Cricket run rate calculator

Cricket scoreboards show runs and overs, and everything else about the pace of an innings comes from dividing one by the other. Three questions come up all the time: how fast is the team scoring, how fast must it score to win, and how do two teams level on points compare over a whole tournament. This page answers all three with the rules limited-overs competitions use.

How do you calculate a cricket run rate?

Runs divided by overs. Overs are written with the balls after the dot, and an over has six legal balls, so 12.3 means 12 overs and 3 balls, which is 12.5 in decimals. That is why 90 runs after 12.3 overs is 90 ÷ 12.5 = 7.20 runs per over, not 90 ÷ 12.3. Enter overs the cricket way and the calculator does the conversion; after the dot only 0 to 5 is accepted.

What is the required run rate?

The runs still needed divided by the overs left. The target is the score that wins, the other side's total plus one. In a 20-over chase of 181 with 100 on the board after 10 overs, 81 runs are needed from 60 balls, a required rate of 8.10 an over, against a current rate of 10.00. Compare the two numbers: a required rate above the current one means the chase must speed up.

How is net run rate calculated?

Net run rate (NRR) is the average runs per over a team scored minus the average runs per over scored against it. For a tournament, add up all the runs scored and all the overs faced, then all the runs conceded and overs bowled; the rate is the first ratio minus the second. It is not the average of the single-match figures. In limited-overs league competitions it is the usual tie-breaker between teams level on points.

What happens to NRR when a team is bowled out?

The calculation uses the full quota of overs the team was entitled to, not the overs it actually lasted (the rule appears in the ICC playing conditions of the men's T20 World Cup and is summarized on Wikipedia). So a side all out for 127 in 25.1 overs of a 50-over match is treated as 127 in 50 overs: 2.54 an over. If the rule were ignored the same innings would be 5.05 an over. Tick the all out box for the side that was bowled out.

How are rain-affected matches treated?

This calculator does not handle them. For matches shortened by rain, the Duckworth-Lewis(-Stern) method sets revised targets and overs, and Wikipedia reports that the first innings is then counted at a total one run less than the second team's target over the overs the second team was given, and that abandoned matches without a result do not count at all. Take the revised numbers from the official scorecard and enter them as an ordinary match, or check your competition's regulations. We do not compute DLS targets.

Is the projected score reliable?

It is plain arithmetic: runs now plus the current rate for the overs left. With 90 after 12.3 overs of 20 the projection is 144. It ignores wickets in hand, the batters at the crease and the way T20 innings accelerate at the end, so treat it as a rough benchmark. The table in the result also shows the total if the rest of the innings goes at 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 or 12 an over, which are scenarios, not predictions.

Worked examples

A 50-over match: Team A scores 287 in 50 overs and Team B scores 243 in 50 overs, so Team A's NRR for the match is 287 ÷ 50 − 243 ÷ 50 = 5.74 − 4.86 = +0.88, and Team B's is the opposite. A bowled-out side: Team A is out for 127 after 25.1 overs and Team B makes 128 in 30.5 overs (30.833 in decimals). Team A's rate counts the full 50 overs, 127 ÷ 50 = 2.54, and Team B's is 128 ÷ 30.833 = 4.15, so Team A's NRR is −1.61. A tournament total, South Africa at the 1999 World Cup as given on Wikipedia: 1,016 runs in 238.333 overs and 851 runs against in 250 overs, an NRR of 4.263 − 3.404 = +0.859. These three are the examples we test the calculator against.

Common mistakes and limits

Typing overs as decimals. The digit after the dot counts balls, so 12.3 is 12.5 overs in decimals, and 12.6 is not a valid entry because an over has six balls. Averaging the match figures. NRR for several matches adds the runs and overs first. Forgetting the all-out rule. Without it a team bowled out cheaply seems to have scored very fast. Using the required rate as a plan. It is an average over the remaining balls and says nothing about wickets in hand. Competition rules. Details such as forfeits, super overs, ties and how rain-affected matches enter NRR are set in each tournament's regulations, and we have not opened the current ICC playing conditions, so confirm them with your competition. DLS is out of scope here.

See also the pace calculator, the baseball stats calculator and the round robin calculator.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Net run rate” (definition, all-out rule, rain-affected and abandoned matches, and the worked examples; it cites the ICC Playing Handbook 2013/14, paragraph 21.9.2, which we did not open); ICC Men’s T20 World Cup playing conditions of 2010 and 2012 as quoted in ESPNcricinfo tables (the “full quota of overs” wording, and that only matches with a result count). Run rate, required rate and projected total are our arithmetic. How we check our calculators.