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, set by the Laws at the top of the trousers with the batter upright at the crease. A beamer judged dangerous brings a final warning, and a second bars the bowler for the rest of the innings.

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

A Super Over gives each side six more balls. After a tied one handed England the 2019 World Cup final on boundary count, the ICC ruled that semi-finals and finals would simply play another.

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.

Which country's board long resisted DRS, doubting its ball-tracking, before agreeing to try it in a home Test series in 2016?

India played in the first DRS trial, against Sri Lanka in 2008, yet the BCCI then held out for eight years, agreeing to try it against England in November 2016 only after the ball-tracking had been upgraded to its liking.

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

Saliva was outlawed for good in the Laws' 2022 edition after MCC found the pandemic-era ban had made little or no difference to how much the ball swung, while sweat remains a legal polish.

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 it still counts off a wide, with the one-run penalty for the wide staying on the board.

Which DRS technology, first televised in 2001, predicts whether a delivery would have gone on to hit the stumps?

Hawk-Eye began as a Channel 4 broadcast gadget at Lord's in 2001. Within a decade its predicted path was deciding lbw reviews, and from 2013 the same system judged the Premier League's goal-line calls.

The ball striking which of these during play earns the batting side five penalty runs under Law 28?

A fielder's helmet left on the ground costs five runs if the ball hits it, and the Laws allow it in one spot only: directly behind the wicket-keeper, in line with the stumps.

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, as Mushfiqur Rahim found in 2023: he shoved a defended ball away with his glove and became only the second Test batter ever out that way.

Law 34 lets a batter strike the ball a second time for what sole purpose?

To stop it hitting the stumps is the only purpose Law 34 names for a lawful second strike, and a batter who knocks the ball back to a fielder without being asked risks a different dismissal altogether.

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.

Leading by 274 at Kolkata in 2001, Steve Waugh chose which option, only to lose?

The follow-on is open to a Test side that leads by 200 or more. Waugh enforced it, VVS Laxman made 281, and it became only the third Test ever lost by the side that had made its opponents bat again.

What may a Test fielding captain claim once 80 overs have been bowled?

A new ball suits fast bowlers, but a captain may hold it back while the worn one is still reverse-swinging.

In an international first, how was Angelo Mathews dismissed at the 2023 World Cup?

Timed out means not being ready within two minutes under World Cup rules. Mathews' helmet strap broke before he faced a ball, he sent for another, and Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan refused to relent.

In one-day cricket, what applies during a powerplay, a name the ICC introduced in 2005?

Fielding restrictions keep all but two fielders inside the 30-yard circle for an ODI's first 10 overs. Captains once chose when to take two further blocks and simply took them at once, so in 2008 the batting side was handed one.

Which T20 league trimmed the six-over powerplay to four overs in 2020?

The Big Bash handed the two spare overs to the batting side as a Power Surge, to be called any time from the 11th over. It arrived with a mid-innings substitute and a bonus point, and both of those were scrapped in 2022.

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

A concussion substitute must be a like-for-like player cleared by the match referee. The first in a Test, Marnus Labuschagne, came in for Steve Smith at Lord's in 2019 and made 59 to help Australia save the match.

Under Law 15, when may the captain of the batting side declare an innings closed?

Any time the ball is dead suits a captain chasing a win, but until 1889 the Laws allowed no declaration at all, and a side that wanted to bowl had to tell its batsmen to throw their wickets away.

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

A draw stands even with the scores level if the last innings is unfinished: in 1996 England's Nick Knight was run out going for the winning third run off the final ball, and the Test was drawn, not tied.

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.

In the 2019 World Cup final, whose diving bat deflected a fielder's throw to the rope for six runs?

Ben Stokes had not crossed with his partner when the throw was released, so the overthrow Law of the day allowed five runs, not six. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena later admitted the error, made in a final that ended level.

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.

Which delivery may a bowler send down only once an over in T20 internationals, with a second called a no-ball?

The bouncer was first rationed in 1991, when the ICC moved to curb intimidatory fast bowling. Tests have allowed two an over since 1994 and ODIs since 2012, leaving the shortest format with the tightest limit.

Which Indian bowler ran out Australia's Bill Brown for backing up too far in 1947, lending his name to the dismissal?

Vinoo Mankad ran Brown out at Sydney, and the act was long called against the spirit of the game. In 2022 MCC moved it out of the Law on unfair play and into the ordinary Law on run outs.

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, though no bowler gets the credit. Tests first saw it in 2001, when Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu walked off with a double century against Bangladesh and Mahela Jayawardene followed him on 150.

A fielder may leap and parry the ball while airborne beyond the rope, provided their feet last touched the ground where?

Inside the boundary is the test for the first touch. Michael Neser's 2023 catch, parried a second time after a jump from beyond the rope, was legal but set off a fairness debate, and the ICC outlawed such bunny hops in 2025.

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, then 19, set off for a risky single, was sent back and could not beat Jonty Rhodes's throw from point. Umpire Cyril Mitchley could not call it and asked Karl Liebenberg, watching on television, who gave him out.

What did the ICC scrap from June 2023, its cricket committee calling it 'unnecessary and at times confusing'?

The soft signal made the on-field umpire guess out or not out on a low catch before sending it upstairs, and that guess stood unless the replays proved it wrong, which they often could not.

Which bowler did umpire Darrell Hair no-ball seven times for throwing during a 1995 Test at Melbourne?

Muttiah Muralitharan was cleared by lab tests that blamed an optical illusion from his bent arm. Later studies found almost every bowler straightens the elbow a little, so the ICC set one limit of 15 degrees for all.

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.

What did cricket add after Lumpy Stevens bowled clean through John Small's wicket three times in 1775 without dismissing him?

The middle stump closed the gap in a wicket that then had just two stumps and a single bail. Small was not out by the letter of the law each time, and the outcry led the game's patrons to agree to a third stump.

Dennis Lillee walked out in a 1979 Perth Test with a bat made of what, prompting a Law requiring wooden blades?

Aluminium broke no rule at the time. England captain Mike Brearley complained it was damaging the ball, Lillee argued and then hurled the bat away, and the Laws were soon rewritten to say the blade must be made of wood.

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

Dead ball can be called by either umpire and, once called, cannot be revoked. If the striker pulls away with good reason, such as a distraction in the crowd, the delivery does not even count as one of the over.

Where does the second on-field cricket umpire, the one not at the bowler's end, traditionally stand?

Square leg gives a side-on view of the three dismissals this umpire rules on: stumpings, hit wicket and keeper's-end run outs. If a fielder blocks the view, the umpire may cross to the off side, usually point, once the striker is told.

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

Carry on without them is what Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus chose in the 2019 Old Trafford Ashes Test, as wind sent crisp packets and a beach ball across the field. With no bails, the umpire judges whether the wicket was struck.

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

Lignum vitae is so dense that it sinks in water, which is why bails turned from it stay put in a stiff breeze. The same wood, which oils itself, long served as the bearings for ships' propeller shafts.

In which English competition do bowlers deliver five or ten balls in a row, with ends changing only every ten?

The Hundred also tried out a new rule: when a batter is caught, the newcomer takes the striker's end even if the pair had crossed. MCC wrote it into the Laws of Cricket in 2022.

The 22-yard length of a cricket pitch is exactly one of which old English unit of length?

The chain was a real one: Edmund Gunter's surveying chain of 1620 had 100 links making 22 yards, so that ten chains make a furlong, eighty a mile, and ten square chains exactly one acre.

Greg Chappell had his brother Trevor roll the last ball along the ground in 1981 to deny which side a tying six?

New Zealand's Brian McKechnie blocked the ball and flung his bat away. The delivery was legal at the time, but prime minister Robert Muldoon called it an act of true cowardice, and the outcry got underarm bowling banned.

Who beat England on New Year's Day 1997 in the first international settled by the Duckworth–Lewis method?

Zimbabwe were the first winners under a method born of a farce: in the 1992 World Cup semi-final a rain delay left South Africa needing over 20 runs from a single ball. The ICC made it the standard in 1999.

Which stroke did MCC declare legal in 2008, calling it 'exciting for the game of cricket'?

The switch hit had just brought Kevin Pietersen two sixes, struck with a left-hander's grip. MCC reasoned that a stroke so risky gives the bowler a good chance of a wicket too, so it is fair to both.