Cricket is a top-rated game, and with its immense popularity comes an entire world of terminology, rules, and regulations. One of the most important concepts to understand in cricket is the idea of innings. Innings in cricket is a term used to describe a turn of the team batting, where the batting side attempts to score runs against the fielding side.
It’s a complex topic, but with this article from Parimatch, you’ll gain a better understanding of what innings in cricket is, how it works, and why it’s so important.
Table of Contents
What Is an Innings in Cricket?
In a way, it’s quite simple. According to Wikipedia, “An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat”. Innings term also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or non-strike). In addition, it represents the time between one or second team bats and one team bowling at one. This period has differed for each format. Depending upon the format, innings are different.
In simpler terms, the batting team from Innings 1 changes to the fielding team in Innings 2 and vice versa.
Duration of an Inning in Cricket
T20 Cricket
In a match, innings vary according to their nature. Twenty20 cricket has an innings length of 20 overs. The first innings typically last that long Second innings can be 20 in length, but they may end early due to various factors.
ODI Cricket
During ODIs, an inning may last for as little as 50 overs. However, that’s harder to accomplish because you get a better chance at bringing together all the team members.
Test Cricket
In Test matches, the inning duration is not set and may be extended to a few days. An inning in Tests is the only inning that does NOT finish due to the threshold of overs. The overs rule.
Limited-Overs Cricket
In a limited-overs match, each team usually bats only once with the no. of overs and a certain time limit agreed upon for both innings.
How Many Innings Are In Test Cricket?
In test cricket (and in general First Class cricket), each team has the chance to bat two times resulting in 2 innings per team being allowed in the game. This totaled up to four innings for the test match. The majority of tests show two innings each from either side. It does not always happen.
In some cases, the team that starts the first innings gets a huge first-innings lead, which gives them another chance to score an innings win in the end! In innings winning, the teams can force the game to a win while only hitting one.
How Does an Inning End?
According to the Marylebone Cricket Club Law 13.3, a team inning can come to an end in the following ways:
- When the batting side is bowed out by the bowling team, i.e., the batting team loses lose all their wickets;
- After the fall of a wicket, the batting team is not able to send any batsman onto the field;
- The Captain declares the innings;
- The Captain forfeits the innings;
- The number of overs or the allotted time for the innings ends.
Innings Role in a Real Cricket Match
It is crucial to understand and know about the number of innings to be played in a match before placing a bet. If one sees a whole innings played out in a cricket match, he/she will more likely be able to predict the outcome of the second innings based on the quality of batsmen available to the team about to bat second in the said match.
A simple situational example can help us understand what is meant by innings in cricket. In the fourth and final test of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Australia won the toss and decided to bat first.
Batting first, the home side posted 369 on the scoreboard in the first innings, with Marnus Labuschagne scoring 108 runs. In reply, India posted 336 on the scoreboard in the second innings, with Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur putting on 123 runs in their partnership for the seventh wicket.
In the third innings of the match, Australia was bowled out for 294, with Mohammed Siraj starring with a 5-wicket haul. In the fourth innings, all the results were real possibilities, with 100 overs allotted to both teams either to take 10 wickets or to chase down the mammoth target of 328 runs on a fifth-day Gabba pitch.
Shubman Gill’s individual innings of 91 runs and Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten individual innings of 89 runs helped the visitors chase the target down with 3 wickets and 3 overs in hand scripting history down under.
It is also essential to understand that innings is a cricketing term for both team innings and a batsman’s individual innings. We have to analyze a sentence or a bet depending upon the practical usage of the term innings not to get confused between the two.
Conclusion
Cricket is a thrilling and exciting game. You may have never been able to play cricket before, and you may not know how to play it. Even so, you can still enjoy this game by simply following the rules and playing within your skill set.
But there is much more to cricket than simply following the rules. That is why it is important to learn about the ins and outs of different cricketing terms. Cricket is a complex game with many terms and phrases to know, and this article has endeavored to make it easier for you to get to grips with it.
Innings are just one of the many aspects of cricket’s gameplay. Want to learn more? Check our other articles related to cricket metrics:
- How to Calculate Run Rate in Cricket?
- What Is a Dot Ball in Cricket?
- What Are Boundaries in Cricket?
- What Is a Wide Ball in Cricket?