Six valid balls: when a cricket over is complete
Understand the over call, invalid deliveries and why six attempts do not always finish an over.
Count valid balls, not every attempt
MCC Law 17 provides six valid balls in an over, bowled from each end alternately. A wide or no-ball is not counted as one of those six. Certain dead-ball circumstances also affect counting.
In a hypothetical over with six valid balls and one wide delivery, seven deliveries have been attempted but the over still contains six valid balls. The extra does not create a seven-ball regulation over.
The umpire calls over
The umpire calls over after six valid balls and when the ball is dead. A display reaching a neat decimal-looking number is not what gives a delivery its status. Overs notation counts balls rather than tenths.
The Law also covers an umpire miscount: the over as counted by the umpire stands. Do not silently invent a correction in a real fixture because a viewer counted differently from the official record.
The end changes, not the innings
Completing an over normally changes the bowling end. It does not automatically close the innings or reset the batting score. The format and remaining overs determine the larger innings context.
Use ScoreZaap's total, over count and innings label together. The illustrative wide is not a claim about a current match. For an unusual interruption, check the official event record and competition conditions rather than assuming every dead-ball call has the same effect.