I'm from Nottingham, living in Leeds. (Dad's a Scot and so is mother in law so trips to see various family in Dundee and Greenock not uncommon.) I am Northern to Southerners and Southern to Northerners but I'm a proud Midlander at heart...
Grew up round the corner from the Trent Bridge ground and live quite close to Headingley cricket ground but not really a sporty type but roughly know the rules of cricket:
Bowling team have to hit the wicket
Batting team have to hit the ball away from the wicket.
Fielders try to catch the ball.
When the ball is hit away, the batters run up and down making sure they're back at the wicket before the ball is back - each length is a 'run'. Scoring is *number of runs* for *number of batsmen bowled out*, ie '80 for 5.'
When all the batsmen are bowled out the teams switch over.
That's the gist of it I think. It's pretty similar to what I know of baseball, which is also not much!