Innings

From ArticleWorld

An innings or inning is a term to describe a passage of play, most notably in the sports of cricket and baseball. An innings in both sport is defined by one team taking bat whilst the other bowls, and in each case the team bats until all the all the legal players are out. In the case of cricket an innings is ended when the entire team (minus one who will remain not out) is bowled out whilst in baseball it is just three batters.

Baseball Innings

Unlike in most sports where a period of play is defined by a strict time limit, sports with innings have the freedom to continue as long as the batsmen wicket or equivalent remains intact. In the game of baseball there are 9 regulation innings for each team, in which they each afforded three strikeouts in each. If the scoring remains tied at the end of the regulation innings, the teams go into a period of Extra innings where a winning team will be decided by taking the lead of a single innings. If a home team scores during these extra-innings the game stops and they are declared winners despite however many outs they may all ready have acquired.

Cricket Innings

In a standard game of test-cricket an innings is limited only by the 4-day length of the match. Innings’ last for as long as batsmen are able to maintain their wicket, as soon as each player has been dismissed barring one (there must be two players at the crease at all times so one is always not out) the innings is over. In a standard test match each team will have two innings in which to better the score of the opposition. If a team has achieved a very high score and is taking a great deal of time they may be asked by the captain to throw caution to the wind, or alternatively he may choose to declare. A declaration means that the team takes the score at the time of the captain’s decision, placing the other team in bat starting a new innings. In the game of cricket an innings may also be used to describe an individual batsman’s effort, commentators will often remark that player x ‘has had a good innings’, referring to his stay at the crease. In a limited overs match the innings is restricted to the number of overs stipulated, usually 50. A team can still be removed before the end of the allotted time by having all wickets removed, but they must not play beyond the given overs.