A block stroke is usually a purely defensive stroke designed to stop the ball from hitting the wicket or the batsman's body. This shot has no strength behind it and is usually played with a light or "soft" bottom-hand grip and merely stops the ball moving towards the wicket. A block played on the front foot is known as a forward defensive, while that played on the back foot is known as a backward defensive. The application of these strokes may be used to score runs, by manipulating the block to move the ball into vacant portions of the infield, in which case a block becomes a "push". Pushing the ball is one of the more common ways batsmen manipulate the strike.
Leaving and blocking are employed much more often in first-class cricket (including Test
matches), as there is no requirement to score runs as quickly as possible,
thus allowing the batsman to choose which deliveries to play at.