Page:EB1911 - Volume 07.djvu/460

Rh batsman defending one wicket, but this has become obsolete, though it was very popular in the time when matches were played for money with only one or two, or perhaps four or five, players on a side. Matches between an unequal number of players are still sometimes arranged, but mainly in the case of local sides against touring teams, or “colts” playing against eleven experienced cricketers. In any case two umpires are always appointed, and for English first-class county cricket these are now annually chosen beforehand by the county captains. Two scorers are officially recognized. All the arrangements as to scoreboards, and accommodation for players, members of the club and general spectators, vary considerably according to local requirements. Between six and seven acres forms the most suitable area for a match, but the size of a cricket ground has never been defined by law.

The wickets are pitched opposite and parallel to one another at a distance of 22 yds.; the “bowling crease” being marked with whitewash on the turf on a line with the stumps 8 ft. 8 in. in length, with short “return creases” at right angles to it at each end; but the “popping crease,” marked parallel to the wicket and 4 ft. in front of it, is deemed of unlimited length. The captains of the opposing sides toss for choice of innings, and the winner of the toss, though occasionally, owing to the condition of the ground or the weather prospects, electing to put his adversaries in first, as a general rule elects for his own side to bat first. The captain of the batting side sends his eleven (or whatever the number of his team may be) in to bat in any order he thinks best, and much judgment is used in deciding what this order shall be. Two batsmen with strong defensive powers and good nerve are usually selected to open the innings, the most brilliant run-getters immediately following them, and the weakest batsmen going in last. As there must always, except in the obsolete single-wicket cricket, be two batsmen in together, it follows that when ten of the side (in a side of eleven) have been put out, one of the final pair must be “not out”; that is to say, his innings is terminated without his getting out because there is none of his side left to become his partner. The batsman who is thus “not out” is said to “carry his bat,” a phrase that recalls a period when two bats sufficed for the whole side, each retiring batsman leaving the implement on the ground for the use of his successor, till at the close of the innings the “not out” man carried it back to the tent or pavilion. As the phrase is not also applied to the last batsman to get out, who would of course have carried the second bat off the ground, it was possibly at one time restricted to a player who going in first survived through the whole innings. It should be observed that the term “wicket” is used by cricketers in a number of different senses. Besides being the name given to the set of three stumps with their two bails when pitched for a match, it is in an extended sense applied to that portion of the ground, also called the “pitch,” on which the stumps are pitched, as when it is described as being “a fast wicket,” a “sticky wicket” and so forth. It also in several idiomatic expressions signifies the getting out of a batsman and even the batsman himself, as in the phrases: “Grace lost his wicket without scoring,” “Grace went in first wicket down,” “when Grace got out England lost their best wicket,” “England beat Australia by two wickets.”

The umpires are required to decide questions arising in the course of play and to call the “overs,” the “over” being a series of successive deliveries of the ball (usually six) by the bowler from one end of the pitch, the rest of the “out” side, or fielders, being stationed in various positions in the field according to well-defined principles. When an “over” has been bowled from one end a different bowler then bowls an “over” from the opposite end, the alternation being continued without interruption throughout the innings, and the bowlers being selected and changed from time to time by the captain of their side at his discretion. At the end of every over the fielders “change over” or otherwise rearrange their places to meet the batting from the other end. An over from which no runs are made off the bat is called a “maiden.” A “run” is made when the two batsmen change places, each running from his own to the opposite wicket without being “run out.” The aim of the batting side is to make as many runs as possible, while the object of the fielding side is to get their opponents out, and to prevent their making runs while in.

There are nine ways in which the batsman, or “striker,” can be put out. Of these the following five are the most important. (1) The striker is “bowled” out if the bowler hits the wicket with the ball, when bowling, and dislodges the bail; (2) he is “caught” out if the ball after touching his bat or hand be held by any member of the fielding side before it touches the ground; (3) he is “stumped” out if the wicket-keeper dislodges the bail with the ball, or with his hand holding the ball, at a moment when the striker in playing at the ball has no part of his person or bat in contact with the ground behind the popping crease, i.e. when the batsman is “out of his ground”; (4) he is out “l.b.w.” (leg before wicket) if he stops with any part of his person other than his hand, or arm below the elbow, a ball which in the umpire’s judgment pitched straight between the wickets, and would have bowled the striker’s wicket; (5) if when the batsmen are attempting to make a run a wicket is put down (i.e. the bail dislodged) by the ball, or by the hand of any fieldsman holding the ball, at a moment when neither batsman has any part of his person or bat on the ground behind the popping crease, the nearer of the two batsmen to the wicket so put down is “run out.” The remaining four ways in which a batsman may be dismissed are (6) hit wicket, (7) handling the ball, (8) hitting the ball more than once “with intent to score,” and (9) obstructing the field.

The positions of the fieldsmen are those which experience proves to be best adapted for the purpose of saving runs and getting the batsmen caught out. During the middle of the 19th century these positions became almost stereotyped according to the pace of the bowler’s delivery and whether the batsmen were right or left handed. A certain number of fielders stood on the “on” side, i.e. the side of the wicket on which the batsman stands, and a certain number on the opposite or “off” side, towards which the batsman faces. “Point” almost invariably was placed square with the striker’s wicket some ten or a dozen yards distant on the “off” side; “cover point” to the right of “point” (as he is looking towards the batsman) and several yards deeper; “mid on” a few yards to the right of the bowler, and “mid off” in a corresponding position on his left, and so forth. Good captains at all times exercised judgment in modifying to some extent the arrangement of the field according to circumstances, but in this respect much was learnt from the Australians, who on their first visit to England in 1878 varied the positions of the field according to the idiosyncrasies of the batsmen and other exigencies to a degree not previously practised in England. The perfection of wicket-keeping displayed by the Australian, McCarthy Blackham (b. 1855), taught English cricketers that on modern grounds the “long stop” could be altogether dispensed with; and this position, which in former days was considered a necessary and important one, has since been practically abolished. In many matches at the present day, owing to the character of modern bowling, no more than a single fieldsman is placed on the “on” side, while the number and positions of those “in the slips,” i.e. behind the wicket on the “off” side, are subject to no sort of rule, but vary according to the nature of the bowling, the state of the ground, or any other circumstances that may influence the judgment of the captain of the fielding side. Charts such as were once common, showing the positions of the fielders for fast, slow and medium bowling respectively, would therefore to-day give no true idea of the actual practice; and much of the skill of modern captaincy is shown in placing the field.

The score is compiled by runs made by the batsman and by the addition of “extras,” the latter consisting of “byes,” “leg-byes,” “wides” and “no-balls.” All these are included in the designation “runs,” of which the total score is composed, though neither “wides” nor “no-balls” involve any actual run on the part of the batsmen. They are called by the umpire on his own