Beginner's Guide to Cricket Fielding Positions and Where to Stand

Somewhere in your first few games, a teammate will shout "go to point" and you will sprint in exactly the wrong direction. That is normal. Cricket has close to thirty named fielding spots, every one of them described from the batter's point of view, and a few quietly change name depending on whether a right-hander or a left-hander is on strike.

The good news: you only need about a dozen of them to field with confidence, and they fit together in a pattern you can learn in an afternoon.

Off Side, Leg Side, and Three Words That Do the Work

Every fielding position is named from the striker's perspective, not yours. Stand behind the bowler's stumps and look down the pitch. The off side is the side the batter faces and swings the bat through. The leg side is where the legs and pads are. Swap the two for a left-hander, and you have understood the most confusing thing about fielding positions.

Three words place almost every fielder on the ground:

• Straight — in line with the pitch, either in front of or behind the batter. Mid-off and mid-on are straight.
• Square — level with the batter, at right angles to the pitch. Point and square leg are square.
• Behind — behind the line of the stumps. Slips, third man and fine leg live back there.

Say "square on the leg side" or "behind the batter on the off side" and any fielder can find the spot, even if they do not know its name yet.

The Close Catchers

These positions sit a few metres from the bat. They exist because the captain expects the batter to edge the ball.

The wicketkeeper is the spare pair of eyes for the whole field, and the person to ask if you are unsure where to stand or which end to throw to. Behind the keeper on the off side come the slips: first slip closest to the gloves, then second slip and third slip progressively wider and deeper. Anything that nicks the bat and travels at chest height is theirs.

Next to the slips, wider and squarer, stands gully, waiting for thick edges and hard cut shots. Leg slip is the mirror image on the leg side and is used mostly against spin. Short leg crouches beside the batter in line with the stumps, and silly point stands a couple of metres in front of the bat on the off side. Both are bat-pad positions for spinners, and both need a helmet.

Close fielding is a concentration job, not a bravery contest. Watch the ball leave the bat, keep your hands soft, and resist the urge to watch the batter instead.

The Infield Ring: Where You Will Spend Most of Your Time

Most beginner overs are fielded inside the 30-yard circle, and most of those are in the ring — the arc of fielders wrapped around the batter. These are the spots you will be asked to fill game after game.

• Point — square on the off side, level with the batter's stumps. Cuts and square drives come your way.
• Cover — in front of point on the off side, with cover point sitting between the two. This is the busiest patch of grass in the ring.
• Mid-off and mid-on — either side of the pitch, straight, closer in than cover. You stop straight drives and back up throws at the bowler's end.
• Midwicket — forward of square on the leg side, where pulls, clips and flicks arrive.
• Square leg — square on the leg side, level with the batter. Anything worked off the pads or swept passes you.

The job in the ring is repetitive and simple: get your body behind the ball, stop the single, and return it low and hard to the top of the stumps. Good ring fielders move as the ball is released, not after it has been hit.

On the Boundary

Push the ring fielders back twenty or thirty metres and you have the outfield positions.

Third man is behind the batter on the off side, usually on the rope, covering edges that fly past the slips and late cuts. Fine leg is the opposite number on the leg side, collecting glances and top edges; a short fine leg is the version captains use with a bouncer plan. Long off and long on are deep and straight, in line with the pitch, waiting for a batter who goes for the big hit down the ground.

Deep cover, deep point, deep midwicket and deep square leg are simply the ring positions pushed back to the rope. A "sweeper cover" is a deep cover who sweeps across to cut off the ball heading into the extra-cover gap. On the boundary, depth matters more than direction: know before the ball is bowled whether you are a metre inside the rope or a metre on it, and talk to the fielder beside you about who takes the ball in the gap.

How Fields Change Between Formats

Test cricket has no fielding restrictions, so captains can be as attacking or as defensive as the situation demands. With a new ball you will often see three or four slips, a gully and maybe a leg slip. When a spinner bowls with an older ball, expect a short leg or silly point along with sweepers out on the boundary. Fields change constantly, and a fielder who watches where the captain moves people learns a lot about the plan.

One-day cricket uses the 30-yard circle. In the first ten overs only two fielders may be outside it, so the ring is crowded and gaps open up everywhere. From overs 11 to 40, up to four can go out. In the last ten overs, five can be outside, which is why the field then looks like a ring of boundary riders with a couple of catchers still in close.

T20 takes that idea to its limit. Two out in the first six overs, then five outside for the rest of the innings. Captains fill the deep — long on, long off, deep midwicket, deep cover — and dare the batter to clear the rope. Beginners are usually given a boundary post or a ring spot with very clear instructions: stop the single, or stop the two.

The field is the plan written on grass. If your captain sends a fielder back to deep midwicket, expect a slower ball into the pitch and a skier in that direction.

Learning the Field in a Week

1. Draw it. Sketch a pitch, mark off side and leg side, and place the twelve main positions on it. Three minutes a day is plenty.
2. Name them out loud. Watch one over and call each position as the camera pans. Pause when you are unsure and work it out.
3. Walk the ground at training. Stand at point, then deep point, then fine leg. Feel the distances — beginners misjudge depth more than direction.
4. Ask one question before you take the field: "If it comes straight at me, which end do I throw to?" The bowler or keeper will answer in five seconds.
5. Practise the habits. Walk in with the bowler, stay low, watch the ball into your hands, back up every throw, and call loudly for the ball.

You do not need all thirty names before your next match. Learn the ring positions first, add the close catchers when your captain uses them, then pick up one boundary spot each week. Before long you will hear "sweeper cover" and be jogging there before the captain has finished saying it.

Photo: RonaldPlett / Pixabay