overs

An over in cricket is a set of six legal deliveries bowled by one bowler from one end of the pitch. Extras such as no-balls and wides do not count as legal deliveries and therefore do not shorten the over. The over ends after six legal balls have been bowled, regardless of how many extras were bowled during those deliveries.

In modern professional cricket, six-ball overs are standard across most formats, including Test matches, One Day Internationals, and Twenty20 cricket. Historically, different leagues and periods experimented with other lengths for an over, and some domestic or historical variations used four, five, or eight balls per over. Today, non-six-ball overs are rare in professional play, though they may appear in some informal or historical contexts.

During a match, an over begins with a bowler delivering the first ball from one end. If a wide or no-ball is bowled, it results in an extra delivery being added to the over, and the bowler continues from the same end. At the end of the over, the bowling end changes and the batsmen swap ends, with the next over usually bowled by a different or same bowler from the opposite end depending on team strategy.

Common terms related to overs include maiden over (an over in which no runs are scored), economy rate (runs conceded per over), and spell (a sequence of overs bowled by one bowler). An innings length is often described in terms of overs remaining or bowled, especially in limited-overs cricket.