Single wicket cricket
Single wicket cricket is a form of cricket played between two individuals, who take turns to bat and bowl against each other. The one bowling is assisted by a team of fielders, who remain as fielders at the change of innings. The winner is the one who scores more runs. There was considerable interest in single wicket during the middle part of the 18th century when it enjoyed major status.
Almost never seen professionally today, it is most often encountered in local cricket clubs, in which there are a number of knockout rounds leading to a final. The exact rules can vary according to local practice: for example, a player might be deducted runs for an out rather than ending his or her innings. An innings typically is limited to two or three overs. When single wicket was popular in the 18th century, however, there was no overs limitation, and a player's innings ended only on his dismissal.
History
Single wicket has known periods of huge success when it was more popular than the eleven-a-side version of cricket. This was especially so among gamblers at the Artillery Ground during the middle years of the 18th century. Star performers at the time included Robert Colchin, Stephen Dingate, Tom Faulkner and Thomas Waymark.
Forms of cricket
Cricket is a multi-faceted sport with multiple formats, depending on the standard of play, the desired level of formality, and the time available. An important division in terms of major cricket and some minor competitions is between matches limited by time in which the teams have two innings apiece, and those limited by number of overs, in which they have a single innings each. The former has a duration of three to five days (there have been examples of "timeless" matches too); the latter, known as limited overs cricket because each team bowls a limit of typically 50 overs, has a planned duration of one day only. A separate form of limited overs is Twenty20, originally designed so that the whole game could be played in a single evening, in which each team has an innings limited to twenty overs each.
Double innings matches usually have at least six hours of playing time each day. Limited overs matches often last at least six hours; and Twenty20 matches are generally completed in under four hours. In a full day's play scheduled for at least six hours, there are formal intervals on each day for lunch and tea with brief informal breaks for drinks. There is also a short interval between innings.
