How to Play Cricket: Help to Beginners

How to Play Cricket: Help for Beginners- Cricket, a gentlemen’s game which is played in almost every country and is the national game of England. The passion for the game is beyond explanation. The energy this game brings to the normal public is very high and the excitement of a match is no less than a festival. The game is played between two teams and eleven players are divided into each team who play the match. The game has three professional formats namely, Test Cricket, One Day Cricket and T-20 Cricket. In this blog, we will learn how to play cricket and the rules of cricket which is the main learning part. There are not many rules in this game but in order to know how to play, you need to know the rules and the game properly.

What will you learn from this blog?

• Types of equipment you need to play cricket
• How to Play Cricket?
• The Rules of Cricket.

Types of equipment you need to play cricket

There are three types of equipment that are needed for any starter to play cricket which is, A Cricket Bat, A Cricket Ball, and Cricket Stumps. These are the main essentials for any beginner but the types of equipment increases as soon as he plays for any higher level.

Cricket Bat

A Cricket Bat is made of wood. It is used for a batsman to hit the ball in the direction he likes to. A cricket bat is made from pure wood and is of different willows where two willows namely English Willow and Kashmir Willow are the most used of all. A Cricket bat can weigh anywhere from 1.5 kg to 2.5 kg and the length can be no more than 38 inches (965 mm) and the width no more than 4.25 inches (108 mm).

It depends on the choice of the player as to what weight of bats he loves to play and the length and width that suits him the most. A grip is applied to the handle so that the bat never slips out of the hand of a batsman. Generally, the suggested weight is from 1 kg to 1.7 kg.

Cricket Ball

A Cricket Ball is equally necessary as the Cricket Bat. It is made up of leather in factories where thousands of cricket balls are made. It has a seam in between which helps in gripping the all in our fingers properly and the shine is done in order to allow the ball swing. A cricket ball is also made of rubber and the other type is a tennis ball that suits the best for any beginner to get used to bat and ball. The professionals leather ball is of two colors namely white and red. The Red Cricket ball is used in test cricket which happens without floodlights and in white dress whereas the White Cricket ball is used for One-Day Cricket and T-20 Cricket.

The bowler throws the bowl in one bounce to the batsman in order to get him out. The index finger and middle finger should hold the ball from the upside and the ring an baby finger from the below followed by the thumb which supports the other fingers. Refer to the image given below in order to get your basics cleared.

Cricket Stumps

Cricket Stump is the equipment that helps a bowler to get the wicket of a batsman. Two stumps are at each end of a Cricket Pitch. A wicket should not be more than 28-inches in length and 9-inches in width. Three wickets are kept on one end and three on the other with two bails that cover the three stumps which help the bowler to get the wicket if the ball touches the wicket and an of the bail falls off.

A Cricket Stump helps in stump-outs, hit-wickets, run-outs and bowled. In all these cases the batsman gets out and has to leave the creeze and move towards the pavilion which then forces a new batsman to come to the creeze.

Requirements of a cricket Match

Team

There are two teams in one match. Each team consists of eleven players who play the match and the rest 5 or 6 players are kept as substitutes of one another. The eleven players walk into the ground and play the match with the other eleven of the opponent. The total number of players are bundled together and known as a squad or a team.

Captain

A Captain is the one who leads his side. There is always a captain in each team who does the toss and leads the players. A captain takes up the responsibility to lead the side and takes the pressure of the match in his head. He is chosen as a captain after looking at his abilities as a match-winner and a true leader.

Umpire

An Umpire is the one who makes the decisions in the game. The Umpire decides whether or not a player is breaking the rules of the game. The decision regarding the match is taken by the Umpire and his decision is said to be the last and the final decision and the players will have to abide by. One Umpire stands at the non-striker end, behind the wickets and one stands at the square leg. The position of the Umpires is cleared in the figure below.

How to play Cricket

In order to To play cricket, you need to know how to do batting, bowling, and fielding in order to win the match for your team. the process of batting, bowling, and fielding is mentioned below.

Batting

Batting is when a batsman tries to hit the ball with a bat made of wood. A batsman is the one who scores runs for his team and takes his team to a good total. One should know which ball to hit and which to defend or take a single or double. Therefore, A professional player judges the ball accordingly and plays his shots. The stance and way to hold a bat are given in the video below:

Bowling

Bowling is when the bowler picks up the ball and bowls it to the batsman at the creeze in one bounce and tries to get the batsman out. A bowler bowls six deliveries in one over and tries to get the batsman out whereas the batsman tries to hit the ball and score runs.

Fielding

The most underrated and the most important part of a Cricket match. There are eleven fielders in a team including the bowler. Fielding is saving runs for your team, keeping behind the stumps, and running-out the opposition players. Fielding is done to save runs and save the ball from touching the boundary line. A fielding can win matches for his team and is always above a batsman and bowler.

The Rules of Cricket

These are some rules which need to be followed in order to play a fair game. All the rules of cricket need to be followed by every player. Following are the rules for Batting, Bowling, Fielding, and Umpiring:

Batsman’s rules

Rules	Explanation
Score Runs	Batsman has to score runs which is to hit the ball properly in search of runs.
Hit-Wicket	The batsman should keep in mind that neither of his body parts along with the bat touches the wicket and the bails come off when the bowler releases the ball.
Run Out	The batsman should keep in mind to reach the creeze on either of the two sides of the pitch before the ball hits the stumps thrown by the fielder.
Obstruction the field	When a batsman tries to move the ball away from him with the use of his bat or his hand while taking a run, he is given out for obstructing the field.
Inside the creeze	A batsman and the non-striker should stay inside the popping creeze so that they do not throw away their wicket.
LBW-Leg Before Wicket	When the ball hits batsman’s pad and his pads are covering the stumps, he is given out by the Umpire.
Caught behind	When the ball touches the edge of the bat and the keeper catches the ball, the batsman is given out by the umpire.
Mankading	At the time of delivery, if the non-striker is out of his creeze, the bowler can throw the wickets with the ball and the batsman is given out.

The Rules for a Bowler

• A bowler must bowl from inside the line marked which when crossed will be termed as a no-ball and so the batsman gets a free hit which means that in the next ball if he gets out(apart from running out and stumping), he will not be given out as it will be a free hit for the batsman.
• He must bowl inside the line marked at the batsman’s end as it will be termed as a wide ball if the ball is outside the line marked and the ball will not be counted and the batsman gets a free one run.
• A bowler must specify the Umpire whether he is bowling from around(right side) the wicket or over(left side) the wicket.

Fielding rules

• A fielder should try and save as many runs as he can for his team.
• He should throw the ball only if someone is covering the ball from behind the stumps to save from giving extra runs known as overthrow.
• A fielder should not touch the boundary line while fielding or taking a catch.
• A fielder should be true to everyone when asked about a fair catch or a fair fielding.

Rules for an Umpire

An Umpire plays a vital role in the match. Therefore, his decision has to be fair enough which satisfies both the teams. Some of his rules are:

Six	An Umpire must put both hands in the air to signal that the ball went for six runs.
Four	An Umpire must slide his hand from left to the right to signal a four.
Out	AN Umpire raises his hand with only the index finger opened and others closed, symboling out.
Bye	An Umpire raises one hand with his fingers open to signal a bye.
Wide Ball	He raises his hand horizontally above his waist.
No Ball	He raises his one hand horizontally to signal a no-ball and moves his index finger around his head to signal a free-hit on the next ball.

I hope this blog motivates you to take up the sport and try to play this exciting game as it will boost your love for this game and you can carry it as a profession also. Do comment if you need any help.