Cricket Power Play Rules for One Day Internationals (ODI)

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Power play is a set of field restriction rules for ODI Cricket. The rule was introduced for the first time in the Match against England and Australia on 7th of July, 2005.

History of fielding restriction rules in ODI cricket:

In the past there were no fielding restrictions and the fielding captain could place his men anywhere in the cricket field. However, ICC for the first time introduced fielding restrictions in World Cup 1996 with great success. The rule was that for the first 15 overs of each inning of anODI game, the fielding team’s captain can only place two fielders outside a 30 yard circle measured with the batsman’s crease as the center and two men should be in catching positions. The idea was to give hard hitting batsmen an opportunity to hit out with a better chance of scoring a boundary than getting out in the process. The bigger picture was to make the game more interesting and exciting for the viewers.

The Power Plays:

In order to make ODIs even more exciting, ICC, in mid 2005 decided to amend the fielding restriction rules such the number of overs of fielding restrictions were increased from 15 to 20 overs. These 20 overs were divided into 3 parts called Power Play 1, 2 and 3.

Power Play 1:

The first 10 overs of each innings are the first of the three power plays. In these overs, the fielding team captain can only place two fielders outside a 30 yard circle measured with the batsman’s crease as the centre and two men should be in catching positions.

Power Play 2 and 3:

These two power plays were originally taken by the fielding team captain. Since 2008, a slight amendment has been made such that a one of the two power plays is taken by the fielding team captain while the other is taken by the batting team captain. Power plays 2 and 3 are 5 overs each and can be taken at any time after the first 10 overs (power play 1). If no team takes a power play then over 41 – 45 and 46 – 50 automatically become power plays. In these power plays the fielding team captain is allowed three feilders outside the 30 yard circle. There is no restriction for any fielder to be in a catching position.

Power plays are signaled by the on field umpire by moving his/her arm in a circular motion.

Future considerations about Power Play rules (at the time of writing):

It seems that there are plans to make more amendments to power play rules (actually ODIs in general) and in September 2009, Jhonty Rhodes (a former South African player largely famous because of his amazing fielding abilities) suggested that a rule should be made that all Power Plays should be taken by the 31st over and the rest of information over the scoring and team performance will be available in ipl 2020 schedule pdf download that can be downloaded from any website of ipl sponsors and not only that they can also avail the refer and earn scheme this time in which they will get the bonus . His motivation was that the last 20 overs of an ODI are bound to be exciting even without any Power Play.

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