Pick a shot, then HIT (or Space / tap the pitch) as the ball reaches the bat. Swipe = pick + hit.
Cricket Cup Clash is a free browser cricket game in which you lead one of ten national sides through a complete limited-overs tournament. You choose a team, pick your playing eleven from a squad of fifteen, and then bat and bowl every ball of your own matches while the rest of the competition is played out around you. Three group games decide who reaches the quarterfinals, and from there it is knockout cricket all the way to the final. Everything is drawn in the browser, so there is nothing to download, and it plays the same on a phone, a tablet or a computer.
Batting: choose a shot direction with the arrow keys or the shot buttons: leg side, off side, a lofted hit over the infield, or a solid defensive block. Then hit as the ball arrives, with the space bar, the large HIT button or a tap on the pitch. On a phone you can also swipe in the direction you want to play, which picks the shot and swings in one move. A timing bar shows whether you were early, perfect or late. Bowling: at the start of every over you pick a bowler, then choose the delivery, tap the pitch to aim at a line and length, and press BOWL while the accuracy needle is near the green centre. Let the needle run to the very end and you overstep for a no-ball.
India, Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, Bangladesh and Afghanistan each have their own batting and bowling strength. Every squad has fifteen fictional players: batsmen, wicketkeepers, all-rounders, fast bowlers and spinners, each with a batting and a bowling rating out of one hundred. Your eleven must include exactly one wicketkeeper and at least five bowling options, and the Auto Pick button builds a balanced side for you. You can change the eleven between matches.
Every ball is decided by your timing, the shot you chose, the length of the delivery and the ratings of the batter and bowler, with a little luck on top. A full ball is made for driving, a short ball for pulling, and a yorker is best kept out. Lofted shots bring sixes but can be caught in the deep, while a defensive block rarely gets you out but scores slowly. Batters can be caught, bowled, leg before wicket, stumped off the spinners or run out. Wides and no-balls give away extras, and a no-ball is followed by a free hit, on which the batter can only be run out.
Each team plays three group matches. Two points are awarded for a win and one for a tie, and teams level on points are separated by net run rate, just like in real tournaments. The top eight sides reach the quarterfinals, and the winners go on to the semifinals and the final. Matches between other teams are simulated from their ratings, and the points table, fixtures, bracket and tournament leaders for runs and wickets are always one tap away. Your progress is saved after every match, so you can stop and continue the tournament later.
Watch the length marker that flashes on the pitch as the ball is released and choose your shot to match it. Early in an innings, rotate the strike and keep wickets in hand; in the last overs, go for the big shots. When bowling, mix yorkers and bouncers with slower balls, keep your best bowlers for the end and remember that nobody may bowl more than a fifth of the overs or two overs in a row. On the Easy setting the timing window is wider, while Hard makes the computer bolder and your timing window tighter.
Matches are shown in a 3D stadium with a broadcast-style camera behind the batter that follows the ball into the field. On older phones you can switch to the lighter 2D view in Settings. The 3D player model is based on a model by bhagathartworks on Sketchfab, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0); we removed all of its textures and recoloured it as generic team kits. The 3D engine is three.js, released under the MIT licence.
Your highest team total is saved in your browser as your best innings, and on the Cricket Cup Clash page it can be submitted to the site leaderboard with a name of your choice. Lift the trophy and the champions' screen celebrates with fireworks of confetti.