Full Tosses in Cricket: Accident, Weapon, and Dismissal Tool
A full toss — a delivery that reaches the batsman without bouncing — is typically considered a poor delivery, but in specific situations it can be the bowling team's most effective wicket-taking delivery. This article explains when full tosses are accidental and when they are deliberate.
What Is a Full Toss?
A full toss is a delivery that reaches the batsman at or above waist height without pitching: unlike a standard delivery (which pitches somewhere between the batsman and the bowling crease before reaching the batsman), the full toss doesn't touch the pitch at all — it travels the full 20+ metres from the bowling crease directly to the batsman without bouncing; a full toss below waist height is a legal delivery (the umpire may still allow play to continue even if the batsman doesn't attempt to play it); and a full toss above waist height is called a 'beamer' — an illegal and dangerous delivery that is called a no-ball, carries a penalty run, and results in a formal warning to the bowler. Most full tosses are unintentional (a bowler who releases the ball too late or mistimes their delivery action produces a full toss).
Why Full Tosses at the Right Height Are Dangerous
A full toss below waist height (the legal variety) is specifically dangerous to bat against for subtle reasons: the batsman's training prepares them to play deliveries that pitch — they calibrate their timing and footwork based on the length judgment they make as the ball travels toward them before pitching; a full toss that doesn't pitch removes the 'pitch timing' element — the batsman must adjust for a ball arriving at a different height and earlier than expected; and a low full toss (arriving at the thigh or shin level) is specifically difficult because the batsman's natural drive arc hits the ball at the wrong contact point — the bat hits underneath the ball rather than through it, producing the stumped or bowled dismissal when the ball goes under the bat, or the outside edge when the batsman adjusts the swing arc and mis-times.
The Deliberate Slow Full Toss as a Death-Overs Weapon
In T20 cricket's death overs, a deliberate slow full toss is used as a specific weapon: the ball is bowled at significantly slower pace (50-60 km/h rather than the pace bowler's normal 130+ km/h) and at full length without pitching — a 'floating' delivery that arrives very slowly without bouncing; the batsman who is expecting either a yorker (a full-pitched ball that digs in at the crease's base) or a short ball (bouncing up at the body) finds the slow full toss arriving at a completely different pace and at a waist-high level — the timing is disrupted; and the slow full toss often produces a mis-hit (the batsman swings at the expected pace and finds the ball arrives much more slowly — the swing is early, causing the ball to be hit with less power or into the air). Bowlers who can bowl the slow full toss convincingly (making it arrive at the same release point as their standard delivery) are specifically valued in T20 cricket.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is a beamer and what happens when one is bowled?
A beamer is a full toss that arrives at the batsman above waist height — considered one of cricket's most dangerous deliveries: the batsman faces a ball at head or shoulder height that they cannot play down safely — it threatens genuine physical harm; the umpire immediately calls no-ball (adding 1 run to the batting team's total) and the delivery is rebowled; the bowler receives a formal warning (first beamer = warning; second beamer = immediate removal from bowling for the rest of the innings in most playing conditions); and in some playing conditions, the batsman can be dismissed from a beamer no-ball only by a run-out (all other dismissal methods — caught, LBW, bowled — are not permitted from a no-ball). The beamer is specifically treated more seriously than a standard no-ball because of the injury risk — repeated beamers from a bowler who cannot control their delivery action can result in suspension from the match.
Can a batsman be dismissed from a full toss?
Yes — batsmen are regularly dismissed from legal full tosses (those at or below waist height): caught (the mis-hit full toss goes to a fielder — the most common full-toss dismissal); bowled (the full toss that goes under the bat hits the stumps — uncommon but not rare); stumped (the batsman who comes forward to a slow full toss and misses can be stumped if they are out of their crease — uncommon); and hit wicket (the batsman's backswing or follow-through hits their own stumps). Full toss dismissals are relatively common in T20 cricket because the batsman's aggressive shot attempt against a slow full toss often produces the false shot that creates a catching opportunity. In Tests and ODIs, the full toss is more often dispatched to the boundary than it is a dismissal tool — the batsman has more time to read the flight and adjust their swing.
Why does a spinner sometimes bowl a full toss unintentionally?
Unintentional full tosses from spinners come from specific technical breakdowns: the 'dropped' delivery — the spinner releases the ball too early (the ball slips out of the fingers before the ideal release point) — the early release produces a ball that doesn't have the full arc needed to pitch before the batsman and instead floats through as a full toss; and the 'over-spun' delivery — the spinner's finger-grip is so tight and the spin so applied that the ball loses trajectory control — it doesn't follow the normal arc but instead stays flat through the air, arriving without bouncing as a full toss. Full tosses from spinners are more common in conditions where the ball becomes wet (from sweat, dew, or rain) — a wet ball is harder for spinners to grip consistently, increasing the probability of a release-point error that produces a full toss.