Run scoring is as follows:

• You get six for hitting it right out of the park (i.e. not just over the rope, but into the spectators or literally out of the stadium).
  
• You get four for hitting it over the rope.
  
• If you hit it into the field but not over the rope, you score a run for every complete time you can run between the two wickets before the opposing side's fielders can retrieve it.
  

Each side has eleven batsmen (one at each end of the wicket), who can be out (in other words, lose their wicket) in any one of the following ways:

• If an opposing side's fielder catches the ball after the batsman has hit it but before it touches the ground. This is the most common way in which wickets are lost.
  
• If the ball strikes the wicket after being bowled.
  
• If, while a batsman is running, a member of the opposing team causes the ball to strike the wicket. This is known as being 'run out' and happens very rarely in professional cricket, because it results from a serious error of judgement on the part of the batsman as to whether (s)he has enough time to complete a run before the ball is retrieved.
  
• If the batsman is deemed to have physically positioned himself in a way that stops the bowler from being able to hit the wicket. This is called being out 'leg before wicket'.
  

The combined score of all the batsmen before their ten wickets are lost is known as the innings. The other factor which affects the overall match is the timescale. Roughly speaking there are two sorts of cricket: one-day matches or full-scale test matches. In a one day match, each side has one innings and is limited to a maximum of 50 overs. So their innings ends either when they've lost all their wickets or when they've used all their deliveries up, whichever is sooner. So if the first side scores 250 all out, or, say 250 for 7 in their first innings, the second side has to score 251 to win within their 50 overs and ten wickets. If they get 250 the match is drawn, 249 and they lose.

Full scale test matches also have a time limit: usually 3 days if it's one innings for each side, or five days for two. Here there is no overs limit for each innings, but side B has to exceed the total of side A's two innings in order to win. This introduces a strategy element which is missing from the one-day game: when to bat on and when to declare.

I manage a baseball club, yeah, hate those damn pop-ups!

>>If, while a batsman is running, a member of the opposing team >>causes the ball to strike the wicket. This is known as being 'run >>out' and happens very rarely in professional cricket, because it >>results from a serious error of judgement on the part of the >>batsman as to whether (s)he has enough time to complete a run >>before the ball is retrieved.

So, all runs count until the ball is fielded, BUT a runner still must make it back to his wicket? Interesting. Can a run out be accomplished by THROWING the ball into the wicket? Or just with "ball in hand"? And what if the ball is thrown wild, is it then "back in play", and the batsman can make more runs?

If the ball is thrown wild ('misfielded'), yes, the batsman can carry on for as long as it takes the opposing side to sort their lives out. A careless fielding side can give away quite a few runs that way, and a batsman who overestimates how long it'll take them to get the ball back to the wicket carries the risk of being run out.

As for the beer, well they usually sell it all the way through! But more recently grounds have become more cagey about the possibility of crowd problems and many have banned spectators from bringing their own alcohol in. It's a particular issue when England plays Pakistan because of racial and religious tensions, and during the test series last year alcohol was banned altogether at some of the matches.

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