"Law 22: Wide ball". An umpire calls a ball "wide" if, in his or her opinion, the ball is so wide of the batsman and the wicket that he could not hit it with the bat playing a normal cricket shot. A wide adds one run to the batting team's score, in addition to any other runs which are scored off it, and the batsman can't be dismissed off a wide except by being run out or stumped, by hitting his wicket, or obstructing the field.