Cricket is a bat and ball game played between two teams, 11 players each, on a field which has a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch in the centre. The game is played by 120 million players world-wide making it the second most popular sport in the world. The purpose of the game is to score more runs than your opposing team.
A Cricket match is divided into periods called innings. It is decided before the game begins, if both teams will have one or two innings. During the innings one team bats while the other fields. All 11 players on the fielding team are on the pitch at the same time however only two batsmen are the field at any one time.
Team captains toss a coin to decide who should bat first.
Cricket fields tend to be oval in shape. The end which is marked off is called the boundary, with the rectangle “pitch” in the centre.
At each end of the pitch are the wickets, 22 yards apart. A bowling crease is in line with the wicket and the batting or popping crease is 4ft in front of the wicket.