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50 free Cricket Rules trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Cricket's rulebook is alone in sport in insisting on a capital L. The Laws run to 42, have been kept by a private London club since the 18th century, and still produce arguments every week: was the front foot behind the line, did the ball pitch in the right place, did the catch carry, and what exactly happens when a batter is not ready in time. These 50 questions stay on the Laws and the ICC playing conditions rather than records or history. They cover the ways of being out and which of them survive a no-ball or a wide, how lbw works, what the review system can and cannot overturn, fielding restrictions and powerplays in the white-ball formats, the follow-on and declarations in Tests, the limits on bats and stumps, and what the umpire's signals mean. Each answer carries a short explanation with a detail the scorecard never shows. Play it to test whether you could stand in the middle with a white coat on, use it to settle a dressing-room dispute, or print it as a round for a club quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A batter edges onto the stumps, breaking the wicket, before a fielder catches the ball: what dismissal is recorded?
Bowled
Bowled outranks caught: once the delivery breaks the wicket the batter is out bowled, and the fielder's catch simply never counts.
Q 02In white-ball cricket, what does the delivery after a front-foot no-ball become, with almost every dismissal suspended?
A free hit
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.
Q 03A full toss reaching the batter above which body part is a beamer, an automatic no-ball under Law 41.7?
Waist
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.
Q 04Which tie-breaker, first used in T20 cricket in 2008, replaced the bowl-out for matches finishing level?
Super Over
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.
Q 05What shape does a cricket captain or batter make with the arms to request a DRS review of an umpire's decision?
A letter T
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.
Q 06How many unsuccessful DRS reviews does each side get per Test innings, one more than in ODIs and T20Is?
Three
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.
Q 07Which substance, long used to polish one side of a cricket ball, did the Laws ban outright after the COVID-19 pandemic?
Saliva
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.
Q 08Which dismissal, credited to the bowler, can only be made by the wicket-keeper and never off a no-ball?
Stumped
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.
Q 09Which ball-tracker, first televised in 2001 for lbw analysis, predicts whether a delivery would have hit the stumps?
Hawk-Eye
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.
Q 10Striking what, lying unworn on the field, earns the batting side five penalty runs under Law 28?
A fielder's helmet
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.
Q 11Where must a delivery pitch for a batter to be immune from lbw, even when the ball would have hit the stumps?
Outside leg stump
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.
Q 12Which dismissal absorbed 'handled the ball' when the MCC's 2017 code trimmed cricket's list of ways out?
Obstructing the field
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.
Q 13For what sole purpose does Law 34 let a batter deliberately strike the ball a second time without being out?
Q 21How many overs, at most, may one bowler deliver in a full T20 innings under the ICC's playing conditions?
Four
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.
Q 22How many opening overs of an ODI innings form the first powerplay, when only two fielders may stand outside the ring?
10
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.
Q 23How many overs long is the powerplay that opens a T20 innings, after which five fielders may patrol the boundary?
Six
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.
To stop it hitting the stumps
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.
Q 14What must the fielding side do before a cricket umpire can give a batter out, however obvious the dismissal looks?
Appeal
Appeal is the word: without a 'How's that?' the umpire stays silent, though a batter who knows they are out may simply walk.
Q 15Which type of camera lets Hot Spot show a faint edge as a bright mark where ball met bat?
Infrared
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.
Q 16Which two resources does the Duckworth–Lewis rain rule say a batting side spends to make runs when rain cuts a match?
Overs and wickets
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.
Q 17Which Australian statistician joined the rain rule's name in November 2014 after its two English creators stepped down?
Steven Stern
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.
Q 18Some part of a bowler's front foot must land behind which line for the delivery to be legal under Law 21?
Popping crease
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.
Q 19By how many runs must the side batting first lead to enforce the follow-on in a five-day Test match?
200
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.
Q 20After how many overs may a Test captain take a new ball, an option rather than an obligation?
80
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.
Q 24Which replacement, allowed in all internationals from August 2019, may bat and bowl, unlike an ordinary twelfth man?
Concussion substitute
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.
Q 25Under 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
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.
Q 26What result is recorded when time runs out on a Test with the side batting last neither dismissed nor past its target?
A draw
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.
Q 27What is an over called in cricket when no runs come off the bat and the bowler concedes no wides or no-balls?
A maiden
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.
Q 28How many runs does a wide that sails over the boundary without bouncing score, since only a bat can make six?
Five
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.
Q 29Runs 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
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.
Q 30How many bouncers per over may a T20 bowler send down, half the allowance granted in an ODI since 2012?
One
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.