Innings

An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats. Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is both singular and plural; this contrasts with baseball and softball in which the singular is "inning".

This article is about the cricket term. For other uses, see Inning (disambiguation).

Origin

The earliest known record of the term concerns a match on Wednesday, 5 August 1730 at Blackheath, Kent between Kent and London. The London-based newspaper St. James Evening Post reported on Saturday, 8 August: "'Twas thought that the Kentish champions would have lost their honours by being beat at one innings if time had permitted". This is the first time that the word "innings" is found in contemporary records. Incidentally, it is also the first time that the word "champions" is found in a team sense, which is significant because it confirms that the idea of a champion county was already well established among cricket's followers. Furthermore, the match was apparently drawn and is the earliest known instance of this result.[1][2][3]

Usage in cricket

An innings is one of the divisions of a match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings is the subject of Law 13 in the Laws of Cricket.[4]

In a first-class match, there are up to four innings with each team due to bat twice (in practice, this is not always the case). In a limited overs match, there are only two innings with each team batting once. The term is also used with the meaning of "score" for both the team and each individual batsman. For example, it may be said that "he played an innings of 101", meaning that the player scored 101 in his innings. Similarly, it may be said that the team had a first innings (score) of 501.[4]

Metaphor

The term can generally be taken as a reference to the time during which someone possesses something and, colloquially, the phrase "a good innings" means a long life.[5][6]

See also
  • Cricket terminology

References
  1. "From Lads to Lord's – 1730". Stumpsite. 2007. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  2. Buckley, p. 4.
  3. Maun, p. 130.
  4. "Law 13 – Innings". MCC. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  5. Chambers, p. 768.
  6. Oxford, p. 733.

Bibliography
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • Chambers (2006). The Chambers Dictionary, 10th Edition. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap. ISBN 0-550-10185-3.
  • Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978-1-900592-52-9.
  • Oxford (2004). Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860864-0.
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