The quick version
Make two teams of six and toss for who bats first. Put two batters at opposite wickets; all six opponents field. Bowl six valid deliveries to make an over, then bowl from the other end with a different bowler. Score completed runs, four for a grounded boundary and six for an airborne boundary. A bowled wicket, clean catch or run-out dismisses a batter. After six overs or five dismissals, change roles. The second team needs one more run than the first team's total to win; equal final totals are a tie.
Saved on this device only — clearing your browser's cache or site data removes them (no account backup).
Mark the pitch and agree the house format
Choose permitted level grass with space for a 22-yard (20.12 m) pitch, bowlers' approaches, running lanes, fielders and the ball's likely travel beyond the boundary. Check the actual site for people, roads, windows and obstacles. A boundary is a scoring line, not a barrier that stops a ball. Move elsewhere if the field cannot contain this play; there is no universal backyard size that guarantees it will fit.
Bring two manageable cricket bats, one ordinary untaped tennis ball, two stable freestanding wickets (three stumps and two removable bails each), 12 low-profile boundary markers, a measuring tape, landowner-permitted crease chalk, a coin, paper and pencil. Use a bright ball everyone can track. A leather cricket ball, weighted ball or taped ball is outside this setup. Keep waiting players outside the swing, bowling and running areas.
Set the wickets opposite each other, middle stumps 22 yards apart. Chalk a bowling crease across each wicket, 8 feet 8 inches wide and centered on the middle stump. At each end, mark a parallel popping crease 4 feet toward the opposite wicket, extending at least 6 feet each side of the pitch centerline. Its edge nearest the wicket is the judging edge. Ground a bat or part of your body beyond that edge toward the wicket to be in your ground; touching only the line is insufficient. Add return creases at right angles, 4 feet 4 inches each side of the centerline, from the popping crease to at least 8 feet behind it. These mark the bowler's delivery lane.
Place the 12 markers around the playing area and agree straight boundary segments between adjacent markers, with the boundary itself included. Walk it together and keep it fixed for both innings. There is no prescribed radius in this house game. Use a field with safe hitting space on all sides; do not invent an out rule for hitting into a road or occupied area.
Split into two balanced teams of six, mixing experience. Write each batting order and select at least three willing bowlers per team. Each bowler may deliver at most two overs and never consecutive overs; A, B, C, A, B, C is one legal plan. One innings means a team's single batting opportunity. Each lasts at most six overs or five dismissals, whichever comes first. The sixth batter cannot continue alone.
Read the extras and dismissal sections to everyone before tossing. This version has no LBW (leg before wicket), stumpings, hit-wicket dismissals, free hits or pre-delivery run-outs. It uses dead-ball penalties for wides/no-balls, no leg-byes and simplified overthrow scoring. These are house decisions, not statements of the full MCC Laws.
Start the innings and deliver an over
Assign the first positions
A captain calls heads or tails as the other tosses the coin. The winner chooses to bat or field first. The first two batters take opposite ends, each with a bat: the striker faces the bowler; the non-striker waits at the bowler's end, grounded behind the popping crease and to the side away from the delivery. The fielding team has one bowler, one wicketkeeper well behind the striker's wicket and four other fielders spread out. Keep everyone clear of the bat's swing.
Use waiting batters as officials
Of the four batters waiting, appoint two impartial callers, one safely behind the bowler with a view of that crease, one side-on with a view of the striker's crease; a third keeps score. The fourth prepares to bat. When an official goes in to bat, a waiting or dismissed teammate takes that job before another delivery. No extra participant is required. The callers judge both teams by the same rules.
Show the first action
Before scoring, demonstrate one gentle delivery, one hit and one completed exchange of ends. Reset without recording runs, balls or wickets. For the real first ball, the bowler waits until the striker, fielders, callers and scorer are ready, then bowls overarm without straightening the elbow during the delivery swing; wrist movement is allowed. Start from a short approach at an agreed comfortable pace. Batters may defend, hit or leave the ball; a miss alone is not a strike or dismissal.
Count valid balls
One delivery is one ball. A valid ball counts even if nobody scores or a batter is out; a no-score delivery is a dot ball. Wides, no-balls and an interruption called before the striker can play do not count. After the action ends, the scorer records the delivery and confirms the count. Six valid balls make an over. For example, 2.3 means two completed overs plus three valid balls, not 2.3 decimal overs.
Change bowling ends
After the sixth valid ball is dead, call over. A different bowler delivers the next over from the opposite wicket. The wicketkeeper moves behind the new striker; fielders and callers reset safely. Batters keep the ends where they finished the previous ball: changing the direction of bowling changes who faces next. Do not also swap the batters automatically. Check each bowler's two-over limit before starting.
Declare the ball dead
Keep fielding and running until a boundary, dismissal or house dead-ball call ends the action. Otherwise the caller says dead ball once the keeper or bowler has secure possession and both batters have stopped running and returned to their ground. Do not launch the next delivery while the last play or score is still being resolved.
Score runs and keep the right batter facing
After a hit, either batter can call yes, no or wait. Running is optional. For one run, both batters must reach and ground their bat or body beyond the opposite popping crease. They may turn for another run while the ball remains live. If either turns short, that exchange scores nothing; the scorer counts only completed exchanges. Run on separate sides of the pitch and slide the bat along the ground as you reach the crease. Never block a runner or throw at a person's body to get them out.
An odd number of completed runs exchanges who faces the next ball from the same bowling end; an even number leaves the same striker. On a valid ball that misses both bat and body, batters may run byes: these add to the team total, not the striker's individual runs. In this house version, a ball touching the body before touching the bat becomes dead immediately, scores no run and counts as a dot ball unless it was already a no-ball. This removes leg-byes and LBW judgments; do not deliberately use your body to block the ball.
A hit reaching the agreed boundary after touching the ground scores four. A hit first reaching it without touching the ground scores six. Stop running, record that boundary alone and put batters back at their pre-delivery ends. This house format always replaces running with the boundary value rather than comparing unusually large running totals. A bye reaching the boundary scores four, never six. A fielder touching the boundary while touching the ball concedes the boundary and cannot complete a catch there.
If a fielding throw crosses the boundary, stop play and award four additional team runs plus exchanges fully completed before the throw. Discard any exchange in progress at the throw and restore the ends corresponding to those completed runs. This is a simpler house rule than MCC's crossing-at-the-throw calculation. Otherwise an inaccurate throw remains live and batters may keep running.
Keep a delivery-by-delivery team record of runs, extras, dismissals and valid-ball count. Individual scores are optional. Say the total, wickets lost and balls remaining at the end of every over: for example, 24 runs for two wickets after three overs, with three overs left. Confirm the written total with both captains at the innings break.
Call wides and no-balls consistently
For this house game, a wide is an unhit delivery passing outside the striker's ordinary reach from a normal stance at the popping crease. Agree that stance and demonstrate a reachable delivery before play. A ball that touches bat or body is not a wide. Do not turn a reachable ball into a wide by moving away from it.
Call no-ball if the bowler's front foot has no part grounded or raised behind the popping crease on landing, the back foot lands touching or outside the return crease, the elbow straightens during the delivery swing, or the ball rolls or bounces more than once before the striker's popping crease. Also call no-ball for a non-bouncing delivery above the striker's waist, or a bouncing delivery rising above shoulder height, judged for a striker standing upright at that crease. Keep the pace comfortable; a dangerous delivery is stopped even if it misses these height tests.
In this version, every wide or no-ball is dead: stop the play, add exactly one team extra, restore both batters to their pre-delivery ends and deliver a replacement ball. No other run or dismissal from that delivery stands. No-ball overrides wide, so do not add two penalties. There is no free hit. This dead-ball treatment is a house simplification; under full cricket Laws, a no-ball or wide can remain live and some dismissals are still possible.
A passerby, loose object or unsafe situation interrupts play: call dead ball, resolve it and replay that delivery with no score or dismissal. If a bowler repeatedly cannot deliver reachable, comfortable balls, pause for practice or replace them for the remaining balls; count that partial over toward both bowlers' two-over limits and do not let the replacement bowl the following over. Do not secretly change the penalty or over count during an innings.
Dismiss a batter and send in the next one
This house game uses three dismissal types. Bowled: a valid delivery hits the striker's wicket and removes a bail, directly or after hitting the bat. The body-first dead-ball rule takes priority if applicable. Merely brushing a stump without removing a bail is not out. Caught: a valid ball off the bat is held under control before touching the ground, with the fielder and ball inside the boundary. A bouncing catch is not out. On bowled or caught, record no runs from that delivery, keep the surviving batter at their pre-delivery end and bring the next batter to the dismissed striker's end, even if the pair crossed before the catch.
Run-out: after a valid delivery, while the pair is attempting a run, a fielder removes a bail with the ball, or with the hand holding the ball, before the approaching batter has grounded beyond that end's popping crease. The runner trying to reach that end is out. Completed earlier exchanges score; the failed exchange does not. For clear restart positions, this house game puts the survivor at the end opposite the broken wicket and the new batter at the broken wicket. This fixed restart replaces MCC's crossing-based end allocation.
If both bails are already off, a fielder holding the ball must lift a stump out of its freestanding base to complete a run-out. A knocked-over wicket alone is not a dismissal unless the ball or ball-holding hand fairly broke it. Reset the equipment before the next ball. If equipment cannot be fairly judged or reset, call dead ball and repair it.
Fielders ask the relevant caller for an out decision before the next delivery. The callers consult if needed; remaining doubt means not out. Return the ball while they decide. A confirmed dismissal ends that batter's innings; they do not return in the main game. After five dismissals, the innings ends because only one of six batters remains.
No run-out is available before release, nor against a striker merely stepping out to play without attempting a run: those are omitted house cases, not universal cricket immunity. Keep the non-striker grounded until release. Deliberate obstruction, a second deliberate scoring hit or repeated body blocking stops play for correction; if it continues, stop the match without a result rather than improvising penalties.
Change roles, chase the target and finish
The first innings ends after six overs (36 valid balls) or five wickets. Record the total. Teams exchange batting and fielding roles, with a fresh ball count and bowler limits. The target is that total plus one: 38 runs sets a target of 39. Use the same ball, boundary and rules. The second innings ends as soon as its score reaches the target, even through the one-run wide or no-ball penalty; no need to finish the over.
If the second team finishes six overs or loses five wickets below the target, compare totals. More runs wins; equal totals are a tie, even if wickets lost differ. This guide uses no automatic Super Over, boundary countback or fewer-wickets tiebreak. A rematch starts a new game; change batting order so people who did not bat can open.
If someone must leave, play cannot continue safely, or the second innings cannot be completed, record an unfinished match with no result. Do not compare unequal partial innings or invent a rain-adjusted target. Return shared equipment and leave the field as you found it.
Help first-time players participate
Show the difference between the wicket (the stumps) and a wicket lost (a dismissal), then rehearse grounding the bat and calling no before the first innings. Batters need not swing hard or run on every hit. Encourage a reachable pace, clean ground strokes and throws to wickets rather than people. Keep the wicketkeeper and close fielders out of the swing area; a tennis ball still needs sensible spacing.
The main game may end before everyone bats. Explain that honestly before choosing orders. Use the pairs variation when guaranteed batting opportunities matter more than an all-out chase. Rotate wicketkeeping and field positions between overs when players want to try different roles, confirming readiness before bowling. Scoring and calling are participation jobs, not a reason to ignore waiting teammates.
Resolve a score discrepancy from the written deliveries while the ball is dead. Clarify a borderline wide using the pre-game demonstration, not a new rule that favors the current team. Correct a call promptly before the next delivery. Stop for slipping, poor visibility or unwanted people entering the field; a shortened session does not require a manufactured winner.
Already know the game?
Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Cricket · See main rules
House suggestion · share fielding rolesEveryone bowls an over
Replace the two-over maximum with one over maximum per player, so all six fielders bowl once if the innings lasts six overs. Write the six-person order before starting; when the keeper bowls, another teammate keeps wicket. Use the same six-over/five-wicket innings, scoring, extras, bowling ends and target. If an innings finishes early, unused bowlers do not receive extra deliveries. Choose this only when everyone is willing and can deliver comfortably; rehearse first.
Cricket · See main rules
House suggestion · everyone batsThree pairs, two overs each
Before the toss, make three fixed batting pairs per team and write their order. Each pair bats two overs, so each team always receives six overs unless play is stopped. On each bowled, caught or run-out, subtract five from the team's score instead of replacing a batter; the same pair continues, returning to its pre-delivery ends. Even after a run-out, only exchanges completed before it score. End-of-over bowling direction still changes normally. Keep a score that may go below zero. After two overs replace both batters with the next pair. Remove the five-wicket cutoff and immediate chase finish: BOTH teams complete their full three pairs, then compare final totals; equal totals tie. Extras, boundary scoring and bowler limits remain unchanged. This guarantees a batting spell, not an equal number of balls faced.
Cricket · See main rules
House suggestion · reward placementGround-shot scoring
Keep the same teams, pitch, overs, wickets, extras and chase. Change only airborne boundary hits: they score four instead of six, with batters restored to pre-delivery ends; the striker stays in. Grounded boundaries and bye boundaries remain four. Catches before the boundary remain dismissals and running still scores normally. This reduces the scoring advantage of lofted hits; it does not make a cramped or unsafe venue suitable. Choose a field that safely contains aerial hits before using it.
About this guide
Core pitch, over, running, boundary and dismissal concepts were checked against MCC's 2017 Code, fourth edition (2026), dated 1 October 2026. This six-a-side tennis-ball format is STUDplay's house selection, not an ECB or ICC competition. The exact 12-person range, six-over limit, two-over bowling cap, rotating team officials, dead extras, body-first dots, three dismissal types, fixed run-out restart, simplified boundaries/overthrows and unfinished-match policy are house rules. All three variations are house suggestions. Community accounts inform host needs, not official rules, popularity or safety guarantees. No purchased game edition applies.
Ready for something different?
Find another game →