The Shape of a Match

A side is eleven players; a substitute may field for an injured player but cannot bat or bowl.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 1 · recall

While one side bats, the whole of the other side is in the field, with one of them bowling.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 1 · recall

Only the batting side adds runs; the fielding side must wait for its own turn to bat.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 18 · applied

The fielding side cannot add runs, so it competes by dismissing batters and restricting scoring.

Source: General playing principle · recall

Batters run in pairs because a run is scored by both of them crossing and reaching the far crease.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 18 · applied

An all-rounder contributes with both bat and ball; a specialist is picked mainly for one discipline.

Source: General cricket terminology · recall

A team is allowed to play short-handed; it simply competes with fewer players and no borrowed cover.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 1 · applied

Cricket is a two-team game in which each side alternates between batting and fielding.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 1 · recall

The fielding captain picks who bowls each over and places the fielders; scoring and signals belong to the scorers and umpires.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 1 · applied

A substitute may only field; batting and bowling stay with the eleven who were nominated.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 24 · recall

The match opens with a coin toss to decide which side has first choice of batting or fielding.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

The winning captain's only choice is to bat or to field; the rest is fixed by the match conditions.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

"Put in" or "inserted" describes a side made to bat first by the toss-winner's choice to field.

Source: General cricket terminology · recall

On a pitch that will deteriorate, batting first lets a side score while it is at its easiest.

Source: General captaincy principle · applied

When the ball is likely to move about early, bowling first exploits the conditions before they ease.

Source: General captaincy principle · applied

If the pitch will stay good, first use of it is the moment to build a total the other side must chase.

Source: General captaincy principle · applied

Dew makes the ball hard for bowlers to grip, so many sides prefer to chase, batting second on a wet ball.

Source: General captaincy principle · applied

The toss is settled by the coin; the losing captain cannot overturn or trade the winner's decision.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

Holding the toss close to the start lets each side warm up for the role it has just been given.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

"Elected to field" means that side chose to bowl first, so the other side opens the batting.

Source: General scoring convention · applied

An innings is a full period in which one side bats and the other fields.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

"Innings" keeps the "s" whether you mean one team's turn or several.

Source: General cricket terminology · recall

Limited-overs cricket is a single innings per side; only the longer forms give two.

Source: ICC Men's ODI Playing Conditions · recall

First-class cricket is a two-innings-a-side game, which is why a large first-innings lead can matter.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

A limited-overs innings closes at all out or at the end of the overs, whichever comes first.

Source: ICC Men's ODI Playing Conditions · applied

A declaration voluntarily closes an innings that is not all out; it is a tool of the longer game only.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 15 · recall

Once the chasing side goes one run past the target the match is won and play stops.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · applied

The sides normally alternate innings: first side, second side, first side, second side.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

A score is given as runs then wickets lost, so "230 for 7" is 230 runs with seven batters out.

Source: General scoring convention · applied

With eleven batters, the tenth dismissal leaves the last man without a partner, so the innings ends.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · recall

A completed over is six legal balls; eight-ball overs were used in some countries decades ago but not now.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · recall

Play switches to the opposite end for each new over, so the bowling alternates ends.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · recall

No bowler may bowl two overs in succession; another bowler must send down the next one.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · recall

With the ends swapping each over, whoever stands at the new bowler's end faces, so the strike alternates unless an odd number of runs was scored.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · applied

Illegal deliveries do not count towards the over, so the bowler has to bowl an extra ball for each one.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · applied

The call of "over" tells the players the six deliveries are done and the field now changes ends.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · recall

Each side receives fifty overs, but its innings also ends early if all ten wickets fall.

Source: ICC Men's ODI Playing Conditions · recall

A Test innings runs until the side is all out or the captain declares; ninety overs is a daily minimum, not an innings cap.

Source: ICC Men's Test Match Playing Conditions · recall

Figures are read as overs bowled, maiden overs, runs conceded, then wickets taken.

Source: General scoring convention · applied

Between overs the fielders simply reposition for the new bowling end; there is no break or substitution.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 17 · applied

Runs are cricket's unit of score; everything else on the scoreboard exists to explain the runs.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 18 · recall

"Taking a wicket" is dismissing a batter; the same word also names the stumps in other contexts.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 32 · recall

The winner is decided on runs, but the batters still not out set how much risk the side can take.

Source: General playing principle · applied

"All out" always means ten wickets have fallen, whatever the run total.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 13 · applied

With only four wickets down, the innings closed at the end of the allotted overs.

Source: ICC Men's T20I Playing Conditions · applied

The batting side simply tries to make the largest total it can before its overs or wickets run out.

Source: General playing principle · recall

"Wickets in hand" is the number of batters not yet out, which lets the side bat aggressively at the death.

Source: General cricket usage · applied

Economy rate is runs conceded divided by overs bowled, a measure of how tightly a bowler contains scoring.

Source: General scoring convention · recall

"Not out" simply means the batter had not been dismissed when the innings closed.

Source: General scoring convention · recall

Runs and wickets are the core pair; overs, boundaries and the rest are detail hung off them.

Source: General scoring convention · recall

Runs are the only currency for the result; wickets and boundaries matter only through their effect on runs.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · recall

Team B scored more runs, so it wins regardless of how many wickets it lost getting there.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · applied

Level completed totals make it a tie; a draw is an unfinished match and there is no "first-innings win" in a single-innings game.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · applied

A draw is an unfinished match; a tie is a finished match with the scores level.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · recall

A 50-over game is designed to reach a result, so "time running out undecided" does not apply to it.

Source: ICC Men's ODI Playing Conditions · applied

The side neither reached the target nor lost its last wicket before time ran out, so the match is drawn.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · applied

Many white-ball competitions break a tie with a Super Over, a one-over mini-innings for each side.

Source: ICC Men's ODI / T20I Playing Conditions · recall

Without the minimum overs to the chasing side, a limited-overs match has no result rather than a draw.

Source: ICC Men's ODI Playing Conditions · applied

Level aggregate scores after four completed innings is a tie; the tied Tests were in 1960 and 1986.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Batting order can matter tactically, but the Laws hand neither side a head start in runs.

Source: MCC Laws of Cricket 2017 code (3rd edition 2022), Law 16 · recall