Cricket is an outdoor team game which originated in England and is a popular sport in the erstwhile colonies of British Empire like Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South America and the Indian subcontinent. To understand and enjoy the game one must be familiar with few common terms related to cricket.

Pitch - It is a twenty two yard length and ten meter wide solid patch in the centre of the cricket field where the action really happens. The diameter of the cricket field varies between 450 and 500 feet.

Wickets - Wickets are three stumps connected via two bails on top, placed on either end of the pitch . Wickets help to decide the dismissal of the batsman and also the line and length of the delivery by the bowler.

Team- Cricket team consist of eleven players. One is a wicket keeper and the rest depends upon the captain to select his team of batsman, fast bowlers and spinners depending on the opponent team and the pitch. Captain also has a major role in deciding the batting order as well as the setting of fielders during the match. There is twelfth man who replaces a player during the match in case of injury or any mishap.

Game - Cricket is played between two teams each consists of eleven players. One is the batting side and the other is the fielding side. There are two batsmen on the pitch at a time. The fielding side has one bowler, a wicket keeper, fielder just behind the wickets with pads, gloves and helmet on. The remaining nine fielders are scattered around the field at specific strategic locations where the batsman may hit the ball.

Umpire - A match referee is commonly referred as umpire in cricket. There are two umpires on the field and their decision is final. Recently hawk eye has been introduced, also known as third umpire for giving out critical decisions.

Runs - There are different ways to score runs, namely ones and twos by running between the wickets, hitting a four or a six across the boundary. If the bowler delivers a wrong ball then too the batting side gets an added run.

Over - It is a continuous six deliveries bowled by the bowler.If he delivers erroneously causing no ball or wide ball it add runs to the batting side.

Fast bowler - Also known as pace bowlers. In the twenty first century power play is evident in cricket as well. The best fast bowlers, Brett lee, Shoaib Akhtar and the earlier legends like Dennis Lillee and Malcolm Marshall are from Australia, West Indies and Pakistan.

Test Match - It is a five day match with two innings. Each team does batting and bowling twice. At present there are ten test playing nations. International Cricket council (ICC)gives the test status to different nations.

One Day Match -The game of cricket started with test matches but with time evolved to thrilling one day matches. The limited over one day match is exciting as well as result oriented. First team A bats for fifty overs, accumulates a certain score. Then after a short break team B bats to chase the score made by team A in fifty overs. One day match has added thrill to the game and enhanced the popularity and success of cricket across the world.

This is a brief overview of cricket terms for a novice to understand and enjoy the game of cricket.

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