During the game, fourteen players are on the field – two of the batting team hitting the ball with bat; one member of the bowling team throwing the ball towards the batsman; and eleven players (6 of the fielding team, 5 of bowling team) who field the ball. The batting team’s innings finishes when all but one of its batsmen are declared out by the umpires or all of the assigned ‘over’ quota for the team is finished. The over is a set of ten ball legally delivered by a single bowler in one direction. The quota is 10 overs. Therefore, each team has a maximum of 10 overs to bat and bowl in the whole game. However, depending on the fall of wickets, all teams may not get an equal opportunity to bowl. Each bowler can bowl only 4 overs in the whole game.

The captain of the team whose bowler is bowling the over arranges the field – where eleven players stand to field the ball. If any player refuses or does not comply with the captain’s instruction to field at a certain position, then he can be replaced by a substitute player from his team and his team penalized with 10 runs. There is no restriction on how players on the field can be arranged.