How to Play Cricket
Even the most well-rounded sports fans in North America have little to no knowledge about cricket. That’s quite a shame because cricket shares a lot in common with other sports such as baseball and bowling, yet it also has enough unique mechanics to stand out on its own to help make it a very popular sport in regions like India, the UK and the West Indies.
That being said, we here at Nitro Betting came up with this guide to give readers an overview on the basics of cricket, as well as how and where bettors can place stakes on the professional cricket action to add to their list of weekly wagering prospects.
The Cricket Playing Field
Cricket experts would often lead with a description of a cricket field’s layout for beginners to get a better grasp of the game right away.
The game is played on an oval grass field that’s about 200 meters in circumference. A rope of fence is placed around the perimeter of the field and this is called the boundary. The boundary determines whether the ball is live (in play) or dead (out of play).
At the center of the field is the pitch, where the batter and the bowler face off. This is quite similar to a baseball infield with its baseball mound and home plate. Cricket also makes use of a wicket, which is a set of three wooden stumps with two wooden balls placed on either end of the pitch.
Cricket Gameplay
Like baseball yet again, cricket’s two main components involve offensive and defensive actions termed batting and bowling. Teams are composed of player positions called batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and a wicket-keeper.
An inning in cricket ends when the bowling team dismisses all 10 players from the batting team. A bowler can throw six balls in a turn known as the “over”. However, the bowler can’t bowl overs in succession. Once an inning ends, teams swap positions, with the bowling team now in line to bat and vice-versa.
Scoring Runs and Taking Wickets
Two batsmen on the crease can each score a run by running between the wickets on the pitch (the distance between the wooden stumps on either side of the pitch).
Four runs are scored if a batsman hits the ball past the boundary. A maximum number of six runs can be scored if the batsman hits the ball beyond the boundary without the ball hitting the ground.
Meanwhile, a bowler can take wickets (the equivalent of outs in baseball) in three common ways:
- Bowled out: when a bowler knocks down the stumps behind the batsman
- Caught out: when a fielder catches a batted ball in the air before the ball touches the ground
- Leg Before Wicket (LBW): when a ball hit by the batsman hits the stump that that player is defending
A batsman will also lose a wicket if the wicket-keeper hits the stumps with the ball in hand and while the batsman is batting out of the crease. Another way for a batsman to lose a wicket is when a fielder manages to hit the stump with the ball while both batsmen are in mid-run between the wickets.
Variations of Cricket Matches
There are three main variations played in professional cricket:
- Test match – A match that lasts five days. Both teams bat twice and win by scoring the maximum number of runs. A team can only win a test match if it has taken 10 wickets from the opposing team in both innings, and teams cannot win a test match even if it has more runs that the opposing team.
- One-day match – A match that lasts only a single day, wherein the team with the highest score wins. Cricket matches with limited overs such as one-day matches give each team just 50 overs. That means 50 sets of six balls per over, which amounts to 300 balls faced by each side in order to score the most points in the given match.
- Twenty20 – the Twenty20 format is similar to the one-day match, but each team is only granted 20 overs to score as many runs as possible.
Where to Bet on Cricket
Players can start placing stakes on professional Cricket matches here at Nitro Betting; the leading Bitcoin-friendly online casino on the internet. Create an account now to get started on all the thrilling cricket betting action from the Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League and many more!
Be sure to also check out our NitroBetting News for all the latest updates on our new online casino releases and promotions.
