Innings

A cricket match is divided into phases known as innings (the same spelling is used for both singular and plural) and, depending on the type of match, there may be two or four innings, as defined in Law 13 of The Laws of Cricket. In each innings, while one team is batting, the other is fielding, and a key member of the fielding team is bowling. Throughout an innings, all eleven members of the fielding team are on the field, but only two batters. When the batting team's innings has been completed, the teams reverse roles for the next innings, the fielding team becoming the batting team, and vice-versa. The match ends when all innings have been completed.

An innings ends when ten of the eleven batters are out: i.e., the team is "all out". One batter remains but cannot play alone and so is "not out". In a first-class match, the innings can end early if the captain of the batting team decides to declare the innings closed for tactical reasons before his batters are all out. In limited overs matches, the innings ends after the prescribed number of six-ball overs have been bowled.

Overs

Throughout an innings, the fielding team utilises its bowlers to bowl the ball to the batters. The bowlers take it in turns to bowl, and the length of each turn, known as an over, is six successive deliveries. The name is derived from the umpire's call of "Over!" when the ball is out of play following the bowler's sixth delivery. If the bowler does not concede any runs in the over, that over is termed a "maiden" and the bowler is credited with these in his match and career statistics. On completion of an over, the fielding team changes ends and the two umpires swap roles.

The next over begins with a different bowler operating from the other end of the pitch, and bowling to the batter who was the non-striker at the end of the previous over. A bowler cannot operate from both ends consecutively, but will usually bowl every other over from the same end through several overs until he/she completes a "spell", and the captain replaces them with another bowler. It follows that two bowlers are often deployed in tandem. When a bowler completes an over, they stay on the field to become one of the fielders until bowling again.

Six deliveries is now the standard length of an over. Historically, the four-ball over and the eight-ball over have been used. It is believed that the four-ball over had always been deployed until 1889, when a five-ball over was temporarily used in English cricket. The six-ball over was introduced in 1900. Australia was the main proponent of the eight-ball over, in use from 1936 to 1979.

Super Over

A Super Over is a tiebreaker in which both teams get extra innings with a maximum of 6 legal deliveries. If the teams are still tied after the Super Over, more Super Overs are played until one of the teams scores more runs than its opponents.

One notable time a Super Over happened was during the 2019 Cricket World Cup Final.