only deliveries aimed at the wicket put the batsman at risk of being dismissed directly by the bowled ball, and only deliveries out of the batter's reach (or that are otherwise illegally delivered) result in automatic runs for the batting team. Thus, it is possible for a ball to be bowled away from the wicket, but still within the striker's reach, so that it does not contribute either to getting the batting players out or to the batting team scoring runs (for example, if the ball is not struck and the batsmen choose not to run.) The main impact of this type of delivery (dot ball) is that it reduces the number of deliveries left for the batting team to score off of (as there will either be a limited number of deliveries the batting team can face in their innings, or a time limit for the overall game, which doubles as a de facto limit on the number of deliveries in the overall game.) Batting team Batting The further the ball is hit away from any fielders, the more time for running and thus runs the batting team can score, or is likely to score in future plays. The ball may be hit out of the field to automatically score runs. (In baseball, a batter must run around all of the bases on a home run hit out of the park, but is under no risk of being out while doing so. In cricket, the batsman scores a six, which while not technically being the maximum number of runs scoreable off a single ball, is almost always so). Batters can play defensively to avoid getting out ("fouling off" pitches in baseball or the defensive strokes in cricket) while putting less of a focus on scoring, or can play more aggressively ("power hitting" or "batting positively" in cricket) to score runs more quickly while putting themselves at a higher risk of getting out. A cricket batter has significantly fewer restrictions than a baseball batter. They may swing and miss, or not swing, as many times as they like (so long as the ball isn't going toward the wicket), don't have to run if they hit the ball, may face as many deliveries (pitches) as they want to even after scoring runs (until they get out), and they have much more room between fielders to hit the ball to, given that