Cricket Fielding Positions Explained

Cricket commentary assumes you know where third man is, and no one on air is going to stop and tell you. This guide is the working map: the logic of the names, the positions you will hear most, and why captains move fielders at all.

The two halves of the field

Every position name starts from the batter's stance. The side of the field behind a right-hander's legs is the leg side (or on side); the side they face is the off side. When a left-hander is on strike, the sides mirror. Add three distance bands, close catching, the inner ring, and the boundary, and every named position is just a point in that grid.

Two prefixes do most of the work: "fine" means closer to the line of the pitch, "square" means closer to level with the batter; "short" means close to the bat, "deep" or "long" means on the boundary. Learn those and half the names decode themselves: deep fine leg, short square leg, long-off.

The catching cordon

Behind the batter on the off side stands the wicketkeeper, and beside the keeper the slips, first, second, third, numbered outward, waiting for an edge. Beyond the slips stands gully. This cordon exists because a good ball that catches the edge flies there, so the number of slips is a live readout of intent: three slips and a gully says the bowling side is hunting wickets; a lone slip says containment. Close on the leg side, leg slip and leg gully do the same job for deliveries clipped off the pads.

The ring and the boundary

The inner ring, point, cover, mid-off, mid-on, midwicket, square leg, exists to stop the single, cutting off drives and pushes. The boundary riders, third man, deep point, deep cover, long-off, long-on, deep midwicket, deep square leg, fine leg, exist to stop the four. Captains constantly trade between the two: bring a fielder into the ring and you concede a boundary risk, push one back and you concede easy singles.

The silly positions

Silly point, silly mid-off and short leg crouch within a few metres of the bat, helmeted and padded, waiting for a ball to pop off bat or pad. They are called silly for the obvious reason. These positions appear mostly when spinners bowl on turning pitches, where the ball catches the edge softly and dies quickly, and the sight of fielders gathering around the bat is one of cricket's clearest signals that the batting side is under siege.

Why fields change every over

Fielding sides may place their nine outfielders anywhere, subject to limits: in limited-overs cricket, powerplay rules cap how many fielders can stand on the boundary in each phase, and at all times no more than two fielders may stand behind square on the leg side, a law dating to the Bodyline controversy of the 1930s. Within those limits, the field is set per batter, per bowler, per plan, a field packed on the off side invites the batter to risk the leg side, a leg-side trap dares the pull shot. Watching the field move is watching the bowling side think.

Once the names click, ball-by-ball commentary turns from jargon into a picture, and you can test yourself on any live match on our cricket hub.