CricPulse
Ask any cricket fan the difference between a four and a six and you’ll get an answer in one breath: four on the ground, six in the air. That much is true, but it’s also where most explanations stop — and it leaves out the situation that actually causes confusion at the ground and in the scorebook: what happens when the ball doesn’t come straight off the bat to the boundary, but gets there via a misfield, a wild throw, or a fielder’s desperate, failed attempt to keep it in play.
This guide covers boundary scoring in full under Law 19 — fours, sixes, how overthrow runs are added and who they’re credited to, when a fielder’s touch does and doesn’t save a six, and the exact ruling behind cricket’s most famous, most argued-over overthrow: the six England were given in the last over of the 2019 World Cup final.
Four vs Six: The Actual Rule
| Scenario | Runs |
|---|---|
| Struck by the bat, clears the boundary without touching the ground in the field of play | Six |
| Struck by the bat, touches the ground before reaching the boundary | Four |
| Not struck by the bat (a bye, leg bye, or wide), reaches the boundary | Four (scored as the relevant extra, not runs off the bat) |
| Boundary caused by a wilful, non-fielding act rather than a genuine fielding attempt | Four (never six, whatever the trajectory) |
Note what a six does not require: it does not matter whether a fielder got a touch to the ball on its way, only whether that touch happened while the fielder was still legally inside the field of play — covered in the next section — and whether the ball itself ever grounded inside the boundary before crossing it.
The Fielder Can Touch It and Still Concede a Six
This is the rule that surprises casual viewers most: a fielder getting a hand, or even both hands, to a ball does not automatically turn a six into a catch, a stop, or a four. What matters is where the fielder’s body is at the exact instant of contact. A fielder sprinting back to the rope can leap from inside the boundary, parry or palm the ball back into the field of play while still airborne, and land outside the boundary — and the six still counts as saved, because no part of the fielder was grounded on or beyond the line when the touch happened. The same logic runs the other way: if a fielder’s boot so much as brushes the boundary rope while catching or stopping the ball, the batting side gets the boundary regardless of how clean the take looked.
What an Overthrow Actually Is
An overthrow has nothing to do with the original shot — it is what happens after the ball has already been fielded once. A batter hits the ball into the outfield, the batters set off running, a fielder gathers the ball and throws it in — typically at the stumps, attempting a run out — and the throw goes wide of its target, or a second fielder backing up fumbles the collection, and the ball runs away to the boundary while the batters are still going. Every run completed before that throw counts as normal; the overthrow is specifically the additional runs the batting side gets because the fielding side’s mistake let the ball travel further than the original shot alone would have.
That “already crossed” clause is exactly what turned a routine misfield into cricket’s most replayed rules controversy.
The 2019 World Cup Final: Six Runs, or Five?
On the fourth ball of the final over of the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s, Ben Stokes drove a ball from Trent Boult out to midwicket and set off for a second run. New Zealand’s Martin Guptill gathered the ball and threw in at the striker’s end — and as Stokes dived to make his ground, the throw deflected off his outstretched bat and ran away to the boundary at third man. The umpires awarded England six runs: the two runs Stokes and his partner were in the process of completing, plus the standard four-run overthrow allowance for the boundary.
The controversy was never about whether six was scored on the board — it was about whether the batters had actually completed, or even crossed for, that second run at the precise instant Guptill released the throw. If they had not yet crossed, the law only credits the run “in progress” if the batters had already crossed at that moment; replays suggested they may not have, which would mean only one run had actually been completed rather than two — five runs in total, not six. There is no fixed, universally agreed instant for when “the throw” legally happens — whether it’s the moment the ball leaves the fielder’s hand or the moment it strikes the batter — which is exactly why the argument was never fully settled on the field. The on-field umpires’ real-time call stood, England went on to win the match via a super over (see our super over rules guide for how that tiebreaker actually works), and the incident prompted the MCC to review overthrow guidance later that year.
Who Gets Credited: The Batter, or Extras?
Whether an overthrow counts as runs off the bat or as an extra depends entirely on how the delivery started, not on how it ended:
- Off a genuine shot: if the batters were running because the batter hit the ball, every run — including the overthrow boundary — is credited to that batter’s individual score.
- Off a bye or leg bye: if the ball missed the bat (and, for a leg bye, was played at with a genuine attempt to avoid it or hit it), any runs the batters complete are byes or leg byes rather than batter runs — and that classification carries through an overthrow too. A misfield on a leg-bye run that lets the ball reach the boundary is still scored as leg byes, not as runs to the batter.
See our guide to cricket extras for the full breakdown of byes, leg byes, wides and no balls — the classification an overthrow inherits always traces back to how the ball was originally put in play.
Wilful Acts: The Exception That Caps a Boundary at Four
The law draws a firm line between a genuine fielding attempt — however clumsy, however unlucky — and a deliberate, non-fielding act. A fielder diving, misjudging a bounce, or getting a well-intentioned fingertip to a certain six is a misfield, and the batting side gets whatever the ball’s own trajectory earns, six included. Where the boundary instead results from what the law treats as a wilful act rather than a fielding attempt, the boundary is capped at four runs, regardless of what the ball would otherwise have been worth. The distinction is intent: a fielder trying and failing to stop the ball is still fielding; a fielder doing something else entirely with it is not.
Related situations — like the ball striking a fielding side helmet left on the ground, which costs the fielding side five penalty runs rather than affecting the boundary count — are covered in our umpire signals and scoring guide, alongside the rest of cricket’s penalty-run signals.
Score Every Overthrow Correctly with CricPulse
Getting an overthrow right in the moment — how many runs the batters had actually completed, who it’s credited to, whether it was off the bat or off an extra — is exactly the kind of split-second scoring decision CricPulse is built to make simple. Enter the shot as it was actually run, add the overthrow runs on top with the correct credit already tracked, and the running total, strike rate, and required run rate all update immediately — no separate mental math mid-over. Free on iOS and Android.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a boundary four and a boundary six?
A six is scored when the ball is struck by the bat and clears the boundary without touching the ground anywhere inside the field of play. A four is scored when the ball reaches or crosses the boundary after touching the ground first, or when it reaches the boundary without having been struck by the bat at all (a bye or leg bye that runs to the rope, for instance).
What is an overthrow in cricket?
An overthrow is any extra run — or the boundary allowance — that results from a wild or misdirected throw by a fielder after the ball has already been fielded, typically while attempting a run out. The batters can keep running while the fielding side scrambles to retrieve the ball, and if it reaches the boundary, four runs are added on top of whatever the batters had already completed.
Why did England get 6 runs, not 5, for the controversial overthrow in the 2019 World Cup final?
On the fourth ball of the final over, Martin Guptill’s throw at the striker’s end deflected off Ben Stokes’s bat as he dived to complete a second run, and ran away to the boundary at third man. The umpires awarded six — the two runs Stokes and his partner were in the process of completing, plus the four-run overthrow allowance. The dispute was over timing, not the law itself: replays suggested the batters may not have actually crossed for the second run at the exact instant the throw was released, which would mean only one completed run should have counted, making it five rather than six. The on-field umpires’ real-time judgment stood, and the incident led the MCC to review overthrow guidance later that year.
Who gets credited for overthrow runs — the batter or extras?
It depends on how the delivery started. If the batters were running off a genuine shot from the bat, the overthrow runs are added to that batter’s individual total, on top of whatever they had already run. If the original run was a bye or leg bye (the ball missed the bat entirely), any overthrow runs on top of it are also scored as byes or leg byes, not credited to the batter individually — extras stay extras all the way through the delivery.
Can a fielder stop a six by touching the ball before it crosses the boundary?
Yes, as long as the fielder has no part of their body grounded on or beyond the boundary line at the exact instant of contact. A fielder can jump from inside the field, palm or parry the ball back into play while airborne, and land outside the boundary — the six is saved because the touch happened while they were still, in the law’s terms, inside the field of play.
What is a “wilful act” boundary, and why does it only count for four?
A wilful act is a deliberate, non-fielding action that sends the ball to the boundary — as opposed to a genuine attempt to field, stop or catch it, however unsuccessful. Where the law treats the boundary as resulting from a wilful act rather than an overthrow or a fielding attempt, only four runs are scored for it, never six, regardless of what the ball’s trajectory would otherwise have earned.