In the sport of cricket, a slip fielder (collectively, a slip cordon) is placed fairly close in on the off side of a batsman. Slips are usually placed with the aim of catching an edged ball which is beyond the wicket-keeper's reach. Many teams employ two or three slips (numbered from the slip fielder closest to the wicket-keeper: first slip, second slip, etc.). A floating slip is sometimes employed, usually in limited over games, who patrols an area in the slip cordon that would ordinarily be occupied by more than one fielder. The slip cordon's distance from the batsman increases with the pace of the bowler; generally they will be marginally further away from the batsman than the wicketkeeper is. Because of the resulting geometry, spin bowlers generally have fewer slips in the cordon than a fast bowler would in an equivalent game situation.

The gully fielder is an extension of the line of slips and fields almost square to the batsman; gully is also the name given to that area of the field. A fielder standing in gully would be standing on the imaginary straight line that extends from the on-side corner of batter's popping crease to middle stump towards the slip cordon. The position of gully was invented by Arthur Jones, who later became England captain in the 1880s at Bedford Modern School in Bedford. It was quickly adopted by EHD Sewell at Bedford School and then gained in popularity thereafter.

Enticing the batsman to edge and hit a catch to the wicket-keeper or slips is the standard wicket-taking tactic in off theory. To do so, the bowler tries to make the ball deviate off its expected line away from the batsman's body on the off-side. Outswingers or legcutter, or the standard leg spinner are delivery types that have this effect. Unsurprisingly, bowlers bowling these deliveries effectively generally have larger slip cordons than those who are not.

On occasion, four or five slips are called for. The Australia used seven slips and a gully against Zimbabwe's lower order batsmen in a One-day International in 2001. England also used seven slips in the first Test against West Indies in Jamaica in 2004. Theoretically as many as nine fielders can be used - the eleven players minus the wicket-keeper and bowler - but this is very rare.

A fielder in the equivalent position on the on side of the wicket-keeper is known as a leg slip; this is considerably less common than the off-side slip, and for a team to employ more than one leg slip is highly unusual.

Reference

• The Cricket Captains of England by Alan Gibson ISBN 1-85145-395-4

Fielding (cricket) | Cricket terminology