Junior Rules (u15)
Stepping Up – Limited Over Match Rules
At under 15 they play the senior version of the game
- Each side of eleven players has a limited number of overs (usually 40) but this can vary depending on the type of competition.Â
- The two captains toss a coin and the winner decides whether to bat or field.
- Batsmen go into a bat, usually starting with the best first, this is called the batting order.
- Bowlers have a limited number of overs each.
- Batsmen do not have a limited number of overs each.
- If a batsman is given out, he leaves the field and the next batsman in the batting order goes out to replace him.
- No runs are deducted for lost wickets.
- Wides, no balls and byes add a single run to the total and an extra ball is bowled for no balls and wides.
- The batting side play until they have completed all their overs or until they have lost 10 wickets (10 batsmen have been given out). If they lose 10 wickets before all their overs have been bowled then their innings finishes and the other team goes in to bat.
- Batsmen lower down the order often don’t get to bat if the top order batsmen play well.
- On the fielding side – probably no more than six players will bowl during a match – not everyone has to bowl.
- Whoever scores the most runs at the end of both innings will win the game.
- In the event of the scores being drawn, the number of wickets lost can be taken into account and the team losing fewer wickets will win.
Where time is lost to bad weather – the number of overs may be reduced and in some cases a special calculation is used to work out the winner. This is called the Duckworth-Lewis method, named after the cricketers that invented it.Â
In extreme cases a bowl-off may be used to decide a game. This is cricket’s equivalent of a penalty shoot out in football and involves five players bowling at an unguarded wicket (with no batsman present) to try and hit the stumps. If, after five balls, there is no clear winner it continues to sudden death until one side wins.
