Extra (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, an extra (sometimes called a sundry) is a run scored by a means other than a batsman hitting the ball.

Other than runs scored off the bat from a no ball, a batsman is not given credit for extras and the extras are tallied separately on the scorecard and count only towards the team's score. A game with many extras is often considered as untidy bowling; conversely, a game having few extras is seen as tidy bowling.

Contents

Types of extra

No ball

An umpire may call a no ball when the bowler, wicket-keeper, or fielder commits an illegal action during bowling.

The most common reason for a no ball is overstepping the popping crease for the front foot at the instant of delivery. A rarer reason is when the bowler's back foot touches or lands outside the return crease. A third reason for calling a no ball is when a bowler throws (or chucks) the ball.

The penalty for a no ball is one run (or, in some one-day competitions, two runs, and/or a "free hit"); furthermore, the no ball does not count as one of the six in an over and an extra ball is bowled, but it does count as a ball faced by the batsman as far as his personal statistics are concerned.

The run awarded for the no ball is not credited to an individual batsman's score but is tallied separately as part of the team's score. Any additional runs scored by the batsman off the bat, whether by running or by a boundary, are included in the batsman's score.

It is possible for a team to score byes or leg byes (but not wides) from a delivery ruled a no ball, these are in addition to the run awarded for the no ball.

Since the 1980s a no ball has been scored against the bowler, making the bowling statistics more accurate.

Wide

A ball being delivered too far from the batsman to strike it, provided that no part of the batsman's body or equipment touches the ball, is known as a wide. The definition of what counts as wide is far more strict in a limited overs match than in a Test, because bowling unplayable balls would be a way to "waste" the batting team's innings.

Byes may be scored off the same delivery as a wide (for example if the wicket keeper misses it, or there are overthrows), either by the batsmen running between the wickets or by a boundary. If a no ball is delivered wide, then it counts only as a no ball and is not scored as a wide.

When a wide is bowled the batting team are awarded a run, which is tallied separately on the scorecard and does not count towards an individual batsman's score. Additionally, a wide is not counted as one of the six balls in the over and a replacement is bowled.

In modern cricket a wide is counted against the bowler in their bowling statistics.

Bye

If the ball is not struck by the batsman's bat (nor connects with any part of the batsman's body) the batsmen may still run if they choose. If the ball reaches the boundary, whether or not the batsmen ran, then four byes are awarded. Any runs scored are tallied separately on the scorecard and do not count towards a batsman's individual score.

Byes may be scored from no balls and wides as well as from legal deliveries.

In modern cricket, byes are normally scored against the wicket keeper in their statistics.

Leg bye

If the ball hits the batsman's body, then provided the batsman is not out leg before wicket (lbw) and the batsman either tried to avoid being hit or tried to hit the ball with the bat, the batsman may run. In this case, regardless of the part of anatomy touched by the ball, the runs scored are known as leg byes.

Leg byes can be scored from no balls or legal deliveries, and are counted only towards the team's score not an individual batsman's.

Unlike no balls, byes and wides, leg byes are not scored against the bowler or the wicket keeper, because they are not their fault.

Penalty runs

As well as the runs scored as penalties for no balls and wides, since the changes to the laws in 2000, 5 penalty runs may be awarded for rarer breaches of the laws.

Five penalty runs are awarded to the batting team (^^^or to the batsman in some cases) if[1]:

Five penalty runs are awarded to the fielding side if the batting team:

The penalty runs are added to the fielding team's score in their previous innings, unless they have not yet batted, in which case the runs are added to their next innings.

A recent example of penalty runs being awarded was on 3rd of January 2010 in Cape Town, when South Africa were awarded five penalty runs after Graeme Swann's delivery hit England wicket keeper Matt Prior's helmet. [2]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.lords.org/laws-and-spirit/laws-of-cricket/laws/law-42-fair-and-unfair-play,68,AR.html
  2. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2010/1/83953/html/scorecard.stm