Cricket
Pick your shot, time it off the bowler's delivery and find the gaps in the field. Chase the bot's target, set a high score or take on a friend.
Arrows or A W D to play a shot · S / ↓ block · hold Shift or toggle L to loft · P pause · On touch: tap the left, middle or right of the pitch, or use the buttons
How to play
You are the batter. The bot bowls six balls an over, and you have 3 wickets to make as many runs as you can in 1, 2 or 5 overs. Watch the bowler run in, read where the ball pitches and play your shot as it reaches the bat. Each ball allows one shot. Leave the ball alone by not pressing anything, but if it is heading for the stumps, you are out.
- Chase: the bot sets a target that suits its difficulty and the number of overs. Reach it before your overs or wickets run out.
- High score: bat freely. Your best score for each bowler and number of overs is saved in this browser.
- 2 Players: Player 1 bats first, then Player 2 chases Player 1's score on the same device. The bot bowls to both.
Shots and timing
- Leg (← / A) plays to the leg side: flicks, pulls and glances. Best for balls on the pads or on the stumps.
- Drive (↑ / W) hits straight down the ground. Best for full balls in line with the stumps. It doesn't work against bouncers.
- Off (→ / D) plays to the off side: cover drives and cuts. Best for balls outside off stump.
- Block (↓ / S) is the safe shot. It has a bigger timing window but rarely scores more than a single.
- Loft (hold Shift, or toggle with L or the button) hits the ball in the air. A well-timed loft clears the rope for six. A mistimed one is easy to catch.
Timing decides how hard and where the ball goes. Meet it right under your eyes for full power. Play a little early and the ball goes squarer to the leg side. Play a little late and it goes squarer to the off side. Too early or too late and you get an edge, which can carry to the keeper or slips, or you miss altogether. After every shot the status line tells you how many milliseconds early or late you were.
Reading the bowler
- The shadow under the ball shows where it will pitch. Short balls pitch near the bowler and bounce high. Full balls and yorkers pitch near your feet.
- Yorkers have a tight timing window and are almost impossible to loft. Slower balls look like normal deliveries but arrive late, so wait for them.
- A ball that pitches outside the line of the stumps and doesn't swing back can be left. A ball that is very wide is called a wide: you get a run and the ball is bowled again.
- The field map in the top-right corner shows where the fielders are. Ground shots are stopped when they pass close to a fielder, so place the ball into the gaps.
About the bot bowler
Easy bowls at 95–112 km/h with an attacking field (slips and a gully) and few fielders on the boundary, and it marks where each ball will pitch. Medium bowls at 112–132 km/h with a balanced field. Hard bowls at 126–146 km/h, mixes in more yorkers, bouncers and slower balls, and sets a defensive field with four fielders on the boundary. The ball travels at a little over half its real speed, so it can be played by eye.
About cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game between two teams of eleven, played on a 22-yard (20.12 m) pitch in the middle of an oval field. The batting side scores runs by running between the wickets or by hitting the ball to the boundary: four runs if it rolls there and six if it clears the rope on the full. A batter is out if the ball hits the stumps (bowled), if a fielder catches the ball before it bounces (caught), or if the ball would have hit the stumps but strikes the batter's leg first (leg before wicket, LBW). This game uses the short format of Twenty20 cricket, where every ball counts.