Making a Hundred

• A century can be scored in several different ways. The batsman can run after he hits the ball and score a run by getting safely to the other wicket on the other side of the pitch. If the ball goes far enough, he can run back to the wicket he started from, scoring another run. Cricket has an outer boundary. If the batsman hits the ball past the boundary on the bounce, he scores four runs. It the ball leaves the field of play in the air, he scores six runs.
  
  

Dismissed or Victorious

• The batsman is dismissed or sent to the bench in several ways. If the bowler can hit the bails on top of the wicket, the batsman is finished. The wicket is an arrangement of three vertical sticks with two horizontal sticks, called bails, arranged across the top of the vertical sticks directly behind the batsman. After the batsman hits the ball, he is dismissed if the a fielder catches the ball in the air. The batsman can also be dismissed if the fielding team dislodges the bail by hitting it with the ball after a hit.
  
  

The Intentionally Difficult Cricket Ball

• If a talented and relentless bowler and the unpredictable ground in front of him weren't enough to keep the batsman from scoring a century, the cricket ball is hard enough to cause injury and constructed in such a way that it can curve in flight. The batsman must wear protective equipment to avoid being hurt if it hits him. The ball is stitched around its equator in one external seam which raises up from the surface of the ball. The raised outer stitch allows the bowler to put side spin on the ball and make it curve as it comes at the batsman. Bowlers who depend on ball speed are called pacers. Bowlers who make the ball curve from side to side go by the title of spinners.
  
  

The Opposition

• In order to score in cricket, the batsman must defeat the bowler who is giving his all to get the ball past the batsman. The ball travels at 85 miles an hour in most situations and the bowler is allowed to intentionally throw the ball on the ground before it comes to the batsman. The condition of the ground makes the task facing the batsman more confusing since the condition of the ground can give the ball a variety of moves after the bounce.
  
  

Historical Hundreds

• Most of the cricket world agrees that the first century was scored by John Minshull who scored 107. Minshull played for the Duke of Dorset's XI in a match with Wrotham at Sevenoaks Vine on 31 August 1769.