Innings

An innings, or inning, is a segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which a side takes its turn to bat. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is always spelled and pronounced with the terminal "s". In baseball, the singular form is inning and only the plural takes an "s".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In many other sports, the length of the game is dictated by a clock and teams swap offensive and defensive roles dynamically by taking possession of a ball or similar item. In cricket and baseball, however, one team known as the batting team attempts to score points (known as runs in both sports), while the other team, known as the fielding team, attempts to prevent the scoring of runs and get members of the batting team out. The teams switch places after the fielding team has succeeded in getting a fixed number of players out, making a clock unnecessary.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In cricket, the term innings is also used to refer to the play of one particular player (Smith had a poor innings, scoring only 12). By extension, this term can be used in British English for almost any activity which takes a period of time (The Liberal government had a good innings, but finally lost office in 1972, or You've had a fair innings, now it's my turn, meaning "you have spoken for long enough, now let me speak"). It is also used in reference to someone who has died at a reasonably old age (Ah, well. John was 83. At least he had a good innings.). The parallel to this in baseball is an at bat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sport: A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, and a scoring system. The differ...

Baseball: Baseball is a team sport, a bat-and-ball game, in which a hard, fist-sized ball is thrown by a defensive player called a pitcher, and an offensive player called a batter attempts to hit it with a tapered, cylindrical, smooth stick called a bat. The ball itself is also called a baseball. Scoring is a...

British English: British English (BrE) is a term used loosely to refer to the form of the English language written in the British Isles, and more narrowly as spoken in the south of England (extending elsewhere with varying degrees). For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the 9th century, the var...