Cricket fielding positions explained, from slip to fine leg

A cricket field has nine outfielders, one bowler and one wicketkeeper, and something close to forty named places to put them. The names look like a private language, and they are, but the system underneath is consistent and can be learnt in about ten minutes. Once it is learnt, a field setting becomes readable. You can look at where eleven people are standing and know what the bowler intends to do, what the captain is afraid of, and which stroke the batter is being invited to play.

The two halves of the ground

Every position is described relative to the striker, not to the ground, which is why the whole map flips when a left-hander comes in.

The off side is the half of the ground that the batter faces as he stands in his stance. The leg side, also called the on side, is the half behind his legs. For a right-handed batter, the off side is the side where his off stump sits and where the wicketkeeper's right hand goes. For a left-hander it is the mirror image. In the standard television angle from behind the bowler's arm, a right-hander's off side is the left of the screen and his leg side the right, and for a left-hander it is reversed. Nothing about the ground changes. Only the batter does.

The second axis is square. An imaginary line drawn through the popping crease, at right angles to the pitch, divides the ground into the half in front of the batter and the half behind him. Positions in front of that line are described as forward or in front of square, and positions behind it as backward or behind square. Combine the two axes and every point on the field has an address: off side or leg side, in front of square or behind it, near the bat or near the boundary.

The distance modifiers are the last piece.

• Silly means suicidally close, inside the batter's shot: silly point, silly mid-off, silly mid-on.
• Short means closer than the standard version of that position: short leg, short third, short midwicket.
• Deep or long means on or near the boundary: deep cover, deep square leg, long on, long off.
• Fine means close to the line of the stumps behind the batter, square means level with him, and wide means further round towards the side of the ground.

The catching cordon behind the bat

The wicketkeeper is the only fielder allowed to wear gloves and pads, and the only one obliged to stand behind the stumps until the ball is delivered. He stands back to fast bowling and up to the stumps to spin or medium pace, and standing up is a tactical act as much as a technical one, because it pins the batter in his crease and makes leaving the ball on length a risk.

Slips stand beside the keeper on the off side, angled to take the edge that flies off the face of the bat. First slip is nearest the keeper, then second, third and fourth as the cordon widens away from the stumps. They are numbered outwards, and the further out they stand the thicker the edge they are there to take. A fourth slip is a statement of intent: it says the ball is swinging or seaming and the captain expects an edge every over.

Gully stands wider and squarer than the last slip, in the gap between the slips and point. It catches the edge that squirts off a defensive push, the ball fended off the splice from a short delivery, and the firm-footed slash at a wide one. Leg slip and leg gully are the mirror images on the leg side, used when the ball is swinging in or when the plan involves the batter fending at a short ball aimed at the ribs.

Third man, whose name comes from the old habit of posting a third fielder in the slip region, now stands deep and behind square on the off side. His job is to cut off the edge that beats the cordon and the deliberate steer or ramp over the slips. Short third is the same position brought in to save the single, a placement that has become common in white-ball cricket because so many batters now target that area on purpose. Fly slip, a rarer position, sits between the slips and third man for a thick edge that would fall short of the deep fielder.

The off side, square and in front

Point stands square of the wicket on the off side, at catching distance in an attacking field and further back to save the cut and the square drive. Backward point is the same position moved behind square, which is where a great deal of modern one-day fielding happens because it covers both the cut and the steer.

Cover point, usually shortened to cover, stands in front of square on the off side and stops the cover drive. Extra cover is wider and slightly straighter, between cover and mid-off, and it exists because the drive played slightly early goes exactly there. Silly point is point brought in to within a few feet of the bat, worn as a helmet position, and used almost exclusively against spin to catch the ball that pops off bat and pad.

Mid-off stands straight and in front, on the off side of the bowler's follow-through. He stops the straight drive and, just as importantly, talks to the bowler at the end of every over, which is why senior players are often stationed there. Deep cover, deep extra cover and deep point, frequently called the sweeper, are the boundary versions, posted to turn a certain four into a run or two.

Long off is the boundary rider straight and slightly to the off side, guarding the lofted drive. He is one of the two most important fielders in limited-overs cricket, because the straight lofted hit is the highest-percentage big shot in the game and taking it away changes the batter's options entirely.

The leg side

Mid-on is the mirror of mid-off, straight and in front on the leg side. Midwicket is wider, in front of square, and covers the whipped flick off the pads and the shot played across the line. Short midwicket is the ring version saving the single, and deep midwicket the boundary version. The area between deep midwicket and long on, where the slog and the slog sweep tend to land, has been informally known as cow corner for a very long time, and the name has stuck because it describes a real scoring zone rather than a real fielding position.

Square leg stands level with the batter on the leg side, close in when saving the single and back when saving the boundary. Deep square leg patrols the boundary there and is a compulsory presence whenever a bowler intends to bowl short. Short leg, sometimes called forward short leg or bat-pad, is the helmeted position a couple of yards in front of square and close enough to touch the batter's pad. It is the most uncomfortable job in cricket, and it exists to take the catch that comes off the inside edge onto the pad when the ball is spinning in.

Fine leg stands behind square, near the boundary and close to the line of the stumps, and takes the glance, the leg-side flick and the top edge of the hook. Long leg is fine leg pushed squarer and deeper. Short fine leg is the same idea brought inside the circle to stop the single off the pads, which in white-ball cricket is one of the most contested pieces of ground on the field. Long on completes the boundary set, straight and slightly to the leg side, the partner of long off against the lofted drive.

Position	Side	Relative to square	Typical depth
Slip, gully, leg slip	Off, and leg for leg slip	Behind	Catching
Short leg, silly point	Leg and off	Just in front	Very close
Point, square leg	Off and leg	Level	Ring or deep
Cover, extra cover, midwicket	Off and leg	In front	Ring or deep
Mid-off, mid-on	Off and leg	In front, straight	Ring
Third man, fine leg	Off and leg	Behind	Deep
Long off, long on	Off and leg	In front, straight	Boundary

The rules that constrain a captain

A captain cannot place his fielders entirely as he pleases. Three constraints apply everywhere.

No more than two fielders may stand behind square on the leg side at the instant of delivery. This is a Law rather than a competition regulation, and it is the direct legacy of an old controversy over persistent short-pitched bowling at the batter's body with a packed leg-side field. It is the single most influential fielding restriction in the game, because it means the short ball can always be pulled or hooked into a gap somewhere behind square. Take that rule away and the bouncer becomes close to unplayable.

International playing conditions also cap the number of fielders on the leg side as a whole, which prevents the extreme leg-side field returning by another route. And no fielder other than the bowler may encroach on the pitch itself before the ball reaches the batter, nor may fielders make significant movement once the bowler begins his run, which stops sides shuffling positions at the last instant to deceive the striker.

The fielding circle

Limited-overs cricket adds a marked inner circle. It is drawn as two semicircles of thirty yards radius, centred on the middle stump at each end, joined by two parallel lines down the sides of the ground. The area inside it is the ring. Everything outside it is the deep.

The circle exists to guarantee gaps. If a fixed number of fielders must remain inside it, the boundary cannot be fully protected, and attacking strokeplay becomes mathematically rational rather than merely brave. In an ODI the number allowed outside is restricted in three phases across the innings, and in a T20 in two. The detail is set out in the powerplay rules explainer, and it is worth reading alongside this piece, because the positions a captain chooses are almost entirely determined by how many men he is allowed to post on the rope.

Test cricket has no such circle. A captain may put all nine outfielders on the boundary if he wishes, or all nine within twenty yards of the bat, subject only to the leg-side limits.

Setting a field for pace

With a new ball, the field is built around the edge. A typical opening arrangement has the keeper, two or three slips and a gully, a point, a cover, a mid-off and a mid-on to stop the drive, and a fine leg for the glance. Nobody is on the boundary, because nobody expects the batter to hit a boundary deliberately, and every fielder is placed to convert a mistake into a dismissal.

If the ball is swinging in to a right-hander, the shape shifts to the leg side. A leg slip appears, a short leg may come in, midwicket squares up, and mid-on comes straighter. The bowler is hunting the inside edge, the pad and the lbw, and the field follows the plan. If the ball is leaving the bat, the off side thickens instead, with an extra slip and often a fielder posted wide at short extra cover for the drive on the up.

If the plan is the short ball, the field announces it before the ball is bowled. Deep square leg and fine leg go back, since only two are permitted behind square on that side, and a leg gully or short midwicket appears for the fend. A batter who watches the field can see a bouncer coming a full over in advance, which is why the best captains disguise the change by moving one man at a time.

As the ball ages and stops moving, the field spreads. Slips are withdrawn one by one and converted into a third man, a sweeper on the off side, and a deep midwicket. This is the visible signature of a passage in which the bowling side has stopped attacking and started containing. If the ball begins to reverse, the process reverses too, and slips come back in.

Setting a field for spin

Spin fields are built around the direction of turn, because the direction of turn determines where the mistake goes.

For an off spinner to a right-hander, the ball turns in towards the batter. The edge, when it comes, is an inside edge onto the pad, so the catchers go to the leg side and very close on the off side: a slip, a short leg, a silly point, sometimes a leg slip. The scoring options are on the leg side, through the sweep, the slog sweep and the whip, so the boundary riders go to deep midwicket and long on, with a straight man behind them. A well-set off spin field is asymmetric in an obvious way, catchers on one side of the wicket and protection on the other.

For a leg spinner to a right-hander, the ball turns away and the edge flies to the off side, so the slip stays and a second may join him, with a silly point or short extra cover for the bat-pad off the drive. The short leg does not disappear, because the googly turns the other way and produces exactly the inside edge that an off spinner does. That double threat is what makes wrist spin so awkward to set a field for, and it is explained in more detail in the guide to spin bowling.

When a left-arm spinner goes round the wicket into the rough outside a right-hander's leg stump, the leg side fills up to the legal limit, the batter is asked to hit against the turn, and the field is a straightforward trap. The same principle applies for an off spinner attacking the footmarks against a left-hander.

The other constant of spin fielding is the sweeper. Against a batter who sweeps well, one fielder at deep square leg is worth more than any close catcher, because it turns the highest-percentage stroke against spin into a single instead of a boundary.

How the field changes by format

In a Test match the field is a wicket-taking instrument. Runs are conceded willingly if the arrangement increases the chance of a dismissal, and the classic attacking field with four catchers behind the bat and nobody in the deep is only possible because there is no obligation to defend the boundary.

In an ODI the field is a compromise that changes three times. During the opening restriction the captain has only two men outside the ring, and he must decide whether to spend them on third man and fine leg to plug the areas behind the wicket, or on the straight boundaries. Through the middle he has four out, which is just enough for a sweeper, a deep midwicket, a fine leg and one straight, and the ring is then set to save the single so that the batting side must take risks to accelerate. At the death he has five out and the field becomes almost entirely defensive.

In a T20 the ring is a luxury the captain rarely has. Once the opening restriction ends he has five men on the rope, typically long off, long on, deep midwicket, deep cover or point, and a fine leg, with four in the ring saving the single. Almost every subsequent decision is about which single boundary he is prepared to leave open, and the bowler is expected to bowl to that gap. The wide yorker with a packed off side and the short ball into the body with two men back on the leg side are both fields disguised as deliveries.

Reading a field

The practical use of all this is that a field setting is a plan made visible. Two slips and a gully with mid-off up says the bowler wants a drive and an edge. A ring of six saving the single with two on the fence says the fielding side is happy to concede one and unwilling to concede four. Deep square leg and fine leg both back says the short ball is coming. A sweeper appearing at deep cover in the first hour of a Test says the captain no longer believes the pitch is doing anything.

It is also a negotiation. Every fielder moved to close a gap opens another, and a good batter watches the movement rather than the man. The best captains change the field and the bowler's plan together so that the two arrive at the batter as a single question, and the worst move a fielder after the ball has already gone past him.