How to play Cricket

Bat with a swipe, bowl with a tap and chase a target in two overs against the bot's side.

Players: 1, against the bot's side
What you need: A bat, a ball, a ground and two sides
How long: About two minutes a chase, five for a whole match

What it is

A short cricket match against the bot's side. In the usual game you have two overs and three wickets to chase a target: twelve balls, about two minutes. A whole match adds a toss and an innings with the ball, and today's chase is the same twelve balls and target for everybody in Nepal.

The camera sits in the stand behind the bowler, as a television broadcast does, so you see the batter facing you and the field around them. Every ball is a flight the rules work out, and the ball goes where your swipe and your timing send it.

A ball

The bowler runs in. With Help on, the screen names the bowler and the delivery.
The ball pitches and comes on to the bat. With Help on, a dashed mark shows where it will pitch and a ring closes on it at the moment to swing.
You swipe, or tap, as it reaches the bat. If you do nothing, the ball goes past and is left alone.
The camera follows the ball over the field. A fielder catches it, stops it or watches it reach the rope, and the runs go into the over strip.

Where the swipe sends the ball

Swipe anywhere on the picture, in the direction you want the ball to go as you see the ground. The swipe is read through the camera, so the ball goes where your finger pointed.

A short swipe keeps the ball along the ground. It cannot be caught, and fours come from finding the gaps between fielders.
A long swipe lifts the ball. Struck well, it clears the rope for six. Struck badly, it hangs in the air for a fielder.
A faster swipe hits harder. A harder hit asks for better timing.
A tap defends. The ball dies near the bat and the stumps are safe.

Tap controls are the simpler way: tap the left, middle or right third of the screen as the ball arrives, in the upper part to lift it. Choose them in the settings.

Down the screen is straight back past the bowler. Left is the off side, right is the leg side, for a right-handed batter.

The length decides the stroke

Where a ball pitches decides how high it reaches the bat. A full ball suits a drive, which is a swipe down the screen. A short ball suits a cut or a pull, which is a swipe across it.

Playing the wrong stroke for the length costs contact. So does hitting across the line to a ball outside off stump, and lifting a yorker is hard. With Help on, the length is named as the ball is bowled.

A yorker pitches at the toes, a full ball comes up to the shins, a good length to the knee, a short ball to the hip or higher.

Timing

The bat has to come through as the ball reaches it. Perfect timing sends the ball at its full speed. Early timing pulls the ball toward the leg side and late timing pushes it toward the off side, as a real bat does, and both cost speed.

With Help on, a swing made a little early waits for the ball and meets it nearly on time. The ball speed setting slows the whole flight down, which makes timing easier without changing where the ball goes.

After every swing the bar shows where in the window the bat came through.

Bowling

Pick the bowler: fast, medium or spin. Then pick one of their three deliveries: outswing, inswing and a slower ball or a cutter for pace, off break, leg break or an arm ball for spin.
Tap the pitch where the ball should land. With Help on, the pitch is marked in its lengths.
A needle sweeps a meter. Tap again to stop it. Green lands the ball on your spot at full pace, further out it lands wider and slower.

The bot bats like a person: it cuts a short ball outside off, pulls one at the body, drives a full one, and lifts the ball more when it needs runs. Yorkers are hard to hit. Short balls are hit hard.

Runs and wickets

Six: the ball clears the rope without touching the ground.
Four: the ball reaches the rope along the ground.
One, two or three: the batters run while a fielder gets to the ball and throws it in. A ball hit straight at a fielder is no run.
Caught: a fielder takes the ball before it touches the ground. Fielders drop a hard chance now and then.
Bowled: the ball hits the stumps. A ball left alone that would hit the stumps is out too.
Wide: a ball that passes too far from the batter. One run, and the ball is bowled again.

The kinds of match

Chase a target: you bat, the bot bowls, and you have the overs and the wickets to pass its target. The target is what the bot's own batters make at that level, plus one.

A whole match: a toss, then an innings each. The side batting second chases the first side's total. Whoever won the toss chooses to bat or bowl first.

Today's chase: two overs against the medium side, with a target set by the day. Everybody in Nepal gets the same balls, whatever they do with them.

How a match ends

A chase ends when the target is passed, the wickets are gone or the overs are bowled. Three wickets for two overs, two for one, five for five.

Your score is the runs you made, and each kind of match keeps your most runs. A whole match is won by runs when the side batting first defends its total, and by wickets when the chase gets there.

Tactics

Read the length before you choose the stroke. Most wickets come from driving a short ball or pulling a full one.
Keep the ball on the ground until the rate climbs. Fours along the ground are safe runs.
Lift a full ball that is on the stumps, not a short one outside off.
When bowling, yorkers and a good length on off stump are hard to score from. Mix in a slower ball.

Options

Set on the game page before a match. The batting controls, the ball speed and Help change what you see and how a swipe is read, never what the rules decide.

Setting	Standard	What it changes
Match	Chase a target	A chase, a whole match with a toss, or today's chase.
Overs	2 overs	One, two or five overs an innings, with two, three or five wickets.
The other side	Medium	How well the other side bowls, bats and holds catches.
Batting	Swipe where the ball should go	Swipe in any direction, or tap a third of the screen.
Ball speed	Normal	Plays the ball slower or at real speed. The flight and the result are the same.
Help	On	The pitch mark, the ring, the length, the early swing that waits, and the bowling lengths.

Words

Over (ओभर): Six balls from one bowler. Wides are bowled again and do not count.
Wicket (विकेट): The three stumps, and a batter out.
Length: How far down the pitch a ball lands: yorker, full, good length, short.
Yorker: A ball that pitches at the batter's toes. Very hard to hit.
Swing: A pace bowler's ball moving sideways in the air before it pitches.
Spin: A slow bowler's ball turning off the pitch.
Wide: A ball that passes too far from the batter: a run, and bowled again.
Target (लक्ष्य): The runs the side batting second has to make to win.

Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.