Cricket rules and facts section on GameCricket.com-a set of answers to all those who asked the question - "What are the rules of cricket?"

The following compilation of rules is a response to all newcomers to cricket who have written to gamecricket.com asking for cricket rules

Cricket rules- The most basic rules of cricket

The cricket team that scores more runs is the winner. The cricket rules indicate that in test cricket, each team has two innings to score runs, in one day international cricket and Twenty20 cricket, each cricket team has only one inning to score runs. cricket rules suggest that for one day internationals and Twenty20 cricket games the overs are limited to 50 overs and 20 overs respectively

cricket rules state that in case both teams score the same number of runs (cumulative runs in both innings for test cricket and runs in the one inning for one day international and Twenty20 cricket, then the cricket match ends in a "tie". Typically, the official cricket rules state that the wickets lost by the teams is not considered for a "tied" cricket match

Cricket rules for teams

The cricket rules indicate that there are two cricket teams with 11 players each. Except for a brief period in one day international cricket, where a substitute cricket player could replace one of the existing cricket players in the team,the rules of cricket have been fairly uniform and allow exactly 11 players in team. The rules of cricket,however do allow a cricket player to be substituted by another player only for fielding- the cricket substitution rule does not apply to batting and bowling,but only fielding

Cricket rules for one day international cricket

The cricket rules for one day international cricket indicate that each cricket team gets 50 overs (each with 6 balls) to score as many runs as possible.If rain interrupts play, the Duckworth-Lewis cricket rules apply, a complicated set of cricket rules to provide the alternate number of overs and the new target for the cricket team batting second in an one day international cricket match

Cricket rules for Twenty20 cricket matches

Cricket rules for this latest innovation in cricket-Twenty20 cricket internationals- mention that there are 20 overs (each over has 6 balls( for each cricket team

Cricket rules for bowlers

Per cricket rules,the bowler(similar to the pitcher in baseball) delivers the ball,overam,without bending the elbow. "Throwing" or "chucking" the ball is illegal as per cricket rules, and a recent addition to the rules of cricket, provides additional clarification to the legal bowling action cricket rule.

The latest cricket rule clarifies that the arm can be bent at a maximum angle of 15 degrees while bowling. This quantitative clarification to this difficult cricket rule has helped make better decisions on legal bowling actions. The earlier bowling rule used to rely on the ability of the umpire to visually judge a legally bowled delivery and to call

The bowler "no-ball" cricket rule indicates that the bowler should not "overstep" the front line of the bowling crease (the specific bowling rule states that some part of the bowlers' foot needs to be behind the line

The bowling "wide" cricket rule demands that the ball needs to be bowled within the reach of the batsmen, allowing the batsman to at least get a chance to touch the ball. The "wide" cricket rule is rather more strict in one day cricket internationals and Twenty20 cricket matches compared to test cricket matches

Cricket Rules for batsmen

The cricket rules for batsmen mention that for a one day international and a Twenty20 cricket match, each batsman can bat only once until he is out,while in test matches,the batsman can bat twice,once in each innings. The batsman(similar to the batter in baseball) tries to hit the ball to score runs.

Cricket Rules for fielders

The cricket rules for fielders indicate that "a legal catch" means that the batsman is out,except on a "no-ball".

The cricket rules are not specific about the boundary lengths in a cricket ground,as a result there is wide variance in the boundaries in a cricket ground. The cricket grounds in Australia tend to be bigger than the ones in the subcontinent and the cricket grounds in England tend to be very small

Cricket Rules for the toss in a cricket match

The cricket rule governing the toss is very simple-The captain of the team winning the toss choses to bat or bowl first

Cricket rules for runs

The rules of cricket to gather runs are similar to baseball-the batsmen, after hitting the ball, can run to the opposite end (equivalent of running to next base in baseball) in order to gather runs. If the ball reaches the boundary rope , he gets four runs. If the ball directly crosses the boundary without bouncing, he gets six runs (the equivalent of a baseball home run)

Another crucial rule of cricket runs is that if the fielder catches the ball and moves past the boundary before getting complete control of the ball, its not out and declared to be six runs

Cricket rules for common ways of getting out

The rules of cricket for the most ways of getting out (wickets)

• Cricket rules for getting out "Caught"-If a fielder catches the ball before it has hit the ground, the batsman is out caught
• Cricket rules for getting out "Runout"-While trying for a run,if the batsmen do not reach the opposite end before the fielded ball is thrown to the stumps, the batsman is runout.However, cricket rules are different from the rules of baseball, in the sense that to run out someone, the stumps have to be physically brought down by the thrown ball, or at least the bails have to be dislodged
• Cricket rules for getting out "Bowled"-If the ball bowled by the bowler directly hits the stumps,the batsman is out bowled.A "yorker" is when the ball is bowled at the base of the batsman's bat making it difficult for the batsman to get down to the ball,allowing the ball to hit the stumps and be bowled
• Cricket rules for getting out "Leg Before wicket"-If the ball hits the batsman on the pads on the way to the stumps,the batsman is out leg before wicket. The leg break cricket rule is the most controversial rule in cricket. The rules of cricket suggest that the batsman cannot be given out leg before wicket,if the ball is pitched outside the leg stump.There are other details in this complex cricket rule, a batsman can be given leg before wicket if the ball hits him outside the off stump, if he does not offer a stroke. However, if the batsman offers a stroke and tries to hit the cricket ball, he cannot be given out leg before wicket.
• Cricket rules for getting out "Hit-wicket"- If the bat of the batsman hits the stumps causing the bails to get dislodged, then the batsman is out "hit-wicket"