No ball

In the sport of cricket , no ball denotes an illegal throw by the bowler (thrower).

Possible reasons for a no ball

• During the throwing process, the bowler lands with his front foot completely beyond the throwing or striking line (popping crease) or completely on the right side of the pitch if he has passed the wicket on the left or vice versa.
• The bowler crosses or touches the sideline (return crease) with his back foot in the same process.
• The bowler does not throw the ball correctly. The arm must be stretched from the height of the shoulders in the throwing swing, this is called bowling . In cricket, a distinction is made between bowling (compliant with the rules) and throwing in the narrower sense (illegal).
• The bowler changes his throwing arm without prior notice.
• The bowler bowls from the other side of the wicket without prior notice.
• The bowler makes a forearm throw.
• The bowler throws at the batsman's wicket before the actual throwing process.
• The ball rolls along the ground or hits more than twice before it reaches the batsman's hit line.
• The ball remains in front of the line of the batsman wicket. In this case the referee immediately calls Dead ball and the action is over.
• The wicket keeper does not stay completely behind the wicket until the ball is with the batsman.
• Any outfield player, other than the bowler, is on or above the pitch before the ball hits the batsman.
• At the moment of the throw, more than two field players (with the exception of the wicket keeper) are standing behind the striking line on the leg side. The leg side is half of the playing field that is in the back of the batsman.
• The ball is bowled so aggressively that it could cause physical damage to the batsman. The relative strength of the batsman must be taken into account.
• The ball reaches the batsman volley (full toss) above hip level, with a slow ball above shoulder level.
• The ball, after it has bounced, reaches the batsman above head height.
• The bowler will destroy the wicket at his end of pitch on run-up, except in an attempt to knock the non-striker out of play.

Signal and consequences

The referee signals a no ball by stretching out one arm horizontally and immediately shouting "no ball". This can give a hitter with quick reflexes the opportunity to adjust to the ball in order to hit it without risk. Because the batsman cannot be eliminated in one of the following ways with a no ball: Bowled, Caught, Leg before wicket, Stumped or Hit wicket.

A no ball is not counted as one of the six balls in the overs, so it must be repeated. In the statistics, however, it counts as a ball received by the batsman because he can hit it. A run (point) is automatically credited to the batting team with the No Ball, but this run does not appear in the batsman's personal statistics. But he can hit the ball and score more points.

A ball that is technically both a no ball and a wide will always be treated as a pure no ball.

No balls are quite common and there are generally several such throws in a game. In the vast majority of cases due to the first or second condition above ( front foot no ball or back foot no ball ).

Free hit

Since October 2007, at One-Day Internationals , International Twenty20 games and before that in some national leagues, after a no ball caused by a foot fault, the next ball becomes a so-called free hit . The striker can beat this free hit without any danger, as he is in any case, like a no ball, immune to almost all relevant types of elimination, he can practically only be eliminated by run out. If this throw is any No Ball or Wide, the following ball becomes a Free Hit.

The court players must return to their old positions for this ball when the same batsman returns. The referee indicates the free hit by making a circular motion with his arm over his head (after the no ball signal).

Web links

• No ball
• Referee signals

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} If a bowler runs past the wicket in such a way that his throwing arm is on the side of the wicket , this is called over the wicket , otherwise round the wicket .
2. ^ Law 24 changes - No Ball
3. ^ Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers: Tom Smith's New Cricket Umpiring and Scoring . Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 2004, p. 300, ISBN 0-297-84724-4
4. ↑ Standard One-Day International Match Playing Conditions - 24.2 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 657 kB) 
5. ↑ Standard Twenty20 International Match Playing Conditions - 24.2 ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 586 kB)