Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holding bats, while one player from the fielding team, the bowler, bowls the ball toward the striker’s wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker’s goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each of these swaps. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.
The fielding team aims to prevent runs by dismissing batters (so they are “out”). Dismissal can occur in various ways, including being bowled (when the ball hits the striker’s wicket and dislodges the bails), and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease line in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings (playing phase) ends and the teams swap roles. Forms of cricket range from traditional Test matches played over five days to the newer Twenty20 format (also known as T20), in which each team bats for a single innings of 20 overs (each “over” being a set of 6 fair opportunities for the batting team to score) and the game generally lasts three to four hours.
Traditionally, cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket, they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, which is a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a slightly raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core layered with tightly wound string.
The earliest known definite reference to cricket is to it being played in South East England in the mid-16th century. It spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, with the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game’s governing body is the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has over 100 members, twelve of which are full members who play Test matches. The game’s rules, the Laws of Cricket, are maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. The sport is followed primarily in South Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Southern Africa, and the West Indies.
Types of dismissal in Cricket
There are nine ways in which a batter can be dismissed: five relatively common and four extremely rare. When a batter is dismissed, they are said to have ‘lost their wicket’, and are barred from batting again in that inning; their team is also said to have ‘lost a wicket’. Once a team has lost 10 wickets, its innings is over.
The common forms of dismissal are bowled (when the striker fails to prevent a delivery from hitting their wicket), caught (when a ball struck by the bat is caught by a fielder before it hits the ground), leg before wicket ( lbw – when the striker’s body ‘unfairly’ prevents a delivery from hitting the wicket),run out (generally when the ball is thrown at a wicket by a fielder while the batters are running between the wickets), and stumped (a special type of run out involving the wicket-keeper and striker). Rare methods are hit wicket (a striker hitting their own wicket), hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, and timed out (a batter failing to enter the field in a timely manner). The Laws state that the fielding team, usually the bowler in practice, must appeal for a dismissal before the umpire can give their decision. If the batter is out, the umpire raises a forefinger and says “Out!”; otherwise, the umpire will shake their head and say “Not out”. There is, effectively, a tenth method of dismissal, retired out (self-dismissal – generally permanent except in cases of injury), which is not an on-field dismissal as such but rather a retrospective one for which no fielder is credited.
Playing area
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played on a cricket field between two teams of eleven players each, The field is usually circular or oval in shape, and the edge of the playing area is marked by a boundary, which may be a fence, part of the stands, a rope, a painted line, or a combination of these;the boundary must if possible be marked along its entire length the boundary must if possible be marked along its entire length. Each wicket is made of three wooden stumps topped by two bails. 
As illustrated, the pitch is marked at each end with four white painted lines: a bowling crease, a popping crease and two return creases. The three stumps are aligned centrally on the bowling crease, which is eight feet eight inches long. The popping crease is drawn four feet in front of the bowling crease and parallel to it; although it is drawn as a 12 ft (3.7 m) line (six feet on either side of the wicket), it is, in fact, unlimited in length. The return creases are drawn at right angles to the popping crease so that they intersect the ends of the bowling crease; each return crease is drawn as an 8 ft (2.4 m) line, so that it extends four feet behind the bowling crease, but is also, in fact, unlimited in length.