Innings

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Innings

An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sport

Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
s – most notably cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games team sport that originated in southern England. The earliest definite reference is dated 1598, and it is now played in more than 100 countries....
and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is always spelled and pronounced with the terminal "s." In baseball, the singular form is inning and only the plural takes an "s."

In many other sports, the length of the game is dictated by a clock and teams swap offensive and defensive roles dynamically by taking possession of a ball or similar item.

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Encyclopedia

An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sport

Sport

Cricket

Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games team sport that originated in southern England. The earliest definite reference is dated 1598, and it is now played in more than 100 countries....
and baseball

Baseball

Run (baseball)

In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third baseball field and returns out to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three out are recorded....
and run (cricket)

Run (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of Score . Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score....
—while the other team, said to be "fielding," attempts to prevent the scoring of runs and get members of the batting team out. The teams switch places after the fielding team has succeeded in getting a fixed number of players out, making a clock unnecessary.

In cricket, the term innings is also used to refer to the play of one particular player (Smith had a poor innings, scoring only 12). By extension, this term can be used in British English

British English

British English or UK English is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere....
for almost any activity which takes a period of time (The Liberal government had a good innings, but finally lost office in 1972, or You've had a fair innings, now it's my turn, meaning "you have spoken for long enough, now let me speak"). It is also used in reference to someone who has died at a reasonably old age or lived a rich and rewarding life (Ah, well. John was 89. At least he had a good innings). The baseball-derived parallel to this in American English is the term at bat
At bat

In baseball, an at bat or time at bat is used to calculate certain baseball statistics, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage....
.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
, the term innings has been used in reference to cricket since at least 1735. As cricket was a mature, highly organized sport in the 1600s in England, the term's origin could well precede this first recorded usage. The word inning meaning 'a gathering in' is first recorded in 1522, and could be related.

Cricket

In cricket, a team's innings usually lasts until 10 of the 11 batsmen in the team are out, leaving the not out batsman without a partner and thus unable to continue, or until another event intervenes (such as the captain of the team declaring

Declaration and forfeiture

In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings....
the innings closed for tactical reasons; or the time allotted for the entire game expiring).

In First-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket refers to the class of cricket matches of three or more days scheduled duration, between two sides of eleven players and officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams....
and Test cricket

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It has long been considered the ultimate test of playing ability between cricketing nations....
, each side has two innings. In one-day cricket

One-day cricket

File:Members area and view of ground.jpgLimited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test cricket and first-class cricket matches can take up to five days to complete....
and other abbreviated forms of the game

Short form cricket

Short form cricket is a collective term for several modified forms of the sport of cricket, with playing times significantly shorter than more traditional forms of the game....
, an innings lasts only for a set period or for a certain number of overs

Over (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler . However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it shall be completed by a teammate....
(typically 50). Note that "an innings" can mean either a particular side's innings (Sri Lanka made 464 in the third innings (of the game)) or that of both sides (England had the better of the first innings, outscoring Australia by 104), the difference being understood by context.

An individual innings usually lasts until the batsman is given out, or until the end of the team innings. Although batsmen bat together in pairs, this combination is never called an innings: it is a partnership or a stand.

Baseball

An inning in baseball consists of two halves. In each half, one team bats until three outs

Out (baseball)

In baseball, an out occurs when the defensive, or baseball positions, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a Batter or baserunner out....
are made, with the other team playing defense. Each half-inning formally starts when the umpire calls "Play!" A full inning consists of six outs, three for each team; and a regulation game consists of nine innings. The visiting team always bats first in each inning, and the visitors' turn at bat is often called the top of the inning, derived from the position of the visiting team at the top line of a baseball line score

Box score (baseball)

In baseball, the statistical summary of a game is reported in a box score. An abbreviated version of the box score, duplicated from the field scoreboard, is the line score....
. The home team's half of an inning is also called the bottom of the inning, and the break between halves of an inning is called the middle of the inning. If the home team is leading in the middle of the ninth inning, or scores to take the lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, the game immediately ends in a home victory. Ending a half-inning is referred to as "retiring the side." A half-inning in which all batters are put out without taking a base is referred to as a "one-two-three inning."

If the score is tied after nine innings, the game goes into extra innings

Extra innings

Extra innings is the procedure by which a tiebreaker in the sports of baseball and softball.Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine innings#Baseball , each of which is divided into halves: the visiting team bats first, after which the home team takes its turn at bat....
until an inning ends with one team ahead of the other. In Japanese baseball

Japanese baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyu , meaning Professional Baseball....
, however, games end if tied after 12 innings. As in the case of the ninth inning, a home team which scores to take a lead in any extra inning automatically wins, and the inning (and the game) is considered complete at that moment regardless of the number of outs. This is commonly referred to as a "walk-off" situation, since the last play results in the teams walking off the field because the game is over.

In US English

American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
, baseball terminology is sometimes found in non-sports usage in a tense situation: "it's the bottom of the ninth with the home team behind," meaning "there isn't much time to turn things around here."

Professional baseball games (both major and minor leagues) as well as college baseball games last nine innings. High school games last seven innings and Little League uses six inning games.

Innings

Cricket

See also

Baseball

See also