Innings

The innings (always used in the plural form) is the term used for the collective performance of the batting side.[12] In theory, all eleven members of the batting side take a turn to bat but, for various reasons, an "innings" can end before they all do so (see below).

Depending on the type of match being played, each team has one or two innings apiece. The term "innings" is also sometimes used to describe an individual batsman's contribution ("he played a fine innings" etc).

The main aim of the bowler, supported by his fielders, is to dismiss the batsman. A batsman when dismissed is said to be "out" and that means he must leave the field of play and be replaced by the next batsman on his team. When ten batsmen have been dismissed (i.e., are out), then the whole team is dismissed and the innings is over. The last batsman, the one who has not been dismissed, is not allowed to continue alone as there must always be two batsmen "in". This batsman is termed "not out".

If an innings should end before ten batsmen have been dismissed, there are two "not out" batsmen. An innings can end early for three reasons: because the batting side's captain has chosen to "declare" the innings closed (which is a tactical decision), or because the batting side has achieved its target and won the game, or because the game has ended prematurely due to bad weather or running out of time. In limited overs cricket, there might be two batsmen still "in" when the last of the allotted overs has been bowled.

Overs

The bowler bowls the ball in sets of six deliveries (or "balls") and each set of six balls is called an over. This name came about because the umpire calls "Over!" when six balls have been bowled. At this point, another bowler is deployed at the other end and the fielding side changes ends. A bowler cannot bowl two successive overs, although a bowler can bowl unchanged at the same end for several overs. The batsmen do not change ends and so the one who was non-striker is now the striker and vice-versa. The umpires also change positions so that the one who was at square leg now stands behind the wicket at the non-striker's end and vice-versa.

Team structure

A team consists of eleven players. Depending on his or her primary skills, a player may be classified as a specialist batsman or bowler. A well-balanced team usually has five or six specialist batsmen and four or five specialist bowlers. Teams nearly always include a specialist wicket-keeper because of the importance of this fielding position. Each team is headed by a captain who is responsible for making tactical decisions such as determining the batting order, the placement of fielders and the rotation of bowlers.

A player who excels in both batting and bowling is known as an all-rounder. One who excels as a batsman and wicket-keeper is known as a "wicket-keeper/batsman", sometimes regarded as a type of all-rounder. True all-rounders are rare as most players focus on either batting or bowling skills.

Batsman

A batsman in the sport of cricket is, depending on context:


Any player in the act of batting.
A player whose speciality in the game is batting.


==The batting role==

During the play of a cricket match, two members of the batting team are on the field, while their team-mates wait off the field. Those two players are the current batsmen. Each batsman stands near one of the two [[wicket]]s at either end of the [[pitch (cricket)|cricket pitch]] near the centre of the ground.

The two batsmen have different roles:
* The '''striker''' stands in front of the wicket nearest him and attempts to defend it from [[delivery (cricket)|balls]] bowled by the opposing [[bowler (cricket)|bowler]] from the other wicket.
* The '''non-striker''' stands inactive near the bowler's wicket.

While defending his wicket, the striker may also hit the ball into the field and attempt to run to the opposite wicket, exchanging places with the non-striker. This scores a [[run (cricket)|run]]. The two batsmen may continue to exchange places, scoring additional runs, until members of the fielding team collect and return the ball to either wicket. See [[run (cricket)]] for further details.

While the striker's position is dictated by the necessity to defend the bowled ball from hitting his wicket, the non-striker typically takes a few steps away from his wicket as the bowler delivers the ball, in preparation to run.

Bowler (cricket)

A bowler in the sport of cricket is usually a player whose speciality is bowling, analogous to a pitcher in baseball. A bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder.

There are several types of bowlers and most teams will have a variety available in the team to take advantage of pitch or weather conditions or known weaknesses of the opposition.

A fast bowler is usually the mainstay of a team's attack. They will take a long run up before bowling each ball to build momentum and rhythm and can deliver the cricket ball at speeds up to 160 km/h (100 mph) with Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan being the first to reach this goal, though his pace along with colleague Mohammed Asif's was both questioned, after it was discovered they had both taken the banned substance Nandralone, a steroid which enhances performance. It is widely considered that the pace either can bowl at was not genuine.

A medium pace bowler bowls somewhat more slowly and will often have some other weapon in their bowling arsenal rather than relying on speed. This might take the form of being able to swing the ball in the air or disguise the speed or length of his or her delivery to fool the batsman. Some medium pacers are simply accurate; they can repeatedly deliver the ball to a place which forces the batsman to defend rather than scoring runs. Others grip the ball so that it pitches on its upraised seam, which then causes the following trajectory to be awkward or uncertain.

A spin bowler usually bowls quite slowly and puts tremendous spin on the ball causing it to bounce at an angle off the pitch, forcing the batsman to treat each ball carefully. Generally spin bowlers give up the most runs but they all have "tricks" that they use to fool the batsman and get him or her out (such as the arm ball, googly, flipper, topspinner or doosra). Spin bowling is very much about deceit rather than speed. A fast Off Spin is the normal off spin action but with more pace. Off spin is when the cricket ball spins towards a right handed batsmen's bat. With more pace, there usually is less turn (amount of spin). The grip for spin is the three middle fingers on you hand wrapped around the ball's side (end fingers just touching seam). Off-spin is also referred to as Off-Break or Finger Spin.

Wicket-keeper

The wicket-keeper (also spelt wicketkeeper and often shortened to keeper) in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket being guarded by the batsman currently on strike. It is essentially a specialist role although a keeper is occasionally called upon to bowl, in which case another member of the fielding side temporarily keeps wicket. The role of the keeper is governed by Law 40 of the Laws of Cricket and is similar to that of the catcher in baseball.

==Purposes==

The keeper's major function is to stop deliveries that pass the batsman (in order to prevent [[run (cricket)|runs]] being scored), but he can also attempt to [[dismissal (cricket)|dismiss]] the batsman in various ways:

* The most common dismissal effected by the keeper is for him to ''[[catch (cricket)|catch]]'' a ball that has nicked the batsman's bat, called an ''edge'', before it bounces. Sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position.

* The keeper can ''[[stump (cricket)#Manner of dismissing a batsman|stump]]'' the batsman by using the ball to remove the [[bail (cricket)|bails]] from the [[stump (cricket)|stumps]], if the batsman has come out of his [[crease (cricket)|crease]] during a delivery.
* When the ball is hit into the outfield, the keeper moves close to the stumps to catch the return throw from a fielder and, if possible, to ''[[run out]]'' a batsman.

A keeper's position depends on the bowler: for [[fast bowling]] he will crouch some distance from the stumps, in order to have time to react to edges from the batsman, while for slower bowling, he will come much nearer to the stumps (known as "standing up"), to pressure the batsman into remaining within the crease or risk being stumped. The more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to "stand up", for instance [[Godfrey Evans]] often stood up to [[Alec Bedser]]. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/12543.html]

Wicket-keeping is a specialist discipline and it requires training consistent with the level expected of a specialist batsman or [[bowler (cricket)|bowler]]. However, the modern-day keeper is also expected to possess reasonable batting skill, suiting him for the middle order at least. Wicket-keepers who are also capable of batting at the top of the order are known informally as ''keeper/batsmen''.

Since there is only room for one keeper in a cricket side, selectors (especially at the international level) are often faced with a difficult choice between two or more skilled keepers. Often, one of the two keepers is an exceptional keeper, but only an average batsman, whereas the other is a keeper/batsman who is clearly better at batting, but not quite as good a keeper as his rival. One such selection dilemma was that faced by [[English cricket team|England]] selectors in the 1990s between [[Jack Russell (Gloucestershire cricketer)|Jack Russell]] (the pure keeper) and [[Alec Stewart]] (the keeper/batsman). They were never able to consistently choose between the two until 1998, when Russell began to fade: prior to that, they had regularly swapped the role, often with Stewart maintaining his place when not wicket-keeping thanks to his batting skill. [[Adam Gilchrist]], [[Mahendra Singh Dhoni]], [[Kumar Sangakkara]], [[Brendon McCullum]] and [[Mark Boucher]] are the top keeper/[[batsmen]] today in [[cricket]]. Ex [[Indian cricket team|Indian]] captain [[Rahul Dravid]] is a part time keeper, and played that role for India throughout the [[2003 Cricket World Cup| 2003 World cup]].

The keeper may also have a captaincy role. Uniquely, they are usually involved in every delivery of an innings, and may be in a position to see things that the captain misses. They can frequently be heard encouraging the bowler, and may also indulge in the practice (not meant to be overheard) of "[[sledging (cricket)|sledging]]" the batsman with well timed comments about their skill, appearance or personal habits.

The keeper is the only fielder allowed to touch the ball with protective equipment, typically large padded gloves with webbing between the index finger and thumb, but no other webbing. The protection offered by the gloves is not always adequate. The [[England]] keeper [[Alan Knott]] sometimes placed [[steak]]s inside his gloves for added cushioning. Wicket-keepers also tend to wear leg pads and a box to protect the groin area.

Wicket-keepers are allowed to take off their pads and bowl, and this is not uncommon when matches are drifting to draws or a bowling team is desperate for a wicket. Two keepers have removed their pads and taken [[hat-trick (cricket)|hat-tricks]] in first-class cricket: Probir Sen for Bengal v Orissa at Cuttack in 1954-55 and A.C. (Alan) Smith for Warwickshire v Essex at Clacton in 1965.

Fielding

Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the batsman, in such a way as to either limit the number of runs that the batsman scores or get the batsman out by catching the ball in flight or running the batsman out. A fielder or fieldsman may field the ball with any part of his person. However, if while the ball is in play he wilfully fields it otherwise (e.g. by using his hat), the ball becomes dead and 5 penalty runs are awarded to the batting side unless the ball previously struck a batsman not attempting to hit or avoid the ball. Most of the rules covering fielders are in Law 41 of the Laws of cricket.

In the early days of Test cricket, fielding was not a priority and many players were sloppy when it came to fielding.[citation needed] With the advent of One Day International matches, fielding became more professional as saving runs became more important. A good fielding side can often save 30+ runs in the course of an ODI inning.

Fielding position names and locations

Since there are only 11 players on a team, one of whom is the bowler and another the wicket-keeper, at most nine other fielding positions can be used at any given time. Which positions are filled by players and which remain vacant is a tactical decision made by the captain of the fielding team. The captain (usually in consultation with the bowler and sometimes other members of the team) may move players between fielding positions at any time except when a bowler is in the act of bowling to a batsman.

There are a number of named basic fielding positions, some of which are employed very commonly and others that are used less often. However, fielding positions are not fixed, and fielders can be placed in positions that differ from the basic positions. Most of the positions are named roughly according to a system of polar coordinates - one word (leg, cover, mid-wicket) specifies the angle from the batsman, and is optionally preceded by an adjective describing the distance from the batsman (silly, short, deep or long). Words such as "backward", "forward", or "square" can further indicate the angle.

The image shows the location of most of the named fielding positions. This image assumes the batsman is right-handed. The area to the left of a right-handed batsman (from the batsman's point of view) is called the leg side or on side, while that to the right is the off side. If the batsman is left-handed, the leg and off sides are reversed and the fielding positions are a mirror image of those shown.

Catching positions

Some fielding positions are used offensively. That is, players are put there with the main aim being to catch out the batsman rather than to stop or slow down the scoring of runs. These positions include: Slip (often there are multiple slips next to each other, designated First slip, Second slip, Third slip, etc, numbered outwards from the wicket-keeper); Fly slip; Gully; Leg slip; Leg gully; the short and silly positions. Bat pad is a position specifically intended to catch balls that unintentionally strike the bat and leg pad, and thus end up only a metre or two to the leg side

Other positions

Other positions worth noting include:

1.Long stop, who stands behind the wicket-keeper towards the boundary (usually when a wicket-keeper is believed to be inept and almost never seen in professional cricket). This position is sometimes euphemistically referred to as very fine leg.[1]

2.Sweeper, an alternative name for deep cover, deep extra cover or deep midwicket (that is, near the boundary on the off side or the on side), usually defensive and intended to prevent a four being scored.

3.Cow corner, an informal jocular term for the position on the boundary between deep midwicket and long on.

Also the bowler, after delivering the ball, must avoid running on the pitch so usually ends up fielding near mid on or mid off, but somewhat closer to the pitch.

Modifiers

Deep, long

Farther away from the batsman.

Short

Closer to the batsman.
Silly
Very close to the batsman.
Square
Somewhere along an imaginary extension of the popping crease.
Fine
Closer to an extension of an imaginary line along the middle of the pitch bisecting the stumps.
Wide
Further from an extension of an imaginary line along the middle of the pitch bisecting the stumps.
Forward
In front of square; further towards the end occupied by the bowler and further away from the end occupied by the batsman on strike.
Backward
Behind square; further towards the end occupied by the batsman on strike and further away from the end occupied by the bowler.
Additionally, commentators or fans discussing the details of field placement will often use descriptive phrases such as "gully is a bit wider than normal" or "mid off is standing too deep, he should come in shorter".

==Restrictions on field placement==

Fielders may be placed anywhere on the field, subject to the following rules. At the time the ball is bowled:
*No fielder may be standing on or with any part of his body over the [[cricket pitch|pitch]] (the central strip of the playing area between the wickets). If his body casts a shadow over the pitch the shadow must not move until after the batsman has played (or had the opportunity to play) at the ball.
*There may be no more than two fielders, other than possibly the wicket-keeper, standing in the quadrant of the field behind square leg. See [[Bodyline]] for details on one reason this rule exists.
*In some [[one-day cricket|one-day matches]]:
**During designated [[over (cricket)|over]]s of an [[innings]] (see [[Powerplay (cricket)]]), there may be no more than two fielders standing outside an oval line marked on the field, being semicircles centred on the middle stump of each wicket of radius 30 yards, joined by straight lines parallel to the pitch. This is known as the [[fielding circle]]. In addition, during these overs there must be two fielders (other than the wicket-keeper) in designated "close catching" positions.
** For the remainder of the innings there may be no more than five fielders standing outside the fielding circle.

:The restriction for one-day cricket is designed to prevent the fielding team from setting extremely defensive fields and concentrating solely on preventing the batting team from scoring runs, which many consider leads to boring play.

If any of these rules is violated, an [[umpire (cricket)|umpire]] will call the delivery a [[no ball]]. Additionally a player may not make any significant movement after the ball comes into play and before the ball reaches the striker. If this happens, an umpire will call and signal 'dead ball'. For close fielders anything other than minor adjustments to stance or position in relation to the striker is significant. In the outfield, fielders may move in towards the striker or striker's wicket; indeed, they usually do. However, anything other than slight movement off line or away from the striker is to be considered significant.

==Tactics of field placement==

With only nine fielders (apart from the bowler and wicket-keeper), the captain of the fielding team must decide which fielding positions to cover, and which to leave vacant. The placement of fielders is one of the major tactical considerations for the fielding captain.

===Attacking and defending===

The main decision for a fielding captain is to strike a balance between setting an ''attacking'' field and a ''defensive'' field. An attacking field is one in which fielders are positioned in such a way that they are likely to take catches, and thus likely to get the batsman out. Such a field generally involves having many fielders close to the batsman, especially behind the batsman in either slip or short leg positions.

A defensive field is one in which most of the field is covered by a fielder; the batsman will therefore find it hard to score large numbers of runs. This generally involves having many fielders far from the batsman and in front of him, in the positions where he is most likely to hit the ball.

Many factors govern the decisions on field placements, including: the tactical situation in the match; which bowler is [[bowling (cricket)|bowling]]; how long the batsman has been in; the wear on the ball; the state of the wicket; the light; or even how close you are to an interval in play.

Some general principles:

Attack new batsmen''' : A batsman early in his innings is more likely to make a miscalculated or rash shot, so it pays to have catching fielders ready.
Attack with the new ball''' : [[Fast bowling|Fast bowlers]] get the most [[swing bowling|swing]] and bounce with a newer ball, factors that make it harder to bat without making an error.
Attack when returning from a break in play''' : Batsmen must settle into a batting rhythm again when resuming play after an overnight break, meal, drinks break, bad weather or a pause for treatment to an injury.
Attack with quality bowlers''' : A team's best bowlers take the most wickets, so get the most benefit from the support of an attacking field.
Attack when the pitch helps the bowler''' : A moist pitch helps fast bowlers get unpredictable seam-movement of the ball, while a dry, crumbling pitch helps spin bowlers get unpredictable spin and damp, overcast conditions help swing bowlers. All three situations can lead to catches flying to close attacking fielders.
Attack when the batting team is under pressure''' : If the batting team is doing poorly or has low morale, increase the pressure by attacking with the field.
Defend when batsmen are settled in''' : It is difficult to get batsmen out when they have been batting for a long time and are comfortable with the bowling. The best tactic is often to defend and force the run scoring rate to slow down, which can frustrate the batsman into playing a rash shot.
'Defend when the batting team needs to score runs quickly''' : In situations where the batting team must score quickly in order to win or press an advantage, slowing down the rate of scoring runs lessens their chance of doing so.
'Defend when the batting team is scoring quickly''' : If the batsmen are managing to score runs quickly, it is unlikely they are offering many chances to get them out, so reduce the run scoring rate.
'Defend when the ball and pitch offer no help to the bowlers''' : If there is no movement of the ball and the batsmen can hit it comfortably every time, there is little point in having lots of close catching fielders.
'Defend when using weak bowlers''' : If a relatively poor bowler must bowl for any reason, the best tactic is often to limit the potential damage by containing the free scoring of runs.

===Off and leg side fields===

Another consideration when setting a field is how many fielders to have on each side of the pitch. With nine fielders to place, the division must necessarily be unequal, but the degree of inequality varies.

When describing a field setting, the numbers of fielders on the off side and leg side are often abbreviated into a shortened form, with the off side number quoted first. For example, a ''5-4 field'' means 5 fielders on the off side and 4 on the leg side.

Usually, most fielders are placed on the off side. This is because most bowlers tend to concentrate the line of their deliveries on or outside the off [[stump (cricket)|stump]], so most shots are hit into the off side.

When attacking, there may be 3 or 4 slips and 1 or 2 gullies, potentially using up to six fielders in that region alone. This would typically be accompanied by a mid off, mid on, and fine leg, making it a 7-2 field. Although there are only two fielders on the leg side, they should get relatively little work as long as the bowlers maintain a line outside off stump.

As fields get progressively more defensive, fielders will move out of the slip and gully area to cover more of the field, leading to 6-3 and 5-4 fields.

If a bowler, usually a [[leg spin]] bowler, decides to attack the batsman's legs in an attempt to force a [[stumping]], bowl him behind his legs, or induce a catch on the leg side, the field may stack 4-5 towards the leg side. It is unusual to see more than 5 fielders on the leg side, because of the restriction that there must be no more than two fielders placed behind square leg.

Another attacking placement on the leg side is the ''leg side trap'', which involves placing fielders near the boundary at deep square and backward square leg and bowling [[bouncer (cricket)|bouncer]]s to try to induce the batsman to [[hook]] the ball into the air. For slower bowlers, the leg trap fieldsmen tend to be placed within 10–15 m from the bat behind square, to catch leg glances and sweeps.