A
bowl-out (sometimes termed a
bowl-off) is used in various forms of limited overs cricket to decide a match that would otherwise end in a tie. The procedure is similar to a penalty shootout in association football. Five bowlers from each side deliver one or two balls each at an unguarded
wicketIn the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Meanings of wicket:-Set of stumps:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
(three stumps). If each team has hit the same number of wickets after the first five bowlers per side, the bowling continues and is decided by sudden death.
In some forms of domestic one-day cricket competition, a bowl-out is used to decide the result when the match is tied or rained out: for example, the quarterfinal of the
Minor Counties Cricket Association Knockout TrophyThe Minor Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the Minor Counties in English cricket...
in 2004, when
NorthumberlandNorthumberland County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northumberland and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
beat
CambridgeshireCambridgeshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Cambridgeshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
4-2.
A
bowl-out (sometimes termed a
bowl-off) is used in various forms of limited overs cricket to decide a match that would otherwise end in a tie. The procedure is similar to a penalty shootout in association football. Five bowlers from each side deliver one or two balls each at an unguarded
wicketIn the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Meanings of wicket:-Set of stumps:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
(three stumps). If each team has hit the same number of wickets after the first five bowlers per side, the bowling continues and is decided by sudden death.
In some forms of domestic one-day cricket competition, a bowl-out is used to decide the result when the match is tied or rained out: for example, the quarterfinal of the
Minor Counties Cricket Association Knockout TrophyThe Minor Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the Minor Counties in English cricket...
in 2004, when
NorthumberlandNorthumberland County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northumberland and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
beat
CambridgeshireCambridgeshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Cambridgeshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
4-2. In the
2009 Twenty20 CupThe 2009 Twenty20 Cup was the seventh Twenty20 Cup competition for English and Welsh county clubs. The finals day took place on 15 August at Edgbaston, and was won by the Sussex Sharks.-Midlands/Wales/West Division:-North Division:...
,
SomersetSomerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset. Its limited overs team is called the Somerset Sabres. The club has its headquarters at the County Cricket Ground, Taunton....
beat
LancashireLancashire County Cricket Club, one of the eighteen clubs which make up the English County Championship, represents the historic county of Lancashire. Its limited-overs team is called Lancashire Lightning. Their kit colours are dark blue with red trim and the shirt sponsor is the Thwaites beer...
5-1 to reach the semi-final stage.
In
International Twenty20A Twenty20 International is a form of cricket which is played over 20 overs per side between two national cricket teams. The game is played under the rules of Twenty20 cricket...
cricket, if the match ends with the scores level (either because both teams reach the same score after 20
oversIn the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it shall be completed by a teammate....
, or the second team falls one run short of the target score under the
Duckworth-Lewis methodIn the sport of cricket, the Duckworth–Lewis method is a mathematical way to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket or Twenty20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance...
), the tie is broken with a bowl-out. A bowl-out was first used to decide a domestic Twenty20 match when Surrey beat Warwickshire in July 2005. The first international bowl-out in a Twenty20 match took place on 16 February 2006, when New Zealand beat West Indies 3-0 in
AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest...
. A bowl-out was also used on 14 September 2007 when India beat Pakistan 3-0 during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in
DurbanDurban is the third most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. It is the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal and is famous as the busiest port in Africa. It is also a major centre of tourism due to the city's warm subtropical climate and...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
.
A bowl out was first used in the NatWest Trophy in June 1991 in a match between Derbyshire and Minor County side Hertfordshire at Bishops Stortford.
Derbyshire bowled first and Steve Goldsmith managed one hit from his two deliveries. Ole Mortensen, Alan Warner, Frank Griffiths and Simon Base all missed with both of theirs.
Hertfordshire's first bowler, Andy Needham, hit with his first ball but missed with his second. John Carr, missed with both his, Bill Merry, struck middle with his second attempt to win the match.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced the bowl-out should scores be tied in the semifinals and final of the
2006 ICC Champions TrophyThe 2006 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in India from 7 October to 5 November 2006. It was the fifth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy...
or the
2007 Cricket World CupThe 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the tournament and took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's One Day International format...
, although it was not required to be used in either tournament.
At the ICC Annual Conference 2008 it was decided that the bowl-out should be replaced by a one-over eliminator (also called a "
Super OverA Super Over, sometimes referred to as an "Eliminator",is one of two extra overs in a Twenty20 cricket match when the regular match ends in a tie. Instead of equally dividing the points between the two participating teams, the winning team of the "Super Overs" takes all the points. It replaced the...
") in the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy (since postponed) and the
2009 ICC World Twenty20The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 was an international Twenty20 cricket tournament which took place in England in June 2009. It was won by the previous tournament's runner-up . It was the second ICC World Twenty20 tournament, following the inaugural event in South Africa in September 2007. As before,...
. In the eliminator over, the loss of two wickets by the batting side ends its innings. If the scores are equal then the team that has hit the most sixes combined from its two innings in the main match and the one-over eliminator is declared the winner. If the scores are still equal at that point then they will be separated by determining which of them scored the most boundaries — fours and sixes — in both innings. The first use of an eliminator over in international cricket was on
Boxing DayBoxing Day is a bank holiday or a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and countries in the Commonwealth of Nations with a mainly Christian population...
2008, when West Indies beat New Zealand 25–15 in a Twenty20 match (although this was an unofficial trial, and the match was officially declared a tie).