over (cricket)

Information about over (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it shall be completed by a teammate.

An over must consist of six legal deliveries. No balls and wides do not count toward the six-ball tally. The captain of the fielding team decides which bowler will bowl any given over (subject to the restriction that no bowler may bowl two overs in succession).

At the completion of each over, the direction of bowling reverses, so that the new bowler will approach the batsman from the opposite end of the pitch. No bowler is allowed to bowl consecutive overs. Generally, the captain will appoint two bowlers to alternate overs from opposite ends of the pitch, until one tires or becomes ineffective, at which point the captain will replace that bowler with another. The period of time during which a bowler is part of such a pair is known as a spell.

In one-day cricket, bowlers are restricted to the total number of overs they may bowl in a match, and the length of the game is determined by the total number of overs bowled (usually 40 or 50 per innings and just 20 overs per innings in Twenty20). In Test and county cricket, teams are usually required to bowl a minimum number of overs per day to prevent spoiling of the game by a slow over rate.

A maiden over is one in which no runs are scored. A wicket maiden is one in which no runs are scored and at least one wicket is taken.

Tactical considerations in bowling overs

The over is a fundamental consideration in the tactical planning of the fielding side. Since a single bowler has six, and only six, legal balls to bowl before he must hand the ball to another bowler, he typically plans to use those six balls to set up a pattern of play designed to get a batsman out. For example, he may bowl the first few balls with the same line, length, or spin. He intends to tempt the batsman into scoring runs by providing balls that are relatively easy to hit. If the batsman takes the bait, the bowler can then follow up with a variation designed to hit the wicket, or a ball that is intended to induce a mistake from a batsman who is still in aggressive run-scoring mode, which will result in him being caught out. The latter type of delivery is known as a sucker ball.

Tactical considerations in batting

If the two batsmen are not similar, tactical considerations may affect their play. If one batsman is stronger than the other, they may attempt to engineer their scoring so that the stronger batsman faces the bowling more often. This may take the form of the stronger batsman trying to score an even number of runs on early balls in the over and an odd number on the last ball; the weaker batsman will attempt the reverse, and the bowler will try to disrupt this pattern.

If one batsman is right-handed and the other left-handed, they may try to score odd numbers of runs to disrupt the bowling pattern and tire the fielders by making them reposition themselves frequently.

Historical number of balls per over in Test cricket

Modern day Test cricket (since 1979/80) has been played all over the world with six balls per over. However, Test cricket started with 4 balls per over and has had varying number of balls per over around the world up to 1979/80, generally the same as the number of balls per over in force in other first-class cricket in that country.

Balls per over

In England
  • 1880 to 1888: 4
  • 1890 to 1899: 5
  • 1902 to 1938: 6
  • 1939 only : 8
  • 1946 to date: 6
In Australia
  • 1876/77 to 1887/88: 4
  • 1891/92 to 1920/21: 6
  • 1928/29 to 1932/33: 6
  • 1924/25 and 1936/37 to 1978/79: 8
  • 1979/80 to date: 6
In South Africa
  • 1891/92 to 1898/99: 5
  • 1902/03 to 1935/36: 6
  • 1938/39 to 1957/58: 8
  • 1961/62 to date: 6
In New Zealand
  • 1929/30 to 1967/68: 6
  • 1968/69 to 1978/79: 8
  • 1979/80 to date: 6
In Pakistan
  • 1954/55 to 1972/73: 6
  • 1974/75 to 1977/78: 8
  • 1978/79 to date: 6
In India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates (venue, not host) all Test matches have been played with 6 ball overs.

See also

Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport contested by two teams, usually of eleven players each.[1] A cricket match is played on a grass field, roughly oval in shape, in the centre of which is a flat strip of ground 22 yards (20.12 m) long, called a cricket pitch.
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A bowler in the sport of cricket is usually a player whose speciality is bowling, analogous to a pitcher in baseball. A bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder.
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In the sport of cricket a no ball is a penalty against the fielding team, usually as a result of an illegal delivery by the bowler. The delivery of a no ball results in one or two runs (depending upon the competition) to be added to the batting team's score, and an additional ball
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WIDE may stand for:
  • Wide-angle Infinity Display Equipment
  • Women in Development Europe


In the sport of cricket, a wide is one of two things:

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This article has been tagged since October 2007.

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Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to
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inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring.
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inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring.
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Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in the United Kingdom for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. Both teams have a single innings and bat for a maximum of 20 overs.
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Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It has long been considered the ultimate test of playing ability between cricketing nations. It remains the highest-regarded form of the game, although the comparatively new One-Day International cricket is now more popular
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County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales.

Teams

First-class counties

The eighteen traditional English first-class counties are the main cricket teams in England.
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wicket has several distinct meanings:

Meanings of wicket

Set of stumps

Primarily, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch.
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In mathematics, the parity of an object refers to whether it is even or odd.

The formal definition of an odd number is an integer of the form n=2k +1, where k is an integer. The definition of an even number is n=2k where k is an integer.
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In mathematics, the parity of an object refers to whether it is even or odd.

The formal definition of an odd number is an integer of the form n=2k +1, where k is an integer. The definition of an even number is n=2k where k is an integer.
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First-class cricket matches are those between international teams or the highest standard of domestic teams in which teams have two innings each. Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket, but the term "first-class" is often used to refer to domestic competition only.
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"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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"God Save the Queen" 1


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Largest city Auckland
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Matches (Mat): Number of matches played. (also Played (Pl).)
  • Catches (Ct): Number of catches taken.
  • Stumpings (St): Number of stumpings made (as a wicket-keeper).
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    • Cricket is a team sport played between two teams of eleven. It is known for its rich terminology. Some terms are often thought to be arcane and humorous by those not familiar with the game.

    This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket.
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