This is Part 2 of Sports Explained, our 12-part series of simple guides to the rules of the sports Indians love. New here? Start with Part 1: Cricket Formats.
Cricket can look complicated at first, but its basic idea is simple: one team bats and tries to score runs, while the other bowls and fields, trying to get the batters out and stop runs.
The basics
- Each team has 11 players.
- Two batters are on the field at a time, one at each end of the 22-yard pitch.
- A bowler bowls an over of six legal balls, then a different bowler bowls from the other end.
- Batters score runs by running between the wickets, or with boundaries: four if the ball reaches the rope after bouncing, six if it clears it in the air.
- An innings ends when 10 batters are out, the overs run out, or the captain declares in Test cricket.
How a batter can be out
- Bowled: The ball hits the stumps and knocks off a bail.
- Caught: A fielder catches the ball off the bat before it touches the ground.
- LBW (leg before wicket): The ball hits the batter's body when it would have hit the stumps. See Part 3: LBW and DRS.
- Run out: A fielder breaks the stumps while the batter is out of the crease during a run.
- Stumped: The wicketkeeper breaks the stumps when the batter steps out of the crease and misses the ball.
- Hit wicket: The batter knocks the stumps with the bat or body while playing a shot.
- Hit the ball twice deliberately.
- Obstructing the field: Deliberately blocking a fielder, including handling the ball.
- Timed out: A new batter takes too long to be ready.
A batter can also be "retired out" by choosing to leave the field without permission to return.
Extras: runs not off the bat
- Wide: A ball too far from the batter to hit. One run, and the ball is bowled again.
- No-ball: Usually when the bowler oversteps the crease, or bowls a full toss above waist height. One run, the ball is bowled again, and in limited-overs cricket the next ball is a free hit, from which the batter cannot be out except in a few ways such as run out.
- Bye and leg bye: Runs taken when the ball misses the bat, or hits the body, and goes past the keeper.
- Penalty runs: Awarded for offences such as the ball hitting a fielder's helmet left on the ground.
Main fielding positions
- Wicketkeeper and slips: Behind the batter, waiting for edges.
- Gully and point: On the off side, square of the batter.
- Cover, mid-off and mid-on: In front of the batter, saving singles.
- Mid-wicket and square leg: On the leg side.
- Fine leg, third man, long-on and long-off: Near the boundary.
Now that you know the basics, see how the formats differ in Part 1: Cricket Formats.
Rules are explained as they stand in October 2026. Governing bodies update their rules regularly, so check the latest official regulations for any competition.
Next in the series: Part 3: LBW and DRS.
