✕ Close Setup
Before you start
  • Check the space and the kit.
  • Get your child's attention first.
  • Show it from two sides.
  • Say one thing only.
  • End on one that works.

Put the phone down where you can see it. Tap Next with your thumb, or use the arrow keys.

Setup · 1 minute

Is the space marked?

  • The stumps (bucket, bottle or a set of stumps)
  • The batting crease 1 m in front
  • The bowling mark
  • Two cones as a "gate" a bat's width in front of the stumps

Stumps 18 m apart, a plastic bat, a soft ball, a scoresheet.

Warm up · 3 minutes

Three minutes to get warm.

Easy jogging on the spot, then arms and legs. How to warm up well is explained at workonfitness.com.

3:00
Show it · 1 minute
  1. Stand as umpire behind the bowler's stumps.
  2. Show the out signal: one index finger raised.
  3. Show the scoresheet: each pair's runs written ball by ball.

Show it once from the front and once from the side, slowly. Then let your child try.

The skill · 25 minutes
  1. One pair bats for twelve balls.
  2. Everyone else fields; bowlers take turns, one over of 6 balls each.
  3. A catch, bowled or run-out costs the pair a run; the batter stays in.
  4. Next pair.

How much: one game

Ask the umpire, respect the call

25:00
The game · 5 minutes

Pairs cricket

The rules

Each pair bats for twelve balls, and the pair with the most runs wins.

  1. One pair bats; everyone else fields
  2. Bowlers take turns, one over each
  3. The batters call "yes", "no" or "wait" and run; they swap ends after each run
  4. When a batter is out, the pair loses a run and the batter stays in
  5. After twelve balls, the next pair bats. Scorers write every ball

Fair play: A grown-up bats with the weaker hand on top, or bowls underarm.

Points
1 run for each run completed; 4 for a ball that rolls over the boundary. Each out takes away 1 run.
Fouls
a run without the bat grounded over the line does not count; a bowler's bent arm is a no-ball: 1 run to the batting pair; arguing with the umpire costs the pair 1 run
Win
The pair with the most runs.
Score
0
  1. 6
  2. 10
  3. 15

5:00
Finish · 2 minutes

12 of 12 balls written on the scoresheet, with no argument with the umpire.

0/12

End on one that works. If it was hard today, finish with the easier version.

Finished

Well played.

Saved in this browser only. Next time, "What should we practise today?" picks up from here.