How is this scored?
I assume you’re joking (it’s a pretty funny shot), but in case you’re not: once it goes through the hoop, it’s a dead ball until it is inbounded by the other team. So just one basket.
It doesn’t work in baseball, either:
Lol. I wasn’t joking. I really know that little about sports.
Thank you though.
That makes me wonder if there are any sports that don’t result in a dead ball after scoring. Baseball, sort of - runners don’t stop just because the lead runner scores. And of course, quidditch.
IANA expert on cricket, but it’s similar to baseball in that runners score while the fielders are trying to retrieve the ball and bring it back to whichever player can stop the scoring action. Ideally before the runners score any, or at least not too many, runs.
Big difference in cricket vs baseball is there are always two runners and they can each score repeatedly on a single batting of the ball.
I can’t think of any ball (or puck) sports where ball-in-goal causes scoring and the ball is not declared dead upon the score occuring.
You could argue that pool / pocket billiards is a borderline case. Multiple balls are in play on any shot and scoring continues after the first ball is pocketed. That ball is “dead”, but the play isn’t dead until all the balls stop moving. And in fact a late scratch negates the already pocketed already dead ball(s).
The ball isn’t exactly dead in basketball after a score. The clock continues to run and the scored-upon team takes it out and puts in back into play with no interaction from the referee. This is unlike hockey where action and the clock stops and the referee has to restart things. Soccer is sort of in between I think. The clock never really stops in soccer.
Laws of Cricket - Law 20 Dead Ball
(along with a series of specific incidence where the ball become dead)
20.1.2 The ball shall be considered to be dead when it is clear to the bowler’s end umpire that the fielding side and both batters at the wicket have ceased to regard it as in play.
Now in the sub-genre sport of Indoor Cricket however, the ball is always live.
- Batters can score runs at any time including when the ball is being returned to the bowler for the next delivery and while the bowler is preparing to bowl.
- Fielders can dismiss a batter for being out of their ground at any time.
The ball is definitely dead after a score in gridiron football. I can imagine a situation where there’s a weird combination of doinking/bouncing and a freak gust of wind that makes a field goal attempt go through the uprights twice. Sorry, that’s not worth 6 points. 
A dead ball is not the same as the clock being stopped. The ball is most certainly dead after a soccer goal. In basketball, the ball has to be put back into play in a very specific way after a goal - it is a deadball as well until it’s officially in play.
Cool. Thank you. Can you flesh that out with some context?
I’ve got a high level overview understanding of the game, but the nuances are beyond me without more study than I’ve been willing to put in.
I can see where the runners would choose to stop running when they’d reasonably expect to be thrown out before safely reaching the opposite wicket. But how do the fielders arrive at a decision to stop returning the ball?
Hmm, maybe I need to fire up some cricket here and get learned about the game.
They return the ball.
Most usually by throwing it to the wicket keeper, or directly to the bowler.
While the ball is in the hands of a fielder it is live even if the batters are showing no intent on further running.
Example: a delivery is played by the batter on strike with a defensive shot straight to a fielder who is close enough to make any notion of attempting a run wildly improbable. Both batters stay in their creases. The fielder throws the ball to the keeper who is distracted, misses the throw and the ball runs free. The batters can take another run (or runs) which are counted to the batter on strike. This could continue in perpetuity until as in Law 20.1.1.1 it is finally settled in the hands of the wicket-keeper or of the bowler.
Overthrows are one of the delightfully village elements of cricket, at all levels from junior, village or international level.
Moved to the Game Room (from FQ).
That makes 100% sense. And is not at all the idea I got from reading Law 20.1.2.
Thanks for the clarification.
I don’t believe that’s correct. The only batsman who scores is the one at bat, i.e. the one the bowler is bowling to.
ISTM the ball’s dead, but the clock continues to run. Just because the ball is dead does not mean the clock is automatically stopped.
The same with gridiron football. Once the officials blow a whistle to signal the end of a play, it’s a dead ball until the ball is snapped to start the next play, but typically, the clock will keep running (exceptions being scoring plays, incomplete passes, plays that go out of bounds, first downs (in college ball)).
Just for clarity, a “run” is scored when both batsman complete the journey and touch their bat down, or a part of their body over the batting crease at their opposite end.
In terms of totals you are right in that only the batsman initially facing the bowler can be credited with a run (or runs).
There is still ambiguity around when the ball actually goes dead.
In the recent Ashes series (England/Australia) there was contention about a dismissal. The batsman played at the ball and missed, and the wicketkeeper took the ball firmly in his gloves. Assuming the ball was dead at that point, the batsman took a step forward out of his crease to address a scuff in the grass on the wicket. The wicketkeeper threw down the bails and after some discussions by the umpires, the batsman was dismissed.
In cricket, there are a few mechanisms of dismissal (like this one, or the non-striking batsman leaving their crease before the ball is released by the bowler) that are often considered not in the spirit of the game. The general approach would be to warn an offender once, before taking a more aggressive approach (by throwing down the wickets at the striking or non-striking end).
Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. I’d have expected something like when the WK had the ball firmly in hand clearly under control the play was dead, period. That’s evidently what that batsman thought.
As always, the hard cases make difficult law. Assuming leaving the crease to fiddle with the grass is normal-enough game behavior, being dismissed for that seems a bit extreme.
And thanks folks for the scoring clarification. Both runners must exchange ends safely, both are at risk of being out / dismissed, but only the batsman gets a single run to his credit.
Another cricket question:
I watched about 20 minutes of random YouTube cricket last night. I tried to watch games, not just highlight reels. Of course the items near the top of the search list are hardly random games, they’re the ones folks who know what the want have made popular. So probably atypical games. Anyhow …
I think I was watching T20. And the batsman was hitting boundaries consistently; maybe 2/3rds 4s and 1/3rd 6s. Rarely was a ball not driven to the boundary, and rarely did the runners run.
Of course in baseball over the decades there has been ebb and flow between hitting and pitching, different balls, different mounds, and now smaller “hitter friendly” parks to encourage home runs.
The overall impression I got from watching the cricket was that for batsmen of that skill and strength the fielders were standing too close to catch anything, and the boundary was too close-in to represent a sufficiently difficult goal for the batsman. Yes, it takes great concentration and stamina for the batsman to defeat bowl after bowl and drive each of them to the boundary. But the game seemed lopsided with fielders largely relegated to simply retrieving the now-dead ball so the bowler and batsman can continue their duel.
I’ll have to watch a lot more to get a better feel for ordinary play.
Comments?
So we’re probably at the point where this could be a separate thread, (which I’d be happy to participate in) but briefly:
Cricket in general favours the batter over the bowler; T20 deliberately more so. Boundaries are shorter and easier to reach, as you note. There are also restrictions on field placement: only 5 fielders are allowed to be more than 30 yards from the bat, and for the first 6 overs only 2. Also, only 5 fielders are allowed to be on the leg side of the field. Finally, the bowler has to bowl much straighter than in other forms.
All this combined means that the batter can expect a delivery in an area they can easily hit it, the boundaries are within range and there will be big gaps in the field to aim for - all of which is designed to encourage the big hitting you saw.
So what are fielders there for? The bad shot - the hit straight to the close catcher, the top edge that flies high that they can get under, the odd run-out chance. The fact that these are relatively rare of course makes them all the more valuable when taken.