Byes vs Leg Byes: The Difference and How to Record Them

Two kinds of extra that look the same from the boundary

From the scorer's table, a bye and a leg bye often look identical. The ball is bowled, the batter does not hit it, and the batters run. The difference is entirely about what the ball touched on the way through. Get it wrong and the scorecard still adds up, but the extras line and the bowler's figures will not match what actually happened.

Byes and leg byes are covered by Law 23. They have three things in common. They are extras, not runs to the batter. They are fair deliveries, so they count as one of the six balls in the over and as a ball faced by the striker. And neither is charged to the bowler, because the bowler did not concede them through a bad delivery; the keeper or the batter's body did.

That last point is the reason this matters. Wrongly recording 4 leg byes as 4 runs to the batter gives the batter four runs she did not score and adds four to the bowler's figures. Wrongly recording 4 runs off the glove as leg byes does the opposite.

What counts as a bye

A bye is any run taken, or boundary awarded, from a fair delivery that does not touch the bat or the striker's body. The classic case is a ball that beats the bat and the keeper, then runs away towards fine leg. If the batters run two, record 2 byes. If it reaches the boundary, record 4 byes.

Byes are signalled by the umpire raising an open hand above the head. In local cricket with a part-time keeper on a bouncy mat, byes can easily become the biggest single item in the extras line, so it is worth recording every one carefully.

Remember that a keeper's fumble is not an overthrow. If the keeper misses the ball and it trickles to the rope, that is 4 byes, nothing more.

What counts as a leg bye

A leg bye is a run taken when the ball hits the striker's body but not the bat. Despite the name, it does not have to be the leg. It can be the pad, the thigh guard, the hip, the helmet or the arm. The umpire signals a leg bye by touching a raised knee.

There is one important detail about hands. A glove on a hand that is holding the bat counts as part of the bat. So if the ball flicks the glove of a hand on the handle and the batters run, those are runs to the batter, not leg byes, and a catch off that glove is out. If the hand is off the bat at the time, the ball hitting it counts as hitting the body, and leg byes are possible.

When leg byes are not allowed

Law 23 says leg byes can only be scored if the batter either attempted to play the ball with the bat or tried to avoid being hit by it. A batter who simply pads the ball away with no shot, then sets off for a run, is not entitled to it. The umpire should call and signal dead ball as soon as one run is completed or the ball reaches the boundary. The run or boundary is not scored and the batters return to their original ends.

This catches out local players who have been padding away spinners for years. It is worth explaining before the match if you know the opposition are not used to it. In many casual games nobody enforces it at all, which is a common local variation, but it is not what the Laws say.

For the scorer, a disallowed leg bye is simply a dot ball. The ball counts in the over and as a ball faced, and nothing is added to the total.

Byes and leg byes off wides and no-balls

There are no byes off a wide. If the keeper misses a wide and the batters run, those runs are extra wides. So a wide that the batters run two off is 3 wides, all charged to the bowler.

Since the 2017 Code, the same idea applies to no-balls. If the ball is not hit by the bat, runs taken off a no-ball, including any that would otherwise have been byes or leg byes, are recorded as no-ball extras and charged to the bowler. Some older scorebooks and apps still split them into 1 no-ball and some byes. If your league uses an older convention, be consistent, but know that the current Law treats them as no-balls.

Common scoring mistakes and how to avoid them

The most common error is not watching the umpire. A ball that clips the pad and runs fine looks like it came off the bat from square leg. If the umpire does not signal, the runs go to the batter. If the umpire touches a raised knee, they are leg byes. When in doubt, ask the umpire at the end of the over and fix it then. Cricket Score Counter has separate buttons for byes and leg byes, and the undo button lets you correct the last ball if the signal comes late.

The second error is the maiden over. A maiden is an over in which the bowler concedes no runs. Because byes and leg byes are not charged to the bowler, an over with four leg byes and no other runs is still a maiden. Many scorers forget this and quietly take maidens away from their bowlers.

• Never assume: watch for the bye or leg-bye signal before recording runs.
• Glove on the bat is the bat; glove off the bat is the body.
• Disallowed leg byes are dot balls, not extras.
• Byes and leg byes still count as balls faced by the striker.
• Overs with only byes or leg byes can still be maidens.