Cricket has long been referred as a batsman’s (now termed batters) game. The objective of the sport is to win matches by scoring more runs than the opposition in a said number of overs depending on the format of the game. Since the onus is on scoring runs that are hit by the batters, those players have a greater impact.
But the modern era of cricket has seen bowlers come up with exuberant skills in which they can get the batters dismissed. The task of bowlers is to take ten wickets of the batting side to bring an end to their innings. They are assisted by the fielders, who restrict the flow of runs and contribute to a batter’s dismissals by catching or running out the batters.
The key for the batting side is to keep the scoreboard ticking while defending their wicket. At a given time, there are two batters – the striker and non-striker. Both batters rotate strike by running between the wickets. Hitting boundaries significantly contributes to run scoring.
Partnership refers to the number of runs put on by two batters simultaneously, before one of them gets dismissed. It holds great value, as the bulk of runs scored is courtesy to the two to three long partnerships between batting pairs.
A half-century stand is when two batters put together 50 runs whereas a century stand is when two batters put together 100 runs. As of 2023, the record for the longest partnership in test cricket belongs to Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, who put together 624 runs for the third wicket against South Africa in 2006. The record for the longest partnership in One Day International cricket belongs to Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who struck 372 runs for the 2nd wicket against Zimbabwe in 2015.
