Australia's Ricky Ponting plays a shot against Scotland during the group stages of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

To the average North American, cricket is as complicated as the Pythagorean theory is to a 10-year-old, but the sport actually has a pretty simple concept — score more runs than your opponent.

The oval field may be different from baseball's familiar diamond, the "pitchers" may take running starts before throwing a bouncing ball at a batsman, and the batsmen may take their swings with a flat-surfaced bat from around their shins and run between two "bases." But cricket is straightforward … when you break it down:

What's cricket all about?

Like soccer, cricket is played and watched by billions of people around the world. The Cricket World Cup happens every four years and is the third largest sporting event in the world, behind soccer's World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

It's broken down like this: Two teams of 11 players each take turns to bat and bowl. The team that wins the coin toss has the choice of whether to bat or field.

The batting team attempts to score as many runs as possible during its innings, while the bowling team tries to restrict its run total with strong pitching and fielding. Sound a bit like baseball?

In one-day cricket, it's all about who can score the most runs in their one innings, which consists of 50 overs or 10 wickets, whatever comes first.

How many balls does that pitcher get to throw? Why did he just switch ends? Is he allowed to pitch all game? What's going on?

Those "pitchers" are actually called bowlers. One bowler bowls six legitimate deliveries from one end. Then another bowler bowls six legitimate balls from the other end. If the bowler bowls wide or a no-ball, the he must bowl that ball again.

One-day cricket consists of 50 overs or 300 legitimate balls. A bowler can't bowl two overs in a row (i.e., bowling from one wicket, then immediately switching to bowl at the opposite wicket). A bowler can only bowl a maximum of 10 overs.

Anyone can bowl, though it's rare for a wicketkeeper to bowl. Most teams generally use six to seven bowlers in an innings. Pace bowlers tend to begin games in order to take advantage of the new ball, while the spin bowlers come on midway through to go up against the opposing team's toughest batsmen.

How do you get out?

There are 10 ways a batsman can get out — five common and five not so common.

The ones most likely to be seen in a game are:

• Bowled (when the bowler knocks the bails off the stumps).
• Caught (like a lineout or pop fly in baseball).
• LBW (when the leg blocks the ball's path to the wicket).
• Run out (when a fielder throws a runner out by knocking the bails off the stumps).
• Stumped (kind of like being tagged out at first base in baseball).

The more uncommon ways of getting out are "hit wicket" (when a batsman accidentally removes his own bails off the stumps) and "handled the ball" (when the batsman touches the ball without permission from the fielding side).

And then there are the more obscure — outs that are almost never seen, but hey, there need to be rules:

• Double hit (hitting the ball twice).
• Obstructing the field (preventing the fielders from getting a run out).
• Timed out (when a batsman takes too long to get on the field).

How do you score runs?

The batting team scores by running between the wickets. One run is scored each time the batsmen cross and reach the set of stumps at the other end of the pitch.

Four runs are scored if the ball goes outside the field's boundary and six runs are scored if the ball goes over the boundary without bouncing.

John Davison of Canada hits out during a Group C match between Canada and Kenya in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

A batting team can also score runs without hitting the ball either. If the bowler's ball goes past the batsman and wicketkeeper and into the field and the batsman takes a run, that's called a "bye." If a bowler's ball hits a batsman and the batsman takes a run, that's called a "leg bye." Byes and leg byes are listed as extras on the score sheet.

So when do the batsmen run? How much do they have to run? The batsman just hit the ball, why aren't he and his partner running? Are they lazy?

It may seem counter-intuitive, but in cricket, the batsmen don't have to run to score. The two batsmen who are up at the same time communicate with each other when they should run (generally, the batsman who is about to get out makes the call to go or wait).

If the ball gets hit over the boundary, the batsman automatically gets six without having to run at all. And if the ball goes all the way to the boundary, you get four runs without having to move a centimetre. Sometimes a batsman slugs the ball and knows it's going over the boundary, so he and his partner will just stand and watch it go out and not run. Count six for the lazy fellows! (Kidding).

Of course, the object of batting is to score runs, and in one-day cricket, running can win a team games. Batsmen will take calculated risks in order to add to their team's run total. Communication in partnerships is important because each batsman will know how his partner likes to strike a ball and how fast he can run.

A partner also gauges how strong an outfielder's arm is or how good a wicketkeeper is at limiting passed balls (wides, byes, leg byes).

How long is a game in a one-day international?

In terms of hours, it varies. Ultimately, the game is finished when each team has bowled 50 overs or has taken 10 wickets (whichever happens first).

How do you read a score sheet? Who is winning? What does it all mean?

Reading about the results in a cricket match can be as difficult as deciphering the stats on a baseball scorecard, but here are a few examples:

If West Indies and Pakistan are playing and West Indies bats first and finishes their innings 241 for 9 (50.0 overs), it means they scored 241 runs, Pakistan took 9 wickets (outs) in the allowed amount of overs.

Now it's Pakistan's turn to bat and they must chase a target of 241. If Pakistan finishes their innings 187 all out (47.2 overs), it means they scored 187 runs, all 10 batsmen are out and the West Indies did not have to bowl all their overs.

West Indies allrounder Dwayne Smith hit 32 off 15 balls and took three wickets with his medium-paced seamers as the host country defeated Pakistan by 54 runs. Okay, so this sentence may sound a little convoluted, but essentially it means Smith scored 32 runs when he was at bat and got three Pakistani batsmen out when he was bowling. Smith bowls medium-paced balls with spin.

Sometimes the final team up to bat won't have to finish their innings because they've already surpassed their opponent's run total. For instance, Canada lost to Kenya by 7 wickets in their World Cup opener. Canada batted first and went 199 all out. It was then Kenya's turn and they went 203 for 3 (43.2 overs). There was no need for Kenya to continue batting. Why? Because even though Canada had 40 balls left to bowl and Kenya had seven wickets remaining, the result was already in hand.

If Canada is 260 for eight with 46 overs played, it means they've scored 260 runs, eight batsmen are out and there is four overs left in the innings. That would indicate that Canada has batted quite well.

If a team has chosen to bat first and finishes their innings with over 250 runs, that's a hard target to chase.

If a team has chosen to bat first and finishes their innings with 300 or more runs, that's an almost impossible target to chase.

In the bowling category, the symbols mean:

• O = overs bowled
• M = maiden (blanking)
• R = runs allowed
• W = wickets claimed
• (nb) = no ball
• (w) = wide
• (lb) = leg bye
• (b) = bye
• (2nb, 1w) = 2 no balls, 1 wide

In the batting category, the symbols mean:

• R = runs scored
• B = balls faced
• 4s = how many 4s hit
• 6s = how many 6s hit
• FOW = fall of wicket

The FOW tells you how many runs were on the scoreboard when a batsman got out. For example, you might see 24, 55, 66. That means when the first batsman got out, the batting team had 24 runs, when the second got out they had 55, and when the third got out they had 66.

CBC Sports Online would like to thank cricket aficionados Giles Deshon and Dilhan Kuru for their insight into this piece.