Play cricket online, free, against a real person

Desktop Mobileone game, both versions, same match

NEW

Build your own team — and play a full Test match

Name all eleven of your own players, decide who bats left-handed, who bowls pace and who bowls spin, who keeps wicket — then send them out in the kit of your favourite country. Your names go everywhere the game writes one down: the scoreboard, the man walking in next, the bowler you bring on, and the scorecard line that reads c †Rashid b Waqar.

And it is not only twenty overs. There is a proper four-innings Test match — declarations, the follow-on, DRS reviews, a first-innings lead carried into the third, and a save that lets you close the tab and come back to it days later.

Australia
England
West Indies
India
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Afghanistan
South Africa
New Zealand

Desktop and mobile friendly. The whole site — and the full 3D game — runs in an ordinary browser on a laptop, a tablet or a phone. Turn a phone sideways and play with your thumbs. Nothing to download, nothing to install, no app store, and a phone player and a laptop player can face each other in the same match.

Howzat Live is a free 3D cricket game you play in your browser. No download, no install, no app store. You sign up, pick your country, and get put in front of another human being who wants to bowl at you.

One of you bats, one of you bowls, and the server times every ball so you both watch exactly the same cricket at the same moment. Between deliveries you can talk to each other. Matches run from two overs to twenty, so a game fits into a tea break or a whole evening.

Actually multiplayer

No bots dressed up as opponents. Every match on this site is one person against another person.

Desktop and mobile friendly

Full 3D cricket rendered in the browser — keyboard on a laptop, swipe and tap on a phone. Nothing to install, so it also runs on the school or office machine you cannot install games on.

Your flag walks out with you

Choose from more than 200 countries when you sign up. It sits beside your name on the scoreboard and on every line you type in the chat.

Desktop and mobile — the same match, either way

There is one version of Howzat Live and it reads the screen it is opened on. On a laptop you get the keyboard: arrows to place the shot, space to call the run, and the full field diagram when you set your field. On a phone you get your thumbs: swipe to aim, tap to time it, flick up to loft it, and touch the pitch itself to mark your length. Nothing is cut down for the smaller screen — the scoreboard, the delivery read-out, the timing dial, the shot map, the chat and the two-minute pause are all there on both.

A phone player and a laptop player can face each other in the same match. Both screens run the same ball, ball by ball, and the server keeps the scoreboard.

Howzat Live on a laptop: a 3D cricket ground with the full field set, the score
and overs across the top, the incoming delivery read-out, the timing dial down
the left edge and the keyboard shot legend in the corner. — **Desktop**Arrow keys place the shot, space calls the run, B lofts it. Bowling is line, length, pace and swing, and the field is a diagram you drag.

Howzat Live on a phone held sideways: the same 3D ground and scoreboard with
touch controls - an aim dial on the batter, a swipe-and-tap prompt, and the
pause button beside the on-screen buttons toggle. — **Mobile browser**Swipe to aim, tap to time it, flick up to loft. Turn the phone sideways and play — no app, no install.

FROM THE GAME

What it actually looks like out there

Every picture below is a frame from a real match in a browser tab — the ground, the crowd, the scoreboard, the field you set and the card the game keeps. No artwork, no mock-ups.

Batting in Howzat Live: a 3D cricket ground in daylight seen from behind the
batter, a full field set inside and outside the circle, the score across the top
and a card in the middle reading INCOMING 142 KPH YORKER, right-arm pace, over
the wicket. — **The ball on its way — and you are told what it is** Speed, length, the arm it is coming from and the angle, a heartbeat before you have to play it. Arrows place the shot, hold B to loft it, space calls the run.

The Howzat Live captain's screen at the top of an over: a row of the player's
own eleven bowlers by name with the man due to bowl already selected, pace or
spin, right or left arm, over or round the wicket, and a field diagram with
nine draggable fielders around the circle. — **Your over, your bowler, your field** At the top of every over the whole eleven is there by name — the man due on is already picked — and the nine fielders are yours to drag anywhere you want them.

Fielding in Howzat Live: the view from behind a fielder in green Pakistan kit
looking in at the pitch, the rest of the side spread around the ground, the
shot map and the scoreboard reading 56 for 1. — **The other half of the game** Take the field and it is line, length, pace and swing — and eleven men who chase, slide, dive and catch it in front of a full house.

Close on the boundary in Howzat Live: a packed tier of spectators above a rope
lined with advertising boards, the boundary line curving away across the outfield,
and the keyboard shot legend in the corner. — **Hit one and the camera goes with it** A six is followed off the bat, up over the rope and into a full house — the drone camera rides the ball out and the ground’s own big screen takes over, the way it happens on television.

TEST MATCH

Test cricket, four innings, in a browser tab

Most cricket games give you twenty overs and call it a day. Howzat Live plays a proper Test: two innings a side, up to sixty overs each, whites and a red ball, and a result that can come by an innings, by runs, by wickets — or not at all.

It is the long game with the things that make it the long game. You declare when you have enough. You are offered the follow-on when you lead by two hundred. The lead you built in the first innings is carried into the third, and the fourth innings gets a target off the back of it. And because a Test is not something anybody finishes in one sitting, it saves as you go — close the tab, come back on Thursday, and the match is exactly where you left it, on the same score, with the same men at the crease.

Four innings, and the arithmetic behind them

Lead, deficit and target are worked out and shown under the score at all times — LEAD BY 75, TRAIL BY 40, NEED 216 TO WIN. Win by an innings, by runs, by wickets, or hang on for the draw.

Declare, and enforce the follow-on

Close your innings when the lead is big enough — and if you finish two hundred ahead, you are asked whether they should bat again straight away.

DRS, with ball-tracking

Three reviews an innings. Make the T, and the screen shows where it pitched, where it struck and where it was going — pitching, impact, wickets. Umpire’s call stands, and it does not cost you the review.

Captaincy, not just batting

Pick which of your eleven bowls each over — any of them, not a fixed five — and choose who walks in when a wicket falls instead of following the order blindly. You start with an attacking field and two slips, and you can move all nine.

The pitch depends on where you play

Pick your venue. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka grip, turn and keep low — which is when your spinners earn their place. Everywhere else plays true.

Save it and come back

Five days’ worth of cricket does not fit into a lunch break. Press save at any point and the whole match — every innings, every scorecard, the men at the crease — waits for you on the front screen.

A full scorecard, kept innings by innings

Runs, balls and strike rate for every batter; overs, maidens, runs and wickets for every bowler; catches credited to the man who took them. Batting second? Open the card and read exactly what the opposition made and who took your wickets.

Man of the match

Weighed across the whole game and both sides — runs, wickets and catches together — so the hundred, the five-for and the man who held four in the slips are argued out properly. It can go to a losing player, and sometimes does.

The light goes, the lights come on

Cloud rolls over during a day match, the ground goes flat and grey, the floodlights come on, and a shower passes through. Play never stops for it.

The Howzat Live Test scorecard: Hisham XI 386 all out and India 241 all out,
every batter with runs, balls and strike rate and how he was dismissed, every
bowler with overs, maidens, runs and wickets, and the fall of wickets. — **The card, innings by innings** Hisham XI 386, India 241, and a first-innings lead of 33 on the line at the top. Runs, balls and strike rate for every batter; overs, maidens, runs and wickets for every bowler; **c †Rizwan Ahmed b Saqlain Mushtaq** written out the way a scorecard writes it.

Where to find it: the Test format, the venue and your own teams live on the setup screen when you play the computer — three difficulty levels, and those matches count toward your Scale at half weight. Live 1v1 against another person is the limited-overs game: 5, 10 or 20 overs a side.

YOUR OWN XI

Create your own team, your own players, your country’s kit

Eleven names you choose, in a shirt you choose. Save up to a dozen sides and pick two of them to play each other.

For every player you set the things that actually change what happens on the field: which hand he bats, which arm he bowls with, whether he is pace or spin, and which one of them keeps wicket. A left-hander walks out and stands the other side of the stumps. A leg-spinner turns it the other way. The man in the gloves is taken out of the bowling attack, because the man in the gloves does not bowl — so putting the gloves on your No.7 hands somebody else the fifth bowler’s overs.

Then the names follow the cricket around. The scoreboard uses them. So does the panel that asks who is in next when a wicket falls, and the row of your own bowlers you pick from at the top of an over. The scorecard writes them out the way a scorecard does — c †Rashid b Waqar, lbw b Abdul, Abdul 19-9-41-5 — and at the end of the match one of them is named man of the match.

The Howzat Live team editor: a saved side called Hisham XI in the Pakistan kit,
with eleven named players in batting order and buttons on each row for batting
hand, bowling arm, pace or spin, and which man keeps wicket. — **Eleven names, in your country’s kit** Batting hand, bowling arm, pace or spin, and one man in the gloves — and every one of those choices changes what happens out on the field.

Name all eleven. Up to twenty-four characters each, in your batting order.
Set each man up. Batting hand, bowling arm, pace or spin, and one keeper.
Choose the kit. Ten international sides to wear — and if both teams pick the same one, the second side is moved to another colour so eleven men in green are not playing eleven men in green.
Play them. Pick your side and your opponent’s on the setup screen, in a T20 or across five days.

Create a free account and build your XI →

How to play cricket online here, in four steps

Create a free account. A username, a password, and the country you want beside your name.
Open the lobby. See who is online right now, or hit Quick Match and be paired with whoever is waiting.
Bat or bowl. Win the toss and choose. Bowling is line, length and pace; batting is timing and direction against a ball a real person chose to send down.
Climb the Scale. Every finished match moves your rating. Five matches earns your first badge.

The Scale: how ranking works

Everybody starts at Scale 0. It is not an insult - it means unrated, and it stays that way until you have finished five matches, so nobody on the board is carrying a badge they won in two lucky games.

After that your Scale is earned. Beating someone rated above you moves you up sharply; losing to someone well above you barely costs anything. Beating the same opponent over and over is worth less every time, so two friends cannot take turns feeding each other wins to the top of the table. The higher tiers also need matches played, not just a hot week.

0 Unrated1 Gully2 Tape-ball 3 Club4 District5 Academy 6 First-class7 List A8 National 9 International10 Legend

See where everyone currently stands →

THE END OF A MATCH

Win it, and the ground stays with you

There is no cut to a menu. The match camera pulls out into a slow lap of the ground, the crowd is on its feet, the big screen turns over to your name and the shells go up over the stands — and it keeps going until you have had enough of it.

The end of a match in Howzat Live: Australia have won under lights, fireworks
burst above a packed stadium, the ground's big screen reads CONGRATULATIONS
AUSTRALIA WIN, and a bar across the bottom reads Australia win, chased it down at
214 for 4 with 8 balls to spare. — **Australia win — chased down with eight balls to spare** The lap of honour under the lights. Fireworks over the stands, the ground turning slowly below, and the scorecard waiting whenever you want it — not a second before.

Milestones inside the match get the same treatment on a smaller scale: a fifty, a hundred, a hat-trick of wickets and three sixes in three balls all take over the ground’s screens and put shells in the sky.

Questions people ask

Can I play cricket online for free?

Yes. Howzat Live is a free online cricket game you play in your browser. There is no download, no install and no payment - create an account, pick your country and you are batting within a minute.

Is this a real multiplayer cricket game or am I playing the computer?

Both, and you choose. Every 1v1 match is against another real person - one bats, one bowls, both watch the same ball at the same time, and you can talk in the in-match chat while you play. If nobody is free you can play the computer instead, at three difficulty levels. Those matches are labelled “vs computer” everywhere they appear and count toward your Scale at half weight.

Do I need to download anything to play cricket online?

No. The whole game is 3D in the browser. It runs on desktop and on modern phone browsers with nothing to install, so it works on machines where you cannot install games.

Can I play this cricket game on my phone?

Yes, in the phone’s own browser — there is nothing to install. Turn the handset sideways and the game switches to touch: swipe to aim your shot, tap to time it, flick up to loft it, tap again to call the run, and touch the pitch itself to mark your line and length when you are bowling. Everything the desktop version has is there, and a phone player and a laptop player can face each other in the same match.

Can I play a Test match?

Yes — a full four-innings Test, two innings a side, up to sixty overs each, in whites with a red ball. You can declare, you are offered the follow-on at a lead of two hundred, the first-innings lead is carried into the third innings and the fourth gets a target. It has DRS with three reviews an innings and ball-tracking, a full scorecard for every innings, and it saves as you go, so you can close the tab and come back to the same match days later. Test matches are played against the computer, at three difficulty levels.

Can I create my own team and players?

Yes. Build your own XI, name all eleven players, and set each one’s batting hand, bowling arm, pace or spin, and which of them keeps wicket — all of which change what happens on the field. You can save up to twelve teams and pick two of them to play each other. Your players’ names appear on the scoreboard, in the who-is-in-next panel, in the list of bowlers you bring on, on the scorecard, and on the man-of-the-match award.

Can I use my favourite country’s kit?

Yes. Your team wears the kit of whichever of ten international sides you choose — Australia, England, West Indies, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa or New Zealand. If both teams pick the same one, the second side is automatically moved to a different colour so the two elevens can be told apart. In a Test both sides wear whites.

How long does a match take?

You choose 5, 10 or 20 overs a side. A 5-over match takes about ten minutes; a 20-over match plays like a full T20 innings each. A Test is four innings of up to sixty overs, and it saves as you go, so it is meant to be played across several sittings.

What is the Scale on my profile?

Scale is your skill badge, from 0 to 10. Everyone starts at Scale 0 and earns a badge after five rated matches. Beating stronger opponents moves you up faster; beating the same person repeatedly is worth less each time.

Can I play cricket online with friends?

Yes. Create a private table and share the link, or use Quick Match to be paired with whoever is waiting in the lobby.

Go on then. Hit it.

Free, in your browser, on whatever screen you have to hand — desktop, tablet or phone.

Free while we are in beta. Nothing to download.

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Howzat Live - free 3D online cricket. Built by Hisham Sarwar.