cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, the term bowled has several meanings. First, it is the act of propelling the

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

towards the

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

defended by a batter. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batter, by hitting the wicket with a

delivered by the bowler. (The term "bowled out" is sometimes used instead.) Third, it is used in scoring to indicate which bowler is credited with dismissing a batter, when the batter is dismissed by being bowled,

leg before wicket Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a Batting (cricket), batter can be dismissal (cricket), dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an Appeal (cricket), appeal by the Fielding (cricket), fielding side, the umpire (cricket), ...

(LBW),

caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the catch ...

stumped Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

, or hit wicket.

Delivery of a ball

Dismissal of a batter

This method of dismissal is covered by Law 32 (Bowled) of the ''

Laws of Cricket The ''Laws of Cricket'' is a code that specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744. Since 1788, the code has been owned and maintained by the private Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Lord's Cr ...

''. A batter is out Bowled if his or her

is put down by a

delivered by the bowler. It is irrelevant whether the ball has touched the bat, glove, or any part of the batter before going on to put down the wicket, though it may not touch another player or an umpire before doing so. Such rules mean that out Bowled is the most obvious of dismissals: almost never requiring an

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

to the umpire; a bowled batter will usually acknowledge the dismissal voluntarily. If the delivered ball deflects off the bat, and bowls the batter, then the informal term is known as ''played on'', ''knocked on'', ''chopped on'', or ''dragged on''. If the wicket is put down without the batter making any contact with the ball, then it is known as ''clean bowled'', with variations of this being ''bowled through the gate'', where the ball travels between the bat and pad, or ''bowled around the legs'', where the ball goes behind (to the

leg side The leg side, also called the on side, is a particular half of a cricket field. A cricket field may be notionally divided into two halves, by an imaginary line running down the middle of the pitch, through the middle stumps, and out to the bou ...

of) the batter and hits the stumps. A batter cannot be bowled from a no-ball, wide or dead ball. A batter is out Bowled even if he/she could be given out by another method of dismissal instead. For example, if a batter edges the ball onto the stumps (such that the bails are removed) and the ball is then caught by a fielder, the batter would be given out Bowled instead of caught. Out Bowled is the second most common method of dismissal after

, accounting for 21.4% of all Test match dismissals between 1877 and 2012. The bowler is credited with the wicket if the batter is bowled.

Muttiah Muralitharan Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan (born 1972) is a Sri Lankan cricket coach, businessman and former professional cricketer. Averaging over six wickets per Test match, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the ...

holds the Test record for dismissing most batters (167) through the method of out Bowled.

Scoring

For example, a scorecard may say that a batter was 'c Smith b Jones', which reads as 'caught Smith, bowled Jones', and means he was out caught by Smith, when the bowler was Jones. Or it might say 'lbw b Jones', which reads as 'lbw bowled Jones', and means he was out LBW when the bowler was Jones.

References

{{Methods of dismissal in cricket Cricket laws and regulations Cricket terminology