wicket-keeper, who with it puts down the wicket before the batsman
returns his bat or his body within the popping-crease. 4. "Caught out,"
if any fielder catches the ball direct from the striker's bat or hand
before it touches the ground. 5. "Run out," if the batsman, in
attempting to make a run, fails to reach his safety-ground before the
wicket to which he is running is put down with the ball. 6. "Leg before
wicket," if the batsman stops with his leg or other part of his body a
bowled ball, whose course in the opinion of the umpire was in a line
with the wickets, and which if not so stopped would have taken the
wicket.

At every ball bowled, therefore, the batsman must guard against all
these dangers: he must, without leaving his ground, and avoiding "leg
before wicket," play the ball so that it will not strike the wicket and
cannot be caught. Having hit it away, he can make a run or runs only if
he and his partner can reach their opposite wickets before the ball is
returned by the fielders and a wicket put down. All the fielders are in
active league against the batsman, whose single-handed resistance will
be of little avail unless he exceeds mere defence and adds his quota of
runs to the score of his side. To excel in this requires, in addition to
a scientific knowledge of the game, cool presence of mind, a quick eye,
a supple wrist, a strong arm, a swift foot and a healthy pair of lungs.
Thus the nobler attributes of the man, mental and physical, are brought
into play. As the Master in _Tom Brown's School-days_ remarks: "The
discipline and reliance on one another which cricket teaches are so
valuable it ought to be an unselfish game. It merges the individual in
the eleven: he does not play that he may win, but that his side may."

Four balls, sometimes six, are said to constitute an "over," and at the
completion of each over the bowler is relieved by an alternate, who
bowls from the opposite wicket, the fielders meantime crossing over or
changing places, so as to preserve their relative positions toward the
active batsman for the time being. Any over during which no runs are
earned from the bat is said to be a "maiden" over, and is scored to the
credit of the bowler as an evidence of good bowling. In addition to the
runs earned on hits there are certain "extras," which, though scored as
runs in favor of the _in_ side, are not strictly runs, but are imposed
rather as penalties for bad play by the outs than as the r