"Come play cricket, they said. It'll be fern, they said" © Getty Images

Anyone who's ever played cricket knows one of the least fun parts is searching for the ball after it has been dispatched for a particularly enthusiastic boundary, be it in gully cricket or a T20I. With power-hitting now a staple of the game, the cricket ball has of late gone where few have gone before, or where few fielders want to be going.

The Lynton and Lynmouth cricket club in The Valley of Rocks in north Devon has one of the most picturesque cricket grounds anywhere in the world, bound by rocky peaks on two sides and cliffs on the other, which makes boundary fielding pretty interesting. In the photo above, club members hunt for the ball after it vanished into the ferns that grow abundantly by the outfield.

Shrubbery is a useful boundary marker, but it also makes an excellent hiding place for balls.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow don't be alarmed now - it's just a fielder from the village green Alex Davidson / © Getty Images

Cricket stadiums aren't short of challenges for the boundary fielder either - just ask anyone who's had to fetch a ball dispatched by Chris Gayle to the parking lot.

X marks the spot: Kent's Andrew Salter casts around for a ball that helpfully disappeared behind a map in the parking lot © Getty Images

You'd think there's no place to hide on a flat cricket ground, but the ball will find a way.

Danish Kaneria enlists the help of spectators to flush the ball out of a watering hose © Getty Images

Balls have also been known to make their escape into the groundsman's hut.

Middlesex's John Simpson and Tom Helm rummage for the ball in the groundsman's shelter during a match against Hampshire © Getty Images

When the ball is nowhere else to be found, there's one likely suspect.

Umpire Daryl Harper gives Munaf Patel a pat-down after the ball goes missing on the final day of the Test in Wellington in 2009 © Getty Images

With no spectators to throw the ball back from the stands, boundary fielding was a bit of a lonely endeavour during the pandemic.

Mitchell Starc contemplates a new sport, starcour, while hunting for the ball during the closed-door ODIs in England in 2020 © Getty Images

The good bois in the photo below aren't looking for balls, but finding one is a definite perk of the job.

The Central Reserve Police Force's K9 bomb squad sweeps Mohali stadium for explosives before the 2011 World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan © Getty Images

And what is a hapless fielder to do when the ball disappears into the tall grass? Pass the buck?

Cow corner just got a bit wild © Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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