innings

Information about innings

This article is about the sports term. For other uses of Inning, see Inning (disambiguation).

An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is always spelled and pronounced with the terminal "s". In baseball, the singular form is inning and only the plural takes an "s".

In many other sports, the length of the game is dictated by a clock and teams swap offensive and defensive roles dynamically by taking possession of a ball or similar item. In baseball and cricket, however, one team, said to be "batting", attempts to score "runs"—see run (baseball) and run (cricket)—while the other team, said to be "fielding", attempts to prevent the scoring of runs and get members of the batting team out. The teams switch places after the fielding team has succeeded in getting a fixed number of players out, making a clock unnecessary.

In cricket, the term innings is also used to refer to the play of one particular player (Smith had a poor innings, scoring only 12). By extension, this term can be used in British English for almost any activity which takes a period of time (The Liberal government had a good innings, but finally lost office in 1972, or You've had a fair innings, now it's my turn, meaning "you have spoken for long enough, now let me speak"). It is also used in reference to someone who has died at a reasonably old age or lived a rich and rewarding life (Ah, well. John was 83. At least he had a good innings.). The baseball-derived parallel to this in American English is the term at bat.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term innings has been used in reference to cricket since at least 1735. As cricket was a mature, highly organized sport in the 1600's in England, the term's origin could well precede this first recorded usage. The word inning meaning 'a gathering in' is first recorded in 1522, and could be related.

Cricket

In cricket, a team's innings usually lasts until 10 of the 11 batsmen in the team are out, leaving the not out batsman without a partner and thus unable to continue, or until another event intervenes (such as the captain of the team declaring the innings closed for tactical reasons; or the time allotted for the entire game expiring).

In First-class cricket and Test cricket, each side has two innings. In one-day cricket and other abbreviated forms of the game, an innings lasts only for a set period or for a certain number of overs (typically 50). Note that "an innings" can mean either a particular side's innings (Sri Lanka made 464 in the third innings (of the game)) or that of both sides (England had the better of the first innings, outscoring Australia by 104), the difference being understood by context.

An individual innings usually lasts until the batsman is given out, or until the end of the team innings. Although batsmen bat together in pairs, this combination is never called an innings: it is a partnership or a stand.

Baseball

An inning in baseball consists of two halves. In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team playing defense. Each half-inning formally starts when the umpire calls "Batter up!" A full inning consists of six outs, three for each team; and a regulation game consists of nine innings. The visiting team always bats first in each inning, and the visitors' turn at bat is often called the top of the inning, derived from the position of the visiting team at the top line of a baseball line score. The home team's half of an inning is also called the bottom of the inning, and the break between halves of an inning is called the middle of the inning. If the home team is leading in the middle of the ninth inning, or scores to take the lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, the game immediately ends in a home victory. Ending a half-inning is referred to as "retiring the side." A half-inning in which all batters are put out without taking a base is referred to as a "one-two-three inning."

If the score is tied after 9 innings, the game goes into extra innings until an inning ends with one team ahead of the other. In Japanese baseball, however, games end if tied after 12 innings. As in the case of the ninth inning, a home team which scores to take a lead in any extra inning automatically wins, and the inning (and the game) is considered complete at that moment regardless of the number of outs. This is commonly referred to as a "walk-off" situation, since the last play results in the teams walking off the field because the game is over.

In US English, this baseball-originated terminology is sometimes found in non-sports usage in a tense situation: "it's the bottom of the ninth with the home team behind," meaning "there isn't much time to turn things around here."

The batting role

..... Click the link for more information.

In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture is covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket.
..... Click the link for more information.

First-class cricket matches are those between international teams or the highest standard of domestic teams in which teams have two innings each. Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket, but the term "first-class" is often used to refer to domestic competition only.
..... Click the link for more information.

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It has long been considered the ultimate test of playing ability between cricketing nations. It remains the highest-regarded form of the game, although the comparatively new One-Day International cricket is now more popular
..... Click the link for more information.

Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to
..... Click the link for more information.

Short form cricket is a collective term for several modified forms of the sport of cricket, with playing times significantly shorter than more traditional forms of the game.
..... Click the link for more information.

In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it shall be completed by a teammate.
..... Click the link for more information.

Matches (Mat): Number of matches played. (also Played (Pl).)

Catches (Ct): Number of catches taken.

Stumpings (St): Number of stumpings made (as a wicket-keeper).
..... Click the link for more information.

Cricket is a team sport played between two teams of eleven. It is known for its rich terminology. Some terms are often thought to be arcane and humorous by those not familiar with the game.

This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket.
..... Click the link for more information.

out occurs when the defensive, or fielding, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a player is called out, he is said to be retired.
..... Click the link for more information.

In baseball, the statistical summary of a game is reported in a box score. An abbreviated version of the box score, duplicated from the field scoreboard, is the line score. Invention of the box score is credited to Henry Chadwick by the Baseball Hall of Fame.
..... Click the link for more information.

Extra Innings is an album by the British band The Outfield. It features a total of fifteen tracks, including eleven songs from their fan-club release It ain't over as well as some new recordings dating from shortly before the album's release in 1999.
..... Click the link for more information.

Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball.

In 2005 the Japan Samurai Bears began play in the Golden Baseball League, becoming the first Japanese team in an American professional baseball league.
..... Click the link for more information.

American English (AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US), also known as United States English or U.S. English, is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.

Statistics are very important to baseball, perhaps as much as they are for cricket, and more than almost any other sport. Since the flow of baseball has natural breaks to it, the game lends itself to easy record keeping and statistics.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.

EnglishInfo