the running is between two sets of wooden stumps spaced about 30m apart.
The distance from wicket to wicket is actually 22 yards. or roughly 20m.
the bowler from team A delivers the ball to the batsman of team B and tries to get him "out" either by knocking down the wicket behind the batsman or by having the ball struck by the batsman caught by one of the fielders of team A.
There are actually eleven ways in which a batsman can be given out, the most common of which are by runouts, bowling, catches, and lbws.
each cricket team comprises players who are either good at batting (batsmen) or bowling (bowlers) a few are good at both (all-rounders).
One school of wisdom suggests that an all rounder really should be a good fielder as well, although as a general rule of thumb, a good batsman's a good fielder as reflexes and good hand eye co-ordination are common strengths between the two.
the team should be balanced between ability to score runs (by having good bowlers) and the ability to restrict the opponent's runs (by having good bowlers).
Again, there are plenty of complexities to this. Sometimes for various reasons a team will bat deep (have a deep batting line up), but generally a team will have 4-5 members of their team capable of bowling good overs. This lot can comprise different types of bowlers, and depend on the condition of the wicket, the type of game, and the weather conditions. There are many more nuances even within those parameters.
when a team goes out to bat, the best batsmen are usually the first to go out, so that the team can hopefully score many runs as early as possible.
Only partly true. Generally speaking the top order batsmen bat at the top order because a cricket ball deteriorates over time. When it is new, as it is at the start of an innings, the ball is hard, travels faster, and has a higher chance of claiming a wicket as a result. So in many ways, the theory goes that the only people with a hope of surviving the new ball in the first few overs are your best batsmen. And even among top order batsmen, there are those who specialise in opening. Other specialise in staying through the innings and anchoring the team. Others are superb at martialling the tail and pinching singles to hang on to strike. Others are great at leading a run chase.
the "tail-enders" of the batting line-up are the specialist bowlers and they are not expected to score many runs.
Taken in its basic meaning, then yes you're right. But many teams these days have very capable tail-enders, and there is a specific segment of teams that have explosive batsmen in the tail who can knock the ball around a bit.
bowlers have special skills to get the batsmen out. bowlers can bowl a very fast ball, or make the ball curve after hitting the ground.
The are many different kinds of bowlers, who have many, many different ways of obtaining wickets, not just speed and swing (curve is a baseball term). Some will bowl fast and then throw in the odd slower ball, they can vary the length of their bowling (where the ball pitches), some use the seam of the ball to get the ball to move, spinners, as the name implies, spin the ball. Bowlers can bowl over the wicket or around the wicket, and left arm bowlers have different strengths to right armers, and each set of bowlers will have their own methods against left hand batsmen and right hand batsmen.
the captain of the team decides what positions to put his fielders to achieve the greatest chance of catching the batsman's ball. some fielders will be placed close to the batsman to exploit a ball that touches the edge of the bat. some fielders will be placed nearer the boundary to prevent the batsman from scoring a "boundary (4 runs)".
Indeed, as you mention in your last sentence, the captain decides the positions of his fielders not necessarily to yield the best chance of taking a wicket, very often the goal is to prevent the batsmen from scoring. Sometimes this might be in a ploy to frustrate the batsman and make him play a rash shot, at other times it is simply to slow the run rate. Different batsmen have their own favourite shots, and fields can be adapted to cut out their favourite scoring avenue.
in a "one day" or "limited-overs" game, each team bats only once and the game must be completed in one day.
Strictly speaking, it depends on the competition rules. A limited overs game does not have to complete within a day, although for international one day games, the game will finish within the day.
usually, a team will rotate among 3 or 4 bowlers during a game to keep them fresh.
As above, 4-5 is the preferred number and it also depends on your team selection and the conditions. A pair of finger spinners could conceivably bowl most of the day, whereas a strike bowler will be lucky to get 10 overs at a stretch. Another important reason in changing bowlers it to give you options in your attack; if your fast bowler isn't having much luck, sometimes bring in a medium pacer for a few overs can do the trick.
Also, anyone in the team can bowl, bar the wicketkeeper. Plenty of "part time" bowlers will bowl a few overs in an innings to try to do something different to break up a batting partnership. Sometimes in limited overs games because a bowler can only bowl X number of overs (depends on the rules), part time bowlers might have to do the job.
the umpire ("referee") makes the decision whether a batsman is "out".
There are two umpires on the field of play, and in international games a third and fourth umpire as well for video replays and other issues.
the clear-cut situations are when the wicket is cleanly knocked over
The wicket doesn't have to get knocked over, only hit.
a batsman can be "run out" (dismissed) when they fail to get back to their end of the wicket and the ball thrown by the opposing team hits his wicket.
It doesn't have to be thrown, a fielder can also knock the wicket over when he has the ball in his possession.
a batsman can also be ruled "out" by the umpire if the ball would have knocked down his wicket had his leg not been blocking it (lbw or leg-before-wicket rule).
Again, many intricacies. A batsman cannot be given lbw if the ball pitches outside the line of leg stump (Andrew Strauss was unlucky in the recent England v NZ test), or if he gets his bat to the ball first, however slight.
in a test match, one team may bat so well that they amass a huge score without using all their batsman. in this situation, the captain may decide to 'declare' his innings and make the opposing team bat earlier. this will give his team more time to dismiss the opposing batsmen and to win the match.
Declarations *generally* only happen in a team's second innings. For instance team A will bat out their first innings, team B then bat's out their innings. Several things can happen from this point. Team A, if they have scored enough runs more than their opponents, can put team B back in to bat again straight after their first innings. The exact margin depends on the competition, for instance in 4 day cricket you need a 150 runs surplus to make the opponents follow on. In 5 day cricket it tends to be 200 runs. This puts a team in a stronger position if they can bowl team B out, they then have an exact figure they know they have to reach and if they cannot reach it within the time remaining, they can bat out a draw.
Alternatively, if team A cannot or chooses not to enforce the follow on, they go in to bat again and the scores of their two innings are added together. If time is running short, the captain can declare and put team B in to bat before losing all his 10 wickets. Reasons for doing so tends to be time, if you have a conservatively high enough total, or if your tail enders are very, very weak. Generally, the total is the prime consideration.
And that's still only the tip of the iceberg...
