ABOUT CRICKET MATCHES

CRICKET MATCHES

• International cricket games played over several days are known as test matches. The main countries which play are England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A test match usually lasts for 5 days, with each side playing two innings (usually the teams alternate the innings, but if the second team scores over 200 runs fewer than the first team it must follow on, playing its second innings directly after its first one). The winner is the side with the highest total score in both innings (play stops as soon as a team cannot be beaten, and the match is a draw if there is not enough time to finish the final innings). Usually 5 test matches are played, with the overall winner being the team which wins the most games.


• In one-day cricket each team has only one innings. Each team tries to score as many runs as possible in a limited number of overs (usually 50 overs). If two national teams are playing the game is called a one-day international or ODI. The Cricket World Cup is a one-day international competition which takes place once every 4 years: in 2007 it is in the Caribbean (the final is played in Barbados on 28 April 2007).


• The County Championship is an annual league competition between regional teams from England and Wales (teams are split into a first division and a second division and play each other in a series of two-innings games). The Friends Provident Trophy is a competition based on one-day cricket games. There is also the Twenty20 Cup. Twenty20 cricket is a recently created form of the game in which each team plays just 20 overs each. It lasts about 3 hours and is often played in the early evening.

1. County cricket match, Worcester

2. Practice in the nets

3. Lord's, St John's Wood, London

• Some of the main locations for test matches in the UK are at Lords (near St John's Wood underground station in London), the Oval (near the Oval underground station in London), Headingley (near Leeds), Old Trafford (near Manchester), Edgbaston (near Birmingham), Trent Bridge (near Nottingham) and Bristol.

• Every two years England play Australia in a contest known as the Ashes.
• In the summer of 2005 the competition was held in England, and England won the series 2-1.
• In December 2006 / January 2007 the Ashes series was played in Australia and Australia won 5-0.
• The next competition will be in England in summer 2009.