Catching positions

A wicket-keeper and three slips wait for the next ball. The batsman - out of shot - is a left-hander

Some fielding positions are used offensively.

That is, players are put there with the main aim being to catch out the batsman rather than to stop or slow down the scoring of runs.

These positions include:

• Slip (often there are multiple slips next to each other, designated First slip, Second slip, Third slip, etc, numbered outwards from the wicket-keeper)


• Fly slip


• Gully


• Leg slip


• Leg gully


• The short and silly positions

Bat pad is a position specifically intended to catch balls that unintentionally strike the bat and leg pad, and thus end up only a metre or two to the leg side.