One Day Internation Cricket

The first ODI was played in January 1971 at the MCG in Australia between England and Australia. A limited over contest of 40 X 8 ball overs was decided on after the first three days of the test match was rained out. Australia won by 5 wickets. Since then the game has evolved somewhat over the years.

Thanks to Kerry Packer owner of Channel 9 TV, coloured clothing was introduced and night games were played under flood lights with a white ball. Players were paid and the game became a professional sport. A large number of TV cameras were used at the games allowing viewers to see slo mo replays , and this paved the way for the use of Cameras now to assist third umpires when there is a dispute.

Generally the rules of cricket apply. An innings consists of 50 overs in which the batting side makes as many runs as possible, while the bowling side tries to restrict them to as few as possible while taking wickets. An innings is declared finished whenall 10 wickets have fallen or on the completion of the fifty overs. The fielding side then has their turn to bat, and who ever has the higher score wins.

There are however some restrictions in that a bowler may only bowl a maximum of 10 overs, also in the first 10 overs there are fielding restrictions in that only two fielders may be outside the 30 yard circle, which is marked around the pitch, and there must be two fielders in close catching positions. There is also a batting power play of five overs that the batsmen can choose when to have, but it must be completed by the 40th over, other wise the umpire will enforce it at the start of the 36th over. During the rest of the game only four fielders are allowed outside the 30 yard circle. Initially only one ball was used in a game, but officials found the white ball got easily scuffed and became difficult to see so at the start of the 35th over the ball was changed
to another used ball. since 2011 two balls are used, one from each bowling end so effectively a ball is only used for 25 overs.

Where games are interrupted due to the weather, reduced overs are bowled and a reduced target is set using the Duckworth Lewis system. A minimum of 20 overs must be bowled in both innings to constitute a match otherwise a no result is the outcome.

There are two major tournaments played in this form of cricket, the first is the Cricket World Cup, played every 4 years since its inception in 1975, and the ICC Champions Trophy, played every two years. There are ten countries that have permanent ODI status and 14 affiliate nations.

The highest score by a team in this format of cricket is Sri Lanka @ 443 for 9, against The Netherlands. The most runs scored in a game is 872, when Australia scored a massive 434 in their 50 overs, but they were beaten by South Africa who scored 438. Best bowling figures is Sri Lankan Chaminda Vaas, 8 for 19, and the highest batting score is Virenda Sehwag scoring a huge 219.