Thinking of a situation in which a team is batting for a draw. If a good batsman is paired with the number 11 at the end of a 2nd innings on the final day of a match and the goal is to extend the game to a draw, a single on the 6th ball of an over could be preferable to a 4 or a 6. If not, the fielding team might even consider allowing a softly hit ball to get to the boundary just to get the weaker batsman on strike.
There are some confounding situations, but in general a batsman can’t decline a boundary - once it goes over the rope/into the fence (wherever the boundary is defined), the ball is dead and four or six runs are counted. Likewise, the fielding team cannot deliberately cause the ball to become a boundary by, for example, tossing it over the fence, if that would benefit them - in that case, the runs for the boundary are counted, as well as any additional runs made by the batting team (see 19.8 here).
This situation can occur (and has) but in most circumstances the batsman seeking a single wouldn’t be attempting to hit the ball with enough force to reach the boundary so the choice is much more likely to be between running at all, or between 1 or 2 runs.
If the amount of runs to get is totally irrelevant then the fielding team will do all they can to keep the weaker batsman on strike, including letting a ball run for 4 (which the batsman can do nothing about)
A little known circumstance is, if a side requires, say only one to win, and the striker hits a ball so slowly to the boundary that the run is completed before it gets there, the batsman does not receive credit for the boundary.
Last year in those circumstances, in a BBL game the striker ( I can’t recall who) had the presence of mind to stop running in mid pitch and stop his partner while the ball trickled down to the boundary with no fieldsman bothering to chase it…
In a Test match this is often seen when you have a couple of wickets with one recignised batsman and a tailender. Plus lots of runs (if going for a draw) or lots of overs and a few runs (going for the win).
What you see is the batsman refusing to go for a single on the first 5 balls of the over. The bowlig side will bowl easy balls on the first 5 with the field spread and then attack on the 6th. I am a critic of this tactic frankly, since it allows him the get really set and makes him difficult to remove. Agressive bowling at should be the order of the day.
Thanks for the good information. My cable provider finally moved Willow to HD, so I’ll be watching more cricket and probably have more questions.
I think you will find there was a case in the 1930’s (from my rapidly failing memory) where a fieldsman actually kicked the ball to the boundary todeny the Number 11 the strike. The umpire disallowed the action and I believe granted the team five runs so that the better batsman retained the strike.
I’ll see if I can find out more.
There was actually an interesting case in Melbourne grade cricket last year. The fieldsman kicked the ball over the boundary after the batsmen had completed two from the last ball of the over. This prevented them running a third and getting the better batsman on strike for the next over. So the striker got 6 runs. Had he only run one the ploy would have failed.
Cricket Victoria unimpressed after fieldsman deliberately boots ball over the boundary
Okay, “Ask Steven” at Cricinfo has given me the full story and I will quote it here. They are geniuses for this stuff.
It was the famous Oval Test of 1938, and involved Len Hutton as fielder not batsman. Bill Brown was batting, and Hutton kicked the ball over the boundary off the last ball of an over. Umpire awarded five runs to the batsman and Brown kept the strike for the next over. Score was 178 for 7, but with two batsmen injured it was the last wicket.
Given that England was leading by over 700 runs, it was a rather petty thing to do.
Yes that is one of the two tests in which Bradman was injured fielding and didn’t bat at all. The other was against South Africa in 1932. On both occasions he had scored a century in every test of the series up until then. People often quote the fact that Bradman only played 52 tests but not many seem to realize that he only batted in 50 of them.
Since this is the cricket thread de jour, I’m following with an unrelated question. I was watching the 3rd test between South Africa and India yesterday. As South Africa batted their 2nd innings, the ball began bouncing erratically on bowled ball. The South African batsman was hit several times and they called the teams off of the field. They ultimately completed the match today, but there was talk and fear that the entire match could be abandoned for player safety. The announcers didn’t mention anything about a grounds crew or what could be done overnight to fix or improve the pitch. What’s the deal with that?
This sounds like quite an unusual occurrence, particularly in an international match. The umpires have the discretionary power to stop play if there is fear that a batsman could be injured due to the unpredictability of the pitch (as with leaving the field for bad light). This article does a good job of explaining the ins and outs, and this is the law on what can be done to a pitch during a match.