Offensive Strategies of Cricket

Innings

• All offensive strategy revolves around how many runs a team will need or thinks it needs to win, known as a run target, and the targeted number of runs differs between the first and the second team to bat, particularly in matches with only one innings.

  While targets for a team that still has an innings, usually the first team, can be flexible, a team with no innings remaining has its target set by the other team's final tally, which must be overcome.

Outs and Overs

• If you compare cricket to time, innings are the weeks and days while outs and overs are the hours and minutes: the divisions within that larger unit of time.

  Each batter gets six chances to score in each over, so depending on how many outs and overs a batter has left and how many runs his team has left to score will determine how aggressively a batter aims for the target.

  If it appears that the batter will run out of overs before he reaches the target, the batting side may decide to "Go All Out" or engage in risky plays that may potentially expend all of the team's outs.

Bowlers and Fielder Location

• Batters can hit the ball in any direction, and fielders other than the bowler and the wicket keeper can stand anywhere on the field, so where the batter aims his hits depends largely on where the fielders will be: the further away they are from the fielders, the more likely that runs will be scored.

  Bowlers are also required to change every few overs, so a batter may decide to play cautiously when a strong bowler is playing and wait for a weaker substitute to engage in more aggressive play.

Lineup and Time of Day

• Stronger batters usually hit near the beginning of the lineup for two reasons.

  Each team has 11 batters, two of whom are on the field at once, but receive 10 outs. That means one of the batters will be interrupted during his batting if the team uses all of its outs, and the closer the batter is to the end of the lineup, the more likely it is he'll be the one left in that position.

  A team also is given a limited number of overs, so the innings may end without all the batters getting a chance to bat.

  However, often the best batters will not be the first to go up due to any peculiarities with the ball or unexpected events that occur before the batting side develops a rhythm. Usually the best batters will arrive just after these first batters have protected their opportunities from these possibly unexpected developments.

  Some teams put their weakest batters in the middle of a lineup during test matches in what is called the "night watchman" strategy.

  In this theory, the poorer hitters are moved to parts of the lineup that are expected to be up to bat during times of the day with limited sunlight, thus making batting more difficult, leaving the better parts of the day to the superior hitters where they can maximize the time with the better conditions.