What is Endless Cricket?
It's a browser-based simulation of the sport of international test cricket. It has been created by Paul Kurowski as the final project of the CS50 course, year ending 2023.
When international cricket games are played, they are often reported live online in an Over by Over format. In this format, the sports reporter will post a quick summary of events after each over ends. An over in cricket consists of 6 balls bowled, and typically takes a few minutes to complete. If you can't watch a match live, Over by Over is the next best thing, as the steady dripfeed of informaton can be surprisingly exciting. Some overs pass with little event, while others contain moments of real drama. Often the match situation can be very finely poised, with either team capable of making a decisive breakthrough.
Endless Cricket emulates the Over by Over format of cricket reporting. A test match lasts for up to 5 days, so to speed things up a bit, instead of over by over, the game is reported ball by ball, and the chance of events is higher than in the real game.
Once the simulation starts, it will play through a game of test cricket. Progress is displayed in 2 formats, tabbed for your convenience. One is the ball by ball format, which displays the result of each ball as it is calculated by the simulation. The other is a scoreboard which dynamically displays the current progress of the innings in table form, for both the batting side and the bowling side.
Explain cricket to me like I'm 5 years old.
The game is played on a large oval field. At the centre of the field is a strip of bare earth about 20m long, called the pitch. At either end of the pitch are a set of 3 vertical wooden rods called the wickets.
There are 2 sides of 11 players each. The winner of the game is the team who scores the most runs.
Sides take turn to bat and field. The batting side will have 1 batsman defending the wicket at each end of the pitch, and the batsmen will score runs by either hitting the ball straight to the boundary of the field, or by hitting the ball and then running between the wickets.
The bowler bowls overarm down the pitch, trying to hit the wickets. The rest of the bowling side act as fielders, positioning themselves to try to catch the ball when the batsman hits it, or to stop the ball going for more runs. A batsman is out (ie. removed from play) if the ball hits the wickets, or if the ball hits their leg and would have hit the wickets, or if their shot is caught by one of the fielding side. When a batsman is out, a new batsman replaces him, until the batting side run out of players. Then play switches, the batting team becomes the fielding team and vice versa.
What's special about international test cricket?
Cricket is a hugely popular international sport with a massive global audience. Among the major cricketing nations are Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
The test match is the ultimate form of the sport. A test match is usually played over 5 consecutive days. Each side bats for 2 innings. An enormous number of variables are in play. There is the skill and endurance of the players, the psychological momentum of the match situation, the weather, and the evolving condition of the ball and the surface of the pitch.