Test cricket

Test cricket is a form of international cricket started in 1877 during the 1876/77 English cricket team's tour of Australia. The first Test match began on 15 March 1877 and had a timeless format with four balls per over. It ended on 19 March 1877 with Australia winning by 45 runs. The Test cricket series between England and Australia is called The Ashes. Since then, over 1,800 Test matches have been played and the number of Test playing nations has increased to ten with Bangladesh, the most recent nation elevated to Test status, making its debut in 2000. Test matches are two innings per side, and nowadays, over a period of up to a maximum of five days—although matches are sometimes completed with a day or even two to spare. In the past, Tests have been played over three, four, or six days, and some have been "Timeless"—played to a finish. Tests that are not finished within the allotted time are drawn.

Forms of cricket

There are many different types and grades of cricket; those played professionally at an international level are

• Test cricket
• One-Day International cricket
• Twenty20 cricket

Substitutes

In all forms of cricket, if a player gets injured or becomes ill during a match, a substitute is allowed to field instead of him; though he cannot bowl, bat, or act as a captain or wicket-keeper. Here the substitute is a temporary role and leaves the field once the injured player is fit to return.

For a period from July 2005, the ICC trialled the concept of a Super Sub in One-Day International (ODI) cricket and some other limited-overs competitions. A single full substitution was allowed, with the replaced player not allowed to return to the game. It was discontinued from March 2006.

A runner

In the event of a batsman being fit to bat but too injured to run, the umpires and the fielding captain may allow another member of the batting side to be a runner. If possible, the runner must already have batted. The runner's only task is to run between the wickets instead of the injured batsman. The runner is required to wear and carry exactly the same equipment as the incapacitated batsman.

Captain

The captain's acumen in deciding the strategy is sometimes crucial to the team's success. The captain makes a number of important decisions, including setting fielding positions, alternating the bowlers and taking the toss. Before the start of play the captains of the opposing teams meet and toss a coin; the winner of the toss decides which team will bat first. This decision, made in consideration of pitch conditions, the weather and the relative bowling and batting abilities of the two sides, can have an enormous impact on the course of play. In One-Day Internationals the captain also decides when to make use of Powerplay 2 and 3.

Fielding and wicket-keeping

A pair of wicket-keeping gloves.

The wicket-keeper

Is a specialist fielder who stands behind the batsman's wicket throughout the innings. His primary job is to gather deliveries that the batsman fails to hit, to prevent them running into the outfield, which would enable batsmen to score byes. To this end, he wears special gloves (he is the only fielder allowed to do so) and pads to cover his lower legs. Owing to his position directly behind the striker, the wicket-keeper has a good chance of getting a batsman out caught off a fine edge from the bat; thicker edges are typically handled by the "slips" fieldsmen. The wicket-keeper is also the only person who can get a batsman out stumped.

Fielders

Assist the bowlers in preventing runs, either by taking catches to dismiss a batsman, or by intercepting the ball and returning it, possibly running out the batsman. The wicket-keeper is the only fielder permitted to wear gloves. A fielder may stop the ball with any part of his body.

Thunders Vs Rockers - 06162007

The home team Rockers won by 15 runs.

Thunders were defeated by Rockers in third consecutive match.

Dismissal of a batsman

There are ten ways in which a batsman may be dismissed. Once a batsman is dismissed, he leaves the field to be replaced by another batsman. When the tenth batsmen is out, and only one batsman remains undismissed, the side is "all out" and the innings is over.

Many modes of dismissal require the wicket to be "put down". The wicket is put down if a bail is dislodged from the top of the stumps; or if a stump is struck out of the ground either by the ball or by a fielder using the hand in which the ball is being held. Of the following ten modes of dismissal, the first six are common, while the last four are technicalities that rarely occur.

The ten modes are:

Caught — When a fielder catches the ball before it bounces and after the batsman has struck it with the bat or it has come into contact with the batsman's glove while it is in contact with the bat handle. The bowler and catcher are both credited with the dismissal.

Bowled — When a delivered ball hits the stumps at the batsman's end, and dislodges one or both of the bails. This happens regardless of whether the batsman has edged the ball onto the stumps or not. The bowler is credited with the dismissal.

Leg before wicket (lbw) — When a delivered ball misses the bat and strikes the batsman's leg, pad or body, and the umpire judges that the ball would otherwise have struck the stumps. The laws of cricket stipulate certain exceptions. For instance, a delivery pitching outside the line of leg stump should not result in an lbw dismissal, while a delivery hitting the batsman outside the line of the off stump should result in an lbw dismissal only if the batsman makes no attempt to play the ball with the bat. The bowler is credited with the dismissal.

Run out — When a fielder, bowler or wicket-keeper removes one or both of the bails with the ball by hitting the stumps whilst a batsman is still running between the two ends. The ball can either hit the stumps directly or the fielder's hand with the ball inside it can be used to dislodge the bails. Such a dismissal is not officially credited to any player, although the identities of the fielder or fielders involved are often noted in brackets on the scorecard.

Stumped — When the batsman leaves his crease in playing a delivery, voluntarily or involuntarily, but the ball goes to the wicket-keeper who uses it to remove one or both of the bails through hitting the bail(s) or the wicket before the batsman has remade his ground. The bowler and wicket-keeper are both credited. This generally requires the keeper to be standing within arm's length of the wicket, which is done mainly to spin bowling.

Hit wicket — When the batsman accidentally knocks the stumps with either the body or the bat, causing one or both of the bails to be dislodged, either in playing a shot or in taking off for the first run. The bowler is credited with the dismissal. (Law 35)
Handled the ball — When the batsman deliberately handles the ball without the permission of the fielding team. No player is credited with the dismissal.

Hit the ball twice — When the batsman deliberately strikes the ball a second time, except for the sole purpose of guarding his wicket. No player is credited with the dismissal.

Obstructing the field — When a batsman deliberately hinders a fielder attempting to field the ball. No player is credited with the dismissal.

Timed out — When a new batsman takes more than three minutes to take his position in the field to replace a dismissed batsman (If the delay is protracted, the umpires may cause the match to be forfeited). This rule prevents the batting team using time limits of the game to unfair advantage. No player is credited with the dismissal.

Additionally, a batsman may leave the field without being dismissed. For instance, if he is injured or taken ill, this is known as retired hurt or retired ill. The batsman is not out; he may return to bat later in the same innings if sufficiently recovered. Also, an unimpaired batsman may retire, in which case he is treated as being dismissed retired out; no player is credited with the dismissal.

Batsmen cannot be out bowled, caught, leg before wicket, stumped or hit wicket off a no ball. They cannot be out bowled, caught, leg before wicket, or hit the ball twice off a wide.

Some of these modes of dismissal can occur without the bowler bowling a delivery. The batsman who is not on strike may be run out by the bowler if he leaves his crease before the bowler bowls, and a batsman can be out obstructing the field or retired out at any time. Timed out is, by its nature, a dismissal without a delivery. With all other modes of dismissal, only one batsman can be dismissed per ball bowled.

Googly

In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie (or Bosey), an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet. In Australia it is commonly referred to as a wrong'un (and in Pakistan as the wrong one, which led to the naming of the doosra, meaning "the other one" in Urdu).

Explanation

While a normal leg break spins from the leg to the off side, away from a right-handed batsman, a googly spins the other way, from off to leg, into a right-handed batsman (and is distinct from an off break delivery). The bowler achieves this change of spin by bending the wrist sharply from the normal leg break delivery position. When the ball rolls out of the hand (from the side near the little finger, as in a normal leg break), it emerges with clockwise spin (from the bowler's point of view). A googly may also be achieved by bowling the ball as a conventional leg break, but spinning the ball further with the fingers just before it is released.

The change of wrist action can be seen by a skilled batsman and the change of spin allowed for when playing a shot at the ball. Less skilled batsmen, or ones who have lost their concentration, can be deceived completely, expecting the ball to move one direction off the pitch, only for it to move the other direction. If the batsman is expecting a leg break, he will play outside the line of the ball after it spins. This means the ball can either strike the pads for a potential LBW appeal, or may fly between the bat and the pads and hit the wicket.

The googly is a major weapon in the arsenal of a leg spin bowler, and can be one of the bowler's most effective wicket-taking balls. It is used infrequently, because its effectiveness comes mostly from its surprise value.

Left-arm unorthodox spinners, commonly known as "chinaman" bowlers, can bowl with the googly action using the left arm. This delivery is usually known as a chinaman googly and turns away from a right-handed batsman, like a leg break or left-arm orthodox spinner. The googly is similar in principle to the doosra, the ball from an off-spinner which turns the opposite way from his stock ball.

Mechanics

To grip the ball for a leg-spinning delivery, the ball is placed into the palm with the seam parallel to the palm. The first two fingers then spread and grip the ball, and the third and fourth fingers close together and rest against the side of the ball. The first bend of the third finger should grasp the seam. The thumb resting against the side is up to the bowler, but should impart no pressure. When the ball is bowled, the third finger will apply most of the spin. The wrist is cocked as it comes down by the hip, and the wrist moves sharply from right to left as the ball is released, adding more spin. The ball is tossed up to provide flight. The batsman will see the back of the hand when the ball is released.

Reverse Swing

Conventional swing

The cricket ball often moves in the air towards or away from a batsman when a pace bowler is bowling. It is this deviation most fast bowlers strive for because of the problems it causes to the batsmen. Swing is all about aerodynamics. Batsmen are used to facing orthodox swing - which happens when the ball is still relatively hard and new in the first 10 to 15 overs.

However, over the past 20 years fast bowlers have developed a new method of making the ball move in the air with the older ball called 'reverse swing'.

But to obtain any sort of movement, there are a number of factors to consider.

The ball

Fielders are often seen continually shining one side of a ball by rubbing it on their trousers. The rubbing helps to maintain a smooth, shiny side while the opposite is left to deteriorate through normal wear and tear. In simple terms, the aerodynamics of bowling means the air travels faster around the shiny side lowering the air pressure on the shiny side by the Bernoulli Principle causing the ball to deviate in that direction. Other factors also play a part.

Reverse swing

Once the ball becomes older and more worn, it will begin to move in the opposite direction to where it would usually swing with no great change in the bowling grip.

For example, an outswinger's grip will move away from the batsman in the air while an inswinger will move towards the bat. All this tends to happen very late on in the delivery, making it difficult for the batsman to judge the changes in the air. Not every single bowler can obtain reverse swing - the ball needs to be propelled above 80 mph or thereabouts to make it move in the air.

Origin

Former Pakistan international Sarfraz Nawaz was the founder of reverse swing during the late 1970s, and he passed his knowledge on to former team-mate and captain Imran Khan. It was Imran who schooled bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who brought the art to the cricket world's attention during the late 1980s and 1990s. The dynamic duo managed to make the old ball swing a considerable distance at pace in both directions, a skill few bowlers can master.

In a display of reverse swing in a Test match against Australia in 1979 in Melbourne, Sarfraz Nawaz took nine wickets in an innings. This included a remarkable spell of 33 deliveries in which he captured 7 wickets for 1 run. This is when the cricket world noticed this new form of fast bowling.

Wasim Akram then brought reverse swing to the public limelight but the man who really put the reverse into swing was Waqar Younis. He bucked the 1980s trend of pitching fast and short by pitching fast and full. Not an obvious recipe for success until the prodigious late inswing is factored in, which was designed to smash into the base of leg stump or the batsman's toes.

How does it work?

There have been plenty of theories about why, but here's an explanation from former England bowling coach Troy Cooley:

• "Reverse swing is all to do with the deterioration of the ball and the seam position in flight. As the ball becomes rougher, it will take on a different characteristic as it deteriorates. So if you present the ball as an outswinger, the ball has deteriorated so much on the rough side that it takes on the characteristics of the shiny side. Which means a natural outswinger will become an inswinger and conversely, an inswinger into an outswinger."

The defining point of swing is the separation point of the initial layer of air with the ball, whichever side has greater air coverage will have more lift and lower pressure, lifting and sucking the ball towards it. For greater detail on what causes separation-point differences see swing bowling.

When does the ball start to reverse?

Since reverse swing favors the older ball, it will usually start to move around the 40-over mark. However, England's bowlers during the 2005 Ashes were able to make the ball reverse after just 15 to 20 overs. Brett Lee found his reverse swing in Adelaide on the 30-over mark.

Also during the 2009 T20 World Cup Pakistani fast bowler Umar Gul managed to get reverse swing after just 11 overs.

Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga is a specialist of reverse swinging yorkers at the present.

But how can bowlers manage to do this so early in the innings? The most important factor to consider is the pitch. The Indian sub-continent pitches are rougher and dustier than pitches elsewhere in the world. Hence, Indian sub-continent bowlers obtain reverse-swing after 5-over mark also. In Australia and New Zealand, pitches offer no or very little help and it all depends upon how the ball is variously played. South Africa presents the same picture, where the reverse-swing is seen little or none at all. England, however has seen some change in pitch conditions in the last decade and bowlers use that to reverse their deliveries earlier.

Like footballs, each manufacturer's cricket balls are different. Some have more pronounced seams while others deteriorate slower, both of which have an influence on how the ball will move in the air.

Bowling

A typical bowling action.

A bowler delivers the ball toward the batsmen, using what is known as a bowling action: the elbow may be held at any angle and may bend further, but may not straighten out during the action. If the elbow straightens, it is an illegal throw and the delivery is called a no-ball. Under new cricketing law, after consultation with health experts, the bowler is allowed to straighten his arm 15 degrees or less; if the bowler straightens his arm more than 15 degrees it is called a "no ball".

Usually, the bowler pitches the ball so that it bounces before reaching the batsman. Some part of the bowler's front foot in the delivery stride (that is, the stride when the ball is released) must be behind the popping crease to avoid a no-ball (although the bowler's front foot does not have to be grounded). The ball must also be delivered so it is within the batsman's reach; otherwise it is termed a wide. A wide cannot be called if the batsman hits the ball. A wide or no-ball results in an extra run being added to the batting team's score and an extra ball being bowled in the over.

The bowler's primary goal is to take wickets; that is, to get a batsman out or dismissed. When a bowler succeeds in dismissing the more accomplished batsmen on the opposing team he reduces the opportunity for the batting team to score, as it exposes the less skillful non-specialist batsmen. The bowler's secondary task is to limit the numbers of runs scored. There are two main kinds of bowlers: pace bowlers, who attempt to bowl the ball too quickly for the batsman to properly react, and spin bowlers who bowl slower deliveries that bounce and curve in unpredictable ways.

Extras

Every run scored by the batsmen contributes to the team's total. A team's total also includes a number of runs which are unaccredited to any batsmen. These runs are known as extras, apart from in Australia where they are also called sundries. Extras consist of byes, leg byes, no balls, wides and penalty runs. Byes and leg byes can be scored if the batsman misses making contact with bat and ball; while no-balls and wides are types of fouls committed by the bowler. For serious infractions such as tampering with the ball, deliberate time-wasting, and damaging the pitch, the umpires may award penalty extras to the opposition: in each case five runs. Five penalty runs are also awarded if a fielder uses anything other than his body to field the ball, or if the ball hits an object—a protective helmet, for example—left on the field by the fielding team. A team need not be batting in order to receive penalty extras.

Batting and scoring runs

Batting
If the batsman hits the ball with his bat, it is called a shot (or stroke). If the ball brushes the side of the bat it is called an edge or snick. Shots are named according to the style of swing and the direction aimed. As part of the team's strategy, the player may bat defensively, blocking the ball downwards, or aggressively, hitting the ball hard to empty spaces in order to score runs. There is no requirement to run if the ball is struck. The batsman also automatically scores runs if he manages to hit the ball to the boundary.

Batsmen come in to bat in a batting order, decided by the team captain. The first two positions, the "openers", face the most hostile bowling, from fast bowlers at their freshest and with a new ball. After that, the team typically bats in descending order of batting skill, the first five or six batsmen usually being the best in the team. Then follow the all-rounders — bowlers or wicket-keepers who can bat decently — and finally the pure bowlers who rarely score well. This order may be changed at any time during the course of the game.


Run scoring

The directions in which a right-handed batsman intends to send the ball when playing various cricketing shots.To score a run, a striker must run to the opposite end of the pitch, while his non-striking partner runs to his end. To register a run, both runners must touch the ground behind the popping crease with either their bats or their bodies (the batsmen carry their bats as they run). If the striker hits the ball well enough, the batsmen may double back to score two or more runs. This is known as running between wickets. However, no rule requires the batsman to run upon striking the ball. The decision to attempt a run is made by the batsman who has the better view of the ball's position and is communicated by a system of calls: "yes", "no" or "wait". If the batsmen score an odd number of runs, then they will have swapped ends and their roles as striker and non-striker will be reversed for the next ball, unless the most recent ball marks the end of an over.

If a fielder knocks the bails off the stumps with the ball while no part of the batsman is grounded behind the popping crease, the nearer batsman is run out. (For this purpose, "batsman" includes the bat so long as he is holding it.)

If the ball reaches the boundary, then runs are automatically scored. A ball that goes over the boundary on the full (without touching the ground) automatically scores six runs; a ball that reaches the boundary after having touched the ground automatically scores four runs. These are scored instead of any runs the batsmen may have already run, and they return to the ends at which they started, except in the unlikely event that the batsmen have already scored more runs than they would receive for the boundary.

Match structure

The toss
The two opposing captains toss a coin before the match, and the captain who wins chooses either to bat or bowl first. The captain's decision will be based on whether the team's bowlers are likely to gain immediate advantage from the pitch and weather conditions (these can vary significantly), or whether it is more likely that the pitch will deteriorate and make batting more difficult later in the game.


Overs
Each innings is divided into overs, each consisting of six consecutive legal deliveries bowled by the same bowler. After completing an over, the bowler must take up a fielding position and let another player take over the bowling.

After every over, the batting and bowling ends are swapped, and the field positions are adjusted. The umpires swap so the umpire at the bowler's end moves to square leg, and the umpire at square leg moves to the new bowler's end.


End of an innings
An innings is completed if:

Ten out of eleven batsmen are 'out' (dismissed) — the team are said to be all out.

The team has only one batsman left who can bat (the others being incapacitated either through injury, illness or absence) — again, the team are said to be all out.

The team batting last reaches the score required to win the match.
The predetermined number of overs are bowled (in a one-day match only, usually 50 overs).

A captain declares his team's innings closed (this does not apply to one-day limited over matches).

Playing time
Typically, two-innings matches are played over three to five days with at least six hours of cricket played each day. One-innings matches are usually played over one day for six hours or more. There are formal intervals on each day for lunch and tea, and shorter breaks for drinks, where necessary. There is also a short interval between innings.

The game is only played in dry weather. Additionally, because in professional cricket it is common for balls to be bowled at over 90 mph (144 km/h), the game must be played in daylight good enough for a batsman to be able to see the ball. Play is therefore halted during rain (but not usually drizzle) and when there is bad light. Some one-day games are now played under floodlights but, apart from a few experimental games in Australia, floodlights are not used in longer games. Professional cricket is usually played outdoors. These requirements mean that in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe the game is usually played in the summer. In the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh games are played in the winter. In these countries the hurricane and monsoon season coincides with summer.