Eli5: how does cricket work

Question

I want to learn to enjoy this sport but holy hell the terminology and rules seem so cryptic

In: 0

Answer 1

So there are two wickets. A wicket is made of 3 vertical posts called stumps and two horizontal sticks called bails. There’s a line in front of each wicket defining the “creases” where the batsmen stand. There are 11 players per side. There’s a coin flip to decide who bats first. The batting team will send two batsmen onto the field and the fielding team will send all 11 outfielders. The batsmen will stay on the field until they are out. A bowler will throw the ball in the direction of one of the batsmen’s wickets which the batsmen can swing at with his bat. The batsmen is out if:

* The ball hits the wicket and knocks over the bails
* The ball hits the batsman’s leg and the umpire determines it would have hit the wicket if not for the batsman standing in the way.
* The ball is hit in the air and caught by a fielder.
* The ball hits the wicket while the batsman is out of the crease.
* There are more specific rules that can get a batsmen out, but they’re rare.

The batsmen are trying to score runs. Normally a run is scored when the batsmen run to each other’s creases. The batsman is considered to be in the crease if his bat is in the crease. A run is also automatically scored if the bowler breaks the rules when delivering the ball or if he bowls it too wide or too high. If a batsman hits the ball in bounds but it then goes out of bounds or touches the boundary, it’s an automatic 4 runs. If the batsman hits the ball in the air and it lands out of bounds it’s an automatic 6 runs.

If the fielding team get 10 batsmen out, they change sides as the last batsmen on the team cannot bat alone. After both teams have gotten 10 outs, that’s called an innings. When a bowler has delivered 6 legal balls that’s called an “over” and a new bowler will deliver balls in the opposite direction to the other wicket. Depending on the format, you may play 1 innings or 2, and might have a limit on overs per innings. The longest format is called test cricket which is 2 innings, no limits on overs, and can last 5 days.