The game of cricket is played in the true spirit of sportsmanship. Cricket aims to develop a cultural integrity among all the playing nations. The Drill Field cricket matches take a small step towards achieving the true goals of cricket by inviting every single person who wants to play the game or learn about the game. People who just want to spend some time watching the game are also welcome. The basic principle of the game is to win by either outscoring or by restricting your opponent. A cricket match is played between two 11-player teams. A team captain is elected to represent the team. Just as in baseball, one side has to field, the other has to bat. The captains of both teams flip a coin to decide who is to bowl and who is to bat. The winner of the toss can choose to bat or bowl.
The team that bowls has all eleven players on the field. “Bowling” is new terminology for baseball fans; it is similar to pitching in baseball. The bowling team organizes its players into a formation that is best suited for the team. The aim of the fielding/bowling side is to stop the batsmen from scoring runs.
There can only be two batsmen at any given point of time during the game.
The batsmen, on the other hand, try to hit the ball into the field setup to score the maximum number of runs possible. If a batsman gets out then the next player from the team comes in to bat. All players on the team can bat.
The center of the ground where the action takes place is called the pitch. The pitch has two sets of stumps that indicate either end of the pitch.
An “over” is completed when the bowler bowls six valid balls or deliveries (valid in the sense that the Umpire should approve the delivery). A regular cricket match consists of fifty overs. This means that the side batting gets fifty overs on a stretch. The batsmen have to make the best use of all the overs that are to be bowled to score maximum runs. After a side or team has batted first it has to bowl.
An umpire acts as a referee who watches over the proceedings of the game. There are always two umpires involved on the ground, a third umpire who administers the game from the outside and a match referee who takes care of all proceedings involving the game, players and many other external issues involving the players.
A run is scored if the batsmen run and cross each other to the opposite end of the pitch when a delivery gets bowled. If the ball crosses the boundary that is set then it amounts to four runs. If the ball clears the boundary without hitting the ground then that amounts to six runs.
There are two innings involved in a match. The two innings per match rule is for a Limited Over Match (called the One Day International, ODI) that is a game that lasts only for a day. There exists another version of the game call the Test Match. This is played over five days. An inning is completed only when the bowling team gets the batsmen out. The test match consists of four such innings, two for each team. Play on each day comprises of ninety overs. It does not matter which team is bowling because it is cumulative calculation. All other rules are the same as in ODI.
The drill field cricket is a shorter version of the ODI. The number of overs is reduced to sixteen. This makes the game more exciting to play. It also offers a lot to the spectators because the action gets faster. The bowler and the batsman try to outsmart each other within a short period of time. The scoring and the rules applied are the ones that apply to the international matches. The matches are held on the weekends. There are two matches held in a day. There are some very good players who have represented their state in India who play on the drill field. The scores of matches that have been conducted in the recent tournament are available at www.msstate.edu/org/isa/activities. The schedules of matches are also posted on the site. The India Student Association encourages players to compete with teams from other universities also. This helps the students in getting to know new people from various parts of the world.
The India Student Association encourages everyone to attend, whether or not they know the game of cricket. The members of the India Student Association are willing to take any step that would be helpful to promote the game in the university. The association could also arrange for some tips on how to play the game. Any information or rules that are to be specific is available on www.cricinfo.com. There are a lot of rules that govern the game of cricket. A player should abide by the rules and play the game in the best of its spirit. There are specifications on the size of the bat, ball, stumps, length of the pitch and much more. All of the information can be gathered on the Web site mentioned above.