• Theoretically, in baseball, a single pitcher can throw every pitch for his team, while in cricket, a single batsman (so long as they get their
batting partner to consent to running at the end of every
over) can face every delivery for his team. However, the opposite (a bowler bowling every ball/a baseball batter facing every pitch) isn't possible. • The distance between the two
batsmen's grounds, which are the areas the batsmen run between to score runs in cricket, is . In baseball, each base is from the next base, meaning one run is equivalent to running .
Fielding team A significant difference between baseball and cricket is that in baseball, because the batting team's players are forced to advance around the bases, the fielding team must make outs in order to prevent scoring. A batter who hits the ball into fair territory, which is the main part of the field, is obligated to run to the first base, and since players are obligated to abandon the base they are on to run to the next base whenever there is a player
forced to run to their base, any player from the batting team who is on a base will eventually either reach home plate to score or be put out, unless the half inning ends sooner because three offensive players are put out. By contrast, cricket players are never forced by rule to run or try to score. A significant difference between the fielding team in baseball and limited overs (one-day) cricket is that in one-day forms of cricket, the fielding team does not have to get anyone on the batting team out in order to switch sides or win the game, since a team's turn to bat automatically ends after they receive a maximum number of legal deliveries (a baseball team must make three outs in each of the nine regulation innings, and can potentially play extra innings in the case of a tie, meaning they must make at least 27 outs to win). Because of this, cricket fielding teams can use strategies unavailable to baseball teams that involve focusing more on minimizing the number of runs they concede per delivery (known as lowering the batting team's
run rate) than on trying to get anyone out.
Fielding • A ball that has touched the bat and been caught by a fielder without bouncing on the ground results in the batter being out; see
Catch (baseball) and
Catch (cricket). (A caveat to this in baseball is if the batter has either 0 or 1 strikes, caught "
foul tips" only count as one strike [but if the batter has 2 strikes, a caught foul tip counts as an out].) • Fielders try to stop the ball from leaving the field, and attempt to throw the ball to wherever the batting team's players are running to prevent them from scoring runs and get them out. • In baseball, a fielder with the ball in hand may tag a runner, and in some situations, the base the runner is forced to run towards, to get a runner out, while in cricket, a ball that has been touched by a fielder may be used to
put down the wicket of a
batsman's ground if neither batsman is in it. • Baseball fielders specialize to play in one position (with this being mentioned in their
lineup card), whereas cricket fielders generally rotate through various positions in a game; some cricket fielders are especially known for fielding in certain positions (such as the
slips) or areas of the field (infield, outfield, etc.) most of the time. The main difference in fielding in the two sports is that even though a
cricket ball is harder and heavier than a baseball, generally fielders in cricket are not permitted to use gloves (except in exceptional circumstances, and when approved by both umpires) or external leg guards. • The only fielders who wear protective gear are the
wicket-keeper, who is allowed to wear padded gloves as well as leg guards and an abdominal protector or
box; and fielders in potentially dangerous close-in positions such as
silly point and
short leg may wear leg protection underneath their clothing, boxes and helmets but are still not allowed any gloves. This means that the risk of hand injury due to the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point, and similar positions) since the likelihood and value of dismissing a batsman by a catch in a close fielding position is higher. Importance of runs in both sports: • Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas
first-class cricket matches, including
Tests, have produced combined totals from all four innings of over 1000 runs. • For a more direct comparison, matches in
Twenty20 cricket, a form of
limited overs cricket in which games last about the same time as a regulation baseball game, frequently produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 489. Each run in a baseball game is roughly 75 times as important as a run in a Test cricket match (or 10–20 times the value of a cricketer scoring 4 or 6 runs off a single ball); therefore moments of poor pitching and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A baseball player who is a great hitter will start games regularly regardless of how good his fielding is, but a player who is merely an above average hitter, but who is not a competent fielder, may not play regularly, or may be used only in the
designated hitter position in leagues that use it. shortstop Nick Driscoll catches a throw from Navy catcher Steve Soares and tries to tag out a runner who is sliding headfirst, attempting to reach second base, during the annual Service Academy Spring Classic baseball tournament. Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching a struck or thrown ball (for example, the
double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a dismissal takes place (An exception occurs when there is a
free hit ball: catches do not get batsmen out in these scenarios, so fielders may have to attempt run outs after catching the ball). • Hence, fielders in cricket have a greater incentive to dive and take a catch because a
run out is generally much harder to achieve than it is for a baseball batter-runner to be thrown out. Left-handers and right-handers in fielding: • The configuration of the baseball diamond effectively bars left-handers from the fielding positions that make throwing to first base a primary responsibility. Right-handers can throw to their left – i.e., toward first base – with much greater ease than can left-handers. So in practical terms, all second basemen, shortstops, and third basemen are right-handed. Left-handed catchers are also exceedingly rare; while the reasons appear to be primarily cultural, handling bunts up the third-base line and throws on plays at home pose particular obstacles to left-handed catchers. • While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor to the advantage of a left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. • First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a
pickoff throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the
Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) • Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. • In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: The handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence because catching is more important than throwing; also, the batsmen run in opposite directions, and both left-handed and right-handed throwers are in all parts of the field. Still, it is common for right-handers to field at point and cover, and for left-handers to field at mid-wicket (to a right-handed batsman). In each case, this gives the fielder a better aim at the bowler's end stumps when the batsmen run, which is usually the preferred target as the non-striker will normally reach the opposite crease first (because batsmen normally
back up). cricket match in progress at
Eden Park. The lighter strip is the
cricket pitch. Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners. • However, in baseball, the runner himself (or the base he is advancing to, if forced) must be tagged by a fielder holding the ball to be put out. The catcher awaiting a throw will often stand between the plate and the runner. Once he catches it, the runner might try to go around the catcher, or he might simply bowl the catcher over, if he thinks he can dislodge the ball by such contact; and if the catcher does
not have the ball, the runner may still bowl the catcher over, which is considered fair because by rule a fielder without a ball cannot impede a runner. • Violent contact between players was once even greater in baseball, as before the
Knickerbocker Rules it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking"/"plugging" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). • This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called
kickball, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Except when played batting in a hands-down position, kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball. "All 'round hands down" kickball leagues exist, but in most of these, the ball is pitched with the face or shoulders. • By contrast, in cricket, the stumps are the target for "tagging" rather than the runner. No contact with the runners is either necessary or allowed. Contact between opposing sides is rare, and is usually not deliberate. Rules around "fake fielding": • In baseball, the pitcher can be penalized with a
balk for not delivering the ball, which in some instances involves not throwing to a baseman when the pitcher made a motion to do so. • In cricket, a fielder can be punished for
fake fielding. • In general, baseball catchers do not have to worry if a pitch gets
past them while the bases are empty, because the batter can not run in such a situation; the exceptions are when the pitch that gets past them is the
fourth ball or
third strike.
Fielding positions Fielding position naming scheme: • Baseball's fielding positions are fixed and based on places in the field or areas relative to home plate i.e. "center field" is a position in the center of the outfield. • Cricket fielding positions are named in relation to the handedness of the batter, and there are significantly more positions (some of which aren't filled, since there are only 9 fielders to cover the large area) with names that loosely follow a polar coordinate system (i.e. words in the name of the fielding position give clues as to what angle and how far away the fielder is relative to the batter).
Bowling/pitching • The ball may be thrown within a given area to get a batter out if the batter fails to hit the ball (In baseball, the
strike zone if the ball is unhit a maximum of 3 times, and in cricket, the wickets). • Baseball pitchers may legally throw the ball such that it reaches the batter at any height (though it may be called a
ball), but are more limited in whether they can make the ball bounce before it reaches the batter. Cricket bowlers may throw the ball so that it bounces on the ground before reaching the batter at any height, which can make the ball deviate sharply, but they may not throw the ball directly to the batter above waist height unless it bounces first. • A baseball batter who swings at an "unfairly" delivered ball can be out in most of the usual ways, whereas a cricket batter can't get out in almost any way when swinging at a
no-ball, though they can be against a
wide. The different ways of making the ball move unpredictably: • Cricket bowlers, since they are not restricted to a small
strike zone as their target, also use a wide variety of approaches which are not available to baseball pitchers. These involve varying the
line and length of deliveries and using unpredictable movement caused by the ball bouncing on the pitch before it reaches the batsman. • Baseball pitchers, by contrast, must use changes in ball speed and movement (in cricket bowlers also vary ball speed) caused only by air friction and spin to deceive batters, as most pitches which come near touching the ground are ineffectively allowed to pass as
balls. The ways in which the ball's design itself interacts with the movement: • The raised undulating stitching on a baseball allows an accomplished pitcher to create a huge variety of motions in the air; even fastballs are thrown in such a way as to create certain kinds of movement. • The cricket ball also moves in the air, swinging both inward and outward and even in reverse when the shine comes off the ball; but it achieves its most pronounced movement on the bounce, with seamers (fast bowlers) landing the ball on the seam to create slight but unpredictable turn, and spinners using spin to create significant turn and bounce variation. From where and how the ball is delivered: • Furthermore, pitchers must begin their throw from a stationary position, while bowlers may run up to their delivery. (In the early days of baseball, the pitcher pitched from anywhere within a "box" and so had more flexibility as to where to stand when releasing the ball, before the 1880s.) • Baseball pitchers also throw from an elevated
mound ( above the level of home plate), while cricket bowlers are at the same height as the batsman (because every 6 deliveries which end of the pitch is used for bowling and batting switches) and must bowl with an overarm (or
roundarm, a style rarely seen today) rotation of the arm during which the arm must not straighten by more than 15 degrees. (This was also a restriction on pitchers in the early days of baseball, abolished in the 1880s; today, baseball pitchers use a variety of delivery motions discussed below.) Speed of the ball: • While both sports can and have exceeded pitch speeds that exceed 100 mph / 161 kmph, it is far more common to see such high speeds thrown more regularly in baseball. The fastest recorded cricket delivery is with baseball's record quicker at . • It is the case, however, that baseball pitches near or at 100 mph are considerably more common than bowled balls of comparable velocity in cricket. The bowler in cricket is much more restricted with respect to how much he can straighten his arm in delivering the ball, and this is one significant reason why baseball pitchers can deliver the ball faster with more frequency. One main difference, however, is that the ball in cricket is harder and heavier in weight. • The legal weight for the ball in baseball is from • The ball in cricket must weigh between . Categorization of bowlers and pitchers: • Cricket's bowlers are grouped into
different categories based on their bowling style—
pacemen,
seamers,
off-spinners (or
finger-spinners),
leg-spinners (or
wrist-spinners)—though a bowler may fall into more than one category (pace and seam bowling, for instance, largely overlap). • The faster bowlers usually open the bowling, when the ball is at its hardest and smoothest. Spin bowlers generally bowl later, when the ball has begun to deteriorate and become rough. • Baseball's pitchers are classified primarily by their throwing hand (left or right, with left-handed pitchers often called "southpaws") and their usual role in games. • A
starting pitcher begins games, typically not more than one game in five, in a rotation with four teammates who are also starters who will start games in a sequential cycle, and usually pitch five or more innings. Starters rarely appear as substitutes in games started by others. • A
relief pitcher enters games later, sometimes on short notice in crisis situations when there are runners on base or the opponent's best hitters are due to bat, and usually pitches fewer innings in any given game. But relievers may be called upon to pitch in several games consecutively. Some relievers even specialise further strictly as
closers brought in just to pitch the last inning of a game in which his team leads by a narrow margin. Perhaps the most specialised group of relievers is
left-handed specialists—left-handed pitchers who pitch almost exclusively to left-handed batters (sometimes to
switch hitters who are weaker batters right-handed). Such pitchers frequently faced only one batter in a given game before 2020, when Major League Baseball required that pitchers who enter a game must face at least three batters, or record the final out of a half-inning, before being replaced. • Pitchers are sometimes secondarily grouped according to pitching style, type of pitch most often used, or velocity. This is especially common when pitching technique is rare or unusual. For example, there are many different variations on how the pitch is delivered, including the conventional overhand in which the ball is thrown from the 12 o'clock position, 3/4 styles (with the arm moving towards the plate between 12 and 3 o'clock), as well as the less common
sidearm (3 o'clock arm angle, compare
roundarm bowling in cricket) and '
submarine' (below 3 o'clock, compare
underarm bowling in cricket) deliveries. The submarine pitch is rare, and a pitcher who throws in this way usually has a 'submariner' attached to his name or description. Similarly, there are many kinds of pitches thrown, including the fastball, curve ball, slider, and knuckleball. Capable knuckleballers are extremely rare and are usually described by this skill first. Matchups between left-handed batters and right-handed pitchers, or vice versa: • For reasons that continue to spur debate, it is historically the case that most right-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against right-handed hitters than against left-handers, and that most left-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against left-handed hitters than right-handers. • One substantial strategic element to baseball is to use this phenomenon as much as possible. Defenses try to force a
match between pitcher and hitter by side, and offences attempt to mismatch them; both teams use substitutions at times to accomplish the desired outcome. One response to this phenomenon is that many hitters, among them a number of the finest and most powerful to play the game, such as
Mickey Mantle,
Eddie Murray, and
Chipper Jones, became adept as youngsters to hitting both left-handed and right-handed to prevent defences from using that advantage against them. Many professional clubs employ as many as two or three switch hitters so as to neutralise the advantage of side selection. However, only one switch pitcher has played in the major leagues in modern times. • A similar phenomenon in cricket is where the two opening batsmen are selected to be one left-hander and one right-hander, so as to make it difficult for the opposition to select a bowler who can specialize against either type of handedness. This can apply even to other
batting partnerships. bowler
Shane Warne about to release a
spin delivery.
Brett Lee's follow through The prevalence of balls thrown at the batter's body: • In addition, if a baseball batter is
struck with a pitch, he is awarded
first base; "hitting" the batter includes hitting loose parts of his uniform without hitting his body (baseball rules specify that a player's person includes his uniform and equipment except for his bat). • Pitchers may throw close to the batters, and a "
brushback" is often used as an intimidation tactic. Deliberately hitting a batter is fairly uncommon, however, chiefly because it is punished severely. If the umpire believes a batter was intentionally hit, the umpire has his discretion on a first offence to warn both benches that the pitcher for either team will be expelled from the game if there are any further hit batsmen (the one baseball term in which "batsman" is used). The warning—and the power to expel if it is contravened—is intended not only to protect batters but to avert fighting; being hit by a
fastball is taken seriously by batters, and bench-clearing brawls occasionally result when one team decides the other is deliberately throwing at its batters. • Amazingly, in the history of the major league game, only one player has ever been killed by a pitched ball striking him in the head (
Ray Chapman of the
Cleveland Indians in 1920). This occurred before the invention of the batting helmet and was the principal cause for introducing this piece of equipment into the game as well as replacing dirty balls and outlawing the spitball. Baseball batters wear
helmets, but they are unsecured and lack the "cage" of
cricket helmets since only one side of the head/face is exposed. Catchers typically wear a helmet with a cage or protective bars. • In cricket, bowlers consider the right to hit a batsman as part of their armoury; indeed, one of the most common methods of dismissal (
leg before wicket) requires the bowler to hit the batsman's body rather than his bat. (However, to cause dismissal, the ball must be adjudged to be going onto hit the wicket, and therefore generally be relatively low, where batsmen are mostly protected by padding.) • A fast bowler will punctuate his
overs with deliveries
intended to bounce up toward the batsman's head, either to induce a poor shot (which can be either defensive or attacking) which may result in the batsman being
caught out, or to intimidate the batsman, making him less likely to play forward to the next few deliveries for fear of injury. These tactics have long been an accepted part of cricket. • In the modern game, batsmen usually wear
helmets and heavy
padding, so that being struck by the ball only rarely results in significant injury—though it is nevertheless often painful, sometimes causing concussion or fractures (although it can also have fatal consequences:
Phillip Hughes died after being struck in the head/neck area by a
Sean Abbott bouncer during a
Sheffield Shield match in 2014). • An equivalent to a batter being
hit by a pitch in baseball, where the ball hits the batter without bouncing first, would be a
beamer in cricket. These are rare and usually caused by the ball slipping out of the top of the bowler's hand. The even rarer intentional beamer provokes strong reaction from batter and crowd alike. The umpire is authorised to take disciplinary action in such instances. The bowler is generally given a first warning, and is dismissed from the game if the offence is repeated. • A notable such case was between
Waqar Younis and
Andrew Symonds: Younis was banned from bowling by umpire
David Shepherd for delivering a beamer to Symonds in a match between
Pakistan and
Australia at the
2003 World Cup; it was the first of only two times it's ever happened during an international match. What height the ball may reach the batter at, and how this plays into the possible deliveries: • In cricket, a
no-ball is called if the ball reaches the batter above waist-height without first bouncing. • In baseball, there is no such limitation, so a pitcher could throw a
sinker that is thrown towards above the batter's waist height, with the batter believing and setting up to hit the ball as if it will legally reach him at that height, but then sinks below the waist height upon reaching the batter. There is a major difference in the way in which different bowlers or pitchers contribute to a single game. • In baseball, a single pitcher starts the game, and makes every pitch until the manager replaces the tiring pitcher with a relief pitcher. Replaced pitchers cannot return to pitch again in the same game (unless they are shuttled to another position in the field and thus stay in the line-up, a move rarely seen in the major leagues), and a succession of pitchers may come into the game in sequence until it ends. • Although moving a pitcher to a fielding position and returning him to pitch later in the game is legal in baseball, it is a rarely used and potentially risky strategy, as the pitcher may be unprepared to play another position. • In cricket, two bowlers begin the game, with those not actively bowling spending time as fielders. Every player in the team, including the wicket-keeper but excluding the 12th man, is available to be used as a bowler. Bowlers alternate bowling
overs of six balls each. A bowler will usually bowl for a 'spell' of several (alternate) overs, and will generally bowl the entire spell from the same end of the pitch. A second bowler will bowl the overs missed by the first, from the other end of the pitch, for his own spell, with the two bowlers said to be "bowling in tandem". After a bowler is taken off, he may be, and often is, asked to bowl another spell later in the same innings. The terms "bowling" and "pitching", as words, both denote underarm deliveries, as were once required in both games. The rules for delivery were also initially similar. Once overhand deliveries were permitted in the respective sports, and pitchers were compelled to toe the pitching rubber instead of throwing from anywhere within the "pitcher's box", the actions of bowling and pitching diverged significantly. Penalties for bad or unfair delivery: • The "
wide" in cricket and the "
ball" in baseball both derive from the concept of a "fair" delivery, i.e., a delivery that the batter or batsman has a fair chance of making contact with his bat. While there is no sharply defined "strike zone" in cricket as there is in baseball (but there are lines known as the return creases perpendicular to the other crease lines which the umpires can use as a guide, and in limited overs cricket specific wide lines are painted on the pitch 17 inches (43.2 cm) inside the return creases), in both cases the umpire must judge whether the ball was delivered fairly. Both the "wide" and the "ball" result in a "penalty". • In cricket, like a
no-ball, a single run is awarded to the batting team and it does not count as a legal delivery. However, a batsman may still be run out. • A
no-ball is a delivery in which the bowler or the fielders violate the rules in other ways; it can often occur when the bowler bowls from too close to the batter. It is a delivery in which a batsman can't be dismissed in any of the usual ways other than
run out. • In baseball, a ball is called, and if a pitcher gives up four balls the batter is awarded first base, which is called a "
base on balls" or a "walk". A walk will only score a run directly if the bases are already loaded, forcing the runner at third base to advance to home (known as "walking in a run"); otherwise the threat is merely of another runner reaching base instead of making an out. However, since runs are scored so much more frequently in cricket, the occasional wide, scoring a run directly, is not taken too seriously, although the extra delivery can be of vital significance toward the end of a match. In both games, a wide or a ball can be the decisive factor in winning a match or a game. The number of pitchers/bowlers on a team: • In
limited overs cricket, teams are required to have at least five of their players bowl. • In baseball, only one of the active players on a team has to be a pitcher, with the other players all being good batters and/or fielders. While allowed, it is quite rare for the pitcher to switch positions with another fielder in the way that occurs in cricket. However, because substitution is allowed, multiple pitchers may participate in a game without changing who the other fielders are, with each departing pitcher being permanently removed from the game, The prevalence of batters occasionally doing some pitching, even when they are weak at it: • Cricket batsmen are sometimes asked to bowl for short periods of time, as this can help rest the bowlers. In certain cases, a batter's unorthodox style can flummox the opposition batters in a way that regular bowlers can't. • Except for blowout games where the likely-to-win team doesn't want to have its pitchers get unnecessarily injured, "position players" (fielders) don't pitch. The way that each delivery has an impact in advancing the game: • In baseball, every single pitch (with the exception of most foul balls with only one strike remaining) contributes to the batter either getting out or getting to first base, because every pitch is either put into play (in which case the batter can be forced out), or is adjudged as either a ball or strike (with 3 strikes getting the batter out). • In cricket, only deliveries aimed at the wicket put the batsman at risk of being dismissed directly by the bowled ball, and only deliveries out of the batter's reach (or that are otherwise
illegally delivered) result in automatic runs for the batting team. Thus, it is possible for a ball to be bowled away from the wicket, but still within the striker's reach, so that it does not contribute either to getting the batting players out or to the batting team scoring runs (for example, if the ball is not struck and the batsmen choose not to run.) The main impact of this type of delivery (
dot ball) is that it reduces the number of deliveries left for the batting team to score off of (as there will either be a limited number of deliveries the batting team can face in their innings, or a time limit for the overall game, which doubles as a de facto limit on the number of deliveries in the overall game.)
Batting team Batting • The further the ball is hit away from any fielders, the more time for running and thus runs the batting team can score, or is likely to score in future plays. • The ball may be hit out of the field to automatically score runs. (In baseball, a batter must run around all of the bases on a
home run hit out of the park, but is under no risk of being out while doing so. In cricket, the batsman scores a
six, which while not technically being the maximum number of runs scoreable off a single ball, is almost always so). • Batters can play defensively to avoid getting out ("fouling off" pitches in baseball or the defensive strokes in cricket) while putting less of a focus on scoring, or can play more aggressively ("power hitting" or "batting positively" in cricket) to score runs more quickly while putting themselves at a higher risk of getting out. • A cricket batter has significantly fewer restrictions than a baseball batter. They may swing and miss, or not swing, as many times as they like (so long as the ball isn't going toward the wicket), don't have to run if they hit the ball, may face as many deliveries (pitches) as they want to even after scoring runs (until they get out), and they have much more room between fielders to hit the ball to, given that there are no foul areas and the fielding team only has 2 more fielders to cover the significantly larger area of a cricket field than they would have in baseball. • However, unlike a baseball batter who may have several
at-bats (opportunities to bat) in an inning, a cricket batter can only bat once in an innings, with their opportunity to bat itself being called the "
batsman's innings". One of the main differences between baseball and Test cricket is the primary intent of the batsman. • Usually, in Test/First Class cricket, wickets come at a far higher premium, since survival is of primary importance. While nine innings per side are played in a baseball game within a few hours, only two per side are played in Test cricket over five days (thirty hours), so the cost of a dismissal is far higher in cricket. It should be kept in mind that a batsman in cricket is not obligated to take a run after striking the ball, nor is there any penalty for swinging at the ball and missing unless it hits the stumps (i.e., the wicket) (or, as often happens, makes a glancing contact with the bat and is caught) and there is no limit to the number of deliveries a batsman can face; a batsman with the required concentration, determination and technical ability often bats for several hours (occasionally days) without being dismissed. • Many of these characteristics are reversed in
limited overs cricket, as batsmen have a limited number of legal deliveries to score from, and in the shortest formats of the game (such as
T10 cricket), it may be possible to lose one wicket every couple of overs without the team becoming all out. • By contrast, in baseball a batter takes a serious penalty (a "strike") if he swings and misses: three strikes result in an out, and if the batter hits the ball inside fair territory he must run. Defensive technique and area for legal deliveries in cricket: • This contrast means that in cricket, unlike baseball, the quality of a batsman's defensive game and footwork are of the utmost importance. The nuances of batting technique are also greater in cricket, since the interplays between bowling variations, field placements and scoring strengths are more dynamic. Since cricket is played over an extended duration, the bowler and the fielding captain have time to "work over" a batsman (e.g., trying several different bowlers). Thus, cricket batting requires a tight technique and the ability to withstand sustained examinations. • The area for legal deliveries is much larger in cricket than it is in baseball, overlapping the batsman's entire body. Deliveries that reach the batsmen at rib or shoulder height are legal, and quite common. Depending on the form of the game, more or fewer deliveries can be bowled to reach the batsmen at throat or head level. Any fear or hesitation can lead to a batsman playing a poor shot which may result in him giving away his wicket (being dismissed). The amount of "place hitting" in both games: • Since the
cricket bat is wide and flat, while the
baseball bat is narrow and round, on the whole cricket batsmen find it easier to hit and direct the ball than baseball batters, resulting in many more runs being scored in a cricket match. While bowlers can influence the ability of the batsmen to do so, perhaps the most famous episode being the
Bodyline tactic, cricket batsmen can use a wider variety of batting strokes to direct the ball in many directions into a field which provides much more open space than in baseball. Keeping in mind, cricket batsmen are under no obligation to attempt to score a run after any stroke, but must strike balls to prevent them from hitting the wicket or their pads. Many strokes are in fact defensive in nature against a well-bowled ball and the quality of defensive batting is often the determining factor of a batsman's success over his career, especially in the longer forms of the game. • By contrast, the balance of power is largely reversed in baseball. While particularly skilled batters have some ability to
place hit and direct the ball to desired locations, the pitcher's influence is much more dramatic. Pitchers induce more
ground outs,
fly outs, or
strikeouts, depending on the style of pitch. Thus particular pitchers are known for causing batters to make certain kinds of outs, depending on their mastered pitches. • Also in contrast to cricket, baseball batters must attempt to take first base on any ball put into fair territory, and failing to do so will result in an out, but the size of the strike zone more strictly limits the set of deliveries that must be swung at compared to cricket. • Like cricket, baseball batters do have a defensive tactic available; many batters will often attempt to deliberately
foul off pitches that are strikes yet difficult to hit well, by hitting them into foul territory, awaiting an easier delivery later in the at-bat. Since an uncaught
foul ball cannot be a third strike (unless it was a bunt attempt), this tactic allows the batter to receive more pitches. • Because foul balls require runners to return to their bases, a foul ball on two strikes means that the game situation does not change whatsoever; this is in contrast to cricket, wherein the time/delivery limits in the game mean that legal deliveries that are not struck with the intent to score can hurt the batting team, as they are left with fewer deliveries in the remainder of the game to try to score off of. • In the early generations of baseball, the emphasis was mostly on bat control, place hitting, bunting, etc. But, starting in 1919, several factors resulted in a dramatic expansion of strategic orientation, supplementing traditional "
small ball" with the "power game": a "
livelier" ball, because of better materials and a tighter weave; more frequent substitutions of new balls; lighter, more flexible bats; the outlawing of the
spitball; and the increase in attendance which drove owners to build more outfield seating, thus reducing the outfield area significantly. The power game has been encouraged further in recent years, by the construction of new ballparks with smaller outfields than previously, and even the reduction of field size at "classic" ballparks known for spacious outfields; for example, the distance to the fence in deep left field at
the original Yankee Stadium was reduced from between 1984 and 1988 (the post-1988 dimensions were maintained at
the current Yankee Stadium). Still, it is generally agreed that no one can hit a home run at will, and every successful batter knows never to go to the plate intending to hit a home run. Rather, he should attempt a level swing, try to pull only the ball on the inside of the plate, go the other way with balls low and outside, and otherwise start each at bat intending to drive the ball up the middle, which is the most vulnerable part of the infield (especially if the pitcher is not particularly good at fielding his position). Which directions a batter may be incentivized to hit the ball in: • In cricket, the boundary behind the striker's wicket is generally a shorter distance away than the boundary in front of it. In addition, fewer fielders are generally positioned behind the wicket. So batsmen have some incentive to aim hits to behind their wicket. • In baseball, various game situations can dictate whether the ball should be hit to the left or right side of the field. For example, if the batting team has a runner on second base that they are intent on advancing, they will want to hit the ball to right field, as this gives the runner more time to advance to third base - positioned on the left side of the field - as the
right fielder's throw arrives. The games emphasise power hitting to different degrees. • Cricket requires the accumulation of large numbers of runs; and placement of the ball between the fielders produces runs efficiently and is generally accepted as a better strategy than "swinging for sixes". In cricket situations can arise in a match where power hitting, also called "slogging", is required. This typically occurs towards the final overs of a limited overs game and can also be an option to get runs for batsmen even earlier in the innings. It is still quite risky. • A batsman generally must hit the ball about or more to get it to the boundary. Whereas in baseball the batter needs to hit up to an excess of 450 feet (if center field) to get the ball outside the boundary. • In baseball, power hitting can produce runs quickly and frequently in many situations, as well as force pitching changes and other fielding moves; but it can also result (because of the great difficulty of driving a ball off a cylindrical bat) in a great many strike outs, fly outs, and ground outs. Facing a delivery just outside the batter's reach: • In cricket, bowlers can bowl in the
corridor of uncertainty, which is just a small distance away from the stumps. This forces the batter to consider swinging (to keep the ball away from his stumps) while putting him at risk of mishitting the ball and it flying behind him to the slip fielders for a catch. • Pitchers can attempt to make a batter swing at a ball by making it seem like it will go in the strike zone, in which case the batter may have to make contact to foul off the ball in order to avoid a third strike, or hit into fair territory. Batter's ability to move around before and as they hit: • In cricket, batters occasionally "stand outside the crease" (closer to the bowler) to counter the effects of swing or spin on the ball, though this can get them
stumped. • Baseball batters are restricted to staying in the
batter's box. How the field boundary in each sport influences the way in which batters try to hit the ball out of the field: • In cricket, the
boundary is simply a line or relatively flat object (like a rope) that stretches around the field. Balls that touch the boundary in any way are considered to be outside of the field, and so batters can get significant scoring value on shots along the ground that can pierce a gap between fielders and reach the boundary. • Baseball has an
outfield fence which is considered to be within the field of play. This means the only way a hit ball can leave the field is for it to bounce or clear the fence in the air; thus, batters get less value from hitting the ball directly across the ground. Whether a player who got out can participate further in the game: • Cricket batters can not bat again for the rest of the innings once they're out. This has significant strategic implications, as once the good batters on the team are out, the bowlers, who tend to score fewer runs, are the only players left to bat. • A baseball player, after getting out, can bat again one or more times in subsequent innings when it is his turn in the
line-up, or even in the same inning, if all his teammates come to bat and the team has not made three outs and it is his turn again.
Running • A runner may be out when not at a safe haven. This can occur when a fielder gets the ball to the safe haven the runner is running towards before they get there. (In cricket, this is through
run outs. In baseball,
forceouts are most similar to runouts). In baseball, other types of outs can be made against runners, such as tag outs. • At most one runner can occupy a safe haven. • Runners must coordinate to some degree, and must decide how much to run; running too much risks a runner getting out (particularly if a fielder is about to throw the ball to wherever they are running towards), but can also help them score more runs. The safe havens: • In baseball, the
bases are the safe havens. • In cricket, the
popping creases and the area of the field between them are what separate the rest of the field into two separate safe havens, known as the
batsmen's grounds. What counts as contact with the safe haven, for the purposes of making a player "safe": • In cricket, either the batsman or his bat (that he is holding) must touch the ground. • When sliding, batsmen almost always slide head-first into their ground with their bat outstretched in front of them. • Practically speaking, the allowance of the use of the bat to be safe allows the nonstriker to more quickly be ready to face the next delivery if he becomes the striker after taking a single, and ensures the striker's bat need not be moved out of the way or retrieved. • Batsmen may leave their ground to avoid injury and remain safe. A 2017 modification to the Law also allowed a batsman who was safe to remain so if their bat or body went airborne, so long as they were trying to get into their ground. • In baseball, only the runner's body can be used to get on base; batters frequently drop the bat when setting off for first base, and can be called for interference if they carry it. • Runners slide into base either head-first or feet-first. • A runner is not safe at any point in which he is not in contact with the base. However, an exception is made for batter-runners who
overrun first base. How the ball is used to get a runner out: • In cricket, the ball can be used to
put down the wicket, with this being considered a discrete instance. In other words, if a batsman is in the ground of a wicket that has been put down, he is
not out, and may leave that ground and continue to score runs, though the wicket may be remade and put down again. • In baseball, if a fielder with the ball is tagging the runner, then the ball is "live" and the runner is out if at any moment he is not in contact with the base. • The
"current" rule of street cricket emulates this aspect of baseball. How runs are scored through running: • In cricket, two batters (one of whom is known as the nonstriker, akin to a baserunner) start out at opposing grounds, which are areas of the field behind lines drawn on the ground just in front of each wicket. Any time the two swap grounds, one run is scored. • There is no limit on the number of runs that can be scored off a single delivery in this way, so long as neither batter gets out. • Running counter-clockwise around the bases while making contact with each one with one's body counts as a run in baseball. • A single player from the batting team can only score one run from each of their turns at bat by doing this. When a player of the batting team is legally allowed to run in the attempt of scoring: • In baseball, a batter must remain within the batter's box, and may not advance around the bases on a
live ball, unless they have either hit a fair ball, or the catcher has
failed to cleanly catch the third strike of their at-bat. Runners may advance anytime during a live ball, even before the pitcher has pitched. • In cricket, the batsmen may run at any time after the ball in play has been bowled,
regardless of whether or where to the ball was struck by one of them. The striking batsman may also bat out of his ground in a bid to shorten the distance they must run to score the first run, and the nonstriking batsman may begin running before the ball has been bowled. Running plays a much larger role in baseball because of the low scoring; also, players on the batting team must run much further to score a run, because runners may remain in play (that is, on the bases) without scoring, and because baserunners can advance to the next base before the ball is hit again (
steal the base) as soon as the ball is live. Base stealing often requires
sliding, in which the runner throws himself to the ground to avoid being tagged or overrunning the base. The runner may also deliberately slide into the fielder at the base he is trying to steal to keep him from catching the ball or to disrupt a double play. At home plate the runner often will simply, and legally, run into a catcher who is blocking the baseline but who does not have the ball (a defensive player may not impede the runner unless he has the ball or is in the process of catching it). The equivalent in cricket is almost impossible because the bowler is next to the non-striker, and in fact is able to
mankad him if he strayed out of his crease (or simply cancel his runup, rendering the ball dead); in addition, it is legally considered
unfair play for the batsmen to steal runs during the bowler's runup. Tactical running in cricket rarely strays beyond the consideration of "can I make it to the other end before the ball does". One exception of this is towards the end of a closely fought limited overs game, where a batsman (normally a tail-ender) would sacrifice his wicket to allow the better batsman to remain on strike, usually in the last few balls. While in baseball, steals, sacrificial running, forces, double plays, intimidation, and physical contact enter into the equation. • Making contact with a fielder, as baserunners often do, would be unsportsmanlike in cricket, and unnecessary, as play stops when a single wicket is taken. • Occasionally a cricket runner will dive over the crease, but in baseball this is a regular occurrence, as players are frequently forced to run even when their chances are slim. Since a team almost always scores fewer runs in a baseball game than its number of outs, a baserunner will frequently take risks attempting to advance an extra base or to score a run, resulting in close plays at a base. • In cricket, since the number of runs scored is much greater than the number of wickets taken in a match, a batsman would be foolish to risk getting
run out in an attempt to score an extra run without a high expected chance of success. In general, cricket batsmen are run out due to exceptional fielding, poor judgment/communication, indecision, or a combination of said factors. • In baseball, runners are often out not of their own accord – they are simply forced out. In baseball, there is an ambiguity as to whether a
tie goes to the runner or not; that is, if the fielding team executes an action meant to put the runner out at the same moment that the runner reaches a safe haven, is the runner out or not? • In cricket, ties do go to the batsman; both a run out and a stumping require that a batsman be "out of his/her ground", meaning that a batsman who makes their
ground at the same time that the wicket is put down will be safe.
Umpiring In both sports, there is one umpire per safe haven, and additional umpire(s) to handle technology replays. In baseball, the umpire nearest the pitcher stands behind the batter, whereas in cricket they stand behind the bowler. Cricket uses the
Umpire Decision Review System (DRS for short), while there is
Instant replay in Major League Baseball. One major difference is that, ignoring the umpires, DRS can only be invoked by players, while instant replay can only be invoked by the team managers.
Game length A direct comparison is difficult since: • Cricket is predominantly played in three different formats:
Test (and other first-class matches),
One Day International (and other List A matches which last 50 overs, i.e. 300 legal deliveries, per innings) and
Twenty20 matches (which last 20 overs, i.e. 120 legal deliveries, per innings). Of these, the
Twenty20 format takes much the same time as a baseball game: around three to three-and-a-half hours. • Baseball games are generally much shorter than Test and One Day cricket games. Most
Major League Baseball games last between two-and-a-half and four-and-a-half hours. • Because the Major League playing season is 6 months long (183 days, between April and October with
spring training in February and March), with 81 games played at home and 81 away (162 in all, not counting the postseason or the All-Star Game), baseball teams often find themselves playing double-headers and series games. A doubleheader entails two games, played back to back, in one day. This usually occurs when a game needed to be rescheduled, and is a common occurrence at the beginning of the Major League season, which coincides with the rainy spring season. Although they were once common, double-headers are rarely scheduled any more by teams, but are part of the culture of baseball, with
Ernie Banks' "Let's play two" a famous refrain. A series occurs when two teams play on several consecutive days. This is a part of the regular schedule in baseball because of the number of games required in a season, and because there are large distances between stadiums in the US and Canada, thus conserving time and resources by allowing the teams to spend several days in a single location. In Major League Baseball there is a maximum of 20 days consecutively played before a break in games must be observed. In cricket, test matches and certain domestic first class matches can last up to five days, with scheduled breaks each day for lunch and tea, giving three sessions of play each day. Full length games, for example between English counties or between Australian states, have a similar format to Test matches, but either three or four days are allowed. The
limited overs versions of the sport usually last up to 7 hours.
Twenty20 has innings of twenty overs per team and generally takes around 3 hours. One Day Internationals and Twenty20 cricket, with their inherent limit on the number of fair deliveries, do not have an exact equivalent in baseball. The closest comparison would be games that have a pre-set number of innings shorter than the standard 9 (as with the second game of a doubleheader at some levels) or a pre-set time limit of some kind, such as a curfew restriction, or in the case of one of baseball's cousins, recreational
softball, a pre-set length of the game, such as one hour. In winter ball Caribbean leagues (and the MLB during the
coronavirus) doubleheaders are commonly pre-set to last 7 innings instead of 9, except if they are necessary as tiebreakers;
100-ball cricket can be thought of as a similar shortening relative to T20 cricket's game length.
Result In both sports, when one team has completed all of their turns at bat, this entitles the other team (if they are currently batting) to automatically win at the moment that their score total surpasses the initial team's total. (This is known as the winning team having chased down their "target" number of runs in cricket, and as the winning team having achieved a
walk-off in baseball.) The possibility of a result: • Cricket: • In Test cricket, it is possible neither team wins or ties; this is known as a
draw. • The original form of Test cricket,
Timeless Test cricket, prevented this so long as teams had the time to play to a result. • In the entire history of Test cricket, there have only been two
tied Tests, with there being no tiebreaker rule for multi-day cricket. • In limited-overs cricket, if a
Super Over is used with the provision that additional Super Overs will be played if the tie fails to be broken, then a result is guaranteed. • In baseball, if teams are tied, then they play as many
extra innings as necessary to get a result. Ability to predict result before end of game: • In all forms of cricket other than the Timeless Test, it is sometimes possible to predict the match result well before the end of the game during the final innings, simply because it is almost impossible for a team to score more than 6 runs off a delivery, without either significant fielding errors or
illegal deliveries being bowled. • Whereas in baseball, the lack of time or delivery limits means a batting team that still has outs remaining can always come back (though certain competitions limit this possibility by instituting
run-ahead rules to terminate blowout games). ==Strategy==