What Is a Free Hit in Cricket? The One Ball Neither Player Should Waste

Most explanations of what is a free hit in cricket stop at "you cannot get out". That is nearly true and almost useless, because it tells neither player what to do with the ball they have just been handed. The law takes thirty seconds to learn. The decisions it forces on the batter and the bowler are where short-format matches actually turn.

The short answer

A free hit is the delivery immediately after a no ball in limited-overs cricket. On it, the batter cannot be dismissed by any method credited to the bowler: not bowled, not caught, not lbw, not stumped, not hit wicket. The batter can still be run out, and can still be given out for obstructing the field or hitting the ball twice. The fielding side also cannot change its field for a free hit unless the striker has changed.

When a free hit is awarded

The free hit entered international cricket in 2007, when only a front foot overstep triggered one. Since 2015, every type of no ball triggers a free hit in international limited-overs cricket. It is a limited-overs rule; Test cricket has no balls but no free hits.

A few mechanics catch people out:

• The free hit applies to the next delivery, whoever is facing it. If the batters ran an odd number off the no ball, the free hit belongs to the other batter.
• If the free hit delivery is itself a no ball or a wide, it does not count. The free hit carries over to the following ball, and the umpire signals it again.
• Domestic and franchise competitions write their own playing conditions on top of the Laws. Most now mirror the international version, but a league can differ, so check the competition rather than assuming.

The dismissals that are off, and the three that are still on

The dividing line is not arbitrary. Anything the bowler gets credit for is switched off, because the bowler has already bowled an illegal ball.

Switched off:

• Bowled
• Caught
• Leg before wicket
• Stumped
• Hit wicket

Still live:

1. Run out. The ball is in play from the moment it leaves the hand, and a batter who sets off for a run that is not there is out like any other.
2. Obstructing the field.
3. Hit the ball twice.

One detail most pages skip: if the ball beats the bat and knocks the stumps over on a free hit, the batter is not out and the ball does not go dead. It stays live. If the bat touched it first, the runs go to the batter. If it did not, they are scored as byes. Batters have taken three and four runs off a ball that flattened their stumps.

The field is frozen

This is the part that decides how much a free hit is actually worth. If the same batter is on strike for the free hit, the fielding captain cannot move a fielder. The field set for a dot ball, with men saving one, is the field the free hit has to be hit through. The one exception is safety: a keeper standing up at the stumps may drop back.

If the striker has changed, because the batters crossed on the no ball or because someone was run out off it, the captain is free to reset everything. That is why a single off a no ball is not automatically a gift. Taking one can hand the bowling side a chance to rebuild the field for the free hit, and put the weaker batter on strike for it.

What is a free hit in cricket worth to the batter?

Treat it as a free swing, not a free run. Three things change at the same time:

• You cannot be bowled, caught or lbw, so the shots you normally will not risk become rational. Swing through the line. Go over the top.
• You cannot be stumped, so you can charge as far down the pitch as you like. Against spin this is the biggest gain of all, and it is the one club batters forget.
• The field cannot move, so you already know where the gaps are. Pick one before the bowler runs in.

The one genuinely bad outcome is a single. A single off a free hit converts the best ball of your innings into one run and gives the strike away. Unless you are a tailender protecting a set partner, hit it or leave it.

What is a free hit in cricket worth to the bowler?

Almost nobody writes this part, and it is the harder problem. You cannot take a wicket, so your only job is to limit the damage, and the ball that limits damage is not your best wicket-taking ball.

What works:

• A wide yorker outside off stump, to a field that still has a man back. It is hard to get under and hard to hit straight.
• A slower ball, well wide of off stump but inside the wide line. The batter is committed to swinging, and a change of pace turns a six into a mistimed drive.
• Full and wide beats short every time. Short is the gift here. A back of a length ball on a free hit is the easiest six in cricket.

What does not work is your stock ball, good length at the stumps. You would be trying to beat the bat on the one delivery where beating the bat earns you nothing.

And then the obvious one. The cheapest way to handle a free hit is to not bowl the no ball that creates it. A no ball plus a free hit is routinely a ten run swing across two deliveries. In a 10 over match that is two balls out of sixty, and in a 5 over match it is two out of thirty. Short formats do not give you the overs to absorb that.

Why the rule rewards the player who has actually bowled

Reading about a free hit and bowling one are different experiences. Choosing a delivery when a wicket is impossible is a specific kind of pressure, and it is not something you pick up watching highlights.

That is the argument for playing against a person rather than a script. You can play cricket online at Howzat Live as a live 1v1: one of you bats, one of you bowls, in 3D in the browser, with no download and no install. Formats are 5, 10 or 20 overs, in day or night conditions, and there is chat inside the match while you work out what the other person is doing. Start a quick match, or send a private link to a friend.

There are also three bots, Gully, Club and Academy, if you want to drill a length before facing a human. Bot results are rated at half weight, are capped at a few per day, and will carry you no higher than Scale 3. Everything above that has to be earned against real opponents. Your Scale badge runs from 0 to 10 and appears after five rated matches, beating stronger opponents moves you up faster, and playing the same opponent over and over counts for less each time. Create a free account to start a rating, or look at the leaderboard to see what the top of the Scale looks like.

Quick recap

1. A free hit is the ball after a no ball, in limited-overs cricket only.
2. No bowled, caught, lbw, stumped or hit wicket. Run out, obstruction and double hit still apply.
3. The field cannot change unless the striker changes.
4. A no ball or wide on the free hit pushes the free hit to the next ball.
5. Batter: swing, charge, pick a gap in advance, do not settle for one.
6. Bowler: full and wide, change of pace, never short.

More cricket rules broken down the same way, including what each one means when you are the one holding the ball, are on the blog.