cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

, a

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.

Occurrence

At least one batter is not out at the end of every innings, because once ten batters are out, the eleventh has no partner to bat on with so the innings ends. Usually two batters finish not out if the batting side declares in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

, and often at the end of the scheduled number of overs in

limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twent ...

. Batters further down the batting order than the not out batters do not come out to the crease at all and are noted as ''did not bat'' rather than ''not out''; by contrast, a batter who comes to the crease but faces no balls is ''not out''. A batter who ''retires hurt'' is considered not out; an uninjured batter who retires (rare) is considered ''

retired out In cricket, a batsman may retire from an innings at any time when the ball is dead; they must then be replaced by a teammate who has not been dismissed. The most common reason for retirement is if the batsman becomes injured or unwell, in which ...

''.

Notation

In standard notation a batter's score is appended with an asterisk to show the not out final status; for example, ''10*'' means '10 not out'.

Impact on batting averages

Batting averages are personal and are calculated as runs divided by dismissals, so a player who often ends the innings not out may get an inflated batting average, on the face of it. Examples of this include MS Dhoni (84 not outs in

ODIs ODIS, or the Offender Data Information System is a web based, computerized records management software application to improve the capture, maintenance and quality of law enforcement data that is capable of running in any combination of centralize ...

), Michael Bevan (67 not outs in

James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts * James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer * James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmake ...

(101 not outs in 237 Test innings), and Bill Johnston topping the batting averages on the 1953 Australian tour of England. Using the formula of runs divided by innings understates performance for the following reasons: *If not outs were counted as dismissals a usually high-scoring batter could bat briefly. They may regularly make a low score, not out, facing a low number of balls from a bowler and thus be penalized for factors out of their control. *A batter will tend to be at their most vulnerable early in the innings before they have "got their eye in"; as a result, it may be a greater achievement to achieve two scores of 20 not out (i.e. averaging 40) than to make one score of 40, since in the latter instance the batter will only have had to deal with one set of variables (see ceteris paribus, all things remaining approximately equal). These counterbalancing elements have been at the heart of the rationale of keeping the existing formula (runs divided by dismissals) in the 21st century among cricket statisticians, who have used this method of collecting batting averages since the 18th century, after some intervening controversy.

References

{{Cricket statistics Cricket terminology Batting (cricket) Cricket laws and regulations