Cricket involves two teams of 11 players, with matches officiated by a couple of officials (umpires). One team takes the field while the other bats. The overall objective for the batting team is to score more runs than the opponent. Similar to many sports, a coin toss decides which team will bat or field first.

1. FIYAZ MUGHAL
U N D E R S TA N D I N G
T H E G A M E O F
C R I C K E T

2. UNDERSTANDING THE
GAME OF CRICKET
Cricket involves two teams
of 11 players, with matches
officiated by a couple of
officials (umpires). One
team takes the field while
the other bats. The overall
objective for the batting
team is to score more runs
than the opponent. Similar
to many sports, a coin toss
decides which team will
bat or field first.

3. TEST – THIS IS
THE LONGEST
FORMAT AND
REQUIRES EACH TEAM
TO GO THROUGH THEIR
BATTING LINE-UP TWICE. IT
FEATURES 90 OVERS AND CAN BE
PLAYED FOR UP TO FIVE DAYS.
Matches
Three types of matches can be played in cricket:
• Twenty20 – This is the quickest format,
with teams facing 20 overs each.
• One-day – In this format each team faces 50
overs, and the match is played over a single
day.
• Test – This is the longest format and requi-
res each team to go through their batting
line-up twice. It features 90 overs and can
be played for up to five days.
Batting and Bowling
The batting team sends two players out first,
with one (the striker) taking pitches from the
bowler. The bowler (from the fielding team)
delivers the ball in an attempt to get the bats-
man out. When this happens, the batsman is
replaced until the batting team has no more
batsmen to send out.

4. To learn more about this topic, visit
the blog of Fiyaz Mughal.