Cricket is a game that has been long played and enjoyed by several teams across nations. New rivalries have emerged, and even certain historical issues have found their discourses mingled with cricket. The basic form of cricket began long back during British rule and introduced the game to the entire world. And since then, all formats of cricket evolved significantly.
The game consists of a bowler that bowls at the batsman standing on the other side of the pitch, and the fielders for the bowler’s team have to stop him from getting runs on the scoreboard. Soon, the game found huge popularity worldwide, and the names of famous cricket players became famous monikers.
Formats of Cricket | Detailed Explanation For Dummies
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Modern-day cricket has retained its posture in a post COVID world by maintaining a strong existence on fantasy game apps. These apps let the fans choose players according to their performance and even create their team. To know more about how this format of cricket is played online, you should download the game and get an experience of it.
Meanwhile, let us check out the detailed explanation of different formats of real cricket enjoyed worldwide.
Test Cricket
Test Cricket is one of the initial formats of cricket from which everything evolved into being. The game has the same rules where 11 players of each team are involved in a single game of cricket. Both sides are provided with two innings to perform to their level best, and eventually, the side with the maximum runs on the scoreboard wins the total game.
In the case of the side batting first, the runs they put up on the scoreboard must be a lot so that the opponents struggle during their innings to measure up to their share of points on the scoreboard. While the opponent is trying to get their points on the board, they must try to take out all of their wickets to seal the game for themselves.
If the defending side is supposed to be overcome, then the team chasing the total runs has to be fast in getting the best batsmen to grow their total runs and reach the target score while saving all the batsmen needed to finish the game.
In the present scenario, 12 teams play Test cricket, and it is a widely popular game format on the global scene. After the first-ever match between Australia and England drew large crowds and an amazing finale, other countries joined to make it an official participatory event.
Twenty 20 cricket
This format of cricket introduced a decade back has grown incredibly fast to the likes of players and fans equally. As the name mentions, each team in the game is offered twenty overs to play and score the maximum runs they can get. The first match that abided by these rules and initiated the format was played in 2005 between Australia and New Zealand.
The game takes very less time to complete and is favored by players as it supports their exceptional stamina levels, and they can put optimum energy into each performance on the field. The game rules are similar to the One Day International formats and the team with the highest score at the end of the day wins the game.
However, ties in the game are resolved with the help of Super Overs, where each team is provided with one over to score the maximum runs they can. The team that can score the higher runs in that single over wins the match.
The popularity of T20 has pulled some outwritten contenders of the game into the format because of its compact rules and worldwide acceptance by the fans.
One Day Internationals
According to the name, this game of cricket gets wrapped up within a day and is played only for limited overs. The teams playing consist of 11 players each, and both teams are allotted 50 overs for the batting side to score their runs. The winning team is decided based on the highest runs scored on the board. Since it is supposed to be conducted within a day, if the weather intervenes, a day is kept in reserve to accommodate the remaining overs of the match.
In ODIs, the Super Over form also exists if the scores are level at the end of the game. The format of the game has changed over time, but the core rules stay quite simple, which further invites large audiences to the game. It is wise to note that fans watch cricket games for entertainment, and the easier the gameplay, the more involved they get. The one-day format also allows more players to express their skills freely and promise a more thrilling game for cricket fans.
The Hundred
This brand new format of the game, much to the astonishment of long-running cricket fans, called the hundred, was introduced just after the COVID 19 pandemic subsided worldwide. It has gained immediate popularity because of its smaller format, much like T20, its other sibling.
As the name suggests, the game is played with each team being allotted a hundred balls to play against the opponent. The number of players has also been reduced to 8 for each team to make the game more compact. The game was introduced by the British, much like most other cricket games. The first edition took place in 2021, where the rules as showcased were completely different. The overs consisted of 10 balls rather than the usual six balls.
It is quite new to the world and would take longer to adjust than other cricket games, but it is bound to catch up because of the shorter format and drastic new upgrades in the rules.
Cricket has changed and developed over the years and given the fans more than they have desired. Fans have always loved cricket and mutated their changes with the many forms of the game. With over 12 players on the field and decisions changing every second, cricket has never provided a dull moment for the fans.
With the dawn of the new decade, the game seems to be adding and making considerable changes to get more youngsters interested in the game while keeping loyal to the old formats that first made people fall in love with the glorious 22 yards.