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) 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.
He captained his county club, Durham County Cricket Club, for the final six seasons of his career. A batting all-rounder, whose batting combined natural strokeplay with great tenacity, Collingwood also bowled reliable medium pace. Described as a "natural athlete", he was regarded as one of the finest fielders of his time, usually fielding at backward point or at third or fourth slip in Tests; he also deputised as wicket-keeper for England. (Full article...)
De Silva debuted in 1984 and scored his first Test century in October 1985 against Pakistan. In a man-of-the-match performance, he scored 122 in an eight-and-a-half-hours innings. He made centuries in both innings of a match when he scored 138 and 103 – not out in both innings – in the second Test of the 1997 series against Pakistan, and , he is the only player to score unbeaten centuries in both innings of a Test. He repeated the feat of scoring centuries in both innings in the same year, when he scored 146 and 120 against India in another man-of-the-match performance. De Silva's highest Test score of 267, achieved in January 1991 in Wellington, was reached in 380 balls against New Zealand. The performance is the sixth-highest score by a Sri Lankan batsman in Test cricket. De Silva scored his twenty Test centuries against seven different opponents, and was most successful against Pakistan, making eight. , he is thirty-fourth in the international Test century-makers list, and third in the Sri Lankan list. (Full article...)
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The Kensington Oval, where Marshall took four of his five-wicket hauls, the most by any player at the ground Malcolm Marshall, a former right-arm fast bowler, represented the West Indies cricket team in 81 Tests between 1978 and 1992. In 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 only 41 bowlers have taken at least 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. In Test cricket, Marshall took 376 wickets, including 22 five-wicket hauls. The cricket almanack Wisden described him as "one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time", and named him one of their Cricketers of the Year in 1983. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as an inaugural member in January 2009. Mark Nicholas, a cricket commentator, once wrote that former Pakistancaptain, Imran Khan, "calls Malcolm the greatest of all fast bowlers".
Marshall made his Test debut in December 1978 against India at the Karnataka State Cricket Association Stadium, Bangalore. His first five-wicket haul came in March 1983 against the same team at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain; he took 5 wickets for 37 runs. In December 1984, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval, he took a five-wicket haul in both innings of a Test match for the first time. He repeated this feat once more in his career, against India at the Queen's Park Oval in April 1989. Marshall's career-best bowling figures for an innings were 7 wickets for 22 runs against England at Old Trafford, Manchester, in June 1988. He took 9 wickets for 41 runs in the match; West Indies won the match by an innings and 156 runs, and he was awarded man of the match for his performance. Marshall was most successful against Australia taking seven five-wicket hauls. He took ten or more wickets in a match on four occasions. (Full article...)
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The Sunrisers Hyderabad (often abbreviated as SRH) are a franchise cricket team based in Hyderabad, Telangana, that compete in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team is owned by Kalanithi Maran of the Sun TV Network who won the bid for the franchise at ₹850.5 million per year on a five-year deal in 2012 following the termination of the previous Hyderabad-based franchise, Deccan Chargers, from the IPL. Having made its first IPL playoffs appearance in its debut season in 2013, the team has qualified for the playoffs every year since the 2016 season. They have reached the finals twice, most recently during the 2018 season, and won their only title in the 2016 season after defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 runs in the Final.
In 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. Anil Kumble is a former Test and One Day International (ODI) cricketer who represented India. He is a right-arm leg spin (legbreakgoogly) bowler. Kumble has taken 619 wickets in Test cricket and 337 wickets in ODI cricket. With 37 five-wicket hauls, Kumble has the highest number of Test and combined international five-wicket hauls among Indian cricketers and fourth highest among all players, after Muttiah Muralitharan, Richard Hadlee, and Shane Warne.
Kumble made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka and his Test debut against England, both in 1990. His first five-wicket haul was against South Africa at Johannesburg (November, 1992) in the second Test of India's tour. He has claimed the most of his five-wicket hauls against Australia, ten of them, all in Test matches. His best performance was against Pakistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla in 1999; Kumble took all ten wickets during the second innings, just the second person to do so, after Jim Laker, and in the process ensured India of their first Test victory against Pakistan in twenty years. The feat also ranks as the second best bowling figures in Test history. Twenty of Kumble's Test cricket five-wicket hauls have come in victory for India, while five have been in defeats. Kumble has also taken two five-wicket hauls in ODIs. His first ODI five-wicket haul was against the West Indies during the final of the 1993 Hero Cup at Eden Gardens, Calcutta when he took six wickets for twelve runs, a record for India in One Day Internationals. The performance ensured India's victory and Kumble was adjudged man of the match. His other ODI five-wicket haul was against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in 1994. (Full article...)
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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...)
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Pakistan's Umar Gul was the first player to take a five-wicket haul in a T20I match.
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, especially in the Twenty20 format, as bowlers can bowl no more than four overs in an innings. The first five-wicket haul in a T20I match was taken by Pakistan's Umar Gul while playing against New Zealand at The Oval during the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. 18 players have taken five-wicket haul twice. (Full article...)
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Gloucestershire's first ever match was played at Durdham Down in 1870, but it was the only time the county club played there. Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire, is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship. The club was established in 1846 following the merger of the Mangotsfield Cricket Club and West Gloucestershire Cricket Club and played under the latter name until 1867, after which it became the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. It has played first-class cricket since 1870, List A cricket since 1963 and Twenty20 cricket since 2003.[A] Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" away from the club's main headquarters has diminished since the 1980s. Gloucestershire have played home matches at eighteen different grounds.
The club's first home match in first-class cricket was played at Durdham Down in the Clifton district of Bristol. This was the only time the county used this venue for a match. The following year Gloucestershire began to play matches at the Clifton College Close Ground in the grounds of Clifton College in the same part of the city, and this remained a regular venue for the county until the 1930s, hosting nearly 100 first-class matches. In 1872 the county used a venue outside Bristol for the first time when they played at the College Ground in the grounds of Cheltenham College. This venue has continued to be used regularly for the county's annual "Cheltenham festival" event, which in the modern era incorporates additional charity events and off-field entertainment. In 1889 Gloucestershire began to play matches at the County Ground in Bristol, which has subsequently served as the club's main headquarters and hosted the majority of the county's matches. It was here that the club played its first List A match in 1963 against Middlesex, and its first Twenty20 match forty years later against Worcestershire. Bristol is not officially part of Gloucestershire and has been considered an independent county since 1373, though it was officially part of the county of Avon from 1974 until 1996. Somerset have played first-class matches at other venues in the city. (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...)
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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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As of April 2024, 17 male players have played Test cricket for two nations, 16 have played One Day International (ODI) cricket for two teams, and 19 have played Twenty20 International (T20I) matches for two teams, and five have played for two teams in different international formats.
In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, players who had represented two international teams had been born in one country and moved to another with family. There were no clear rules on which nation one could represent, so switching was possible. More recently, citizenship has become the defining attribute as to whether a player can represent more than one international team. The eligibility policy set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) states that a cricketer who has played for a Full Member side must wait three years since their last match before playing for an Associate team. However, if a cricketer plays for an Associate team first, they can switch to a Full Member team the next day. (Full article...)
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Australia's Charles Bannerman was the first cricketer to score a century on Test debut, in the first Test match. For a cricketer to score a century (100 runs or more) on his Test match debut is considered a notable achievement, and as of 13 July 2023, it has been accomplished 115 times by 113 players. Two of those players, Lawrence Rowe and Yasir Hameed, have scored centuries in both innings of their debut match. Players representing 11 of the Test-playing nations (all except Afghanistan) have scored centuries on Test debut.
South Africa women at Taunton, 2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The South Africa women's national cricket team has represented South Africa in international women's cricket since 1960, when they hosted England, contesting four Test matches. Their next officially recognised series was against New Zealand, more than eleven years later. In 1977, they were excluded from competing in international sporting events, when the Commonwealth of Nations signed the Gleneagles Agreement as part of the international campaign against apartheid. Although the men's national team returned to international cricket in 1991, the women's team did not compete again until 1997, when they toured Ireland and England. Since then, the team has played regularly in One Day Internationals (ODI). The introduction of Twenty20 cricket in the early part of the 21st century has all but eliminated Test cricket from the woman's game. South Africa have played five Test matches since their return, and 71 Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) since their first such contest in 2007.
South Africa have played four different sides in women's Test cricket, with England their most frequent opponent, having faced them in six Tests. The only side that South Africa have beaten in Test cricket are the Netherlands, who South Africa have played once, in 2007. South Africa have similarly faced England more times than any other team in women's One Day International cricket, playing 43 matches. As such, England have recorded the most victories against South Africa, beating them 33 times. South Africa have beaten Pakistan more times than any other country, triumphing on 21 occasions against them. In women's T20Is, South Africa have as well played England the most, and lost to them on thirteen occasions. South Africa have recorded the most victories against Ireland, beating them in nine of their meetings. (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...)
This is a list of the squads picked for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. This was the ninth Cricket World Cup tournament and was held between 14 March and 28 April 2007. The sixteen teams asked to announce their final squads by 13 February 2007. Changes were allowed after this deadline at the discretion of the ICCs Technical Committee in necessary cases, such as due to player injury. In order to aid the teams to select the final 15, teams were given the option to announce a 30-man squad by mid-January, with the understanding that the final squad would be picked from these 30 players. However, this was not strictly adhered to – several of England's final 15 came from outside the initial 30, for example. The oldest player at the 2007 Cricket World Cup was Desmond Chumney (39) of Canada while the youngest was Alexei Kervezee of the Netherlands. (Full article...)
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 4A 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 6New articles of the game of cricket, 25 February 1774 (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 7Broadhalfpenny Down, the location of the first First Class match in 1772 is still played on today (from History of cricket)
Image 8 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 9Photograph of Miss Lily Poulett-Harris, founding mother of women's cricket in Australia. (from History of women's cricket)
Image 10In 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)
Did you know
... that Richard Newland is cricket's earliest-known left-handed batter?
... that cricketer William O'Rourke has the best match-bowling figures by a New Zealander on a Test debut?
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.