MasterstrokeMatch play and rules
Middle overs
The phase between the powerplay and the death, when the field spreads, spinners bowl and the batting side must score without losing wickets.
The middle overs are the stretch of a limited-overs innings between the end of the powerplay and the start of the death overs, roughly overs 7 to 15 in a T20 and 11 to 40 in an ODI.
Once five fielders can patrol the boundary, the easy fours dry up. The batting side's job is to keep the scoreboard moving with singles and twos, pick off the one bad ball an over, and arrive at the death with wickets in hand. The bowling side's job is to take wickets, because a set batter at the death is the most expensive thing in cricket. This is the phase where spin bowling does most of its work, and where a captain sets a field for the mistimed lofted drive rather than the edge.
The trap for a batting side is to treat the middle overs as a rest. Six overs at five an over is thirty runs, and thirty runs is often the margin of a chase. The required run rate tells you how much of that you can afford.
In Masterstroke: the tempo model treats these overs as their own phase, so a plan to build here and attack later is a plan the batters will actually follow.