Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team (the striker and nonstriker) stand in front of either wicket holding bats, with one player from the fielding team (the bowler) bowling the ball towards the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each exchange. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches or crosses the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.
England easily won the initial three-match One Day International (ODI) series, retaining the Texaco Trophy and raising expectations for a successful summer in the five-match Test series to follow. However, the West Indies comfortably retained the Wisden Trophy by winning the Test series 4–0. The players of the Test series were Malcolm Marshall for West Indies for his 35 wickets and Graham Gooch for England, who scored 459 runs and ended the summer as captain.
Denis Compton was one of England's top batsmen between 1940 and 1959, scoring over 5,000 runs. International cricket, which had been suspended since 1939 due to the Second World War, resumed in 1946. From then until the end of 1959, the England cricket team, which represented England, Scotland and Wales in Test cricket, played 115 Test matches, resulting in 45 victories, 39 draws and 31 defeats. During this period, England faced Pakistan for the first time, when they toured England in 1954. During that tour, they became the first team to win a Test match on their first visit to England. England were the dominant team in international cricket during the 1950s; they did not lose a Test series between March 1951 and December 1958, and featured an array of stars such as Colin Cowdrey, Denis Compton, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham and Jim Laker.
England faced Australia most frequently during this period—playing 35 matches against them—followed by South Africa. England won more matches than they lost against India, New Zealand and South Africa, but against Australia they won seven and lost seventeen Ashes matches, while against the West Indies they won six and lost seven. They faced newcomers Pakistan in just four matches, winning one, losing one and drawing the others. England won 16 matches by an innings, with their largest victory being by an innings and 248 runs against New Zealand in 1958. Their largest victory by runs alone during this period was in 1956–57 against South Africa, when they won by 312 runs, while they won by ten wickets on four occasions. Conversely, England suffered their largest ever defeat, losing to Australia by an innings and 332 runs during the 1946–47 Ashes series. (Full article...)
Dennis Lillee is a former Australiancricketer who took 24 five-wicket hauls during his career in international cricket. A five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and fewer than 40 bowlers have taken more than 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. A fast bowler who represented the Australian cricket team between 1971 and 1984, Lillee was described by one writer as "the heart of Australia['s] bowling attack for more than a decade" and was rated "the outstanding fast bowler of his generation" by the BBC. He was the first bowler to capture 350 Test wickets and held the record for almost two years before Ian Botham surpassed the feat. Lillee was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1973 and the South African Cricket (Annual) Cricketer of the Year three years later. The International Cricket Council (ICC) inducted him into its Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
Lillee made his Test debut during the sixth Test of the 1970–71 Ashes series where he claimed a five-wicket haul on debut. He was subsequently selected for the 1972 tour of England and took a pair of five-wicket hauls for the first time in a single match during the final Test of the same series. He ended the series with 31 wickets at an average of 17.67. He went on to claim five-wicket hauls in both innings of a Test match on three more occasions. Lillee's career-best figures for an innings were 7 wickets for 83 runs against the West Indies in 1981. He was most successful against England with eleven five-wicket hauls against them, and was most effective at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he took seven of his twenty three five-wicket hauls. When Lillee retired from Test cricket in 1984, he had taken ten or more wickets in a match on seven occasions. (Full article...)
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Batool Fatima has taken the most Test cricket dismissals for Pakistan. A women's Test match is an international four-innings cricket match held over a maximum of four days between two of the ten leading cricketing nations. The first women's Test was played between England and Australia in 1934. As of 2014, the Pakistan women's team have played three Test matches since their first appearance in 1998, against Sri Lanka at the Colts Cricket Club. Pakistan have lost two matches, while one resulted in a draw. Twenty women have played Test matches for Pakistan.
As of 2014, four players have made the most appearances for Pakistan in Women's Test cricket, playing in all the three matches. Five players have appeared in two matches each, and eleven have played in one match each. Shaiza Khan has captained the side in all the three matches. Kiran Baluch has scored the most runs in total, making 360 from 6 innings. Her score of 242, made against West Indies in March 2004, is the highest total by any batsman in Women's Test cricket as of 2014. Khan has taken more wickets than any other Pakistani bowler in this format of the game, dismissing 19 batsmen over 3 matches. She has the best bowling figures in an innings among Pakistani bowlers, 7 wickets for 59 runs. Her 13 wickets for 226 runs in a match is the best performance by any bowler in the format. Khan, Urooj Mumtaz, and Batool Fatima have taken the most catches with three each. Fatima holds the record for the most Test cricket dismissals for Pakistan with five. (Full article...)
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Mitchell Johnson has taken fifteen five-wicket hauls in international cricket.
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and as of September 2014 only 42 bowlers have taken 15 or more five-wicket hauls at the international level. Mitchell Johnson—a left-arm fast bowler—is a former Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricketer who represented Australia. Johnson took 264 wickets in Test matches, 212 wickets in ODIs and 38 wickets in T20Is. With 15 five-wicket hauls across all formats of the game, he ranks equal thirty-ninth among all-time combined five-wicket haul takers, and ninth in the equivalent list for Australia.
Johnson made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 2007. His first five-wicket haul came against New Zealand during the first Test of the 2008–09 series at the Gabba. His 5 wickets for 39 runs in the second innings raised his tally to 9 wickets for the match. Australia won the match by 149 runs and his performance earned him the man-of-the-match award. His best bowling figures for an innings are 8 wickets for 61 runs against South Africa in 2008. In Test matches, Johnson was most successful against England, taking 5 of his 12 five-wicket hauls against them. (Full article...)
Cook made his Test debut against India at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur in 2006. He became the sixteenth English cricketer to score a century on Test debut when he scored 104 in the second innings. His score of 294, against the same team at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham, in 2011, is the sixth highest total by an English batsman in Test cricket. Cook has scored Test centuries at 24 cricket grounds, including 17 outside England. He has scored centuries against all eight Test opponents the team has played and scored the most centuries (seven) against India. In May 2015, Cook became England's all-time leading run scorer in Tests, when he went past Graham Gooch's tally of 8900 runs. As of September 2018[update], he ranks equal tenth among players with most Test centuries, and top of the equivalent list for England. His 38 centuries across all formats is the highest by an English cricketer. (Full article...)
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New Zealand (pictured in 2009) have been involved in ten Twenty20 Internationals tied matches. A Twenty20 International (T20I) is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having T20I status, as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and is played under the rules of Twenty20 cricket. The first such match was played between Australia and New Zealand on 17 February 2005. A Twenty20 International can have three possible results: it can be won by one of the two teams, it could be tied, or it could be declared to have "no result". For a match to finish as a tie, both teams must have scored the same number of runs. The number of wickets lost is not considered. Although such matches are recorded as ties, a tiebreak is usually played; prior to December 2008, this was a bowl-out, and since then it has been a Super Over.
The first tied T20I occurred in 2006, between New Zealand and the West Indies. Hosted at Eden Park in Auckland, it was the fifth T20I. The crowd had started to leave the stadium, disappointed with the result, when the bowl-out was announced; the 2007 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack reported that "suddenly the evening took a madcap turn." The next tie, involving India and Pakistan, happened during the group stages of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. India won the resulting bowl-out, and were awarded two points, the equivalent of a win. In October 2008, the tie between Canada and Zimbabwe was the final international match to be decided by a bowl-out; Zimbabwe won 3–1. Two months later, New Zealand and the West Indies took part in the first Super Over in an international. The West Indies won the eliminator by scoring 25 runs in their extra over, compared to New Zealand's 15. (Full article...)
AB de Villiers is a former South African cricketer who captained the national team between 2012 and 2017. A right-handed batsman, he scored 47 centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings)—22 in Tests and 25 in ODIs—over his playing career. He reached the top of the ICC Test batting rankings in March 2012.
De Villiers made his Test debut in December 2004 against England, scoring 28 and 15. He made his first Test century the following month, scoring 109 in the drawn fifth Test at Centurion. His first double-century came in April 2008 against India when he scored 217 not out in a man-of-the-match performance in Ahmedabad. He has scored 22 Test centuries and holds the record for the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman, with 278 not out against Pakistan. De Villiers has the fourth-highest number of centuries in Tests for South Africa. (Full article...)
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Shaun Pollock, top run scorer in the history of the Afro-Asia Cup A One Day International, or an ODI, is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having ODI status, as determined by the International Cricket Council. An ODI differs from Test matches in that the number of overs per team is limited, and that each team has only one innings.
Designed as a fund-raiser for the African Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council, the Afro-Asia Cup debuted in 2005 and a second series was played in 2007. The list is arranged in the order in which each player won his first ODI cap for the African XI. Where more than one player won his first ODI cap in the same match, those players are listed alphabetically by surname. All the players have represented their respective member teams of the ICC at either Test or ODI level, but only the records of their games for the ACA African XI are listed. (Full article...)
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In cricket, a batsman reaches a triple century if they score 300 or more runs in a single innings. The Ranji Trophy is the premier first-class cricket championship played in India. Conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, it was founded in 1934 as "The Cricket Championship of India". As of January 2020[update], a triple century has been scored on 46 occasions by 41 different batsmen in the Ranji Trophy.
Strauss made his Test cricket debut at the age of 27 after being called into the team to replace the injured Michael Vaughan. He scored a century in the first innings of the match, played against New Zealand at Lord's, his county home ground for Middlesex. In the second innings of the match he missed out on becoming the first England batsman to score centuries in both innings of his Test debut when he was run out on 83. His second Test century came in the first match of the series against the West Indies two months later, and was also scored at Lord's. The following English winter, Strauss scored three centuries during the Test series in South Africa, earning him the man of the series accolade, and high praise from Allan Donald, who said he had "never seen any visiting player bat as well, with so many match-winning performances". In 2008, he passed 150 for the first time in Test cricket, scoring 177 against New Zealand at McLean Park, Napier. The innings, his highest in Test cricket, is also the only time he has scored a Test century when not playing as an opening batsman for England. Strauss was named as England captain in 2009, and responded by passing 140 four times during the year, hitting centuries in three subsequent Tests against the West Indies, and scoring his highest total during an Ashes series against Australia, reaching 161 at Lord's. After a series of low scores, Strauss scored a century against the West Indies in the first match of the 2012 series, his first in a year and a half. (Full article...)
Sangakkara made his Test debut against South Africa in July 2000. He scored his maiden Test century in 2001, against India, and his first double-century during the 2002 Asian Test Championship final against Pakistan. Sangakkara's highest score in Test cricket is 319, which he scored against Bangladesh in 2014. During his innings of 287 against South Africa in 2006, he and Mahela Jayawardene set a new world record of 624 runs for the highest partnership for any wicket in Test or first-class cricket. In the following year, he scored back-to-back double-centuries against Bangladesh, the fifth instance of successive double-centuries in Test cricket. He has scored 200 or more runs in a Test match on eleven occasions, surpassing Brian Lara, who has scored 200 or more runs in a Test match on nine occasions; only Donald Bradman (12 double-centuries) has done so more often. He became the ninth batsman and second Sri Lankan to score centuries against all Test-playing nations in December 2007, when he scored 152 against England. He was appointed captain of the Sri Lanka team in March 2009, following the resignation of Mahela Jayawardene, and the first of his seven Test centuries as captain came against Pakistan in July of the same year. Sangakkara has the second-highest batting average—69.60 per innings—for a captain who scored a minimum of 1,500 runs. (Full article...)
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Mark Waugh holds the record for the third-highest number of international centuries for Australia. Mark Waugh is a former Australian cricketer who scored centuries (100 or more runs) in Test and One Day International (ODI) matches organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Described by ESPNcricinfo writer John Polack as "one of the world's most elegant and gifted strokemakers", he played most of his career under the captaincy of his older twin-brother Steve Waugh. Waugh represented Australia in 128 Test matches and 244 ODIs between 1988 and 2002, scoring 20 and 18 centuries respectively. He was primarily a batsman who played as an opener in ODIs, while normally at number four in Tests.
Waugh made his Test debut against England at the Adelaide Oval in January 1991, scoring a century; he became the fifteenth player from Australia to score a hundred on debut when he made 138 in the innings. He ended the season with one more century, aggregating 554 runs at an average of 61.55. Following his performances, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack named him as one of their five Cricketers of the Year the same year. Waugh was instrumental in Australia's victory in the 1995 Frank Worrell Trophy against the West Indies when he made 126 in the deciding game. His highest score of 153 not out was achieved against India during the third Test of the 1998 Border–Gavaskar Trophy in Bangalore. In Tests, Waugh was most successful against England scoring six centuries. As of September 2024, his position is eleventh in the list of Test century-makers for Australia. (Full article...)
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MS Dhoni holds the record of most matches and wins as a captain in the IPL
In cricket, a captain is a player who leads the team and has additional roles and responsibilities. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional league for Twenty20 cricket in India, which has been held annually since its first edition in 2008.
In the 17 seasons played till 2024, 70 players have captained their team in at least one match. Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma and Chennai Super Kings's MS Dhoni are the most successful captains with five IPL titles each. Dhoni also holds the records for most matches (226) and most wins (133) as a captain. Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, and Steven Smith are the only players to have captained three different teams. Shreyas Iyer is the only captain to have led two different sides to the finals of the IPL. (Full article...)
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Sanath Jayasuriya has the most centuries (28) for Sri Lanka in ODIs.
Sanath Jayasuriya is a Sri Lankan cricketer and former captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He is an all-rounder and opening batsman, and is known for his aggressive batting style that has earned him the name "Master Blaster". His batting style introduced a new strategy to the game during the 1996 World Cup, where he and fellow opener Romesh Kaluwitharana batted highly aggressively in the early overs using fielding restrictions to their advantage. This later became a standard opening batting strategy and, according to Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath, Jayasuriya "changed everyone's thinking about how to start innings". As a result of his performances, Jayasuriya was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997, despite not having played in the previous English cricketing season. He scored 42 centuries in Test and One Day International (ODI) games, but was not able to score a century in a Twenty20 International match, where his highest score is 88.
Although Jayasuriya made his Test debut in 1991, it was not until 1996 that he scored his first century, when he had become a regular player in the Sri Lankan side. His career high of 340 against India in August 1997 was the highest score by a Sri Lankan cricketer until 2006 and is also part of the highest team total (952/6) made in Test cricket. He has also scored two double centuries; 213 against England and 253 against Pakistan. His 157 against Zimbabwe in 2004 is the second fastest century by a Sri Lankan player. Jayasuriya, having scored centuries against every Test playing nation except New Zealand and the West Indies, retired from Test cricket in 2007 with 14 to his name. (Full article...)
Kirsten made both his Test and ODI debuts against Australia in December 1993. He made his first Test century in November 1995, when he scored 110 against England. A year later Kirsten made centuries in both innings of a Test when he scored 102 and 133 in the second Test of the 1996–97 series against India. He achieved his highest Test score in 1999, when he made 275 against England in Durban. In an attempt to prevent South Africa from losing the match, he batted for almost 14 hours, spread across the last three of the match's five days. The innings remains the second-longest by any batsman in Test cricket in terms of time span, behind an innings of over 16 hours recorded by Hanif Mohammad for Pakistan in 1958. His most prolific series was against England in 2003, when he made 462 runs at an average of 66.00 including two centuries. His accomplishments with the bat during the season led to him being named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year the following year. As of June 2015, Kirsten is joint fourth in the list of leading Test century-makers for South Africa with AB de Villiers, and his total of three double centuries for the team is exceeded only by the four recorded by Graeme Smith. He scored centuries against all nine other teams which held Test match status at the time, and was the first player to score a hundred against every other active Test-playing nation. (Full article...)
The following are images from various cricket-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1A 1793 American depiction of "wicket" being played in front of Dartmouth College. Wicket likely came to North America in the late 17th century. (from History of cricket)
Image 2A Game of Cricket at The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent's Park, depiction by unknown artist, c. 1790–1799 (from History of cricket)
Image 4In men's cricket the ball must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (155.9 and 163 g) and measure between 8.81 and 9 in (22.4 and 22.9 cm) in circumference. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 6A wicket consists of three stumps, upright wooden poles that are hammered into the ground, topped with two wooden crosspieces, known as the bails. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 7 First Grand Match of Cricket Played by Members of the Royal Amateur Society on Hampton Court Green, August 3rd, 1836 (from History of cricket)
Image 8Photograph of Miss Lily Poulett-Harris, founding mother of women's cricket in Australia. (from History of women's cricket)
Image 9Afghan soldiers playing cricket. Afghan refugees in Pakistan brought the sport back to Afghanistan, and it is now one of the most popular sports in the country. (from History of cricket)
Image 10New articles of the game of cricket, 25 February 1774 (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 11Broadhalfpenny Down, the location of the first First Class match in 1772 is still played on today (from History of cricket)
Image 13Plaquita, a Dominican street version of cricket. The Dominican Republic was first introduced to cricket through mid-18th century British contact, but switched to baseball after the 1916 American occupation. (from History of cricket)
... that Alex Horton made his Twenty20 cricket debut for Glamorgan despite no actual play being possible due to rain?
... that the relatively low standards of player selection for Somerset County Cricket Club in 1883 have been described as being "determined with a nod and a wink over drinks"?
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket, and produces team rankings for the various forms of cricket played internationally.
Test cricket is the longest form of cricket, played up to a maximum of five days with two innings per side.
Matches is the number of matches played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus half the number in the 24 months before that. See points calculations for more details.