What Is a Super Over? Cricket's Tie-Breaking Method Explained
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A Super Over is the one-over-per-side eliminator used to break a tie in limited-overs cricket. Each team nominates three batters and one bowler, faces six legal deliveries, and the higher score wins. Losing two wickets ends the innings on the spot. If the Super Over itself finishes level, another is played until somebody comes out ahead.
What is a Super Over in cricket?
It is a mini-match bolted onto a tied game. When both sides finish on the same score after their full allocation of overs, the umpires do not declare a draw and go home; they set up a Super Over, sometimes called a one-over eliminator, and the match is decided inside about ten minutes.
The Super Over applies to Twenty20 and 50-over cricket only. It has no place in the multi-day game, where a tie is a legitimate result and stays on the record, as our guide to how Test cricket is structured explains.
How does a Super Over work, step by step?
The mechanics are fixed and short. Each side gets one over of six legal deliveries, bowled from the same end, with the same fielding restrictions that applied at the end of the main innings.
- Both captains nominate three batters and one bowler in writing before the Super Over starts. Only players named in the original XI are eligible.
- The side that batted second in the match bats first in the Super Over.
- Wides and no-balls are re-bowled and do not count towards the six. A no-ball concedes a run and, in T20, brings a free hit.
- The innings ends after six legal balls or after two wickets, whichever comes first. With only three batters nominated, a second dismissal leaves nobody to come in.
- The side batting second knows its target from ball one, and stops as soon as it passes the score.
Who can bat and bowl in a Super Over?
Only the eleven players nominated for the match, and the choices are declared before a ball is bowled. Teams typically send in their two hardest hitters plus a reserve, and give the ball to a death specialist rather than a strike bowler.
Batters who are not out in a Super Over stay eligible for any repeat. Batters who are dismissed do not. Bowlers face the tighter restriction: whoever bowls one Super Over is barred from bowling the next.
What happens if the Super Over is also tied?
Another Super Over is played, and if that ties, another one. At ICC events the eliminator is now repeated until there is a result, and the batting order flips each time, so the side that batted second in the first Super Over bats first in the second.
The 2026 T20 World Cup produced the first World Cup match to need two of them. South Africa and Afghanistan tied their Group D game, tied the first Super Over, and South Africa then set 24 in the second and defended it by four runs. Dewald Brevis was ineligible to bat again after being dismissed in the first; Tristan Stubbs and David Miller, both not out, batted twice. Lungi Ngidi, having bowled the first, handed the second to Keshav Maharaj.
Why the 2019 World Cup final boundary rule no longer exists
The most consequential Super Over in cricket history was decided by a rule the sport has since deleted. At Lord’s on 14 July 2019, New Zealand made 241 for 8 and England were bowled out for 241. The Super Over produced 15 runs apiece. Under the playing conditions of the day, the tie-break was boundary countback: total fours and sixes struck across the whole match. England had 26, New Zealand 17, and England were world champions.
The criticism was immediate and the ICC agreed with it. In October 2019 the boundary count was abandoned in favour of repeated Super Overs, on the reasoning that a cricket match should be decided by scoring more runs than the opposition rather than by scoring them in a particular shape. Nothing was taken away from New Zealand retrospectively; the 2019 result stands. But no future final will be settled the same way.
When was the Super Over introduced?
The first Super Over in international cricket was played on 26 December 2008 at Eden Park, Auckland, after New Zealand and West Indies finished level on 155 in a T20 international. West Indies scored 25 in their over, New Zealand managed 15, and the format had its proof of concept inside six balls.
It replaced the bowl-out, in which five players from each side bowled at an unguarded set of stumps. That method was used at the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 and looked closer to a penalty shootout than to cricket. Franchise leagues adopted the Super Over quickly, and it has decided several matches across the IPL’s history.
Super Over rules at a glance
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Length | 6 legal deliveries per side |
| Batters nominated | 3 |
| Bowlers nominated | 1 per side, per Super Over |
| Wickets that end the innings | 2 |
| Bats first | The side that batted second in the match |
| Wides and no-balls | Re-bowled, do not count towards the six |
| If tied | Repeat Super Overs until there is a result |
| Repeat eligibility | Dismissed batters and the previous bowler are barred |
| Formats | T20 and ODI only |
Two wickets ending an innings is the detail that decides most Super Overs, and any of the ten ways a batter can be dismissed will do it, including a run out on the first ball. For the wider rulebook, our cricket rules hub covers the Laws that shape results rather than individual deliveries, and the overs breakdown for ODI cricket explains the format a Super Over is most often called on to rescue.
Frequently asked questions
How many balls are there in a Super Over?+
Six legal deliveries per side, so wides and no-balls are re-bowled and do not count. A no-ball also adds a run and, in T20, a free hit. In practice a Super Over often runs to eight or nine actual deliveries once extras are bowled under pressure.
How many wickets end a Super Over?+
Two. Each side nominates three batters, so once two are dismissed there is nobody left to partner the survivor and the innings closes immediately. Any unbowled deliveries are simply not bowled. This is why a run out on the first ball can effectively end a Super Over.
Who bats first in a Super Over?+
The side that batted second in the main match bats first in the Super Over, which reverses the order and hands the chasing role to the team that set the target. In any subsequent Super Over the order flips again, so the team that batted second bats first next time.
What happens if the Super Over is a tie?+
Another Super Over is played, and then another, until one side scores more than the other. Batters dismissed in a previous Super Over cannot bat again and the bowler who bowled the previous one cannot bowl the next. Boundary countback was scrapped in October 2019.
Why did England win the 2019 World Cup final on boundaries?+
Because the playing conditions at the time said so. The match tied at 241, the Super Over tied at 15 apiece, and the tie-break was the number of boundaries hit across the whole match. England had 26 to New Zealand's 17. The ICC removed that rule three months later.
Can the same bowler bowl two Super Overs in a row?+
No. Any bowler who bowled in the previous Super Over is ineligible for the next one. South Africa hit that restriction in the 2026 T20 World Cup: Lungi Ngidi bowled the first Super Over against Afghanistan, so Keshav Maharaj had to bowl the second, which he defended.
When was the Super Over introduced in cricket?+
December 2008. The first was played in a tied T20 international between New Zealand and West Indies at Eden Park, Auckland, on 26 December 2008, with West Indies making 25 to New Zealand's 15. It replaced the bowl-out, which decided ties by bowling at unguarded stumps.
Is a Super Over used in Test cricket?+
No. Super Overs apply only to limited-overs cricket, so Twenty20 and 50-over matches. A tied Test simply stands as a tie, which has happened twice in the format's history. A draw and a tie are different results in Test cricket, and neither is settled by an eliminator of any kind.
Sources
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