Cricket Questions and Answers
Short, direct answers to 46 common cricket questions: rules, scoring, formats, pitches and fielding. Each answer links to a longer guide when there is one.
Basics
How many players are in a cricket team?
Eleven players per side take the field. A team can name a few substitutes, but only eleven bat and bowl in a match.
How many balls are in an over?
Six legal balls make an over. Wides and no-balls are bowled again, so an over can take more than six deliveries.
How many overs are in T20, ODI and Test cricket?
T20 has 20 overs per side and an ODI has 50. A Test is played over up to five days with no limit on overs per innings.
What is an innings in cricket?
An innings is one team's turn to bat, which ends when ten wickets fall, the overs run out, or the captain declares.
How does a team win a cricket match?
The team that scores more runs wins. If the chasing team passes the target it wins, and if it is all out or runs out of overs while behind, it loses.
What is a wicket in cricket?
A wicket is the set of three stumps and two bails, and also the term for a batter getting out.
What is the toss?
A coin toss before the match. The winning captain chooses whether to bat or bowl first.
What is a boundary?
A shot reaching the edge of the field. It scores four runs if the ball touches the ground first and six if it clears the boundary in the air.
Rules
What are the ways a batter can be out?
The main ways are bowled, caught, LBW, run out, stumped and hit wicket. Rarer ones include obstructing the field, handling the ball and timed out.
What is LBW in cricket?
Leg before wicket. A batter can be out if the ball hits their leg or body in line with the stumps and would have gone on to hit them, subject to where it pitched.
What is a no-ball?
An illegal delivery, for example overstepping the crease. It adds one run to the batting side and the ball is bowled again. A free hit follows in limited-overs cricket.
What is a free hit?
The delivery after a front-foot no-ball in limited-overs cricket. The batter can only be out in a few ways, such as run out.
What is a wide?
A ball bowled too wide of the batter to hit. It adds one run and is bowled again.
What is the difference between byes and leg byes?
Both are extras. Byes are runs when the ball misses everything. Leg byes are runs after the ball hits the batter's body but not the bat.
What is a powerplay in cricket?
A period at the start of limited-overs innings when fielding restrictions apply, allowing only a few fielders outside the inner circle.
What is the follow-on rule?
In a Test or first-class match, the leading team may ask the other side to bat again if it leads by a set margin, such as 200 runs in a five day match.
What is a super over?
A one-over eliminator to settle a tied limited-overs match. Each team bats one over with up to two wickets, and the higher score wins.
What is DRS in cricket?
The Decision Review System. Teams can challenge an umpire's decision, and technology such as ball tracking and Snicko is used to check it.
What does umpire's call mean?
When a review is too close to overturn, the original on-field decision stands. It applies to marginal ball tracking results.
Scoring and numbers
How is net run rate calculated?
Net run rate is a team's average runs scored per over minus its average runs conceded per over across the tournament.
What is the DLS method?
Duckworth Lewis Stern is a system that sets a fair revised target when rain shortens a limited-overs match, based on overs and wickets remaining.
How do you calculate strike rate?
Strike rate for a batter is runs divided by balls faced times 100.
How do you calculate economy rate?
Economy rate for a bowler is runs conceded divided by overs bowled.
How do you calculate batting average?
Batting average is total runs divided by the number of times the batter was dismissed.
How do you calculate bowling average?
Bowling average is runs conceded divided by wickets taken.
How do you calculate required run rate?
Required run rate is runs still needed divided by overs remaining, or runs needed times six divided by balls left.
What is a maiden over?
An over in which the batting side scores no runs off the bat and no wides or no-balls are bowled.
What is a hat-trick in cricket?
A bowler taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries.
What is a duck?
A batter being dismissed without scoring. A golden duck means out on the first ball faced.
How do you read a cricket scorecard?
Read the batting table for runs, balls and strike rate, then the bowling table for overs, runs and wickets, then the fall of wickets and extras.
Formats and pitches
What is the difference between T20, ODI and Test cricket?
T20 is 20 overs a side and lasts about three hours. ODI is 50 overs a side. A Test lasts up to five days with two innings for each team.
Why do Test matches take five days?
Each team bats up to twice and must be bowled out, so the format needs time to produce a result.
What is a draw in cricket?
A match that ends with no result because time runs out before a team wins. It can happen in Tests and first-class games.
What types of pitch are there?
Green, flat, dry and dusty, slow and bouncy pitches each favour different players, such as seamers or spinners.
Why does the ball swing?
Swing comes from the ball's shiny and rough sides, the seam angle and the air conditions. Bowlers keep one side polished to help it move.
What is reverse swing?
Swing in the opposite direction to normal, usually with an older, rougher ball, and often at high speed.
What is spin bowling?
Bowling where the ball turns off the pitch because of how the bowler grips and releases it. Off spin turns into a right-hander and leg spin turns away.
Fielding and positions
What are the fielding positions in cricket?
Common positions include slip, gully, point, cover, mid-off, mid-on, midwicket, square leg and fine leg, set relative to the batter.
What does a wicketkeeper do?
The wicketkeeper stands behind the stumps to catch the ball, take stumpings and run outs, and help the captain read the game.
What is the role of the captain?
The captain sets the field, changes bowlers, chooses the batting order and makes decisions at the toss and on declarations.
What is the batting order?
The order in which a team's batters go in. Openers face the new ball and finishers come in late to score fast.
Using Crease
How often do live scores update on Crease?
Live scores refresh about every 8 to 15 seconds. Daily stats refresh about every minute.
What is the Daily Stat Drop?
A page that adds up every match of the day: top run scorers, best bowling figures, sixes and the biggest totals.
Does Crease have betting or predictions?
No. Crease deliberately has no betting content.
Is Crease free?
Yes. Live scores, stats and guides are free to read.
Can I install Crease on my phone?
Yes. It is a web app you can add to your home screen from your phone browser.