Limited overs cricket in the context of "Knight Riders (Super Fours)"

Cricket is a multi-faceted sport with different formats, depending on the standard of play, the desired level of formality, and the time available. One of the main differences is between matches limited by time in which the teams have two innings apiece, and those limited by number of overs in which they have a single innings each. The former, known as first-class cricket if played at the senior level, has a scheduled duration of three to five days (there have been examples of "timeless" matches too); the latter, known as limited overs cricket because each team bowls a limit of typically 50 overs, has a planned duration of one day only. A separate form of limited overs is Twenty20, originally designed so that the whole game could be played in a single evening (3 hours), in which each team has an innings limited to twenty overs.

Double innings matches usually have at least six hours of playing time each day, with formal intervals on each day for lunch and tea, and additional brief informal breaks for drinks. There is also a short interval between innings. Limited overs matches often last at least six hours, with similar intervals and breaks, whilst the more streamlined Twenty20 matches are generally completed in under four hours. T10 cricket is a newer version of the game, based on the principles of other limited overs formats, but with only 10 overs per innings, and the total playing time limited to 90 minutes.

List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the number of overs in an innings per team ranges from forty to sixty, most commonly fifty overs, as well as some international matches involving nations who have not achieved official ODI status. Together with first-class and Twenty20 cricket, List A is one of the three major forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). In November 2021, the ICC retrospectively applied List A status to women's cricket, aligning it with the men's game.

The 2004 Super Fours was the third cricket Super Fours season. It took place in May and June and saw 4 teams compete in a 50 over league and, for the first time, a knockout Twenty20 tournament. V Team were the winners of both tournaments.

Rubies, previously known as Braves, were an English women's cricket team that competed in the Super Fours. The squad varied from season to season, but was made up of some of the top players in English cricket. They were captained by Clare Connor for their first four seasons, and were subsequently captained by various England players such as Lydia Greenway. They won four Super Fours titles in their history: two 50-over tournaments and two Twenty20 tournaments.

Sapphires, previously known as V Team, were an English women's cricket team that competed in the Super Fours. The squad varied from season to season, but was made up of some of the top players in English cricket. They were captained by various England players, such as Clare Taylor, Laura Newton and Heather Knight. They won seven Super Fours titles in their history: three 50-over tournaments and four Twenty20 tournaments.

In cricket, a team's innings ends in one of the following ways. In cases 1 and 2, the team are said to be all out, because they do not have two players available to bat.

1. All but one of the batsmen are out.
2. The batting side only has one not-out batsman who is still able to bat (the others are incapacitated through injury, illness or absence; see retirement).
3. The team batting last scores the required number of runs to win.
4. The game runs out of time for either side to win, and so finishes as a draw.
5. The set number of overs (sets of 6 deliveries) have been bowled (in limited overs cricket).
6. The team's captain declares the innings closed.
7. The Match Referee decides that one team has forfeited the game.

Law 13 covers the end of the innings.

The Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS method or DLS) previously known as the Duckworth–Lewis method (D/L) is a mathematical formulation designed to calculate the target score (number of runs needed to win) for the team batting second in a limited overs cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstances. The method was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, and was formerly known as the Duckworth–Lewis method (D/L). It was introduced in 1997, and adopted officially by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1999. After the retirement of both Duckworth and Lewis, the Australian statistician Steven Stern became the custodian of the method, which was renamed to its current title in November 2014. In 2014, he refined the model to better fit modern scoring trends, especially in T20 cricket, resulting in the updated Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. This refined method remains the standard for handling rain-affected matches in international cricket today.

The target score in cricket matches without interruptions is one more than the number of runs scored by the team that batted first. When overs are lost, setting an adjusted target for the team batting second is not as simple as reducing the run target proportionally to the loss in overs, because a team with ten wickets in hand and 25 overs to bat can play more aggressively than if they had ten wickets and a full 50 overs, for example, and can consequently achieve a higher run rate. The DLS method is an attempt to set a statistically fair target for the second team's innings, which is the same difficulty as the original target. The basic principle is that each team in a limited-overs match has two resources available with which to score runs (overs to play and wickets remaining), and the target is adjusted proportionally to the change in the combination of these two resources.