Cricket explained: Basics of the game after USA’s win over Pakistan

Photo by Matt Roberts-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

Everything you need to know to enjoy cricket.

In the wake of USA’s stunning win over Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup on Thursday there’s an unprecedented level of interest in the sport stateside — but with that comes the reality that almost nobody in the United States understands anything about cricket.

The overwhelming sentiment in the comments of my write up on USA’s win is that people really had no idea about the terminology, or context of cricket terms, which took away from the ability to enjoy the win. I’ve been writing about cricket here at SB Nation for the better part of a decade, with the understanding that those reading about the sport are almost exclusively expats from cricket-playing nations, or those from immigrant families who grew up on the game.

So let’s fix that for the vast majority of people who know nothing about cricket. For now we’re going to focus exclusively on the rules of the T20 format in which the World Cup is being played.

What are the basic rules of cricket?

A game is comprised of two teams of 11 players, each with specialized roles. Typically a team will have four dedicated batsmen (the primary hitters and scorers), four dedicated bowlers (the equivalent of baseball pitchers), two all-rounders (players who can both bat and bowl), and one wicket keeper (positioned behind the stumps like a baseball catcher).

Each team gets one inning to score as many runs as possible. Two batsmen will take the field at each end of the pitch (the rectangle of dead grass in the middle of the field) and continue to try to score runs until they are out, or the innings ends.

Runs are scored in several ways:

Hitting the ball into the field of play and running down the pitch, swapping places with the other batter. This is worth one run per time the players switch — and they can elect to risk trying for as many runs as they want.
Hitting the ball with enough force that it rolls into the boundary surrounding the field. Known as a “four,” this is worth four runs.
Hitting the ball with enough force that it clears the boundary in the air. Known as a “six,” this is worth six runs
One run is also awarded if a bowler delivers the ball outside the field of play (called a wide) or they step past the line where they have to release the ball (called a no ball). In each case the batting team is awarded one run free, and the ball must be bowled again.

The innings in the T20 World Cup consists of 20 “overs.” A over is a series of six balls, delivered by the bowler in back-to-back succession. At the end of the over a new bowler must take their place.

So, in the case of the World Cup it’s best to think of the game as two teams trying to score as many runs as they can off 120 balls. However, if 10 players are out and only one batter is left before the 120 balls are bowled, the side is considered “all out” and must then try to prevent their opponents from scoring more runs than they did.

How do you get out?

At the core of the game the sport is about batsmen scoring runs, while protecting their “wickets,” which are the three vertical sticks behind the batsmen, with two small sticks resting on top (called bails). The most common ways a player gets out are:

The bowler hitting the wickets with a bowl (pitch).
A player hitting the ball in the air and it being caught by a fielder.
A fielder hitting the wickets with a fielded ball while the two batsmen are running (run out)
If the ball that would have hit the wicket hits a batsmen’s leg, and the batsmen makes no contact with his bat. This is the most complicated to explain, but it’s called “leg before wicket” (LBW) and essentially means a player is out for blocking the wickets with their leg, rather than their bat.

What is bowling?

Similar to pitching in baseball, cricket bowlers have a wide array of different bowls they can utilize to throw off batters. The only rule is that the ball must be delivered in an overarm motion, and must be released from a fully outstretched arm.

Throwing the ball is not allowed.

There are dozens of different types of bowls, but there are two broad categories: Pace, and spin. Pace bowlers aim to bowl the ball as fast as possible to make it difficult to hit, while spin bowlers do so more slowly — but with the aim of fooling batters as the ball spins in a variety of directions after bouncing on the pitch.

Pace bowlers will normally begin a match, and as the match goes on the leather of the cricket ball gets rougher and more scuffed. Then spin bowlers will come in and use the friction of the worn ball to get more movement on their bowls.

In the T20 format of the World Cup each bowler is only allowed four overs (24 bowls) before they are not allowed to bowl anymore. This means that at minimum each teams needs to use five different bowlers to complete their innings, ensuring no team can just lean on one or two aces for their entire innings.

What is considered a good score?

Because the World Cup uses the fast-paces T20 format it means players need to try and score as many runs as possible in a very limited window. This routinely means that batsmen are taking significantly larger risks than they would in any other cricket format.

Think of it like they’re literally trying to swing for the fences every chance they get. This has to be balanced against the risk of getting out, which is where a lot of the strategy in batting comes in.

Statistically speaking the average inning in T20 cricket is 166 runs. A single player scoring between 15 and 25 runs is average, over 30 is a good innings, and the best players in the world routinely average over 40 runs a game.

How do I read cricket scores?

Looking at scores on TV in cricket feels like another language, so let’s break down what that looks like with a screen grab from the game on Thursday.

The score shows USA 155-3. This means at this moment USA had scored 155 runs, and had three batters out.

19.5 overs refers to the current over (19) and the number of bowls completed (5). So, at this moment we were on the 6th ball over the over (the final ball).

The “need” section will always be shown. “5 from 1” means in this case USA needed five runs to win off one ball. We know what happened, USA hit a four — trying the game and sending it into the “super over” which is overtime. Essentially trying to score as many runs as possible in one single over.

Other terms you’ll see are Run Rate (RR), which is how many runs per over a team is scoring and Required Run Rate (RRR), meaning the number of runs they have to get in order to win the game.

Those are the basics you need

Like any sport, cricket is extremely complicated with a lot of depth — but at the very least you understand the basics of World Cup Cricket now ahead of next Wednesday, when the USA faces India in what will likely be the biggest cricket match this country has ever seen.

There’s never been a better time to appreciate cricket. Major League Cricket is debuting its second season in July here in the United States, and it’s a global game, meaning matches are played over the summer around the world. So when it’s winter in the U.S. matches are still happening down in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Sports are fun. The USA team is incredibly fun — and it’s worth giving this sport a chance.