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A free 3D cricket game for South Africa — play live, in your browser
South Africa kit · home pitch: fast & bouncy
Pace, bounce and a slip cordon: cricket the way the Highveld plays it. Howzat Live is a real 3D cricket game — bat, ball, bowler, eleven fielders and a crowd — that runs in the browser on a laptop, a PC or a phone. No download, no app store, no payment. Build your own eleven in South Africa’s kit and play a live match against a real person anywhere in the world, or against the computer at three levels.
Play free as South Africa See the Test match
How South African pitches play in the game
Set South Africa as your home ground and the pitch plays like SuperSport Park: the ball is quicker off the surface, bounces higher, and a stroke that is late is an edge to the cordon or an lbw rather than a single. Fast bowlers are the attack here. Batters who get in and time it score quickly; the rest get worked over. The computer picks four quicks and a spinner on this deck, and so should you.
The home ground you choose decides the surface. South Africa is fast and bouncy - pace bowling, carry to the slips, and lbw for the ball that beats the bat. Play away in another country and the pitch changes with it, so a side built for Centurion has to think again at the MCG or at Galle.
SA20 cricket game? Here is the honest answer
People in South Africa search for “sa20 cricket game” a lot, so to be clear: Howzat Live has no licence from the SA20 and uses no franchise names or player likenesses. What you get instead is your own team. Name all eleven, decide who bats left-handed, who bowls pace and who bowls spin, who keeps wicket, and send them out in South Africa’s colours. Your names go on the scoreboard, the scorecard and the commentary line — c †Rashid b Waqar — and you can save up to twelve teams.
Live, against a real person
One bats, one bowls, the server times every ball so you both see the same delivery. Talk between overs. Quick Match pairs you in seconds.
Laptop, PC or phone
Keyboard on a laptop; swipe and tap on a phone turned sideways. A phone player and a laptop player can face each other in the same match.
T20-length or a full Test
Five, ten or twenty overs a side for a quick game. Or a four-innings Test with declarations, the follow-on, DRS and a save you can come back to days later.
Your flag walks out with you
Pick South Africa — or any of 200+ countries — at sign-up. It sits beside your name on the scoreboard and in chat, and your rating climbs the Scale from 0 to 10.
When South African players are online
South African evenings are late afternoon in the UK and night in India and Australia, so the lobby is mixed and busy. If nobody is free, play the computer: it picks its own field, bowls to a plan, and on a fast deck picks four quicks and a spinner.
How to start playing the cricket game in South Africa
- Create a free account — a username, a password and South Africa as your country.
- Build your XI in South Africa’s kit, or use the ready-made side and get straight in.
- Open the lobby and hit Quick Match, or start a Test against the computer.
- Bat or bowl. Bowling is line, length and pace; batting is timing and direction. Five matches earns your first Scale badge.
Questions South African players ask
Can I play as South Africa in this cricket game?
Yes. Pick the Proteas-green kit, name your own eleven, and set South Africa as your home ground so the pitch is fast and bouncy.
Is this an SA20 cricket game?
No. Howzat Live has no SA20 licence and no franchise names. It is a free 3D cricket game where you build your own team in South Africa's kit and play live against real people, or the computer, in 5 to 20 over matches or a full Test.
Does this cricket game work on data in South Africa?
Yes. It is a browser game, so nothing is downloaded to your phone, and it lowers its graphics automatically on a slow connection. It is free with no in-app purchases.
Is Howzat Live a live cricket game?
Yes - live in the sense that matters for a game: every 1v1 match is played in real time against another person, one batting and one bowling, with the server timing each ball so you both see the same delivery at the same moment. It is not a live-scores site; it is a cricket game you play.
Is this a real 3D cricket game, not a stick-cricket style one?
It is a full 3D cricket game: a bowler with a run-up, a ball that swings, seams or turns off the pitch, a batter you time and direct, eleven fielders who chase, dive and take catches, DRS with ball tracking in Tests, and a crowd. It renders in the browser, so there is nothing to download.
The cricket game in other countries
Every one of these plays on its own kind of pitch. Pick a home ground, then go and play away.
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Howzat Live - a free 3D online cricket game. Built by Hisham Sarwar.