Contents

Introduction 4

pitch indications-5

Batting 7

batting basics-9

batting equipment-10

dismissals-13

batting milestones-15

common batting mistakes-16

bowling

bowling pace-22

spin bowling-23

bowling variations-24

bowling swing-28

umpiring signals-29

batting shots-30

introduction

Pitch Indications

batting crease

wide

lines

stumps

return crease

popping crease

bowling crease

cricket

Cricket is a sport played with a bat and and a ball, it

requires great skill and years of practice. Cricket has 3

forms T20,ODI and Test, some players have only mastered one type such as MS Dhoni and some people have mastered all 3. It is played by 2.5 billion people around the world in clubs and 120 million professionally internationally. It is the 2nd most popular sport in the world. This book will show you how to play cricket

Batting

Batting

Batting is the most important part of cricket, it is when a player has to score runs by either running between the wickets or getting boundaries.

Batting basics

During batting you must also protect your stumps while playing a variety of shots (see page 30 for shots to play). Some of the great T20 players of the world choose not to to play these shots and come up with their own. I personally think this is a good idea only in T20 though. There are 3 forms of the game with T20 being the shortest which lasts 20 overs and tests being being the longest with 4 innings spread across five days with no limit of over each team gets. I personally like T20 the best mainly because there is a lot of the action.

Batting equipment

While batting you must wear a variety of things such as a box ,helmet ,pads ,armguard ,chest

guard ,thigh pads whites , shoes and gloves. These are essential as they protect you from getting hurt. Some of these things are

optional such as the chest guard and the arm guard. However most players now wear the armguard because in the 2015 world cup Brendon McCullum was struck on the arm with no armguard by the world's fastest bowler Mitchell Starc with an 148kph ball.

Taking guard

v

Ask the umpire can I have a (middle , leg, off) guard?

When you are inline with your chosen stump mark it and put your toes on the mark.

Dismissals

bowled: This is the most common way to get out in cricket. It is when a batsman plays a shot but misses it completely and it goes on to hit his wickets.

caught: Being caught is when a batsman hits the ball up in the air and one of the opposition players catches it without any bounces

runout: When a batsman hits the ball and goes for a run but the fielder manages to throw it to the wicket

keeper before the batsman get back in his crease

obstructing the field: This is a very uncommon wicket. It is when a batsman obstructs the fielder from getting him out. This is so uncommon the last time it happened was in the 2015 world cup when England's Ben Stokes was ruled to have obstructed Mitchell Starc from running him out.

Double hitting:Double hitting is when a bowler delivers the ball and the batsman hits it twice in the process of defending his wickets.

Stumped: Getting stumped is when a ball is delivered and it goes

past the batsmen when he is out of his crease. The wicket keeper is quick enough to drag the ball onto the stumps when the batsman is still out of his crease.

lbw(leg before wicket):Lbw is when a bowler bowls a ball it comes of the pad without touching anything and it is in line with the wicket.

Timed out:Getting timed out is when there is another out and within 3 minutes of that out the batsman is not ready to face a ball.

Handling the ball:Handling the ball is when the batsman is delivered a ball and the he handles the ball to give to the bowler. Some umpires do not play this rule.

Batting milestones

Batting milestones occur when a batsman bats for a certain amount of time and achieves a certain amount of runs such as 50 and 100. These might seem very impressive but these are not what counts, lets take ODIS for an example. I might go in as an opener and get an 100 but if I get it off 200-250 balls that is not good. Especially if I have someone coming in behind me and there getting 50 of 30 balls. So this shows that you don't need a big score to win a match.

Common batting mistakes

Batsman will make mistakes from time to time and you may even notice professionals make mistakes in 1 or 2 areas so here are some possible mistakes that you can make:

Taking your eye of the ball: This is when a batsman doesn't concentrate on the ball and takes his eye off the pitch of it.

Lifting your head: This is when a batsman lifts their head slightly which cause him either to get an edge or

miss the ball.

getting caught on the crease: This is when a bowler bowls the ball and the batsman does not come out of his crease which usually causes him to hit the ball up in the air.

predicting shots: This is when a batsman predicts where the bowler is going to bowl and gets ready for a certain shot but they have to play a different shot which usually ends up with them getting caught

Bowling

Bowling

Bowling is a very big part in cricket. It is the part that takes the longest to master. I personally like it the most. It is when a bowler uses the ball with an action to make it move fast. Most bowlers stick with the same action for their whole life but some spinners chose to change their action at the age of 15-16. A bowlers main focus is to gain wickets in many different ways.

There are many ways of bowling such as pace, medium pace medium ,leg spin and more. There are also may different lengths in cricket such as yorker,full,good, short of good and short these are usually graphed like this.

yorker

full

good

short of good

short

Some bowlers have a set field according to where they are going to bowl. Some players like to have a close field. It is because they are looking for a miss hit. Some players have a very distributed field when players are trying to get boundaries or if they are getting smashed