Bowl-out

A tie in a cricket match? But umpires should decide who wins the game, which is why they occasionally use a “bowl-out” to end a match. Five players from each team have an opportunity to hit the stumps, per the rules. Without anyone to defend them, they bowl at the wickets. This determines the winning team and breaks the tie.

Bowl-Out: The Basic Meaning

A bowl-out is similar to a penalty shootout in football. If no winner emerges after five attempts per side, the competition continues in a sudden-death format until one team fails to hit the target and the other succeeds. The key difference from football is in the format: in cricket, one team bowls all its attempts first, followed by the other team. In football, teams alternate.

The 1991 NatWest Trophy experienced this technique first tried during a game between Derbyshire and the Minor Counties. It did not last long and Steve Goldsmith scored once for Derbyshire. Then it was the Minor Counties’ turn to win: Bill Merry won with a successful delivery, John Carr missed once, and Andy Needham scored one of his two tries.

Bowl-Out in Twenty20 Internationals

When New Zealand triumphed over the West Indies 3–0, the bowl-out first appeared in Twenty20 International play in 2006. A high-profile game between India and Pakistan used the technique during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 as well. With a 3–0 result, India won.

The Super Over was included by the International Cricket Council in 2008 as the main way to break ties in limited-overs games. Though uncommon now, the bowl-out is still allowed in some domestic competitions. For example, Somerset won 5–1 in a bowl-out against Lancashire in the 2009 Twenty20 Cup.