Overview
Two teams of eleven. One bats and tries to score runs; the other bowls and fields and tries to dismiss them. Sides swap, and the team with more runs wins.
This entry is checked against the MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026). Law numbers below are MCC's own.
This is the current code, in force since 1 October 2026. It replaced the 3rd Edition (2022) with 73 material changes, and anything written before that date — most of what you will find elsewhere — describes the old one. The changes that matter most to a reader are the rewritten overthrows Law, three ball sizes where there used to be one, and an over that is now completed at the end of a day's play when a wicket falls late.
Looking for powerplays, free hits, the DRS or umpire's call? None of those is a Law of Cricket. They are ICC playing conditions, published separately for each game: men's and women's.
Marylebone Cricket Club has owned and written the Laws since 1787; the ICC adds playing conditions for internationals.
1. The field and equipment
The pitch is a strip 22 yards (20.12m) long and 10 feet wide, in the middle of an oval ground with no fixed dimensions — boundaries typically 65 to 90 yards from the centre.
At each end stand three stumps 28 inches high, with two bails resting in grooves on top. The wicket is broken when at least one bail is completely removed.
The popping crease is drawn 4 feet in front of each set of stumps. A batter is "in their ground" when some part of the bat or body is grounded behind it.
The 4th Edition defines three ball sizes where earlier codes gave one (Law 4.1):
| Size | Weight | Circumference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5.5–5.75oz (156–163g) | 8.81–9in (22.4–22.9cm) |
| 2 | 5–5.25oz (142–149g) | 8.46–8.66in (21.5–22cm) |
| 3 | 4.69–4.84oz (133–140g) | 8.07–8.27in (20.5–21cm) |
Size 1 is the men's ball and the figure most sources quote as though it were the only one.
Either captain may demand a new ball at the start of each innings (Law 4.3), and in a match of more than one day the fielding captain may demand one once 80 or more overs have been bowled with the old one (Law 4.4). That is a Law, not a Test-only regulation — only the longer formats last long enough to reach it.
2. Structure
Two batters are in at once, one at each end. A bowler delivers six legal balls — an over — from one end, then a different bowler delivers the next over from the other end. No bowler may bowl two consecutive overs.
The fielding captain sets the field; the wicketkeeper is the only fielder permitted gloves and external leg guards.
An innings ends when ten batters are out — the eleventh has no partner — when the allotted overs are bowled, or when the batting captain declares.
3. Scoring runs
Running. The batters exchange ends; each completed exchange is one run. They may run as many as they dare.
Overthrows. Rewritten for the 4th Edition, and this is the Law behind the most argued moment in modern cricket — the six awarded off Martin Guptill's throw in the 2019 World Cup final. Law 19.8.1 now spells out what the batting side gets when an overthrow reaches the boundary:
- any penalty runs, plus
- the boundary allowance, plus
- the runs completed at the instant of the throw, plus
- the run in progress only if the batters had already crossed at that instant.
That last clause is the whole controversy. Stokes and Rashid had not crossed when Guptill released the ball, so on this wording England score five, not six.
Law 19.8.2 also now defines the term, which it never did before. It is an overthrow if a fielder directs the ball towards the wickets trying to run someone out or stop runs, and it then crosses the boundary. It is not an overthrow if the ball beats a fielder who was simply trying to stop it, or if a fielder near the rope is lobbing it a short distance to a teammate. A deflection is a misfield, not an overthrow.
Boundaries. Four runs if the ball reaches the boundary having touched the ground; six if it clears it on the full.
Extras, credited to the team but not the batter:
| Extra | Cause | Runs |
|---|---|---|
| Wide | Ball too far from the batter to play a normal stroke | 1, plus the ball is re-bowled |
| No-ball | Overstepping, illegal delivery, dangerous ball | 1, re-bowled, and a free hit in limited-overs |
| Bye | Runs taken when the ball passes bat and keeper | As run |
| Leg bye | Runs taken after the ball hits the batter's body, not the bat | As run |
| Penalty | 5 runs, for offences such as the ball striking a helmet on the field | 5 |
A batter can be dismissed off a no-ball only by hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, or run out (Law 21.17).
Off a wide the list is different and longer — hit wicket, obstructing the field, run out, or stumped (Law 22.7). You can be stumped off a wide but not off a no-ball, which is the detail people get wrong.
4. Dismissals
There are ten ways to be out. Five account for nearly everything.
Bowled. The delivery hits the stumps and removes a bail, even off the bat or body first.
Caught. A fielder catches the ball off the bat or glove before it touches the ground.
Leg before wicket (LBW). The ball strikes the batter's body when it would otherwise have hit the stumps. It is not out if:
- the ball pitched outside leg stump; or
- the impact was outside off stump and the batter was playing a genuine shot.
The ball must be judged to have been going on to hit the stumps.
Run out. The wicket is broken while the batters are out of their ground attempting a run.
Stumped. The wicketkeeper breaks the wicket while the batter is out of their ground and not attempting a run.
The rarer five: hit wicket, obstructing the field (which absorbed "handled the ball" in 2017), hitting the ball twice, timed out, and retired out.
A dismissal must be appealed — the fielding side asks "how's that?" — before the umpire will give it.
5. Formats
| Format | Length | Innings each | Can be drawn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test | Up to 5 days | 2 | Yes |
| First-class | 3–4 days | 2 | Yes |
| One Day International | 50 overs | 1 | No |
| Twenty20 | 20 overs | 1 | No |
| The Hundred | 100 balls | 1 | No |
Only the multi-day game can be drawn — nobody wins because time ran out. A tie, where the scores finish level with the side batting last all out, is different and extremely rare.
6. Multi-day specifics
The follow-on. If the side batting second trails by 200 or more in a five-day match, the opposing captain may require them to bat again immediately. The threshold falls to 150 for three- or four-day matches, and 100 for two-day.
The declaration. The batting captain may close an innings at any time, usually to leave enough time to bowl the opposition out.
Ending a day's play
Ordinarily an over is completed before an interval. If fewer than three minutes remain before the interval and a batter is dismissed or retires, the interval is taken at once — except at the end of a day's play, where the over is now completed (Law 12.5.2). Before the 4th Edition, a late wicket simply drew stumps. The batting side no longer loses the rest of the over to the clock.
7. Limited-overs specifics
These are not Laws of Cricket. Powerplays, free hits, bowler over-limits, the Decision Review System and umpire's call appear nowhere in the MCC Laws — we searched the 4th Edition for each of them and found none. They are ICC playing conditions, which competitions adopt on top of the Laws and change far more often. The figures below are the familiar international ones and have not been checked against a current ICC playing conditions document.
Fielding restrictions limit how many fielders may stand outside the 30-yard circle:
| Phase (ODI) | Overs | Max outside the circle |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay 1 | 1–10 | 2 |
| Powerplay 2 | 11–40 | 4 |
| Powerplay 3 | 41–50 | 5 |
Each bowler is capped — 10 overs in an ODI, 4 in a T20.
A free hit follows any no-ball. Off it the striker can be dismissed under the same heads as off a no-ball itself — hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, or run out — not run out alone. See the ICC playing conditions, men's and women's, for the detail.
8. Officials and review
Two on-field umpires, a third umpire with video, and a match referee.
The Decision Review System lets each side challenge an umpire's decision. Reviews are limited per innings, and a side retains its review if the original decision is overturned.
Umpire's call applies to marginal LBW reviews: if ball-tracking shows only a fraction of the ball hitting the stumps, the on-field decision stands either way. This is the single most argued mechanism in the modern game.
Underarm bowling, and kicking the ball
Underarm bowling is not flatly banned. Law 21.1.2 reads:
Underarm bowling shall not be permitted except by special agreement before the match.
So it remains legal where both sides agree in advance, and is a no-ball otherwise (Law 21.3). It was unrestricted until 1981, when Australia's Trevor Chappell rolled the last ball of an ODI along the ground to deny New Zealand a six. The outcry was immediate and it was outlawed within months. It is now illegal unless both captains agree beforehand.
Fielders may kick the ball. There is no restriction on which part of the body a fielder uses, and stopping a drive with a boot is routine.
A batter may not deliberately kick the ball to score. Runs off the pads are leg byes, credited to the team and not the batter, and only when they were playing a shot or evading.
Commonly argued
- A draw is not a tie. A draw means time ran out; a tie means the scores finished level.
- You can be out first ball without facing one — run out at the non-striker's end.
- LBW can be given even if the ball pitched outside off stump. Only outside leg stump is an automatic not out.
- A no-ball cannot bowl you out, but it can run you out. You can be stumped off a wide, but not off a no-ball.
- Powerplays, free hits and umpire's call are not Laws of Cricket. They are ICC playing conditions. The Laws do not mention any of them.
- Underarm bowling is legal by prior agreement, not banned outright.
- An overthrow only counts the run in progress if the batters had crossed when the fielder let go of the ball (19.8.1).
- A deflection off a fielder trying to stop the ball is not an overthrow (19.8.2.2).
- There are three ball sizes, not one.
- The bails must come off. A ball striking the stumps without dislodging a bail is not out.
- Umpire's call means the on-field decision stands, which is why the same ball-tracking picture can produce opposite outcomes.
Spotted a mistake?
Corrections are reviewed by an editor before they publish.