God of cricket

Batters take turns to bat via a batting order which is decided beforehand by the team captain and presented to the umpires, though the order remains flexible when the captain officially nominates the team.[64] Substitute batters are generally not allowed,[85] except in the case of concussion substitutes in international cricket.[73]

In order to begin batting the batter first adopts a batting stance. Standardly, this involves adopting a slight crouch with the feet pointing across the front of the wicket, looking in the direction of the bowler, and holding the bat so it passes over the feet and so its tip can rest on the ground near to the toes of the back foot.[101]

A skilled batter can use a wide array of ”shots ” or ”strokes ” in both defensive and attacking mode. The idea is to hit the ball to the best effect with the flat surface of the bats blade. If the ball touches the side of the bat it is called an ”edge ”. The batter does not have to play a shot and can allow the ball to go through to the wicketkeeper. Equally, he does not have to attempt a run when he hits the ball with his bat. Batters do not always seek to hit the ball as hard as possible, and a good player can score runs just by making a deft stroke with a turn of the wrists or by simply ”blocking ” the ball but directing it away from fielders so that he has time to take a run. A wide variety of shots are played, the batters repertoire including strokes named according to the style of swing and the direction aimed: e.g., ”cut ”, ”drive ”, ”hook ”, ”pull ”.[102]

The batter on strike (i.e. the ”striker ”) must prevent the ball hitting the wicket, and try to score runs by hitting the ball with his bat so that he and his partner have time to run from one end of the pitch to the other before the fielding side can return the ball. To register a run, both runners must touch the ground behind the popping crease with either their bats or their bodies (the batters carry their bats as they run). Each completed run increments the score of both the team and the striker.

The decision to attempt a run is ideally made by the batter who has the better view of the balls progress, and this is communicated by calling: usually ”yes ”, ”no ” or ”wait ”. More than one run can be scored from a single hit: hits worth one to three runs are common, but the size of the field is such that it is usually difficult to run four or more.

To compensate for this, hits that reach the boundary of the field are automatically awarded four runs if the ball touches the ground en route to the boundary or six runs if the ball clears the boundary without touching the ground within the boundary. In these cases the batters do not need to run.[104] Hits for five are unusual and generally rely on the help of ”overthrows ” by a fielder returning the ball.

If an odd number of runs is scored by the striker, the two batters have changed ends, and the one who was non-striker is now the striker. Only the striker can score individual runs, but all runs are added to the teams total.[103]

Additional runs can be gained by the batting team as extras (called ”sundries ” in Australia) due to errors made by the fielding side. This is achieved in four ways: no-ball, a penalty of one extra conceded by the bowler if he breaks the rules;[105] wide, a penalty of one extra conceded by the bowler if he bowls so that the ball is out of the batters reach;

bye, an extra awarded if the batter misses the ball and it goes past the wicket-keeper and gives the batters time to run in the conventional way;[107] leg bye, as for a bye except that the ball has hit the batters body, though not his bat.[107] If the bowler has conceded a no-ball or a wide, his team incurs an additional penalty because that ball (i.e., delivery) has to be bowled again and hence the batting side has the opportunity to score more runs from this extra ball.