Cricket is both an easy and hard game at the same time. It looks pretty easy sometimes that a team that scores more will win. But on the other hand, there are some rules that can prove to be head-scratching for the fans. Well, there are three types of formats in this game.
Test cricket, where a game can take place for up to 5 days (90 overs a day). Then, there is the ODI, where a team is allotted 50 overs per side. Finally, there is a 20-over game. But mainly, there are two types: red-ball cricket and limited-over cricket.
Both ODIs and T20Is are part of limited-overs cricket. That is why the rules in test cricket are totally different from the white-ball format. One such common rule that we often see in test cricket is when a team declares its innings at a certain stage or point in the game.
But can that declaration be done in white-ball format? One such incident took place between Somerset and Worcestershire in Worcester in the 1979 Benson & Hedges Cup. Somerset declared their innings in limited-overs cricket. But at the first and only such instance.
Many times, this question comes to mind: if a team knows that there might be rain and they are in a good position in the first innings, why don’t they declare and ask the second team to bat? But as per Law 14, a team can’t declare an inning in the white-ball format.
This concept of declaring the inning is possible in those games where a team has to bat in two innings. That is why Law 14 confirms that a declaration can’t take place in a limited-overs game. It means a team can’t declare the innings in ODI and T20 cricket, and it is not in the cricket law.
