Byes and Leg Byes in Cricket: How These Extras Are Scored

Every cricket scorecard has a line called extras, and two of the most common entries in it are byes and leg byes. Many new fans confuse them, or do not understand why one counts against the bowler while the other does not. This guide explains what each extra means, how umpires signal them, when a leg bye is not allowed, and how they appear in the scorebook. The rules come from the Laws of Cricket, which apply in Tests, one-day internationals and T20 matches alike.

What is a bye?

A bye is a run scored when the ball passes the batter without touching the bat or the batter’s body, and the batters still complete a run. The most common case is a ball that beats both the batter and the wicketkeeper. If the ball runs away to the boundary, four byes are added. Byes can also come when the keeper fumbles a take or throws badly at the stumps.

The umpire signals a bye by raising one open hand above the head. The scorer records the runs as extras, not to the batter.

What is a leg bye?

A leg bye is a run scored when the ball hits the batter’s body or protective equipment, but not the bat or the glove holding the bat, and the batters complete a run. A typical example is a ball on the pads that rolls toward fine leg while the batters scamper through.

The umpire signals a leg bye by touching a raised knee with one hand. These runs also go into extras and not to the batter.

When a leg bye is not allowed

Leg byes have an important condition. The batter must have either tried to play a shot with the bat or tried to avoid being hit by the ball. If the batter does neither, for example by deliberately padding the ball away without a shot and then running, the umpire will not allow the leg bye. Any runs completed are cancelled and the batters return to their original ends.

• Tried to play a shot and missed, ball hits pad: leg bye allowed.
• Ducked or moved to avoid a bouncer, ball hits body: leg bye allowed.
• Kicked the ball away without any shot: leg bye not allowed.
• Deliberately deflected the ball with the body: not allowed, and can lead to further penalties.

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How byes and leg byes affect bowler figures

This is where many fans get confused. Byes and leg byes are not counted against the bowler. A bowler who concedes three leg byes in an over still has those runs left out of the bowling figures. The reasoning is simple: the bowler did not give away runs off the bat, and the extras came from the batter’s body or the keeper’s error.

Wides and no-balls are different. Those extras are charged to the bowler, because they come from an illegal delivery. So two overs with the same number of total extras can produce very different bowling figures depending on which type of extras they were.

Byes and leg byes off a no-ball or wide

If the ball is a no-ball and the batters then run byes or leg byes, the scorer records the no-ball penalty and adds the extra runs as byes or leg byes. If a wide goes past the keeper to the boundary, the runs are recorded as wides rather than byes, because the delivery was already a wide. These details matter when you read a ball-by-ball commentary.

Why these extras matter in tight games

In close limited-overs finishes, a handful of byes can decide a match. Keepers standing up to spinners, wet balls in evening dew, and batters charging singles off the pads all create chances for extras. Coaches track byes as a measure of wicketkeeping quality, while leg byes often reflect how much bowlers attacked the stumps.

Quick summary

• Bye: ball misses bat and body, batters run. Signal: open hand raised.
• Leg bye: ball hits body, not bat, batters run. Signal: hand on raised knee.
• Leg bye needs an attempted shot or an attempt to avoid the ball.
• Neither counts against the bowler; wides and no-balls do.

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