Cricket is a sport with many terms. Paula Ward of Know the Game a company that educates people about sport, chats with Women's Health about the ones you need to know.

Batting order

Openers are the first two in; they're generally the best batsmen in the team to get as many runs on the scoreboard as possible.

“The middle order are generally numbers three to seven in to bat. That’s when the captain might start playing around strategically with who’s best to go in when. For example, a lot of batters generally need a bit of time to get their eye in and warm up and start batting well.

So if it’s about to pour rain you wouldn’t send one of your better middle order batters in – there’s a chance they might get out doing something silly, or that the rain might disturb them. Instead, a captain would put someone weaker in.

“Tail enders are numbers eight to 11. Put simply, they’re not particularly good. They’re generally the bowlers.”

Boundaries

“A batter scores a four when the ball gets to the boundary either bouncing or running along the ground. A six is when the ball gets over the boundary without bouncing.”

Extras

“If you’re wondering why the batting team score points when they haven’t hit or run, it’s because they’ve been awarded an extra. There are four different types of extras.

A ‘wide’ is when the ball has been judged to have been bowled too far away for the batter to be able to hit a normal shot.

“A no ball is most commonly when the bowler oversteps the front crease line (or popping crease) when bowling a ball. If his foot goes over that line, the umpire will call out ‘no ball!’

“A bye is scored when a batter runs between the wickets but hasn’t hit the ball. One example of when that might happen: the bowled ball isn’t hit but goes all the way through and the wicketkeeper misses it. Byes are scored in the same way as normal runs; say it runs all the way to the boundary or the batters can run in between the wickets.

“A leg bye is the same except the ball has hit the batter on the leg or any part of his body except the hand. A leg bye can only be scored if the batter has actually tried to hit it, though.”

Getting out

“There are 10 ways to get out. The 5 most common are:

The role of the captain

“In cricket captains are more important than in other games. They do the toss at the start of the game, they choose whether to bat or bowl. They set the field, by deciding what positions the players are playing. That may change for every ball or every over. When a different batter comes on, the captain will ask ‘what type of batter is this person and where shall I place fielders – in close or out further?’

The captain also picks the batting order, decides who bowls and when, and keeps the morale up. His or her ability to think strategically in the middle of a game is paramount.”

Fielding positions

Don’t worry – there’s no need to memorise these. “There are more than 30 different fielding positions and only 11 players fielding at any one time. One’s bowling, one’s wicketkeeping, so the other nine can be placed in any of these 30+ positions.”

The Ashes

Paula’s viewing tip: Keep your eyes on the captains. “Arguably, the toughest job is the visiting captain’s. They say it’s harder to travel than to play in your own country, and given the importance of the captain’s role, if they’re not playing well or they’re not keeping morale up, it really will affect the whole team. So keep an eye on England's captain – how he’s performing will be really important.

For more information, visit Know the Game