50 Fun Facts About Cricket Rules

A batter edges onto the stumps, breaking the wicket, before a fielder catches the ball: what dismissal is recorded?

Bowled outranks caught: once the delivery breaks the wicket the batter is out bowled, and the fielder's catch simply never counts.

In white-ball cricket, what does the delivery after a front-foot no-ball become, with almost every dismissal suspended?

A free hit leaves the batter safe from everything but a run out and the two wilful-act dismissals, so a top edge straight to the keeper counts for nothing.

A full toss reaching the batter above which body part is a beamer, an automatic no-ball under Law 41.7?

Waist height is the line, defined in the Laws' appendix as the top of the trousers with the batter standing upright at the crease, and the umpire adds a first and final warning only if the delivery is also judged dangerous.

Which tie-breaker, first used in T20 cricket in 2008, replaced the bowl-out for matches finishing level?

A Super Over gives each side one extra over of six balls, and since October 2019 a tied Super Over in knockout or bilateral games simply leads to another one.

What shape does a cricket captain or batter make with the arms to request a DRS review of an umpire's decision?

A letter T, made with the arms or with arm and bat, sends the decision to the third umpire, and a side can keep asking until its unsuccessful reviews are used up.

How many unsuccessful DRS reviews does each side get per Test innings, one more than in ODIs and T20Is?

Three unsuccessful reviews per innings became the Test allowance in 2020 as a pandemic concession for less experienced umpires, and the ICC later made it permanent.

Which substance, long used to polish one side of a cricket ball, did the Laws ban outright after the COVID-19 pandemic?

Saliva was banned permanently in March 2022 once the pandemic-era interim ban had proved workable, while sweat remains a legal way to shine the ball.

Which dismissal, credited to the bowler, can only be made by the wicket-keeper and never off a no-ball?

Stumped is a special case of run out that only the wicket-keeper can pull off, and unlike most dismissals it remains legal off a wide.

Which ball-tracker, first televised in 2001 for lbw analysis, predicts whether a delivery would have hit the stumps?

Hawk-Eye, built by Paul Hawkins, triangulates footage from up to ten cameras into a 3D flight path, and the same Sony-owned system later became football's goal-line technology.

Striking what, lying unworn on the field, earns the batting side five penalty runs under Law 28?

A fielder's helmet parked behind the wicket-keeper is the classic case, and the same five-run penalty dates back to a 1798 Law about stopping the ball with a hat.

Where must a delivery pitch for a batter to be immune from lbw, even when the ball would have hit the stumps?

Outside leg stump is the one place a ball can pitch and never win an lbw, a protection that survived the 1935 experiment that let balls pitching outside off count.

Which dismissal absorbed 'handled the ball' when the MCC's 2017 code trimmed cricket's list of ways out?

Obstructing the field now covers a batter who wilfully handles the ball, and it has been given only twice in Tests, whereas handled-the-ball claimed seven Test victims before the merger.

For what sole purpose does Law 34 let a batter deliberately strike the ball a second time without being out?

To stop it hitting the stumps is the only licence Law 34 grants, so a batter who taps the ball back to a fielder unasked risks a different dismissal instead.

What must the fielding side do before a cricket umpire can give a batter out, however obvious the dismissal looks?

Appeal is the word: without a 'How's that?' the umpire stays silent, though a batter who knows they are out may simply walk.

Which type of camera lets Hot Spot show a faint edge as a bright mark where ball met bat?

Infrared cameras at each end of the ground measure the heat of friction, using technology developed by the military for tracking tanks and jet fighters.

Which two resources does the Duckworth–Lewis rain rule say a batting side spends to make runs when rain cuts a match?

Overs and wickets in hand are the two resources, and the target is rescaled by how much of that combination each side gets, which is why early wickets hurt a rain-hit chase so much.

Which Australian statistician joined the rain rule's name in November 2014 after its two English creators stepped down?

Steven Stern became custodian of the Duckworth–Lewis method and refined it for T20-era scoring, so since November 2014 it has been the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method.

Some part of a bowler's front foot must land behind which line for the delivery to be legal under Law 21?

Popping crease is the line, four feet in front of the stumps, and the foot may land in the air behind it and then slide past without the ball being called a no-ball.

By how many runs must the side batting first lead to enforce the follow-on in a five-day Test match?

200 is the Test margin, dropping to 150 in a three- or four-day match and just 75 in a one-day game, and if the first day is washed out the match counts as one day shorter, so the lead required drops with it.

After how many overs may a Test captain take a new ball, an option rather than an obligation?

80 overs is the threshold, and if the innings runs another 80 the captain may call for yet another new ball, which is why a red ball is built to last at least that long.

How many overs, at most, may one bowler deliver in a full T20 innings under the ICC's playing conditions?

Four overs is the cap, mirroring the ODI rule of 10 out of 50, so a T20 captain must find at least five bowlers every match.

How many opening overs of an ODI innings form the first powerplay, when only two fielders may stand outside the ring?

10 overs is the first block, followed by a maximum of four fielders outside the 30-yard circle until the 40th over and five for the final ten.

How many overs long is the powerplay that opens a T20 innings, after which five fielders may patrol the boundary?

Six overs is the standard, though Australia's Big Bash shortens it to four and lets the batting side call a two-over Powersurge later in the innings.

Which replacement, allowed in all internationals from August 2019, may bat and bowl, unlike an ordinary twelfth man?

Concussion substitute rules demand a like-for-like player approved by the match referee, and Marnus Labuschagne was the first in a Test, replacing Steve Smith in 2019.

Under Law 15, at what point may a captain declare an innings closed, a tactic confined to two-innings cricket?

Any time the ball is dead will do, and Charles Wright made the first declaration in English first-class cricket in 1890, long before the tactic was routine.

What result is recorded when time runs out on a Test with the side batting last neither dismissed nor past its target?

A draw is the outcome, distinct from a tie, which needs both sides level with the final innings complete and has happened only twice in Test history.

What is an over called in cricket when no runs come off the bat and the bowler concedes no wides or no-balls?

A maiden still stands if byes or leg byes are run, since those are not charged to the bowler, and one that also takes a wicket is a wicket maiden.

How many runs does a wide that sails over the boundary without bouncing score, since only a bat can make six?

Five wides go on the board, the one-run penalty plus a boundary four, because Law 19.7 reserves a six for a ball that has touched the bat.

Runs off a batter's body count as leg byes only if the batter tried to play the ball or to do what?

Evade being hit is the other licence, and a batter who does neither sees the ball ruled dead, so any run the pair scramble is wiped off.

How many bouncers per over may a T20 bowler send down, half the allowance granted in an ODI since 2012?

One per over is the T20 limit, and a bowler who exceeds it concedes a no-ball, while the ICC has allowed two in ODIs since October 2012.

Which numbered Law absorbed the run out of a backing-up non-striker in 2022, ending its life under Law 41 Unfair play?

Law 38, Run out, now holds the dismissal nicknamed after Vinoo Mankad, who ran out Bill Brown this way in a 1947-48 Test, and the bowler gets no credit for the wicket.

Besides playing a shot, during which action is a striker who breaks the wicket out hit wicket under Law 35?

Setting off for a first run after playing the ball still counts, and the dismissal has claimed Ian Botham, who fell over his stumps hooking Curtly Ambrose in 1991.

How is a batter recorded who retires mid-innings for a reason other than illness or injury and never resumes?

Retired out counts as a dismissal with no bowler credited, and by 2019 it had happened in a Test only twice, to Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene in the same 2001 innings.

An airborne fielder completing a catch must have had their last contact with the ground entirely where, under Law 33?

Inside the boundary is the test, and since a 2010 change a fielder may no longer leap from beyond the rope to parry the ball back into play.

What happens to a side's DRS review when ball-tracking returns 'umpire's call' on an lbw, under rules since 2017?

They keep it because umpire's call means the technology found no clear error, with less than half the ball hitting the stumps or in line, and a review should only punish a clear mistake.

Who became the first batter given out by television replay, run out on day two of a November 1992 Test in Durban?

Sachin Tendulkar was run out for 11 after on-field umpire Cyril Mitchley referred the decision to third umpire Karl Liebenberg, the first such referral in Test cricket.

Which on-field indication for referred catches did the ICC scrap in June 2023 as 'unnecessary and at times confusing'?

The soft signal had forced the on-field umpire to guess out or not out before the replay, a call that stood unless the footage proved it wrong, which it often could not.

How many degrees of elbow straightening does the ICC tolerate before a bowling action counts as a throw?

15 degrees became the tolerance after biomechanical testing showed every bowler flexes the elbow to some degree, the finding that cleared Muttiah Muralitharan's action.

Beyond a five-run penalty, what may the opposing captain demand once a player is caught tampering under Law 41?

A replacement ball, picked by the umpires to match the condition of the old one before it was doctored, can be demanded on the spot.

How tall does Law 8 make each stump of a cricket wicket, a dimension that has shifted several times in 300 years?

28 inches is the height, with the three stumps spread to a width of nine, and the middle stump only arrived in 1775 after a ball passed clean between the other two.

What maximum edge thickness did the 2017 Laws impose on cricket bats, alongside a 67 mm cap on depth?

40 mm is the ceiling on an edge, a curb on the slab-sided modern bat, while the maximum length and the 4.25-inch width were left untouched.

Which call does a cricket umpire make by crossing and uncrossing the wrists low in front of the body?

Dead ball is the call, and it tells the scorers that nothing from that delivery counts, whether because the batter was not ready, the ball lodged in clothing or the bowler failed to deliver it.

Where does the second on-field cricket umpire traditionally stand, level with the striker on the leg side?

Square leg is the post, though the umpire will cross to point if a fielder blocks the view, and this official rules on run outs at the striker's end.

When gusts keep dislodging even the heavy bails, what does Law 8 let cricket umpires do until conditions improve?

Carry on without them is the ruling, with the umpires then judging whether the wicket is broken, though ball-tracking graphics still draw the bails in place.

Which dense wood is used for the heavy bails brought out in windy conditions to resist being blown off?

Lignum vitae, one of the densest woods known, weighs down bails that would otherwise be flicked out of their grooves by a stiff breeze.

Which English competition uses five-ball overs, swaps ends every ten balls and allows a 90-second time-out?

The Hundred gives each side 100 balls, penalises a no-ball by two runs, and times out a batter who is still not ready 80 seconds after a wicket.

How wide is a cricket pitch under Law 6, the strip between the two sets of stumps that is one chain long?

10 feet across and one chain long, the pitch also carries a protected strip two feet wide starting five feet from each crease, which bowlers may not run down.

In which year did cricket's Laws adopt the lbw change covering balls landing wide of off stump, after a 1935 trial?

1937 made permanent the experiment that had produced 483 extra lbws in the 1935 first-class season, and critic Bob Wyatt campaigned to reverse it until his death in 1995.

Who beat England by seven runs in January 1997 in the first international settled by the Duckworth–Lewis method?

Zimbabwe took the second match of that series under the new rain rule, and the ICC formally adopted the method as its standard two years later in 1999.

How many balls made an over in Australian Test cricket before the six-ball over became universal in 1979-80?

Eight-ball overs were used by Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan for years, while England had settled on six in 1946, and four-ball overs were the original Test standard.