a summer sport played in England and some other Commonwealth countries between two teams of 11 players on a grass pitch . In England, it is played between April and September at many levels from informal games on the beach to matches between schools, villages and professional sides representing a county. Players traditionally play wearing white, although this is now being replaced in some competitions by coloured clothing.
Cricket is a complicated game played with wooden bats and a leather ball. Each team bats (= hits the ball) for an innings , trying to score runs , while the other team bowl (= throw the ball) and field (= try to catch or stop the ball after it has been hit). Their aim is to get the batsman out for as few runs as possible. Two batsmen are in (= on the pitch) at the same time, each defending a wicket (= three upright wooden posts with two short pieces of wood resting on top of them) which the bowler tries to hit. Each bowler in turn bowls an over (= throws six balls from the same end of the pitch). The two wickets are 22 yards apart and runs are scored when the batsmen run between them after they have hit the ball. A batsmen can also score four runs if he hits the ball over the boundary (= a line round the edge of the pitch) or six runs if it goes over the boundary before it hits the ground. A batsmen can be out for a variety of reasons and an innings usually ends when all but one of the batting team are out.
Matches may last for several days, though one-day and limited-over matches are popular. In England and Wales, 18 counties compete each year in two divisions in the county championship . They also compete in the Twenty20 Cup, a series of limited-over matches in which each team bowls 20 overs, which started in 2003. The English national team plays test matches against other national sides including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan and the West Indies and in the Cricket World Cup which takes place every four years. England and Australia also compete for the Ashes , a series of 5-day test matches.