Over (cricket)

In these matches, there is a requirement to bowl a minimum of 90 overs in a day's play, to ensure a good spectacle, and to prevent the fielding team from wasting time for tactical reasons.

The bowler intends to tempt the batting player into scoring runs by providing balls that are relatively easy to hit.

Often this means choosing an inferior strategy by employing a less skilful bowler to avoid penalties that are perceived to be greater, such as being banned or losing points.

Bowling a maiden over in ODI and T20 forms of cricket can be difficult as the batting players seek to maximise their scoring opportunities and the rules have restricted field placements that help batters score more easily.

Players who are said to excel in this role include Indian Jasprit Bumrah, Australian Ian Harvey, South African Andrew Hall and New Zealand's Daniel Vettori.

It may take the form of the stronger batting player trying to score an even number of runs on early balls in the over and an odd number on the last ball; the weaker batting player will attempt the reverse, and the bowler will try to disrupt this pattern.

If one batting player is right-handed and the other left-handed, they may try to score odd numbers of runs to disrupt the bowling pattern and tire the fielders by making them reposition themselves frequently.

Balls per over In England In Australia In South Africa In New Zealand In Pakistan In India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates (venue, not host) and Ireland all Test matches have been played with six ball overs.