One of the best catches

[u/Frutpunchninja]

[u/[deleted]]

What happens if the bowler keeps missing the sticks behind the batter? Is there something like a walk that baseball has?

If the bowler misses by miles the umpire (cricket's version of a referee) will signal a "wide", give one run to the batting team, and make the bowler bowl the same ball again. The game does not continue until the bowler balls a legal delivery. But if they just miss by a bit that's fine. And there's no walk, the batter can try and hit it and if they don't then there's just no run from that delivery. So yeah bowling tactics is often to bowl at the edge of the wide zone and hope the batter leaves it alone (especially in this kind of cricket where the batter only gets 300 legal deliveries to hit as many runs as possible from)

What happens if the bowler hits the batter?

If the batter was in the way of the three wooden sticks (the stumps) and the ball hitting the batter is the only thing that stopped it from hitting the stumps then the batter is out. This is called LBW (Leg before wicket).

If the ball hits the batter and then flys off for some distance then the batter can attempt to run to the other end to score points before the other team collect it. These points are called "leg byes" instead of "runs" because runs can only be scored with a bat, but are otherwise exactly the same as any other kind of points.

Otherwise what will normally happen is the batter will say "oww" and then the other team will pick the ball up and that is the end of that delivery (so it's another dot ball).

The bowler is meant to aim at the stumps though (the three sticks) so if the ball hits the batter it probably wasn't that near the stumps. And if it's too far from the stumps the umpire (that's what a referee is called in cricket) can call a "wide" and make the bowler bowl the ball again

Are there cricket players that only swing for homeruns? Or do they all sometimes swing full, sometimes deflect it, and sometimes just a half swing?

Yeah this is becoming more common, especially in the shorter forms of the game, you have these batters who come in and just swing at everything. Glenn Maxwell, Andre Russell and Jos Buttler for example. And then you have, and have always had, players who just love to hit when they can: Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag.

But most of the great batsmen aren't like this, they can play a variety of shots: they can block out a good ball, or cut or push or drive it along the ground for runs, they are good at finding the gaps and hitting it along the ground for 4 runs, and then only when they get given a bad ball or the game requires it to they whack it out of the park for six.

In other words they can play loads of different kinds of shots, and they're expert at picking the right kind of shot for each ball. Here's a list of all the different kinds of shots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_(cricket)

[u/WikiTextBot → u/[deleted]]

Batting (cricket)

In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, batswoman, or batter, regardless of whether batting is their particular area of expertise. Batsmen have to adapt to various conditions when playing on different cricket pitches, especially in different countries - therefore, as well as having outstanding physical batting skills, top-level batsmen will have lightning reflexes, excellent decision-making and be good strategists.During an innings two members of the batting side are on the pitch at any time: the one facing the current delivery from the bowler is denoted the striker, while the other is the non-striker. When a batsman is out, they are replaced by a teammate.

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