What Is an Over in Cricket? — Explained Simply

An over is a set of 6 legal deliveries bowled by the same bowler from one end of the pitch. At the end of the over, the umpire calls 'Over!' and the next bowler bowls 6 balls from the opposite end. Overs are the fundamental unit by which cricket innings are structured and measured.

What Counts as a Legal Delivery

Not every ball bowled counts toward the 6 in an over. Wide deliveries and no-balls are illegal deliveries — they are replayed (an extra ball is bowled). So if a bowler bowls: Legal, Wide, Legal, Legal, No-Ball, Legal, Legal, Legal — that over actually takes 8 deliveries to complete. The over ends when 6 legal deliveries have been bowled. This is critical in the final over of a T20 — a no-ball or wide adds an extra scoring opportunity for the batting team.

Bowling Rules for Overs

• A bowler must bowl from the same end for an entire over.
• The same bowler cannot bowl consecutive overs — the over changes end after each over.
• In Tests and first-class cricket, there is no limit on how many overs a bowler may bowl in an innings.
• In T20 cricket, no bowler may bowl more than 4 overs. In ODIs, no bowler may bowl more than 10 overs.
• A bowler may be taken off and brought back to complete an unfinished over only if play is interrupted (e.g. bad light).

Types of Overs

• Maiden over: An over from which no runs are scored off the bat (though wides/no-balls may be conceded). A maiden over is denoted 'M' in the bowling scorecard.
• Wicket maiden: A maiden over in which at least one wicket is also taken.
• Power play over: Overs during which fielding restrictions apply — fewer fielders are permitted outside the 30-yard circle. In T20, overs 1–6 are the power play.
• Death over: The final 5 overs of a T20 innings (overs 16–20) or the equivalent in other formats — typically the most expensive phase for bowlers.

Why Overs Matter

Overs are the clock of limited-overs cricket. Every over consumed is a resource the batting team cannot recover. Equally, every over bowled is a cost to the fielding team — they have only a fixed number of available overs per spell per bowler. In T20 cricket, the cost of a single over can be decisive: 2 expensive overs from a bowler in the death phase can swing a close match by 10–14 runs. The 'economy rate' — runs conceded per over — is the primary statistic for evaluating bowlers in limited-overs cricket.