Complete control

Law 33 is the Law on the dismissal everybody thinks they understand. A batter hits the ball, a fielder catches it, out. The text is longer than that, and the length is in one word: fair.

The first clause

"The striker is out Caught if a ball delivered by the bowler, not being a No ball, touches his/her bat without having previously been in contact with any fielder, and is subsequently held by a fielder as a fair catch, as described in 33.2 and 33.3, before it touches the ground."

Four conditions in one sentence. Not a no ball. Touches the bat. No fielder touched it first. Held before it touches the ground, as a fair catch. The first three are facts. The fourth sends the reader to two other clauses.

What makes it fair

Clause 33.2.1 is about the boundary. A catch is fair only if "either the ball, at any time or any fielder in contact with the ball, is not grounded beyond the boundary before the catch is completed". The ball over the rope, or a fielder over the rope while touching it, and the catch is not a catch. Before it is completed: that qualifier does the work, and completion is defined later.

Clause 33.2.2.1 says what holding means. In the hand or hands, "even if the hand holding the ball is touching the ground". Or hugged to the body. Or lodged in the fielder's external protective equipment. Or lodged accidentally in clothing. A ball trapped against a chest is held. A ball that has gone into a helmet grille is held. The Law is generous about what a hand is.

Clause 33.2.2.3 says what the ball may touch on the way. The wicket, an umpire, another fielder, a runner, the other batter. Off any of those and then into a hand, the catch stands. The one thing it may not touch is the ground.

When it ends

Clause 33.3. "The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder's person and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement."

Both. The ball, and the fielder. A fielder who has the ball secure but is still falling, sliding or stumbling has not completed the catch. Control of the ball is half the test. Control of the body is the other half, and the Law will not call the catch made until both halves are met.

That is the phrase the boundary clause depends on. Grounded beyond the rope "before the catch is completed" means before the fielder is in control of their own movement. A fielder who takes the ball inside the rope and then, still moving, steps on it, has not completed the catch inside the rope.

What it costs the batting side

Clause 33.4. "If the striker is dismissed Caught, runs from that delivery completed by the batters before the completion of the catch shall not be scored but any runs for penalties awarded to either side shall stand."

So the moment of completion matters twice. It decides whether the boundary clause was breached, and it decides whether any runs count. Two batters who have crossed and run one while the ball is in the air, and crossed again, score nothing if the catch is completed. The penalties stand; the running does not.

The word the Law turns on

Complete. Not caught, not held, not taken: complete, and defined as control of two things. It is a word about the end of a sequence rather than the middle of one, and it is the reason a fielder with the ball in both hands can still be a step away from a wicket. The batter is out when the fielder stops, not when the ball does.

Law 33, Caught: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

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No. 11 in By the Book, a series of 17.

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