Scoring (cricket)
Encyclopedia
Scoring in cricket
matches involves citing two facts, the number of runs
scored by each team and the number of wickets each has lost. These are the basic figures likely to be quoted in a media report on a match completed or still in progress.
Overall the number of runs scored is generally the most important figure because the team that scores the most runs wins (though in some games shortened by bad weather that does not necessarily apply directly); the number of wickets lost shows how many wickets the bowling team has to get to end the batting team's innings (and thus how likely the batting team is to improve on its score so far). In making a judgement at any point in a game about which team is more likely to win, other factors would be taken into account, such as the number of overs or the time remaining, the state of the pitch, or even the weather.
team whose innings
is in progress is given as the number of run
s they have scored "for" the number of wicket
s their opponents have taken. For example, a team that has scored 100 runs and lost three wickets has a score of "a hundred for three", written 100–3 (also 100/3 or 3/100) . A team that is dismissed having scored 300 runs is said to have a score of "three hundred all out", rather than "three hundred for ten"; the score for the innings is then simply written 300. However, if a team declare
their innings closed (in a First-class
match) or reach an over limit (in a limited-overs match), the number of wickets is included in their score for the innings, for example 275–7. A declaration is noted by appending a "d" or "dec" to the score (for example 300–8d); such a score is spoken in the standard form with the word "declared" appended (example: "300 for 8 declared").
In a two innings match, the scores of each team for their two innings are given separately. An example of a score for a two innings match in progress would be: Team A 240 & 300–7d, Team B 225 & 130–4. This indicates that Team A in their first innings scored 240 runs, and Team B made 225 in reply. Team A then made 300 for 7 in their second innings, declaring it closed, and Team B are currently 130 for 4 (in this scenario, Team B is said to be facing a run chase of 316 and currently trail by 185 runs).
The exception to this is Australia, where it is conventional to reverse the wickets and runs scored, so that what would be written 300–5 elsewhere in the world is written and said 5–300 in Australia.
When a game is completed, there are standard ways of referring to the difference in scores between the two teams. For instance, if Team A, batting first, scored 254–6, then Team B, batting second, only scored 185, whether or not they go all out, it would be said that "Team A won by 69 runs" because they either bowled out the opposition or caused them to exhaust their overs (in a limited-overs match) when they were 69 runs short of their target. On the other hand, if team A, batting first, scored 254–6 but team B, batting second, scored 255–8, it would be said that "team B won by 2 wickets" because they chased down their target with 2 wickets in hand. In a two innings match, a team can win having only batted once (while the other team, batting twice, has not equalled the other team's score). For instance, team A score 160 all out, team B score 530 and declare, then team A score 230 all out. In this case it would be said that team B won by an innings & 140 runs.
In limited over matches shortened by bad weather, the winning team is the one whose scoring is best according to the targets set by the Duckworth-Lewis method
. The method used to set targets takes into account both the number of overs and the number of wickets lost.
In First-class cricket
(two innings match), the team that scores more runs, having dismissed its opponents twice, is the winner. An example would be: Team A scored 240 in their first innings, and Team B made 225 in reply. Team A then made 300 for 7 in their second innings, declaring it closed (they might do this because there was not much time left in the match and wanted to have time to dismiss team B and win rather than draw the game). Team A would be setting team B a target of 316 to win. If, in the second innings, team B only scored 250 (indeed anything less than 315) then team A would be the winner. If, on the other hand, team B scored 316–9, team B would be the winner. If time or the weather prevents the opposing side's being dismissed twice, the game is a draw, even if one side has scored more than the other. There is no equivalent of Duckworth-Lewis in these matches.
In cricket the term draw only refers to a match which does not reach a conclusion, usually through a lack of time. The term used in cricket to refer to the rare occurrence of two teams getting exactly the same score is a tie. A recent example of a tie was the Friends Provident Trophy match between Somerset and Hampshire on 18 May 2007. Both teams batted out their 50 overs, Somerset scored 220–6 and Hampshire scored 220–9.
Frequently more detail is recorded, for instance, for a batsman, the number of balls faced and the number of minutes batted. Sometimes charts (known as wagon wheels) are prepared showing to which part of the field each scoring shot by a batsman was made (revealing the batman's favourite places to hit the ball)
Technology such as Hawk-Eye
allows for more detailed analysis of a bowler's performance. For instance the beehive chart shows where a bowler's balls arrived at a batsman (high, low, wide, on the off stump etc.), while the pitch map shows where the balls pitched (trending toward short, good, or full lengths). Both charts can also show the results of these balls (dots, runs, boundaries, or wickets)
In County Championship
matches league points are awarded to teams not only for winning (scoring more runs overall) or drawing a game, but also for the number of runs scored or wickets taken in the first innings of the match. These extra batting and bowling points can make a difference to who becomes the champions at the end of the season.
In a series of Test matches
, the winner is the team that wins the most matches. Test series can be drawn, with both sides having the same number of wins (since match draws are a distinct possibility with Test cricket; a series need not have all games on record coming to a decision). However, in the Ashes
(the series played between England and Australia), the Ashes only change hands if the holder clearly loses; the Ashes remain with the current holder if the series is drawn.
and football (soccer)
has led to the use of the term cricket score to describe a very one-sided scoreline in those other games.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
matches involves citing two facts, the number of runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
scored by each team and the number of wickets each has lost. These are the basic figures likely to be quoted in a media report on a match completed or still in progress.
Overall the number of runs scored is generally the most important figure because the team that scores the most runs wins (though in some games shortened by bad weather that does not necessarily apply directly); the number of wickets lost shows how many wickets the bowling team has to get to end the batting team's innings (and thus how likely the batting team is to improve on its score so far). In making a judgement at any point in a game about which team is more likely to win, other factors would be taken into account, such as the number of overs or the time remaining, the state of the pitch, or even the weather.
Referring to scores
The score of a cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
team whose innings
Innings
An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...
is in progress is given as the number of run
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
s they have scored "for" the number of wicket
Wicket
In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
s their opponents have taken. For example, a team that has scored 100 runs and lost three wickets has a score of "a hundred for three", written 100–3 (also 100/3 or 3/100) . A team that is dismissed having scored 300 runs is said to have a score of "three hundred all out", rather than "three hundred for ten"; the score for the innings is then simply written 300. However, if a team declare
Declaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket...
their innings closed (in a First-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
match) or reach an over limit (in a limited-overs match), the number of wickets is included in their score for the innings, for example 275–7. A declaration is noted by appending a "d" or "dec" to the score (for example 300–8d); such a score is spoken in the standard form with the word "declared" appended (example: "300 for 8 declared").
In a two innings match, the scores of each team for their two innings are given separately. An example of a score for a two innings match in progress would be: Team A 240 & 300–7d, Team B 225 & 130–4. This indicates that Team A in their first innings scored 240 runs, and Team B made 225 in reply. Team A then made 300 for 7 in their second innings, declaring it closed, and Team B are currently 130 for 4 (in this scenario, Team B is said to be facing a run chase of 316 and currently trail by 185 runs).
The exception to this is Australia, where it is conventional to reverse the wickets and runs scored, so that what would be written 300–5 elsewhere in the world is written and said 5–300 in Australia.
When a game is completed, there are standard ways of referring to the difference in scores between the two teams. For instance, if Team A, batting first, scored 254–6, then Team B, batting second, only scored 185, whether or not they go all out, it would be said that "Team A won by 69 runs" because they either bowled out the opposition or caused them to exhaust their overs (in a limited-overs match) when they were 69 runs short of their target. On the other hand, if team A, batting first, scored 254–6 but team B, batting second, scored 255–8, it would be said that "team B won by 2 wickets" because they chased down their target with 2 wickets in hand. In a two innings match, a team can win having only batted once (while the other team, batting twice, has not equalled the other team's score). For instance, team A score 160 all out, team B score 530 and declare, then team A score 230 all out. In this case it would be said that team B won by an innings & 140 runs.
Winning scores
In limited over matches (one innings matches), the team that scores more runs wins. So if team A scored 250 from 50 overs with the loss of 1 wicket (250–1), then the target for team B is to get 251. The number of wickets that has fallen doesn't affect which team has won. So if team B scored 251 but with the loss of 9 wickets (251–9), team B still won because it scored more runs, even though it lost more wickets. In a similar situation if team A scored 250/1, but team B scored 240 (all out), then team A would win because it scored more runs. Part way through a limited over match, in order to judge the likely final scores, it is important to know, in addition to runs already scored and wickets already lost, how many overs each side has remaining, so this is always quoted.In limited over matches shortened by bad weather, the winning team is the one whose scoring is best according to the targets set by the Duckworth-Lewis method
Duckworth-Lewis method
In the sport of cricket, the Duckworth–Lewis method is a mathematical formulation designed to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket or Twenty20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance...
. The method used to set targets takes into account both the number of overs and the number of wickets lost.
In First-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
(two innings match), the team that scores more runs, having dismissed its opponents twice, is the winner. An example would be: Team A scored 240 in their first innings, and Team B made 225 in reply. Team A then made 300 for 7 in their second innings, declaring it closed (they might do this because there was not much time left in the match and wanted to have time to dismiss team B and win rather than draw the game). Team A would be setting team B a target of 316 to win. If, in the second innings, team B only scored 250 (indeed anything less than 315) then team A would be the winner. If, on the other hand, team B scored 316–9, team B would be the winner. If time or the weather prevents the opposing side's being dismissed twice, the game is a draw, even if one side has scored more than the other. There is no equivalent of Duckworth-Lewis in these matches.
In cricket the term draw only refers to a match which does not reach a conclusion, usually through a lack of time. The term used in cricket to refer to the rare occurrence of two teams getting exactly the same score is a tie. A recent example of a tie was the Friends Provident Trophy match between Somerset and Hampshire on 18 May 2007. Both teams batted out their 50 overs, Somerset scored 220–6 and Hampshire scored 220–9.
Detailed scoring
Cricket scorers keep track of many other facts of the game. As a minimum a scorer would note:- For each ball, who bowled it and how many runs were scored from it, whether by the batsman with his bat ('off the bat') or byes.
- For each batsman, every scoring run made.
- For each dismissalDismissal (cricket)In the sport of cricket, a dismissal occurs when the batsman is out . Colloquially, the fielding team is also said to have snared, bagged or captured a wicket. At this point a batsman must discontinue batting and leave the field permanently for the innings...
, the kind of dismissal (e.g. LBWLeg before wicketIn the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
or run outRun outRun out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
), the bowler (in the case of a bowling, LBW, catch, or stumping), any other player involved (in the case of a catch or stumping), as well as the total the batting team reached at that point in the game ('the fall of wicket'). Example notations as seen on cricket scorecards: - c fielder b bowler - CaughtCaughtCaught is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Being caught out is the most common method of dismissal at higher levels of competition...
- c & b bowler - Caught & bowled (the bowler was also the catching fielder)
- b bowler - BowledBowledBowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler...
- lbw b bowler - Leg before wicketLeg before wicketIn the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
- st wicket-keeper b bowler - Stumped
- For each bowler (his 'figures'), the number of overs bowled, the number of wickets taken, the number of runs conceded, and the number of maiden overs bowled.
Frequently more detail is recorded, for instance, for a batsman, the number of balls faced and the number of minutes batted. Sometimes charts (known as wagon wheels) are prepared showing to which part of the field each scoring shot by a batsman was made (revealing the batman's favourite places to hit the ball)
Technology such as Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a complex computer system used in cricket, tennis and other sports to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a record of its most statistically likely path as a moving image. In cricket and tennis, it is now part of the adjudication process. It was developed by engineers...
allows for more detailed analysis of a bowler's performance. For instance the beehive chart shows where a bowler's balls arrived at a batsman (high, low, wide, on the off stump etc.), while the pitch map shows where the balls pitched (trending toward short, good, or full lengths). Both charts can also show the results of these balls (dots, runs, boundaries, or wickets)
Scores and points
In most one day competitions based on leagues, 2 points are awarded for a win and 0 for a loss, regardless of the margin of victory.In County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
matches league points are awarded to teams not only for winning (scoring more runs overall) or drawing a game, but also for the number of runs scored or wickets taken in the first innings of the match. These extra batting and bowling points can make a difference to who becomes the champions at the end of the season.
In a series of Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, the winner is the team that wins the most matches. Test series can be drawn, with both sides having the same number of wins (since match draws are a distinct possibility with Test cricket; a series need not have all games on record coming to a decision). However, in the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
(the series played between England and Australia), the Ashes only change hands if the holder clearly loses; the Ashes remain with the current holder if the series is drawn.
Trivia
The high scores in cricket compared with other sports such as rugbyRugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
has led to the use of the term cricket score to describe a very one-sided scoreline in those other games.
See also
- Cricket statisticsCricket statisticsCricket is a sport that generates a large number of statistics.Statistics are recorded for each player during a match, and aggregated over a career. At the professional level, statistics for Test cricket, one-day internationals, and first-class cricket are recorded separately...
- Association of Cricket Umpires and ScorersAssociation of Cricket Umpires and ScorersThe Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers was set up by the umpire Tom Smith as the Association of Cricket Umpires , in order to provide training and advice to cricket officials...