Cricket Smash

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Cricket Smash is a free online cricket game that runs in your browser with no download and no account. You are always batting second, chasing a total off twenty-four balls with two or three wickets in hand, which is what turns every ball into a decision instead of a reaction. Pick the shot first — a block that scores nothing and almost never gets you out, a push worth a couple, a drive, a pull, or a loft that clears the rope and the field with it — then time the swing as the ball comes down the pitch. The bowler mixes five deliveries and they do not all arrive together: a yorker is on you fast and punishes a mistimed bat hard, a slower ball hangs, a spinner gives you the most room of anything in the game. Miss by a little and the shot loses its runs; miss by a lot and you are caught, edged, or bowled behind a swing that never got near it. The field is the other half of it. Every level puts more fielders out, and they take runs off shots hit along the ground while barely touching one hit over their heads — so the safe shots stop paying exactly when a big chase needs them to. The required rate sits on the scoreboard the whole way, and the six chases run from a village green needing forty-four to a final over needing sixty-two against a packed field. Every number in the ladder was measured by bots batting out hundreds of chases each, not picked to look right.

How to play Cricket Smash

1. You are chasing. The target, the balls left and the runs needed are on the scoreboard from the first ball, and every chase is twenty-four balls long.
2. Pick your shot before the ball arrives — Block, Push, Drive, Pull or Loft — using the buttons or the number keys 1 to 5. You can change it right up until you swing.
3. The ball runs down the pitch towards the bat. Press Swing, or the space bar, as it arrives. Nearer the middle means more of the shot.
4. The bigger the shot, the smaller the window. A block gives you the most room of anything and a loft the least, so the swing you can afford depends on how well you are timing the ball.
5. Deliveries are not all the same. A yorker arrives quickly and punishes a mistimed bat hardest; a spinner or a slower ball gives you noticeably more room to work with.
6. Miss by a little and the shot simply scores less. Miss badly with the ball in the air and you can be caught; miss badly along the ground and you can edge it. Swing right past it and the stumps are behind you.
7. A well-timed shot is never out, whatever you play — the risk comes from the timing, not from the choice.
8. Fielders take runs off anything hit along the ground and very little off a ball hit over them. The higher chases put more fielders out, which is what makes the aerial shots worth their risk.
9. Leaving the ball alone is a decision too. It scores nothing and costs you a ball — and a full straight one can still hit the stumps while you watch it, though a bouncer never will.
10. Chase the target down to win and unlock the next one. Run out of balls or out of wickets and the chase is lost; your progress is kept in your own browser.

Tips

• Read the required rate rather than the score. It is the number that tells you whether a push is enough this ball or whether only a loft can still win it — and it is on the scoreboard on every screen size.
• Nudging singles cannot win any of the six chases. Bots that pushed every ball finished every level short of the target while almost never losing a wicket — the balls run out first.
• Blocking is worse than useless in a chase. It scores nothing and only very rarely gets you out, so all it reliably does is spend a ball you needed.
• Swinging at everything works better than it should. Playing the required rate wins the first two chases seven to ten points more often, but from the third one on the two come out level — by then the target is big enough that you have to hit out whether you wanted to or not.
• Against a spread field the drive quietly stops paying. On the last chase the field takes about a third off everything along the ground, which is exactly when the pull and the loft start being the sensible shots rather than the greedy ones.
• Timing is worth more than shot selection at the top. The same decisions played with cleanly timed shots take the last chase from about one win in nine to seven in ten.
• When you are down to your last wicket, drop one shot safer than the rate asks for. Losing the wicket ends the chase immediately; being a run behind does not.

FAQ