You need to know that there are two types of cricket games.
There are Test matches and there are One Day games.
Test matches are the games that can last up to 5 days. If a game is still in play at the end of the Fifth Day then the game is considered a tie even if one team has scored more runs than the other. Each innings continue until a team has all their players out or they think that they have a high enough score so they "declare", then the other team comes into bat for their innings. This game has unlimited overs.
Then there are One Day games which, as the name implies, never last more than a day. In these games limited overs are bowled (an over is when a bowler bowls the ball six times. After that a new over starts with the bowler [the same one or a different one] bowling from the opposite direction and so on and so on]. Usually 50 overs are bowled to each side - so that 300 balls bowled each. So the game continues either until a team has all their men out or the alloted 50 overs have been bowled. Then the other team comes into bat. So if a team scored 187 all out, then the other team would need 188 runs to win. As soon as they have the target - or they are bowled out by the opposing team - the game ends.
Also in cricket, unlike baseball, there are two batsmen batting at the same time.
Test matches usually look something like this -
1st Innings
England: 431 all out
Australia: 387 all out
2nd Innings
England: 521-6 dec
Australia: 452 all out
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But One Day games usually just look like this -
England: 289-3 (after 50 overs)
Australia: 291-7 (after 43.1 overs)
So Australia would win this game by 3 wickets.
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And in the England/Canada game it finished -
England: 279-6
Canada: 228-7
England won by 51 runs.
England batted first and scored 279 runs from 50 overs bowled. So when it was Canada's turn they needed 280 to win, but they only managed 228 for the loss of 7 batsmen after their 50 overs.
For practical reasons, the Cricket World Cup is One Day games only, with a maximum of 50 overs each.
There's also a new One Day tournament that has started in England in which just 20 overs maximum are bowled. It's called Twenty20 Cricket and involves the normal county teams but with Americanised names such as Lancashire Lightning, Kent Spitfires and Surrey Black Caps.
Thanfully, though, the County Championship, which is Test matches rather than One Day matches, just have the traditional names of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Kent etc.
*yawn*.............. sorry GB but i fell asleep as soon as i saw the word cricket.
*reads for a second time*
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
shit it happened again
England's scoreboard
.................................................. .......................runs...balls..4's...6's
E C Joyce....................................b S Dhaniram.... 66 ...103... 4 .....1
M P Vaughan ..c J M Davison ........b A M Samad......45... 64..... 7.. ..0
I R Bell .........c G R Codrington .....b S Dhaniram ....28... 44 .....1 ....0
K P Pietersen ...........c and b S Dhaniram........... .....5.....4..... 1 .....0
P D Collingwood .............not out ........................ ..62....48.... 4... 1
R S Bopara ...............................b G R Codrington. .29 ....30.... 4 ...0
J W M Dalrymple... c A Bagai........ b A C Cummins ....2 .....4 .....0 ...0
P A Nixon ...........not out.................................... 23 ....8......4.. .1
Extras 5nb 8w 4b 2lb 19
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Canada's scoreboard
.................................................. ..........................runs...balls..4's...6's
J M Davison.......... c I R Bell......... .b J M Anderson ....21 ...26... .4... ...0
G E F Barnett .............................. b L E Plunkett.........7..... 7 ....1... ...0
A Bagai .................c K P Pietersen ..b L E Plunkett..... 6 .....11....1 ......0
I S Billcliff .................................... b R S Bopara.......20 ...40 ....2 ......1
A M Samad ..............lbw ................b M S Panesar ....36 ...69.... 1... ...1
A A Mulla .................st P A Nixon.... b R S Bopara ......58... 58 ...7 ......1
D R Chumney ...................................not out ...........27... 51 ...0.... ..1
S Dhaniram .......................................run out ..........30 ...33....3 .......0
G R Codrington ..................................not out ........ ..7 ....8......1....... 0
Extras 3nb 11w 2lb 16
England v Canada: Ed Joyce and Michael Vaughan reach 62-0 from 13 overs after being put in to bat by Canada
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Vaughan makes serene progress with the bat as England progress to 95-0 after 19 overs in St Lucia
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Out!...Vaughan's innings comes to an end as he slices Abdool Samad to John Davison at backward-point for 45: England 101-1
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Out!....England lose Ian Bell for 28 and Joyce for 66 before Sunil Dhaniram claims the scalp of Kevin Pietersen for just five
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Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara share in an 81-run fifth-wicket partnership to help England post a total of 279-6
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Out!....England's Liam Plunkett removes Geoff Barnett and Ashish Bagai in the opening six overs leaving Canada 22-2
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Out!.....England then get two more Canadian batsmen out - Canada slipping to 65-4 - but Ashif Mulla leads the response - hitting a fine 58 before getting out to Bopara: Canada are now 161-5
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Out!....Monty Panesar strikes for England - claiming his first wicket as he traps Samad lbw for 36 before Canada even manage to score more runs since last losing a batsman: Canada 161-6
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Desmond Chumney is unbeaten on 27 but England get one more Canadian batsman out. Canada make 228-7 from 50 overs as England seal a 51-run win
Canada: G E F Barnett, A M Samad, A Bagai, J M Davison, I S Billcliff, D R Chumney, A A Mulla, S Dhaniram, G R Codrington, U Bhatti, A C Cummins
England: M P Vaughan, E C Joyce, I R Bell, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, R S Bopara, J W M Dalrymple, P A Nixon, L E Plunkett, J M Anderson, M S Panesar
news.bbc.co.uk
Sorry mate it keeps happening when you mention cricket........... can you try talking about something less boring, say like.......... watching paint dry or grass grow theres a good chap