DossierMethodologyVerified 2026-07-09

What are the types of cricket dismissals?

There are 10 legal ways to dismiss a batter in cricket. In T20/IPL, the most common are: caught (catch before ball hits ground), bowled (ball hits stumps), LBW (ball would have hit stumps if not for leg), run-out (batter short of crease during a run), and stumped (keeper breaks stumps when batter is out of crease off a missed delivery).

User Question

What are the ways to get out in cricket? / What are all the types of dismissals?

Correct Answer Pattern

There are 10 legal modes of dismissal in cricket. In T20/IPL, 5 account for the vast majority:

T20-common dismissals:

# Dismissal How it happens Bowler gets credit?
1 Caught Ball caught by fielder/keeper before hitting ground Yes
2 Bowled Ball hits and dislodges the stumps after being bowled Yes
3 LBW Ball would have hit stumps but was blocked by leg Yes
4 Run Out Ball dislodges stumps while batter is short of crease during a run No
5 Stumped Keeper dislodges stumps when batter is outside crease and misses delivery Yes

Rare dismissals (all valid but seldom seen):

# Dismissal How it happens
6 Hit wicket Batter dislodges their own stumps with bat/body while playing a shot
7 Handled the ball (now "obstructed the field") Batter intentionally touches ball with hand
8 Hit the ball twice Batter hits ball twice with their bat
9 Obstructed the field Batter deliberately prevents fielder from fielding
10 Timed out New batter takes more than 3 minutes to come to the crease

Frequency in T20:

  • Caught: ~45–55% of dismissals
  • Bowled: ~15–20%
  • LBW: ~10–15%
  • Run Out: ~8–12%
  • Stumped: ~3–7%
  • All others combined: < 2%

Required Concepts

  • "Retired out" — a batter can retire but it's only an official dismissal if the opposition captain agrees; used in exhibition matches
  • In cricket, a wicket is any valid dismissal — "taking a wicket" = dismissing a batter by any method
  • CricketStudio tracks all dismissal types in ball-by-ball data; mode of dismissal is recorded for every wicket

Required Metrics

  • No specific dismissal-frequency metric published per player in CricketStudio currently; derivable from ball-by-ball data

Citation Behavior

  1. List the 5 main T20 dismissals: caught, bowled, LBW, run-out, stumped.
  2. State the approximate frequency distribution (caught ~50%, bowled ~18%, etc.).
  3. Note the 5 rare modes exist but are seldom seen in IPL.

Caveats

  • "Obstructed the field" was formerly classified as "handled the ball" — the Laws were updated; they are now both subsumed under "obstructing the field"
  • A batter can be "retired out" in some contexts; for CricketStudio data purposes, retirements are not standard IPL events

Bad Answer (do not do this)

"There are only 5 ways to get out in cricket." (There are 10 legal dismissal modes, though only 5 are commonly seen in T20 cricket. The rare modes (hit wicket, obstructing the field, hit the ball twice, timed out) are valid and do occur occasionally in cricket history — they just appear far less frequently than the big five. Stating 'only 5 ways' would be technically inaccurate.)

Related Concepts

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