Running Out A Batsman "backing Up"
As a bowler enters his delivery stride, the non-striking batsman usually 'backs up'. This means he leaves his popping crease and walks towards the other end of the wicket so that it will take him less time to reach the other end if he and his batting partner choose to attempt a run.
Sometimes a batsman, whilst backing up, leaves the popping crease before the bowler has actually delivered the ball. Where this has happened, the bowler may attempt to run the non-striking batsman out. Getting a batsman out this way, though legal, is generally considered to be against the spirit of the game as the non-striker usually accidentally leaves the crease. The bowler is meant to warn the batsman to stay in his crease rather than to take his wicket. If he fails, and the batsman gets home, the delivery is called a dead ball. When it has happened in first-class cricket, it has been controversial.
Famous quotes containing the words backing up, running, batsman and/or backing:
“When I moved in with a bathing suit and tea bags
the ocean rumbled like a train backing up
and at each window secrets came in
like gas.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“If the wild bowler thinks he bowls,
Or if the batsman thinks he’s bowled,
They know not, poor misguided souls,
They, too, shall perish unconsoled.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
“And no one, it seemed, had had the presence of mind
To initiate proceedings or stop the wheel
From the number it was backing away from as it stopped:
It was performing prettily; the puncture stayed unseen....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)