Cricket RP Tutorial

Index
Introduction to Cricket

Forms (Test/ODI/T20)
- Tests / First Class
- ODI / List-A
- T20

Scoring runs and taking wickets
- Scoring runs
- Taking wickets

How to read results and how to determine which team won
- Limited overs cricket (ODI and T20)
- Test cricket

Bowling, batting and fielding
- Bowling
- Batting
- Fielding

RPing Cricket: rosters, batting orders and Scorecards
- Rosters
- Batting orders
- Scorecards

Scorinating leagues and matches
Scorinating Test cricket and First Class cricket
Scorinating ODIs, List-A and Twenty20 cricket
How to tweak Xkoranate's xml files for modern run rates, super overs and exotic formats

Introduction to Cricket
A good basic explanation of how cricket works can be found here. For now, reading the basics, the field, the way a match progresses, and skimming the equipment is enough. At this point, you should know the following points:

- A team consists of 11 players. One team fields, which means they bowl (throw/pitch) the ball, tyring to get the other out and limiting the number of runs the other team can score. The other team bats. Both teams will get an opportunity to do both (field and bat).
- The field is a huge (compared to most other sports) oval, with one small square of packed earth/very short grass (the pitch) in the middle. At both ends of the pitch are two wickets, which consist of three stumps holding up two bails. The boundary (edge) of the field is marked by (a) fence/rope/toblerone advertisements.
- A match begins with the toss, the captain winning the toss may decide whether his/her team will bat or bowl first. A match will consist of innings: the first innings, one team will bat, the other will bowl, the second innings, the second team bats, the first team bowls. In longer matches, there might be third and fourth innings as well.
- An innings consists of overs: a set of six balls bowled by the same bowler. After an over, a different player will bowl the next over, and will be bowled from the opposite end (remember, there are two wickets set up, one at each end of the pitch). This means, that after batsman faces the last ball of the previous over, the other batsman will face the first ball of the new over (but more on that later).
- The ball is small, often red, hard, and has a raised seam. Batsmen have a cricket bat which is shorter, wider and flatter than a baseball bat. Batsmen also wear some protective gear, as does the wicketkeeper (more about them later).

Forms (Test/ODI/T20)
Now we're clear on the basics, we're going to talk about the various forms of the game. Just skip to the format you're playing.
- Test/First Class
this form takes 4-5 days to complete, and consists of 4 innings. Each team has two opportunities to bat and score runs, and each team has two opportunities to bowl and get the other team out/limit the other team to a low score. In this form, traditionally, players wear all white. In this form, defensive batting is important, to protect the wicket, stretch out the innings. The weather and deterioration of the pitch are factors here, and choosing whether to bowl or bat first can have big consequences on whether you're going to have an easier time batting first or later. If you're going to RP Test matches, definitely read up on deterioration of the pitch, follow-ons, requesting a new ball to be used, the minimum and maximum lengths of a day's play, in addition to results (wins, losses, draws, and ties) and how to avoid those last two (draws and ties). A day's play is divided into three sesssions, separated by a lunch break (between the 1st and 2nd session) and tea (between the 2nd and 3rd session). For some reason, tea refers to a full meal.
- ODI/List-A
This form takes a full day to complete, and consists of two innings. An innings consists of 50 overs (sometimes 40 in domestic competitions) for a maximum total of 300 balls per innings. Teams usually play in coloured uniforms. This form is pretty straightforward, but there are field restrictions for the fielding team to entice higher scores. The same link has information about time lost due to rain and the infamous Duckworth/Lewis method. This almost never comes up on NS, but if you're so inclined you want to use it domestically, torture yourself all you want. If the team batting second scores even one more run than their opponents, even if they've got dozens of balls left, the match ends anyway.
- T20
This form takes about 3 hours to complete. The match consists of two innings, and each innings is limited to a maximum of 20 overs (120 balls per innings). Teams play in coloured uniforms. Bowlers may bowl a maximum of 4 overs (so you need 5 bowlers at the fewest). If the team batting second scores even one more run than their opponents, even if they've got dozens of balls left, the match ends anyway.

Scoring runs and taking wickets
Now we're briefly going to talk about scoring runs, taking wickets and counting to 6, 20 or 50 to properly interpret the results that I'll introduce a bit later.
- Scoring runs
Only the team that is batting can score runs. There are two batsmen on the pitch, one of which will face the ball and has the opportunity to hit the ball. Scoring runs, however, is largely a thing they have to work for together. Once the ball is hit and flies/rolls away, the batsmen can run towards the end of the pitch (aka where the other batsman was before the ball was bowled), and for each time they make it to the other side, a run is scored. If both batsmen run to the other wicket, they score one run. If both batsmen run to the other wicket, then back again to the wicket they started off from, they score two runs, and so on. Obviously they can't keep running forever, which I'll talk about in 'Taking wickets'.
Boundaries: running around all day is going to tire out the batsmen a bit. They can score runs without running, but they have to bat really well. They can score a boundary, which is four runs if a batsman hits the ball and it reaches the boundary. If it reaches the boundary on the full (no hitting the ground before going over the boundary), it's six runs. The shorter the format, the more of these will occur. In Tests, 4s will occur every now and again, but 6s very rarely happen. In T20, 4s and 6s are the only way to win a match.
Extras: the batting team can also get runs for free, which are called extras. For RP purposes, the extra info boxes on the right of that page are extra helpful. Some extras occur more frequently than others.
- Taking wickets
The bowling team is there to limit the number of runs scored by the batting team, but that's not all. They can get a batsman out, which means that they cannot return on the pitch for that innings. There are a few ways in which a batsman can lose his wicket (or, from the viewpoint of the bowling team, how the bowler can take a wicket). 1, 2, and 3 happen frequently, 4 and 5 less frequently, 6 happens infrequently, and 7-10 happen almost never.
If a team loses 10 wickets, the innings ends. After 10 batsmen have gone out, the batting team has only one batsman left - and he can't operate alone.
- In the end, the team that has scored most runs, wins.

How to read results and how to determine which team won
Now you know what forms the game comes in, we're going to talk about how to read results. It's almost impossible to write about the match if you don't know which team batted first, and I'm sorry, it's not always obvious which team bats first.
In general, if the winning team batted first, the result will be stated as a win by runs. If the winning team batted second, the result will be stated as a win by wickets.
- What a result looks like (Limited overs: ODI/List-A/T20)

Elejamie 202/7 (20 overs)
Ko-oren 129/3 (20 overs)

This is a result from a T20 match. The result works as follows: Team Runs/Wickets (balls faced). Elejamie scored 202 runs, lost 7 wickets, and used up all 20 overs (120 balls). Ko-oren scored 129 runs, lost 3 wickets, and also used up all 120 balls. Elejamie won the match, because they have scored more runs. Elejamie batted the first innings, in which they scored 202 runs. How do we know Ko-oren didn't bat in the first innings? Well, if they had, the match would've stopped right after Elejamie had scored 130 runs (or, if they had hit a 6, once they've gotten to 135 runs, max). Therefore, 202 posted a target of 203 in the first innings, losing 7 batsmen in the process, but batting all 20 overs long. In the second innings, Ko-oren batted for 129 in a failed run chase as they tried to chase the target of 203 set by Elejamie, losing 3 wickets and running out of time once the 120th ball was bowled. Therefore, the result is stated as such: "Elejamie won by 73 runs".
If you see something like (38.2 overs) or (19.5 overs), that means the innings ended when the over was still underway. In the first case, the innings ended after 38 full overs had been bowled, and the next over had just had its first two balls bowled when the innings ended. In the second case, 19 full overs had been bowled, and five of the 20th over were bowled - aka, they were one ball away from completing 20 overs.

Another example:

Mughals royal 137/7 (20 overs)
West Phoenicia 140/4 (19 overs)

This one's a lot closer. West Phoenicia won because 140 runs is more than 137 runs. West Phoenicia scored 140 runs, lost 4 wickets, and batted for 19 overs (which is a big hint). Mughals royal scored 137 runs, lost 7 wickets, and batted for 20 overs. Which team batted first?
It's Mughals royal. They scored 137 runs, and time ran out on them. They still had wickets in hand, so they could have gone on for longer. West Phoenicia successfully chased the total of 137, by scoring 140 runs, and they did so exactly as the 19th over came to an end. Therefore, "West Phoenicia won by 6 wickets", because they still had 6 more wickets to lose before the match would've ended (if it weren't for the limit of 20 overs).

Another example:

The Plough Islands 165/6 (19.5 overs)
Darmen 164/7 (20 overs)

The Plough Islands scored 165 runs, which means they won as Darmen only scored 164. Which team batted first? Well, that's Darmen. They scored 164 runs and used up all 20 overs, and therefore set the target. The Plough Islands scored 165 on the second-to-last ball to win the match dramatically in the end. "The Plough Islands won by 4 wickets".

Here we go again:

Mattijana 150/6 (19 overs)
Eastfield Lodge 148/5 (20 overs)

Who won (count the runs)? Who batted first (look at the overs)? What's the result?

And another one:

Rooimervania 157/5 (20 overs)
Barunia 132/6 (20 overs)

Who won (compare the runs)? Who batted first (look at the overs)? What's the result?

Ok, last one:

Liventia 165/7 (20 overs)
Northwest Kalactin 159/6 (20 overs)

Who won? Who batted first? What's the result?

- What a Test/First Class result looks like

Darmen in Tobiasia (1 of 3)
Tobiasia bat first
Tobiasia 357 (132.3 overs), 333/9 (149.4 overs)
Darmen 565 (143.4 overs)
Drawn

There's a lot more that goes on in Tests. From the first line, we can see that the teams involved are Darmen and Tobiasia, and the match is taking place in Tobiasia. We can see that they will play each other three times, and this is the first of these meetings (1 of 3). The second line tells us that Tobiasia bats in the first innings, Darmen in the second, and provided there's no follow-on (see the earlier info on Tests), Tobiasia bats the third, and Darmen bats the fourth. The third line gives us Tobiasia's total: they scored 357 all-out (10 wickets lost) in the first innings, and their innings took 132.3 overs to complete: 132 full overs, and 3 balls of the next over. Then Darmen took over, and they scored a monstrous 565 runs in 143.4 overs. Tobiasia then went again, scoring 333 runs in 149.4 overs, and they lost 9 wickets. What happens next? Turns out, the two teams played for the entire 5 days and time ran out before a result was possible: the match is drawn. Even though Tobiasia has scored more runs, a Test match only has a winner if the losing team has lost all 20 wickets (or gave up, but that's not in the scorinator). You could say that Tobiasia was about to win this, but look closely: had there been more time, Darmen would have easily topped the 357+333 runs - so likely, Tobiasia had actually been stalling for the entirety of the third innings, to avoid a loss and force a draw.

Match Report: Apox in Eura (1 of 3)
Apox bat first
Apox 470/9d (157.0 overs), 164 (43.3 overs)
Eura 334 (95.3 overs), 302/7 (78.4 overs)
Eura win by 3 wickets

Apox and Eura play, and this is the first of three Tests they will play in Eura. Apox start, and score 470 runs in 157 overs - but wait, they only lost 9 batsmen, so the innings can't be over? Look at the /9d: the 'd' means they declared this innings over, so they ended the innings without losing all their batsmen. Why would you do this? Remember the previous match (Darmen and Tobiasia)? If Darmen had declared their innings early, there might have been enough time to take that 10th Tobiasia wicket, thus taking all 20 wickets and winning the match instead of drawing it. Apox here end the innings early to save time, anticipating that the match would come down to a race against the clock on day 5. Next up is Eura. They score 334 runs, all-out, for 95.3 overs. Then Apox comes on again... and they have a terrible innings, only scoring 164 runs all out in 43.3 overs. While they feared they might not have had enough time on the last day, suddenly they give Eura a lot of time and a much lower total to chase. In the fourth innings, Eura does exactly that: they score 302 runs in 78.4 overs, losing 'only' 7 wickets, and 302+334 > 470+164, so as soon as Eura hits a score over 470+164, the match ends and the result is a Eura win by wickets.

Match Report: Ethane in Elejamie (2 of 3)
Ethane bat first
Ethane 207 (80.3 overs), 410/7d (110.4 overs)
Elejamie 267 (65.0 overs), 301 (87.1 overs)
Elejamie lose by 49 runs

You know the drill: Elejamie hosts Ethane, and this is the second of three matches. Ethane start in the first innings, scoring 207 runs in 80.3 overs. Elejamie score 267 in just 65, so there is a lot of time left for the third and fourth innings. Ethane then score 410 in 110.4 overs, declaring the innings after 7 outs, so they have enough time to take all 10 wickets on the last innings so as to avoid the draw and win the match instead. Elejamie will try to stall for time, let the clock run out, so they draw the match instead of winning it. They could also see the 207+410 as a challenge, risk it all and try to beat the score... That's why the amount of time left and the amount of runs to chase is in a careful balance when you declare the innings. Anyway, Elejamie end up on 301 runs for 87.1 overs... not enough to match the target set by Ethane - and thus Ethane win by 49 runs, or as the scorinator likes to put it, Elejamie lose by 49 runs.

Match Report: Apox in Eura (3 of 3)
Eura bat first
Eura 161 (35.5 overs), 217 (44.3 overs)
Apox 502/4d (168.4 overs)
Apox win by an innings and 124 runs

Back to that Apox in Eura series. This is the third meeting of that same series. Eura start, and get a meagre 161 on 35.5 overs. Apox score 502, a total set by just 6 batsmen (4 outs + 2 active batsmen) and declare the innings. Eura then score 217 in 44.3... another terrible innings, and Apox win. But they still have an innings left! So this result is "Apox win by an innings and 124 runs": they have an innings left, and they still have 124 runs over Eura's total across two innings.

Match Report: Eastfield Lodge in Gruenberg
Gruenberg bat first
Gruenberg 503 (140.3 overs), 38/3 (12.5 overs)
Eastfield Lodge 131 (41.0 overs), 409 (134.1 overs) f/o
Gruenberg win by 7 wickets

Now for an example of something briefly mentioned in the Test section: the follow-on. Consider the above: Gruenberg host and bat first, scoring a monstrous 503. Eastfield Lodge bat next and go all out for 131. If the team batting second is behind by 200 runs or more, the first team can elect to force the follow-on. In that case, the team batting second immediately bats again. So instead of Gruenberg-Eastfield Lodge-Gruenberg-Eastfield Lodge, the match structure is now Gruenberg-Eastfield Lodge-Eastfield Lodge(-Gruenberg, if needed). The benefit is that Gruenberg, if they have another great bowling spell, can end the match early, and not have to worry about the time they leave on days four and five. The downside is that their bowlers will not get a time to cool down. In this case, the Gruenberg bowlers must have been a little worn down from taking 10 quick wickets, because Eastfield Lodge now get 409 runs, and 409+131 > 503, so Gruenberg will have to go again. They score 38 runs to win the match, losing three wickets in the process, and win the match after a very short fourth innings (almost 13 overs).

Lastly, and this one doesn't happen often, is the tie, which happens if both teams end up on the exact same number of runs and they're both all out. Know the difference between a draw and a tie: a draw is when there is no winner/loser because time ran out, a tie is when the score is literally tied at the end of the match. As it turns out, we have an example of one of those:

Match Report: Darmen in Liventia (3 of 4)
Darmen bat first
Liventia 396 (133.1 overs), 239 (75.0 overs)
Darmen 436 (121.2 overs), 199 (61.4 overs)
Tied (!!)

Liventia's 396+239 comes out as 635. Darmen's two innings combine to 436+199... and that's also 635. All 40 wickets (10 wickets per inning, two innings per team, two teams) were lost so no batsmen are left to score any runs even though there's still time left in the allotted 5 days... yes, that's a tie.

Bowling, batting and fielding
Now we know the rules, format, and result, we're going to talk about bowling, batting and positions. This is already pretty in-depth, so skim over this, take from it what you want.
- Bowling terms
For bowling, there are two categories to talk about: bowling styles (the way a bowler bowls) and how/where a ball is bowled to (first paragraph of that link).
Bowling terms are extremely counterintuitive, so it might be easiest to remember it as follows:
Right-handed bowlers can bowl leg or off.
Left-handed bowlers can bowl orthodox or unorthodox.

A leg spinner is a right-handed bowl towards the left (as seen from the bowler's point of view). (for a right-handed batsman, a leg spinner spins AWAY from leg)
An off spinner is a right-handed bowl that travels towards the right. (for a right-handed batsman, a leg spinner spins AWAY from off)

An orthodox delivery is a left-handed bowl towards the left.
An unorthodox delivery is a left-handed bowl towards the right.
- Batting terms
Pretty much everything you need to know is here.
- Fielding
This is all you'll ever need to know. The paragraph about the wicketkeeper is pretty important: they have a unique job on the field, and a good defensive team needs a good wicketkeeper.

RPing Cricket: rosters, batting orders and Scorecards
Now for what you're actually here: creating rosters, batting orders, and scorecards.
- Rosters
For a roster, what your opponents (and yourself) want to know, are:
-- Player names
-- Player roles (are they openers? Middle-order batsmen? All-rounders? Wicketkeepers? Bowlers?)
-- Handedness as batsmen (this influences how the bowlers bowl against him, which fielding positions are used, and mirrors the field, so terms like square, off, on/leg change)
-- Bowling style (fast/pace vs spin, and if you want to, even what kind of pace or spin)
Bowling terms are extremely counterintuitive, so it might be easiest to remember it as follows:
Right-handed bowlers can bowl leg or off.
Left-handed bowlers can bowl orthodox or unorthodox.

A leg spinner is a right-handed bowl towards the left (as seen from the bowler's point of view). (for a right-handed batsman, a leg spinner spins AWAY from leg)
An off spinner is a right-handed bowl that travels towards the right. (for a right-handed batsman, a leg spinner spins AWAY from off)

An orthodox delivery is a left-handed bowl towards the left.
An unorthodox delivery is a left-handed bowl towards the right.

Of course, bowlers will typically vary up their bowling in terms of speed, line and length, as well as bowling style. An example of switching up bowling style: a leg spinner (a right-handed bowler that normally bowls a ball that spins towards the left) might bowl in such way that the ball does not spin, but just travels on straight, trying to catch the batsman off guard.
-- Who the captain is
-- Style modifier (if the event uses it)
-- If you want to, you can also include ages, First-Class/List-A/T20 domestic teams, historic stats from that player in that format (batting averages and the like), and information about the coach, playing style, strengths and weaknesses, colours and uniforms, etc, etc.
- Batting order
What you and your opponents also want to know, is which 11 players will play and in what order they appear as batsmen. Every team will include one wicketkeeper, the rest is up to you, but normally has about 4-5 bowlers, 4-5 batsmen, of which one or two may be called all-rounders. Fewer than 4 bowlers is barely feasible because limited overs require a certain number of bowlers. In really long test innings, sometimes even batsmen will bowl one or two overs here and there: there's no rule against them bowling, but they're generally just really bad at it (but not always!). Then, order your XI by putting the openers at the top (they should be good at gauging the quality of the pitch, the bounce of the ball and pitch, testing out the bowlers, and wearing down the ball), then the rest of the batsmen, followed by the all-rounders and the wicketkeeper (who is usually a better batsmen than the bowlers, and sometimes even better than the all-rounders and even some batsmen). Lastly the bowlers bat. Feel free to change up the order somewhat: some wicketkeepers and all-rounders are better batsmen and you want to have them earlier. Some bowlers might even be decent at batting. Sometimes, strategy dictates you might want a batsmen a bit further down the order. But normally, it's openers-batsmen-allrounder/WK-bowlers.
- Scorecards
Some RPers live off of scorecards, others just generate some cursory stats to help them frame the match. If you want to create a full scorecard, this is here to help you.
There are two types of scorecards: one for the batting team, one for the bowling team. That means there are two scorecards possible for every innings: both sides generate statistics that you can put in the scorecard.
This is an example of a very detailed scorecard:

Liventia innings (20 overs maximum)
Batsman							  R   B  4s  6s   SR
DA Hennessey		c Daley b Thorne		 14   9   2   0  155.56
JCA Quinn		c Smith b Cooper		 20  14   2   1  142.85
PD Finch		c †Price b Thorne		  0   1   0   0    0.00
DHJ Edwards		c Dougherty b Martinez		 79  37   7   4  213.51
OH Kerr*		run out (Waterman/†Price)	 37  28   1   2  132.14
E Reynolds		b Smith				 13  13   0   1  100.00
MQ Sarrin†		c Smith b Thorne		 11   8   0   1  137.50
RJ MacMaster		c Dougherty b Thorne		  0   1   0   0    0.00
DM Quinn		not out				  9   7   1   0  128.57
JPK Adams		run out (Cooper/Beech)		  1   2   0   0   50.00
RPT de Cerci		not out				  0   0   0   0    ----
  EXTRAS		(1lb, 3wd)			  4
  TOTAL			for 9 wickets (20.0 ov)		188 (9.40 runs per over)

FoW 1/20 Hennessey 2.3, 2/20 Finch 2.4, 3/51 JCA Quinn 5.3, 4/151 Edwards 14.3,
    5/154 Kerr 15.1, 6/172 Reynolds 17.6, 7/178 Sarrin 18.2, 8/178 MacMaster 18.3,
    9/186 Adams 19.4

Barunia bowling
Bowler			Ov    M   R   W   Econ  Ext
M Thorne		4.0   0  31   4   7.75  (1wd)
J Beech			3.0   0  34   0  11.33
V Cooper		2.0   0  22   1  11.00
OS Martinez		4.0   0  27   1   6.75
Z Adams			2.0   0  20   0  10.00
L Morgan		2.0   0  29   0  14.50  (1wd)
L Smith			3.0   0  24   1   8.00  (1wd)

What we see here is, I repeat, a very detailed scorecard. They do not have to be this in-depth, you can see for yourself what is important to you and how much time you have to put this together. At the top, we see that it's Liventia's innings, in a T20 match against Barunia, which is why it has 20 overs maximum. Then we see a list of batsmen, their method of going out, their runs, balls faced, 4s, 6s and Strike Rate (see below), and immmediately under that the extras and the total. The total should have the overs/balls, wickets and runs, and maybe the RPO (runs per over/run rate, see below). Under that are the Fall of Wickets, which is when in the match the wickets have fallen: "1/20 Hennessey 2.3" means that Hennessey was the first to get out at a score of 20 runs (1/20), after 2 overs and 3 balls bowled. After that we get the bowlers of that same innings, which has Barunia's bowlers (rest see below).

Some only include the batsmen and the number of runs they scored, others include the number of balls faced as well (which gives you enough information to calculate the Strike Rate), and some want the method of going out as well. You might as well include 4s and 6s at that point.

An important place to start for a batting scorecard is the number of extras. There's nothing more frustrating than completing an entire scorecard and then realising the bowlers have apparently been more than perfect, which almost never happens. So note down some extras first, then divide the remaining runs among the batsmen. The longer the format, the number of balls will be higher, the Strike Rate (ratio between runs scored and balls faced, with 1 run off 1 ball given a score of 100.00, 2 runs off 1 ball being 200.00 and 1 run off 2 balls being 50.00) will be lower (as a result of the number of balls being higher/there being fewer runs), and the ratio of boundaries will be somewhat lower as well.
Once you have that, you can look at the methods of going out. Is there a bowler you're RPing to have a big day or a terrible day? Give him wickets, or don't. Are the batsmen trying to get runs wherever they can, regardless of risk? More catches and run outs it is. Run outs, by the way, don't count towards a bowler's wickets. Also remember that going all out means only 10 wickets are lost: at least one batsman will be not out. If an innings is declared, or if it's a limited overs game and the 20/50 overs are reached, there will be at least two batsmen not out. Lastly, check the RPO or Runs per Over, aka, the number of runs scored in an average over. When calculating these, remember that 15.5 doesn't mean 15 and a half overs, it means 15 5/6th overs.
You can also decide on the FoW, or Fall of Wickets, aka, when the wickets fell and what score it was at that point. Was there a huge over where a big batsman lost his wicket and the players coming in for him weren't up to par? Maybe the bowler took multiple wickets that over. Was there a really high run rate (=Runs per over)? The best batsmen probably stayed on the pitch for a while then, and their wickets were probably taken late in the match. Did the team do above average, then collapsed? Fewer wickets early in the match, and a lot in the last 4-5 overs (depending on format), which is also known as a lower-order collapse - normally, the worse batsmen (usually the bowlers) come on late, and aren't expected to score a lot of runs. If they all have a collective off-day, all lower-order batsmen could lose their wickets for a very low amount of runs.

Further down is the bowlers' scorecard. The numbers here are Overs (O) bowled (and remember, bowlers cannot bowl consecutive overs), Maidens (M) for the number of overs where zero runs were scored (of which there'll be few in T20, but there could be a lot more in Tests), Runs (R) and Wickets taken (W). Again, this is how you decide which bowlers have had a great day, and which haven't. Sometimes, bowlers can have a good day but just cannot take wickets - in that case, they might give up very few runs. Or they take a lot of wickets, but they give up a lot of runs.

Last of all, cricket is a game of asterisks. For most rules, there is some sort of exception ('the team that has scored most runs, wins' for instance, because of the Duckworth/Lewis method). For most things that happen in-game, such as shot types, shot directions, bowling styles, fielding positions, etc, there is a very specific word for that. These are usually easy to find, but a bit hard to incorporate because they're so specific. With the rules and explanations above, you'll be fine RPing cricket.

Scorinating
Maybe after this and after taking part in a Championship, you want to set up your own domestic league. This chapter talks about setting one up and what to keep in mind.

- First-Class cricket (Test cricket)
The longest format first. It is usually only called Test cricket when it involves different nations, and domestically it's referred to as First Class cricket. Often, domestic championships have match lengths of four days, but five is fine as well.

To scorinate first class cricket, or test cricket, we currently use Apoxballer (a continuation of the older Redballer). It requires (from top to bottom) the home team's name, the home team's rank, the home team's RP/form, the ground mod, and then the first three but for the away team. It is recommended to incorporate the RP/form in the rank, so for me the RP/form fields are set to zero. If you're familiar with scorinating events, rank shouldn't confuse you. The one thing specific to cricket/Apoxballer is the ground mod. As every ground is different, and the climate/weather may change, you can set a ground modifier here, between -6 and 6. Modifiers below 0 result in slow grounds, with lower scoring matches, and modifiers above 0 will result in quicker grounds, with higher scoring matches.

Apoxballer has no option to manage and scorinate a league, so you'll have to manually enter each match. I have made a version that takes care of my 6-team league in setting up matches and assigning points, and even puts out a table, which you can also freely make a copy of and use, but mind that the sheet only works if your league is set up exactly like mine. Some knowledge of spreadsheets is required to set up your own.

- Limited overs cricket (List-A/ODI/T20)
Now for limited overs cricket. ODI cricket, or one day cricket, is often called List-A cricket domestically. Forms of limited overs cricket are most commonly scorinated with xkoranate. This works as usual: select One-day international or Twenty20 from the Select Sport menu, tick 'Apply home advantage' if needed, and enter teams, skills and styles as normal. Styles below 0 result in more defensive teams (giving up fewer runs and scoring fewer runs), and styles over 0 result in more offensive teams (scoring and giving up more runs).

- Adjusting xkoranate for modern run rates, and other forms of limited overs cricket
Xkoranate only gives you the option to scorinate either 20-over or 50-over matches. If you want something other than that, you may find your solution in editing the xml files that xkoranate uses. Please only do this if you're somewhat familiar with scorination or you know what you're doing.

As an example, let's take the cricket_t20.xml that is used to, you guessed it, scorinate Twenty20. You can leave almost everything as it is, but just note the following lines:
<int type="maxOvers">20</int> --- Change this number if you want shorter or longer matches.
<int type="ballsPerOver">6</int> --- Change this number if you want more of fewer ball per over. Six balls per over wasn't always the norm, and at various points in history, in various RL nations, there have been between 4 and 8 balls per over, for instance.
<int type="maxWickets">10</int> --- Change this number if somehow you want more or fewer than 11 players per team? Or if batsmen can get out twice per innings?

If you tweak those three numbers, you may also want to adjust the following the values under <list type="meanRunRate">, which handle the run rate per innings. By default, xkoranate's <list type="meanRunRate"> is a bit low compared to modern run rates. Personally, I use the following values:
<list type="meanRunRate">
<double>6.5</double>
<double>7.76</double>
<double>8.26</double>
<double>9.19</double>
<double>10.52</double>

Again, the rest can be left alone. For those that are curious, stDevRunRate handles the standard deviation behind run rates, and if a mention of 'mean' and 'standard deviation' don't ring a bell, here you go.

The same goes for meanWicketRate and stDevWicketRate, which handle how quickly wickets will fall. These do not necessary need to be adjusted to more closely resemble modern (late 2010s) run rates and T20 scoring.

Lastly, you might want to use a Super Over as a tiebreaker (2 wickets and one over per team). You can accommodate this in xkoranate by setting these values (which should hardly come as a surprise):
<int type="maxOvers">1</int>
<int type="ballsPerOver">6</int>
<int type="maxWickets">2</int>
One over, two wickets, six balls per over. You can even tweak the run rate and how often wickets fall via the mean and stDev RunRate and WicketRate, but that's up to you.

The cricket_odi.xml works almost the same, but obviously with default lower run rates, lower wicket rates and 50 overs as maxOvers value.