth of slogging it out, you really don't want to lose!
If you can watch highlights of Australia's 2005 Ashes (that's what the 5-day series between England and Australia is called) series in England, you'll see some of the closest and most exciting games in cricket history.
