Skip to content

Glossary

Maiden over

01

An over from which no runs were scored off the bat or as extras credited to the bowler, depending on how the league treats wides.

Cricket bowling sequence 06
Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗

A maiden is a full over of six legal balls in which the bowler concedes no runs charged to them. Byes and leg-byes do not break a maiden. Wides and no-balls do.

Scorers often forget the wide. An over with a wide in it is not a maiden, even if the batter scored nothing else.

Questions scorers actually ask

01 Does a no-ball break a maiden?
Yes. The runs are charged to the bowler, so the over is not a maiden.
02 Is an over with byes a maiden?
It can be. Byes are not charged to the bowler.

From the cricket library

All articles