Cricket 101 - the American way

1. Players keep batting until they are out. Each player gets just one out per game, not like in baseball where you can have three, four or five at bats. In cricket, one batter can have an at bat that lasts six or seven hours. Games can last between a few hours and five days.
2. Even after playing for five days, games can still - and often do - end in a draw.
3. Players bat in the middle of the field and they can hit the ball in any direction, even backwards.
4. There are two batters playing at once, standing opposite each other. The bowlers (pitchers) take turns bowling from each end.
5. Players score runs by running between two sets of wickets, 20 meters apart. Wickets are three wooden stumps that are 28 inches tall and 9 inches wide in total
6. Players score four runs if the ball goes to the boundary after bouncing (like a ground rule double) or six runs if it doesn't bounce (like a home run).

1. Bowlers throw the ball towards the wicket (see above). The batsman has to defend the wicket and stop the ball hitting it. If the ball or bat hits the wicket, the batter is out.
2. The batter can be caught out, as in baseball.
3. The batter can only use his bat to stop the ball hitting the wicket. If he uses any other part of his body (and the ball was in line to hit the wicket) he is out.
4. If, when the batsmen are running between the wickets, the fielding team throws the ball into the wicket, the batter is out. Think of it like getting thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. Or trying to steal second base. If the ball beats you there, you are out.

ARIZONA opening bowler Dan Haren dazzled the New York Mets on Monday, taking figures of 21-5 off of seven overs.

By contrast, the Mets' Nelson Figueroa never recovered from a disastrous first spell, taking just four wickets for a costly six runs.

Figueroa could find neither line nor length, struggling with bite as the D-backs won the toss and elected to bat.

Stephen Drew scampered between the stumps for a quick pair and batting partner Gerald Perra flashed the willow comfortably against the swing attack.

Figueroa's first victim of the afternoon came when mid-on fielder Alex Cora stumped Parra after a perfect throw from behind the bails from wicket keeper Omir Santos.

Justin Upton went for a duck for the second wicket of the inning soon after when he was run out by short mid-wicket David Wright, but Mark Reynolds and Miguel Montero both hit dibbly dobblies pitched as buffet ball yorkers over the boundary for six, first over long-on and then past extra cover.

Chris Young was the next D-back to go back to the pavillion when he dollied a jaffa of a googly to mid-on and Haren went for 0 when he feathered a ball back over the top to long-off.

He should have gone moments earlier after successive deliveries had beaten the bat, but in the end the bodyline tactics forced him to dink the cherry on an off break chuck and leave the crease.

The asking rate was already too much though and the Mets failed to make inroads into the host's total.

Bite - the turn a spin bowler is able to produce.

Translation: How much movement there is on a pitch.

Bodyline - a tactic involving bowling directly at the batsman's body, particularly when surrounded by fielders.

Translation: Pitching a batter inside to try and jam him in on the hands.

Buffet bowling - bowling of a very poor quality, such that the batsmen is able to "come and help himself" to runs.

Translation: Gopher ball pitchers like Eric Milton.

Cherry - The (red) cricket ball, particularly the new ball which is shinier.

Translation: Simply the ball.

Dink - a gentle shot.

Translation: Like a popup or shallow fly ball or a tapper. Maybe also a swinging bunt.

Dolly - a very easy catch.

Golden duck - a dismissal for nought (zero), from the first ball faced in a batsman's innings.

Translation: Making an out on the first pitch of an at bat.

Jaffa - an exceptionally well bowled, practically unplayable delivery.

Translation: Think of Mariano Rivera's cutter, or just a perfect pitch that catches the corners, knee high.

Reverse Sweep - a right handed batsman sweeping the ball like a left handed batsman and vice-versa.

Translation: Imagine switch hitting after the pitcher has already thrown the ball to the plate.

Spell - the number of continuous overs a bowler bowls before being relieved.

Translation: How many innings a pitcher plays before getting pulled.

Stump - one of the three vertical posts making up the wicket or a way of dismissing a batsman.

Translation: This is harder to explain. It is a noun in one context but a verb in another. The wicket is made up of three posts in the ground (so imagine this as the strike zone).

Wagon wheel  - a graphical chart which divides a cricket ground into six sectors and shows how many runs a batsman has scored into each area.

Translation: Essentially a hit chart to show batting tendencies. (see below)

Wicket-keeper - the player on the fielding side who stands immediately behind the batter.

Translation: The catcher.