Maiden over

A maiden over in cricket is an over, six legal deliveries bowled by a single bowler, from which the batting side scores no runs off the bat. It is a small but meaningful win for the bowler: six balls of sustained pressure with nothing to show for it on the scoreboard, which forces the batters onto the back foot. In the longer formats a run of maidens can strangle a batting side into a rash shot; in limited-overs cricket, where every ball is expected to yield runs, a maiden is gold dust for the fielding team. A 'wicket-maiden', a maiden over that also includes a dismissal, is better still. Whether byes and leg-byes break a maiden depends on the scoring convention, which occasionally sparks friendly arguments in the stands. Match coverage and stats are at ESPNcricinfo.