What is a Century in Cricket? - Check Here

Cricket is an alluring sport that today, actually speaking, enjoys a fanbase in no fewer than 100 countries of the world. Now, one of the simplest and most popular definitions about the great sport of cricket suggests or alludes to the fact that cricket is a team-based sport that is dependent on individual skills and brilliance or talent. And one of the finest ever ways of measuring one's individual skill, especially with the bat, is to measure one's ability at hitting a century as a century in cricket is the statistical contribution, ultimately to the team's score, and hence, to its cause. A century in test cricket can not only alter or change or influence (even) the course of a criceting contest but add to one's personal milestone, thereby swelling statistics and record books with what is essentially an achievement with the willow in hand. So let us understand what is a century?

In simple words, when the overall individual aggregate of runs of a batter operating on the 22 yards leads to the completion of 100 (one hundred) runs against the bowling side, or to put it simply, the opponent, then the mathematical or statistical feat that is achieved is known as a century.

What is meant by a century in cricket?

The importance of a century in cricket could actually be likened to a home run scored by a baseball player, a knockput punch, well almost, in sports like boxing or a vital or very essential goal, in layman language, scored by a football player.

To understand what is meant by a century in cricket, is to actually look at the myriad ways in which the batter scoring a century assists his team or comes to its aid. But, for starters, to understand what is a century in cricket is to understand the overall numerical result acheived by a particular batter who is credited or noted with scoring a century.

A) When a batsman is credited or noted for having scored a century in an ongoing contest, whether a Test match game or a one day international or even a T20 international contest, it simply means that the particular batter has amassed 100 runs to his name. Or, that 100 runs now stands next to his name in the contest.

B) How a century uplifts the cause of the team or assists a particular team is that it helps the team reach a vital score or total in the end besides being a fine individual achievement. That is for the simple reason that it takes some time, facing quite some deliveries and enduring some real effort and rigour basis which a batsman hits a century.

It ought to be noted that one hundreds runs in an inning by any batter is a nice personal feat in the sense that it popularises the talent who has hit these many runs, adds to his skill set and makes him popular in the wider fraternity. In another common or everyday parlance, consider securing A grades in a school report card. The subject could be any - Math or English or Social Sciences but the end result, an A grade in that particular discipline is celebrated as an achievement.

Having said all the above, when the batter who is on 99, for instance, adds one more score to his name or adds one more run to his total run tally at that particular point of time, he his noted or credited to have hit a century.

A century, therefore, means hitting or scoring (in common cricketing lingo) 100 runs. And 100 runs aren't always a daily or common occurrence. Depending on the size of talent and skill level possessed by a batter, one can score a century frequently or regularly.

Scoring a century, is undoubtedly, celebrated and upheld and considered to be a very fine achievement- this point should be noted and duly underlined. It remains that way irrespective of the time a century is hit, whether it is struck or achieved in the first inning of a game or the next or by any batter, regardless of which team he or she plays for or at what level- domestic cricket or international cricket.

Century in cricket

To understand the concept of what is a century in cricket, we must also understand that a century can be reached by a batter when he hits a boundary, whether he is unbeaten on the score of 96, 97, 98 or 99 and as the run tally standing next to his name, whether it reaches 100 runs or crosses 100 runs, underlines the fact that he has now scored a century. Or in other words, hit a hundred.

A century in cricket is also known as a hundred in cricket and to put it in the simplest of terms, it means - having hit, collected, scored, reached or struck 100 runs (scored by one particular batter - male or female).

As seen in countless games and contests ever since the inception of the great game of cricket, batters hitting a century in cricket have helped their team compile big or promising totals, which more often than not (if not always) help their team win that game of cricket. 

What is a double century in cricket?

So, the same way in which a particular batter scores 100 runs in a game, irrespective of its format or the inning in whch it is scored, when a batsman takes his individual score to 1 run ahead of or in addition to 199 and crosses the numerical or statistical figure of 199, whether he or she does so by taking one run or by hitting two runs or even a boundary, then the eventual score reached is termed a double century.

Let us understand this by a simple example

Let us assume that in a test match game between India and England, one particular batter who is currently batting unbeaten and undefeated on the score of 199 takes 1 run after hitting the red ball into the vacant area on the ground. So what does his score now read? We add one run to his score, hitherto being 199 and that takes his overall run count or run tally to 200.

That means he has now hit a double century.

Another example - let's say a batter was batting on 197 runs and he hits a spinner to the gaps on the off side region for a boundary. So what does his score read now? You add 4 more runs to his 197 runs he had hitherto scored. That means his individual run tally now is 201 runs. That means, he has hit 200 runs, hence a double century.

Similarly, batters have reached or hit a triple century or 300 runs or more in a single inning of a Test match in the great sport of cricket and then there's been one single man who has even hit a quadruple century, which means 400 runs. That man is a popular batting hero or legend called Brian Charles Lara.

In essence, when someone says what is a century in cricket, it means a batsman who has hit 100 runs or more on his own and therefore, helped his team compile that many runs on account of his own individual effort.