US has a Cricket team?!?!? Well they do and they just upset #5 ranked Pakistan

How to turn baseball into cricket, as I understand it

1) Remove first base and third base.

2) Push up the batters box/home plate area to about halfway between the pitchers mound and second base.

3) Second base and the pitchers rubber are merged, and pushed up to about between second base and where a centerfielder would normally stand. There is no "mound" - everything is flat

4) Both of these areas are now identical - during the match there is frequent switching of the pitcher side and batters side

5) No foul territory. There are boundaries, not marked by walls, but these "liners" like what they used to (or mabye still) use for impromptu street hockey. The field is mostly circular, although maybe somewhat oval shaped with the direction of batting/pitching somewhat longer. Like baseball there are min/maxes for the field dimensions, but the only thing standardized in the dimensions batting/pitching areas

6) Where the catcher would roughly be (behind home plate) there are three sticks in the ground, joined at the top. This is called the wicket - the sticks themselves are called stumps

7) No fielder is allowed to wear gloves, not even thin ones, except the "wicket keeper" - equivalent to the baseball catcher.

8) The batters on the other hand, are wearing some serious body armor - so if cricket enthusiasts called baseball players donut holes for using gloves for fielding, throw that back at them.

10) If the pitcher (bowler) strikes the wicket with a legal delivery the batter (batsman) is out. This is called. "bowl out" (I believe, or being "bowed out"), like a "strike out" in baseball

11) However if he misses the wicket, without hitting the batter, its called. "no ball" and the team automatically gets a point. So you have something like "balls and strikes", and you can start to see why cricket scores get so high :)

12) The pitcher (called bowler) is now allowed to (and always does) run up to deliver the pitch However, he/she has to delivery with whats called "stiff arm" (no elbow movement - although there is some disagreement as to how exactly stiff the arm actually is ). Baseball had a rule like this at certain points in the 19th century

13) During the delivery ball doesn't actually have to hit the ground first, but in practice cricket bowlers always do this because it makes it harder to hit.

14) The batters box is enlarged to include where home plate would essentially be. The top of this line is called the "popping crease" The wicket is roughly where the catcher would stand.

15) Unlike baseball, the batsman is allowed to stand wherever in this area, and usually they stand very close to the line between the bowler and the wicket. Because its "one strike you're out" they do their utmost to prevent the ball from striking the wicket, even if the ball is only weakly hit. This concept is similar to baseball "defending the strike zone" (by fouling off pitches which they can't hit well)

16). However if they get hit with the ball (anywhere except their bat), they are also out - the complete opposite of baseball where they are awarded a base (if they are within the batters box). This is called "leg before wicket".

17) The above two rules are why you see a wider variety of swing techniques in cricket, much more varied than baseball (where typically, players are either mashing the ball as hard as they can or more rarely, bunting)

18) There is always another runner in the opposite area. It somewhat like the recent "automatic runner on second base" rule in baseball extra innings. They have to carry their bat with them.

19) If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it touches the ground, the batsman is out

20) If the ball is hit in the air, and out of play, its worth six points - called a "sixer" This is crickets version of a "home run".

21) If the ball hits the ground first, and then reaches the boundary, its worth four points. Somewhat like the "ground rule double" in baseball.

22) If the ball hits the ground first and doesn't reach the boundary, the batsman may elect (but does not have to) run to opposite popping crease in an attempt to score. Unlike baseball where they are obligated to do that. The runner on the other end must also similarly reach the batter's popping crease in order to score. They can try to do this as many times as possible before the defense is able to make a play.

23) If an attempt to advance to the other popping crease, the defender is able to strike the wicket with the ball before the runner reaches the popping, that runner is out. This is called being "run out". This may be the batsman, or it may be the runner who was not batting. This equivalent to a "force out" in baseball - I do not believe there is an equivalent to "tag out"

24) Depending on the match type, the batsman keeps batting until they are out, or they are the last batter and the runner is out - they can score as many points as they can.

25). A certain number of legal deliveries by the bowler is called an "over". After a certain number of "overs", the bowler and batsman switch sides. In "limited overs" cricket, the batter is automatically dismissed after a certain number of overs. In "test" cricket, there is no limit to the overs per batsman. These matches are very long - frequently taking all day. A popular form of limited overs cricket is called "twenty twenty" and the length of the match is comparable to an MLB game (two to three hours0

26). A team will field all of its batters (10) until all of them are out. This is called an "innings" equivalent to a "half inning" in baseball. Although there are 11 players per side, since you need a runner once there 10 dismissals the innings ends

27) Depending on the match type (test, twenty-twenty, etc.), there are only one or two innings.

28) Subs are rare, and pretty much only for injuries. This is very different than in baseball where you see a parade of relief pitchers, and pinch hitters/pinch runners used later in the games. Typically there is at least one other fielder who can also bowl. You will see this rarely in the MLB late in games that are out of reach for the losing team in order to save relief pitchers.