1. England’s national sport
Cricket
England’s national sport

2. Equipment
Ball
Bat
Wicket

3. Cricket field
Cricket is played on an oval field with a rectangular pitch in the middle.

4. The pitch
Wicket
Crease

5. The team
There are 11 players on a cricket team.

6. The 2 teams take it in turn to field or bat an innings.
All 11 players of the fielding team are on the field at the same time.
The players spread out around the field.

7. Bowler
1 player from the fielding team is the bowler who bowls the ball towards the wicket at the opposite end of the pitch.

8. Batsmen Only 2 members from the batting team are on the field.
The 2 batsmen face each other at opposite ends of the pitch on a line called a crease.

9. The batsman opposite the bowler tries to hit the ball with the bat so that the ball doesn’t hit the wicket behind him.

10. Runs
If the batsman hits the ball and it isn’t caught before it hits the ground, the 2 batsmen can run to opposite ends of the pitch.
If both batsmen reach the opposite crease before the fielders hit the wicket with the ball, the batting team scores 1 run.

11. If the ball goes over the field boundary, the batting team scores 6 runs.

12. Out
If a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground the batsman is out.
If the bowler hits the wicket with the ball the batsman is out.
When a batsman is out, he is replaced by another player from the batting team.

13. An innings is over when 10 of the 11 batsmen are out.
Fielders and batsmen then swap.

14. The team who scores the most runs and gets the whole opposing team out wins.

15. The England team

16. The Ashes
The Ashes is a cricket tournament between England and Australia.

17. The Ashes began in 1882 when Australia beat England at The Oval for the first time.
A newspaper said that “English cricket had died”.

18. The Oval
England’s famous cricket ground

19. A part of an English wicket was burnt and the ashes were put in an urn
A part of an English wicket was burnt and the ashes were put in an urn. The urn was sent to Australia.
The next cricket tour to Australia was called “the quest to regain The Ashes”.