UK Titles Editorial
A cricket scorecard brings together three views of an innings: the team’s total, each batter’s contribution and each bowler’s figures. The same delivery can affect several parts of that record. The ECB’s Play-Cricket scoring guidance describes recording runs, wickets and extras ball by ball.
This guide covers conventional cricket using six-ball overs, including the notation familiar from English county and club scorecards. Competition rules can add variations: MCC explains that playing regulations may differ from the Laws themselves. Read the format and innings heading before interpreting the numbers.
Start with runs for wickets
A headline such as 78/2 means 78 runs for two wickets: the team has made 78 and lost two wickets. Its total includes the batters’ runs and extras.
MCC Law 18 covers runs completed between the batters’ grounds, boundary allowances and penalties. The batting and extras sections show how these contributions build the total.
Overs use balls, not decimal fractions
Under MCC Law 17, an over consists of six valid balls. In the usual scorecard notation, 12.3 overs means 12 completed overs and three valid balls of the next one. That is 75 valid balls: 12 × 6 + 3.
The figure after the point counts balls. It does not mean three-tenths of an over. After 12.5, the next valid ball completes the over and the display becomes 13.0.
No-balls and wides do not count among those six. Other circumstances can also prevent a delivery from counting, so valid balls and all deliveries bowled are not interchangeable totals. For a rate calculation, 12.3 overs becomes 12½ overs, because three balls are half of a six-ball over.
Read the batter’s row
A batting table commonly shows runs, balls faced, fours and sixes, together with dismissal details. New Zealand Cricket’s Scorer’s Companion explains these records and gives batting strike rate as runs divided by balls faced, multiplied by 100.
For a fictional batter scoring 30 from 24 balls, the strike rate is 125: 30 ÷ 24 × 100. It describes scoring speed, rather than a batting average. A not-out entry means that batter was not dismissed; players who never came in may be listed separately as did not bat.
The boundary columns help account for the runs. Under MCC Law 19, the normal allowances are four and six. A boundary six requires a hit with the bat that reaches beyond the boundary without first touching the ground inside it. Runs recorded under fours and sixes are already included in the batter’s total, so they are not added a second time.
Understand the extras line
Extras belong to the team total rather than an individual batter’s runs. Their categories explain why the batters’ totals alone may fall short of the headline score.
A no-ball carries a one-run penalty under MCC Law 21. If the striker also hits the ball and scores runs, those runs are credited to the striker while the penalty remains a no-ball extra. The delivery does not count in the over.
A wide also carries a one-run penalty. Law 22 says that additional completed runs or a boundary allowance from a wide are recorded as wides too. The wide does not count in the over either.
Byes arise when a delivery that is not a wide passes without touching the striker’s bat or body and runs result. For leg byes, the ball first strikes the striker’s person; the umpire must be satisfied that the striker attempted a shot or tried to avoid being hit. Law 23 sets out those conditions. Separate penalty runs can also appear in the record.
Read bowling figures in their column order
Bowling summaries often use O–M–R–W: overs, maidens, runs conceded and wickets credited to the bowler. A fictional line of 5–1–25–1 means five overs, one maiden, 25 runs conceded and one wicket.
The short scoring guide hosted by North Essex Cricket defines a maiden as a completed over with no runs charged against that bowler. Byes and leg byes can therefore occur in a maiden. A run-out contributes to the team’s wickets lost but is not credited to the bowler.
Law 18 charges the bowler with the striker’s runs, no-ball extras and wides. Byes and leg byes are excluded. Bowling economy is runs conceded per over: 25 from five overs gives 5.00. For part overs, convert the ball count before dividing.
Check a fictional innings from both sides
The following is an invented teaching example, not a report of a real match. At 78/2 after 12.3 overs, four batters have appeared:
| Batter | Runs | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Batter A | 30 | Dismissed |
| Batter B | 24 | Dismissed |
| Batter C | 14 | Not out |
| Batter D | 4 | Not out |
Their runs add to 72. Extras of two byes, one leg bye, two wides and one no-ball add six, bringing the team to 78.
Suppose the three bowlers’ O–M–R–W lines are 5–1–25–1, 4–0–24–1 and 3.3–0–26–0. Their overs total 12.3 and their wickets total two. Their conceded runs total 75: the 72 batting runs plus three no-ball and wide extras. Adding the three byes and leg byes brings that side of the record to 78 as well.
Reading the batting, extras and bowling sections together reveals how the innings total was built.
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