Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-hour games), 100-ball cricket (2.5 hours) and T10 cricket (1.5 hour games). The name reflects the rule that in the match each team bowls a set maximum number of overs (sets of 6 legal balls), usually between 20 and 50, although shorter and longer forms of limited overs cricket have been played.
The concept contrasts with Test and first-class matches, which can take up to five days to complete. One-day cricket is popular with spectators as it can encourage aggressive, risky, entertaining batting, often results in cliffhanger endings, and ensures that a spectator can watch an entire match without committing to five days of continuous attendance.
Structure
Each team bats only once, and each innings is limited to a set number of overs, usually fifty in a One Day International and between forty and sixty in a List A. List A is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of cricket, technically as the domestic level.
Despite its name, important one-day matches, international and domestic, often have two days set aside, the second day being a "reserve" day to allow more chance of the game being completed if a result is not possible on the first day (for instance if play is prevented or interrupted by rain).
Tiebreaker
In some tied limited-overs games, a Super Over is played, wherein each team bats for a one-over innings with two wickets in hand. A tied Super Over may be followed by another Super Over.
Player restrictions Bowling restrictions
In almost all competitive one-day games, a restriction is placed on the number of overs that may be bowled by any one bowler. This is to prevent a side playing two top-class bowlers with extremely good stamina who can bowl throughout their opponents' innings. The usual limitation is set so that a side must include at least five players who bowl i.e. each bowler can only bowl 20% of the overs. For example, the usual limit for twenty-over cricket is four overs per bowler, for forty-over cricket eight per bowler and for fifty-over cricket ten per bowler. There are exceptions: Pro Cricket in the United States restricted bowlers to five overs each, thus leaving a side requiring only four bowlers.
Fielding restrictions
White balls
Limited over cricket is usually played with white balls rather than the traditional red balls. This was introduced because the team batting second is likely to need to play under floodlights and a white ball is easier to see under these conditions. The white balls are supposed to be otherwise identical to traditional balls, but according to BBC Sport, some cricketers claim that the harder surface causes white balls to swing more."Does the white ball behave differently?", BBC Sport: Cricket, retrieved 1 October 2021.
History The idea for a one-day, limited 50-over cricket tournament, was first played in the inaugural match of the All India Pooja Cricket Tournament in 1951 at Tripunithura in Kochi, Kerala. It is thought to be the brain child of KV Kelappan Thampuran, a former cricketer and the first Secretary of the Kerala Cricket Association. The first limited-overs tournament between first-class English teams was the Midlands Knock-Out Cup, which took place in May 1962. Played with 65-over innings, the Cup was organised by Mike Turner, secretary of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club. The competition was small, with three other county teams participating in addition to Leicestershire. However, it drew commercial television coverage and positive commentary by journalists, who noted the potential to attract sponsors and spectators amid declining attendance levels.
The following year, the first full-scale one-day competition between first-class teams was played, the knock-out Gillette Cup, won by Sussex. The number of overs was reduced to 60 for the 1964 season. League one-day cricket also began in England, when the John Player Sunday League was started in 1969 with 40-over matches. Both these competitions continued, with changes in sponsorship, till 2010, when they were replaced by the ECB 40. This was in turn replaced by the 50-over One-Day Cup in 2014.
The first Limited Overs International (LOI) or One-Day International (ODI) match was played between Australia and England in Melbourne on 5 January 1971, and the quadrennial cricket World Cup began in 1975. Many of the "packaging" innovations, such as coloured clothing, were as a result of World Series Cricket, a "rebel" series set up outside the cricketing establishment by Australian entrepreneur Kerry Packer. For more details, see History of cricket.
Twenty20, a curtailed form of one-day cricket with 20 overs (120 legal balls) per side, was first played in England in 2003. It has proven very popular, and several Twenty20 matches have been played between national teams. It makes several changes to the usual laws of cricket, including the use of a Super Over (one or more additional overs played by each team) to decide the result of tied matches.
100-ball cricket (2.5-hour games), another form of one-day cricket with 100 deliveries per side, launched in England in 2021. It is designed to further shorten game time and to attract a new audience. It makes further changes to the usual laws of cricket, such as the involvement of overs that last 5 balls each.
There are now also T10 leagues with a format of 10 overs per side (resulting in 90-minute games). The Emirates Cricket Board also launched Ninety–90 Bash, an upcoming annual franchise-based 90-ball cricket league in the United Arab Emirates.
One Day Internationals
One Day International matches are usually played in brightly coloured clothing often in a "day-night" format where the first innings of the day occurs in the afternoon and the second occurs under stadium lights.
One Day International tournaments
In the early days of ODI cricket, the number of overs was generally 60 overs per side, and matches were also played with 40, 45 or 55 overs per side, but now it has been uniformly fixed at 50 overs.
Every four years, the Cricket World Cup involves all the Test-playing nations and other national sides who qualify through the ICC World Cup Qualifier. It usually consists of round-robin stages, followed by semi-finals and a final. The International Cricket Council (ICC) determines the venue far in advance.
The ICC Champions Trophy involves all the Test-playing nations, and is held between World Cups. It usually consists of a round-robin group stage, semifinals, and a final.
Each Test-playing country often hosts triangular tournaments, between the host nation and two touring sides. There is usually a round-robin group, and then the leading two teams play each other in a final, or sometimes a best-of-three final. When there is only one touring side, there is still often a best-of-five or best-of-seven series of limited overs matches.
The ICC World Cricket League is an ODI competition for national teams with Associate or Affiliate status.
List A status
List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket. Much as domestic first-class cricket is the level below international Test match cricket, so List A cricket is the domestic level of one-day cricket below One Day Internationals. Twenty20 matches do not qualify for the present.
Most cricketing nations have some form of domestic List A competition. The number of overs in List A cricket ranges from forty to sixty overs per side.
The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians created this category for the purpose of providing an equivalent to first-class cricket, to allow the generation of career records and statistics for comparable one-day matches. Only the more important one-day competitions in each country, plus matches against a touring Test team, are included. The categorisation of cricket matches as "List A" was not officially endorsed by the International Cricket Council until 2006, when the ICC announced that it and its member associations would be determining this classification in a manner similar to that done for first class matches.ICC clarifies what counts and what doesn't, from Cricinfo, 30 July 2006
Matches that qualify as List A: One Day Internationals (ODIs) Other international matches. Premier one-day tournaments in permanent test playing nations Official matches of a Test nations against first-class teams Official international matches between (officially) second-tier ODI teams
Matches that do not qualify as List A: World Cup warm-up matches Other Tourist matches (for example, against first-class teams that are not part of the main domestic first-class competition, such as universities) Festival and friendly matches One Day tournaments in not test playing nations.
Domestic competitions Domestic one-day competitions exist in almost every country where cricket is played. The table below lists the limited overs tournaments that take place in each full member nation. CountryTournamentFormat Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament 50 overs Green Afghanistan One Day Cup 50 overs Shpageeza Cricket League 20 overs Marsh One-Day Cup 50 overs Big Bash League 20 overs Women's National Cricket League 50 overs Women's Big Bash League 20 overs Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League 50 overs Bangladesh Premier League 20 overs Dhaka Premier Division Twenty20 Cricket League 20 overs Bangladesh Women's National Cricket League 50 overs Royal London One-Day Cup 50 overs T20 Blast 20 overs The Hundred 100-ball Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy 50 overs Charlotte Edwards Cup 20 overs Women's Twenty20 Cup 20 overs Vijay Hazare Trophy 50 overs Deodhar Trophy 50 overs Indian Premier League 20 overs Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 20 overs Women's Senior One Day Trophy 50 overs Senior Women's Challenger Trophy 50 overs Women's Senior T20 Trophy 20 overs Women's Senior T20 Challenger Trophy 20 overs Women's Premier League 20 overs Inter-Provincial Cup 50 overs Inter-Provincial Trophy 20 overs Women's Super Series 50/20 overs The Ford Trophy 50 overs Men's Super Smash 20 overs Hallyburton Johnstone Shield 50 overs Women's Super Smash 20 overs Pakistan Cup 50 overs National T20 Cup 20 overs Pakistan Super League 20 overs Pakistan Women's One Day Cup 50 overs PCB Triangular Twenty20 Women's Tournament 20 overs CSA One-Day Cup 50 overs CSA Provincial T20 Cup 20 overs CSA T20 League 20 overs Women's Provincial Programme 50 overs Women's Provincial T20 Competition 20 overs Women's T20 Super League 20 overs National Super League 50 overs SLC Invitational T20 League 20 overs Lanka Premier League 20 overs Sri Lanka Women's Division One Tournament 50 overs Sri Lanka Women's Invitation T20 Tournament 20 overs Super50 Cup 50 overs Caribbean Premier League 20 overs The 6ixty 10 overs Women's Super50 Cup 50 overs Twenty20 Blaze 20 overs Women's Caribbean Premier League 20 overs Pro50 Championship 50 overs Stanbic Bank 20 Series 20 overs Fifty50 Challenge 50 overs Women's T20 Cup 20 overs
One-day records
The world record for the highest innings total in any List A limited overs match is 574 for 6 by Bihar against Arunachal Pradesh in Ranchi on 24 December 2025. On 17 June 2022, England set a new international record, totalling 498 for 4 against Netherlands at Amstelveen. The lowest ever total is 18 by West Indies U-19 against Barbados at Blairmont in 2007. The record low score in ODIs is 35, by Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka in Harare on 25 April 2004 and United States against Nepal in Kirtipur on 12 February 2020.