Over (cricket) in the context of "Twenty20"

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holding bats, while one player from the fielding team, the bowler, bowls the ball toward the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each of these swaps. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.

The fielding team aims to prevent runs by dismissing batters (so they are "out"). Dismissal can occur in various ways, including being bowled (when the ball hits the striker's wicket and dislodges the bails), and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease line in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings (playing phase) ends and the teams swap roles. Forms of cricket range from traditional Test matches played over five days to the newer Twenty20 format (also known as T20), in which each team bats for a single innings of 20 overs (each "over" being a set of 6 fair opportunities for the batting team to score) and the game generally lasts three to four hours.

Women's Twenty20 is the use of the Twenty20 match format in women's cricket. In a Twenty20 match, the two teams bat for a single innings each, of a maximum of 20 overs. The wider rules and playing conditions are usually the same for both the men's format and the women's format, with some small variations.

The first women's Twenty20 matches took place concurrently on 29 May 2004, as part of the 2004 Super Fours: Braves versus Super Strikers and Knight Riders versus V Team. These matches were viewed as a warm-up for the first Women's Twenty20 International (and first T20I for either gender), that took place at Hove on 5 August 2004 between England and New Zealand.

The 1987 Cricket World Cup (officially known as the Reliance Cup 1987 for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth Cricket World Cup. It was held from 8 October to 8 November 1987 in India and Pakistan – the first such tournament to be held outside England. The one-day format was unchanged from the eight-team 1983 event except for a reduction in the number of overs a team played from 60 to 50, the current standard for all ODIs.

The competition was won, for the first time, by Australia who defeated their arch-rivals England by seven runs in the second-most closely fought World Cup final to date in Kolkata's Eden Gardens stadium. The two host nations, India and Pakistan failed to reach the final, after both being eliminated in the semi-finals. The West Indies failed to live up to expectations and did not advance from the group stage.

In cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batter. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batter is known as an all-rounder. Bowling the ball is distinguished from throwing the ball by a strictly specified biomechanical definition, which restricts the angle of extension of the elbow. A single act of bowling the ball towards the batter is called a ball or a delivery. Bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an over. Once a bowler has bowled an over, a teammate will bowl an over from the other end of the pitch. The Laws of Cricket govern how a ball must be bowled. If a ball is bowled illegally, an umpire will rule it a no-ball. If a ball is bowled too wide of the striker for the batter to be able to play at it with a proper cricket shot, the bowler's end umpire will rule it a wide.

There are different types of bowlers, from fast bowlers, whose primary weapon is pace, through swing and seam bowlers who try to make the ball deviate in its course through the air or when it bounces, to slow bowlers, who will attempt to deceive the batter with a variety of flight and spin. A spin bowler usually delivers the ball quite slowly and puts spin on the ball, causing it to turn at an angle while bouncing off the pitch.

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.

Test cricket is a format of the sport of cricket, considered the game's most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance and temperament, it is a first-class format of international cricket where two teams in whites, each representing their country, compete over a match that can last up to five days. It consists of up to four innings (up to two per team), with a minimum of ninety overs scheduled to be bowled in six hours per day, making it the sport with the longest playing time except for some multi-stage cycling races. A team wins the match by outscoring the opposition with the bat and bowling them out with the ball. Otherwise the match ends in a draw.

It is contested by 12 teams which are the full-members of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The term "test match" was originally coined in 1861–62 but in a different context—that the English team was testing itself against all of the Australian colonies. Test cricket did not become an officially recognised format until the 1890s, but many international matches since 1877 have been retrospectively awarded Test status. The first such match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in March 1877 between teams which were then known as a Combined Australian XI and James Lillywhite's XI, the latter a team of visiting English professionals. Matches between Australia and England were first called "test matches" in 1892. The first definitive list of retrospective Tests was written by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody two years later and, by the end of the century, had gained acceptance.

Women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 international is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The very first Twenty20 International match was played on 5 August 2004 between England and New Zealand at Hove, six months before the first Twenty20 International match was played between two men's teams. The Women's T20 World Cup, the highest-level event in the format, was first held in 2009.

In April 2018, the ICC granted full women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between two international sides after 1 July 2018 will be a full WT20I. A month after the conclusion of the 2018 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup, which took place in June 2018, the ICC retrospectively gave all the fixtures in the tournament full WT20I status. On 22 November 2021, in the 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier tournament, the match between Hong Kong and Nepal was the 1,000th WT20I to be played.

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.