What makes a maiden
A maiden is a full over of six legal balls in which the bowler concedes no runs charged to them. Runs from the bat, wides and no-balls are charged to the bowler. Byes and leg-byes are not.
The trap
A wide in an over means the over is not a maiden, even if no batter scored. A no-ball does the same. Scorers who forget this inflate their maiden count.
What the scorer records
- The maiden, when it happens, against the bowler's name.
- The runs charged to the bowler in the over, so the maiden can be checked.
- Whether byes or leg-byes were in the over, without charging them to the bowler.
Common mistakes
- Counting an over as a maiden when a wide was bowled.
- Charging byes to the bowler, which breaks the maiden.
- Recording a maiden for an over that was not completed.
Citations
MCC Laws of Cricket, the section on the over and the bowler's figures.
Match questions
Questions scorers actually ask
- 01 Does a wide break a maiden?
- Yes. Wides are charged to the bowler, so the over is not a maiden.
- 02 Do byes break a maiden?
- No. Byes and leg-byes are not charged to the bowler, so the maiden stands.
- 03 Does an incomplete over count as a maiden?
- No. A maiden is a full over of six legal balls.
