Overview
Cricket is governed by two layers of rules, and almost every argument online comes from mixing them up.
The Laws of Cricket belong to Marylebone Cricket Club and apply everywhere the game is played — see our Laws of Cricket entry. The playing conditions are the ICC's, and they sit on top of the Laws for international matches: they add, vary or override individual Laws, and they change far more often.
Powerplays, free hits, the Decision Review System and umpire's call are not in the Laws at all. They are playing conditions.
This page covers the men's international game. The women's conditions are published separately and differ in ways that matter — a lighter ball, shorter boundaries, fewer fielders allowed out, and no stop clock. They have their own page: Cricket — ICC women's playing conditions.
This entry is checked against the three men's ICC documents, quoted where the wording matters:
- ICC Men's Test Match Playing Conditions, effective June 2025
- ICC Men's Standard ODI Playing Conditions, effective July 2025
- ICC Men's T20I Playing Conditions, effective July 2025
Clause numbers below are the ICC's. Domestic competitions — the IPL, the Big Bash, county cricket — write their own conditions, which differ again.
1. Fielding restrictions and powerplays
All three formats use the same 30-yard (27.43m) fielding restriction area: two semicircles centred on the middle stump at each end, joined by straight lines. It is marked with painted lines or discs at five-yard intervals.
Outside the powerplays, and at all times in Tests, the ordinary limits of Law 28 apply. Within them:
One-day internationals (clause 28.7.2)
| Phase | Overs | Fielders allowed outside the circle |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay 1 | 1–10 | 2 |
| Powerplay 2 | 11–40 | 4 |
| Powerplay 3 | 41–50 | 5 |
Twenty20 internationals (clause 28.7)
| Phase | Overs | Fielders allowed outside the circle |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay | 1–6 | 2 |
| Rest of the innings | 7–20 | 5 |
The restriction bites at the instant of delivery, not for the whole over — a fielder may move out once the ball is bowled.
In a rain-reduced innings both sets of phases shrink on a published table rather than by a rule of thumb. An ODI cut to 30 overs a side, for instance, gives powerplays of 6, 18 and 6.
2. How much any one bowler may bowl
| Format | Limit |
|---|---|
| ODI | 10 overs in an innings (13.9.1) |
| T20I | 4 overs in an innings (13.9.1) |
| Test | No limit |
3. The ball
Tests use one ball, with a new one available to the fielding captain after 80 overs, as the Laws provide.
ODIs use two new balls, one from each end — but only to a point (clause 4.3):
Each fielding team shall have two new balls for its innings, to be used in alternate overs i.e. one from each end for overs 1 to 34.
At the end of over 34, the fielding team will choose one of the two balls from the innings to be used for all the remaining overs of the innings.
This is a recent and widely missed change. For years an ODI innings ran on two balls throughout, which left neither old enough to reverse swing. Since July 2025 the fielding side picks one at the end of over 34 and finishes with it.
A match reduced to 25 overs or fewer before the first innings starts uses only one new ball per side.
4. No-balls and the free hit
The delivery after any no-ball is a free hit — not only after an overstep (clause 21.19.1). Two details people get wrong:
If the free-hit delivery is itself illegal, being a no-ball or a wide, the next delivery is a free hit as well. The free hit persists until a legitimate ball is bowled.
You can be out off a free hit for more than just a run out. Clause 21.19.2:
For any free hit, the striker can be dismissed only under the circumstances that apply for a No ball, even if the delivery for the free hit is called Wide.
The no-ball dismissals are hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, and run out. All three apply on a free hit.
The field may not be changed for a free hit unless the striker has changed, or the no-ball was itself caused by a fielding-restriction breach — in which case the field may be adjusted only far enough to fix it. The bowler may switch from over the wicket to round, or change arm.
5. The Decision Review System
Unsuccessful reviews permitted per innings:
| Format | Reviews |
|---|---|
| Test | 3 (clause 3.6.1) |
| ODI | 2 (clause 3.6.1) |
| T20I | 2 |
| Super Over | 1 per team, regardless of what was used in the match |
A review that overturns the on-field decision is categorised as successful and does not count against the allowance. Only unsuccessful ones are spent.
Umpire's call
The most argued mechanism in the game, and it is a playing condition, not a Law:
Umpire's Call is the concept within the DRS under which the on-field decision of the bowler's end umpire shall stand … where the ball-tracking technology indicates a marginal decision in respect of either the Impact Zone or the Wicket Zone.
Two consequences that follow directly and surprise people:
- It applies to impact as well as to the stumps. Most complaints are about the wicket zone, but a marginal impact point resolves the same way.
- It is symmetrical. The same marginal tracking keeps an out decision out and a not-out decision not out. It is not a bias toward the batter; it is a bias toward whatever the umpire said.
Pitching is not subject to umpire's call. The technology reports the centre of the ball as having pitched In Line, Outside Off or Outside Leg, and clause 3.4.4.4 makes the consequence binary: out is possible from In Line or Outside Off, and the batter shall be not out if it pitched Outside Leg. No margin, however small, preserves the on-field decision there.
6. Over rates and the stop clock
T20Is and ODIs run a 60-second stop clock between overs (clause 41.9.4):
The fielding side shall be ready to start each over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed.
A visible clock counts up from zero. The third umpire starts it at the later of the ball becoming dead and any review from the previous over finishing. It is cancelled if a new batter comes in, at an official drinks interval, for approved on-field treatment, or for anything else outside the fielding side's control.
The penalty escalates within each innings:
| Occasion | Consequence |
|---|---|
| First | Warning to the fielding captain |
| Second | Final warning |
| Third and each one after | 5 penalty runs to the batting side |
This runs independently of the other over-rate provisions, so a side can be penalised under both.
7. Concussion replacements
The conditions provide for a concussion replacement, which the Laws themselves do not contemplate (clause 1.2.7).
The concussion must be diagnosed or suspected by the team's medical representative, from an injury sustained in play. A request goes to the ICC match referee on a standard form, naming a like-for-like replacement drawn from the list of nominated concussion replacements submitted before the match. The referee may consider someone outside that list only in exceptional circumstances.
Commonly argued
- Powerplays, free hits, the DRS and umpire's call are not Laws of Cricket. None of the four appears anywhere in the MCC Laws. They are ICC playing conditions and they change often.
- A free hit follows any no-ball, not just an overstep, and carries over if the free-hit ball is itself a no-ball or wide.
- You can be run out, out obstructing the field, or out hit the ball twice off a free hit. "You can't be out off a free hit" is wrong.
- ODIs no longer use two balls all innings. The fielding side picks one at the end of over 34.
- Umpire's call cuts both ways. It preserves a given-out decision exactly as readily as a given-not-out one.
- Pitching outside leg is never umpire's call. That one is a fact, not a margin.
- Tests get three reviews an innings, white-ball formats two. A successful review costs nothing.
- Fielding restrictions apply at the instant of delivery only.
- None of the above necessarily applies to women's internationals. Several of these provisions differ; see the women's conditions.
Where this comes from
The three ICC playing conditions documents linked at the top, downloaded from the ICC's own site and checked clause by clause.
These are the men's international conditions. The women's are on their own page. Domestic tournaments write their own, which is why an IPL rule you remember may not appear here.
The ICC revises these documents far more often than MCC revises the Laws, usually before a season or a major event. Where this entry and the current ICC document disagree, the ICC document wins. Tell us.
Spotted a mistake?
Corrections are reviewed by an editor before they publish.