Bye (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, a bye is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batsman and the ball has not hit the batsman's body.^[1]

[edit] Scoring byes

Normally, if the ball passes the batsman without being deflected, the wicket-keeper will catch it. This normally prevents the scoring of runs because the batsmen will be unable to complete a run before being stumped or run out by the wicket-keeper. However, if the wicket-keeper fumbles or misses the ball, the batsmen may be able to score runs safely, and may choose to do so. The number of runs scored are scored as byes - they are added to the team's total, but not to the number of runs scored by either batsman. If the wicket-keeper misses the ball and it travels all the way to the boundary, the batting team immediately scores four byes, similarly to if the ball had been hit to the boundary for a four. But in very rare cases, if a bouncer bounces so high that it directly goes over third man, only 4 byes are awarded. It is not possible to score a boundary six in Leg byes – or in Byes, Wides or No balls. A boundary six can only be scored if the ball has made contact with the bat or the hands or gloves holding it.

If the ball was a no ball and any byes are scored, they are recorded in the scorecard as no balls, not byes.

If the ball was a wide and any byes are scored, they are recorded in the scorecard as wides, not byes.

Whereas wides and no balls are considered to be the fault of the bowler, and are considered negative statistics in a bowler's record, byes are considered to be the fault of the wicket-keeper, and are considered negatively against the wicket-keeper's record.

Byes are relatively rare, being the rarest form of extras in a cricket score. It is not unusual for a game to have no byes scored in it. A typical number might be in the range 0-10.

Normally batsmen never attempt to run byes when the wicket-keeper catches the ball. However, in situations at the end of a game where the batting team must score runs quickly in order to have a chance of winning, the batsmen may risk running a bye and hope that the wicket-keeper fumbles the ball or throws it inaccurately when attempting to run a batsman out. The usual result of this is a batsman's being run out, but sometimes the tactic pays off with a few ODI matches having been won on byes.

A rough analogue of a bye in baseball is the passed ball.

[edit] Umpire's signal

The umpire signals byes by raising his arm into a vertical position, the palm of his hand open to differentiate between the signal for byes and out.^[2]

[edit] References