By Tom Melville

Probably the best way to describe cricket is to say it's exactly like baseball in general, but completely different in specifics.

Both games have teams (11 on a side in cricket, and nine in baseball) that alternate batting and fielding. Most similarities between the two games end here.

Instead of bases, cricket has two sets of three short wooden poles, called wickets, placed in the center of the playing area, 22 yards apart. Instead of batting boxes, there are two short chalk lines, called creases, laid out four feet in front of, and parallel, to each wicket.

The cricket batter stands in front of one wicket and tries to hit balls the pitcher (called a bowler in cricket) throws from behind the crease at the opposite wicket. In cricket, however, there's no foul territory, so the batter can hit the ball anywhere. There are no balls or strikes, and the bowler can throw the ball to the batter on the bounce (which he always tries to do) as well as on the fly. The batter in cricket always bats with a partner who is at the opposite wicket with his own bat. A batter does not have to run when he hits the ball, but if he does, then he and his partner (carrying their bats with them) simultaneously run past the creases at the opposite wicket. That scores one run. And if the batter can hit one over the fielders' heads, he and his partner can continue to run back and forth from wicket to wicket as often as they think they'll be safe, and will score another run each and every time they switch.

Cricket batters don't come out after scoring a run, however. Each continues to bat until the fielding team can get him out (as to how they do that, see below). This is why some pro matches can on rare occasions take days. A game between skillful amateurs lasts about four or five hours.

The fielding team can get batters out one of four basic ways. If the bowler can blow a pitch past the batter and hit his wicket, the batter is out, something like a "strike out" in cricket. The batter's also out if he blocks a pitch from hitting his wicket with his body (even accidentally), and if any fielder catches a ball on the fly (just like baseball). Fielders can also get the batter out when he's going for runs, if they can get to the ball, throw it and hit the wicket before the batter's over the crease (like being caught "off base" in baseball).

A cricket match is played out over only one inning, not nine innings. That's because everyone on the batting team must come up to bat and be put out one after the other before the fielding team can bat through its entire order. Whichever team scored more runs is the winner.

Tom Melville is an "intrepid Badger fan" from Cedarburg, Wisconsin. A member of the rare species of American-born cricketeers, he is the author of The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America (Bowling Green State University Press).