How to Read a Cricket Scorecard: Runs, Wickets, Overs and Run Rate Explained

If you have ever opened a live cricket score and wondered what "145/3 (16.2)" actually means, you are not alone. Cricket packs a lot of information into a few numbers, and once you know how to read them, every match becomes easier to follow. This guide walks through a scorecard line by line, using examples you will see on our live cricket scores page.

The basic score: runs and wickets

A team's score is written as runs/wickets. So 145/3 means the batting side has scored 145 runs and lost 3 wickets. A team is "all out" when 10 wickets have fallen (or when only one batter is left standing), and its innings ends. If a team is all out for 180, you will see it written as 180 all out, or 180/10.

Note that fans in different countries sometimes write it the other way round. In Australia, for example, 3/145 can mean three wickets for 145 runs. Most Indian and international scoreboards use runs first.

Overs: how the innings is measured

An over is six legal deliveries bowled by one bowler. Overs are written with a decimal that counts balls, not tenths. So 16.2 overs means 16 complete overs and 2 balls of the 17th. The next ball after 16.5 is 17.0, not 16.6.

The length of an innings depends on the format:

• T20: 20 overs per side, including the IPL.
• ODI (one-day international): 50 overs per side.
• Test match: no over limit per innings; each side bats up to twice over as many as five days.

Run rate and required run rate

The run rate (often shown as RR or CRR for "current run rate") is the average number of runs scored per over. If a team is 90/2 after 10 overs, its run rate is 9.00. It tells you how fast the team is scoring.

When a team is chasing a target in the second innings, you will also see the required run rate (RRR): the average runs per over the team still needs to win. Suppose the target is 180 and a team is 100/3 after 12 overs. It needs 80 more runs from 8 overs, so the required rate is 10.00. If the current run rate is lower than the required rate, the chasing side is falling behind; if it is higher, the chase is on track.

Reading a batter's line

Each batter has a line such as Virat Kohli 64 (41) 5x4 2x6 SR 156.1. This means 64 runs from 41 balls faced, including five fours and two sixes, at a strike rate of 156.1. Strike rate is runs per 100 balls, so it measures how quickly someone scores. In T20 cricket a strike rate above 140 is generally considered healthy; in Tests, much lower is normal.

Reading a bowler's line

A bowling line looks like 4-0-28-2. In order, that is overs bowled, maidens, runs conceded and wickets taken. A maiden is an over with no runs scored off the bat. The economy rate is runs conceded per over; 28 runs from 4 overs is an economy of 7.00.

Extras: wides, no-balls, byes and leg byes

Extras are runs that do not come off the bat. A wide or a no-ball adds a run to the total and the ball must be bowled again, so it does not count toward the six legal deliveries in the over. A no-ball in white-ball cricket is followed by a free hit, on which the batter can only be dismissed by run-out. Byes and leg byes are runs scored when the ball misses the bat; they count toward the team total but not the batter's score.

Powerplay, targets and DLS

In limited-overs cricket, the first overs are the powerplay, where only a few fielders are allowed outside the inner circle. In T20 this covers the first six overs, so scoring tends to be fast. If rain shortens a match, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method recalculates the target based on overs lost and wickets in hand. When you see a "revised target" on the scoreboard, DLS is the reason.

Putting it together

Here is a typical live line: IND 172/4 (17.3) CRR 9.83 | Target 190 | RRR 7.20. India has scored 172 for the loss of four wickets after 17.3 overs and is chasing 190. It needs 18 more runs from 15 balls, and at 7.20 per over the required rate is below the current rate, so the chase looks comfortable. Each time you open a match page or story, try decoding the numbers this way and you will soon be reading the game like a seasoned commentator.