User:Muhamad Umair/sandbox

Cricket Pollock to Hussey.jpg A bowler bowling to a batsman. The paler strip is the cricket pitch. The two sets of three wooden stumps on the pitch are the wickets. The two white lines are the creases. Highest governing body	International Cricket Council First played	18th century (modern version – see history) Characteristics Contact	No Team members	11 players per side (substitutes permitted in some circumstances) Mixed gender	yes, separate competitions Type	team sport, bat-and-ball Equipment	cricket ball, cricket bat, wicket (stumps, bails), various protective equipment Venue	cricket field Presence Country or region	Australasia, United Kingdom, Indian subcontinent, Southern Africa, Caribbean Olympic	No (1900 Summer Olympics only) Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket (a set of three wooden stumps) at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, whilst their opponents field. Each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a fixed number of overs have been completed, the innings ends and the two teams then swap roles. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, during their innings.

At the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The play begins when a member of the fielding team, known as the bowler, delivers the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, towards the wicket at that end, in front of which stands one of the batsmen, known as the striker. The striker "takes guard" on a crease drawn on the pitch four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball from hitting the stumps by use of his bat, and simultaneously to strike it well enough to score runs. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the opposite end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him. The bowler's objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler. The next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler.