How to Read a Cricket Score
Two ways a Win is Indicated
First an explanation of the two different ways a win in cricket can be reckoned: by runs or by wickets. It happens like this.
When a team bats first and wins then the difference in the teams' score
is considered and it is said that the winning team won by their
respective number of runs.
When a team bats second and wins then the number of wickets left with the team to spare are considered and it is said that the winning team won by the remaining wickets.
Suppose you are the first team to bat and at the end of your innings you
have 600 runs. The other team plays and after their last wicket is
taken they only reach 575 runs. The
expression would be that your team "won by 25 runs".
Suppose you are the second team to bat, the last innings of the match,
and the other team has scored 550 runs. Your team reaches 552 with 7
wickets down.
Rather than saying your team "won by 2 runs", it would be stated that
you "won by three wickets."
Why the difference?
This is an important example of cricket thinking: you theoretically had three more wickets with which to keep batting and scoring runs, but
you didn't need them.
In this situation, the number of wickets not played tells the playing
ability of the team more than the number of runs scored in excess of the
losing team. Because the game ends as soon as the winning team exceeds
the score of the losing team, the winning team has no opportunity to
play on to see how many runs they would have scored had they
played all the wickets. Thus, in a game in which the winning score is
552
to 550, the superior play of the winning team is represented by fact
that it took fewer wickets to achieve what is virtually a tie score.
Below is the box score from a one-day 50 over match between India and Zimbabwe on March 7, 2002, followed by a detailed explanation. India
| D Mongia | c T Taibu | b HH Streak | 25 |
| SC Ganguly | st T Taibu | b DA Marillier | 57 |
| VVS Laxman | run out | 75 | |
| D Dravid | lbw | b GW Flower | 23 |
| M Kaif | not out | 39 | |
| SB Bangar | c TJ Friend | b HH Streak | 0 |
| A Ratra | run out | 6 | |
| AB Agarkar | not out | 40 | |
| Extras: (0b, 1lb, 6w, 2nb) | 9 | ||
| Total: (6 wickets; 50 overs) | 274 | ||
FALL OF WICKETS: 1−46, 2−123, 3−171, 4−193, 5−194, 6−211
BOWLING: HH Streak 10−0−53−2, TJ Friend 10−0−68−0, GB Brent 10−0−68−0, DA Marillier 10−0−53−1, GW Flower 10−0−31−1
DID NOT BAT: A Kumble, H Singh, Z Khan
Zimbabwe
| ADR Campbell | lbw | b Z Khan | 84 |
| CB Wishart | b Z Khan | 1 | |
| TJ Friend | b Z Khan | 7 | |
| A Flower | b A Kumble | 71 | |
| SV Carlisle | c A Ratra | b Z Khan | 23 |
| DD Ebrahim | c SC Ganguly | b SB Bangar | 10 |
| GW Flower | c and b | H Singh | 2 |
| HH Streak | c SC Ganguly | b H Singh | 1 |
| T Taibu | c A Ratra | b SB Bangar | 8 |
| DA Marillier | not out | 56 | |
| GB Brent | not out | 1 | |
| Extras: (0b, 4lb, 2w, 6nb) | 12 | ||
| Total: (9 wickets; 49.4 overs) | 276 | ||
FALL OF WICKETS: 1−5, 2−21, 3−132, 4−186, 5−193, 6−198, 7−200, 8−210, 9−252
BOWLING: Z Khan 10−2−47−4, AB Agarkar 8−0−45−0, SB Bangar 9−0−42−2, H Singh 10−1−48−2, A Kumble 9.4−0−70−1, SC Ganguly 3−0−20−0
RESULT: Zimbabwe beat India by one wicket
The first set of statistics for each team concerns its
batting performance. The batsmen are listed in their batting order.
India starts like this:
D Mongia
SC Ganguly
VVS Laxman
D Dravid
etc.
This means Mongia and Ganguly batted first. One of them got out and was
replaced by Laxman. One of those two got out and was replaced by Dravid,
etc.
For each batsman is listed: his name, how he got out, who was bowling
when he got out, and how many runs he himself scored; for example
D Mongia c T Taibu b HH Streak 25
Mongia hit a fly ball that was caught by Taibu; the balled was bowled by
Streak. This is called being "out caught". Mongia scored 25 runs.
SC Ganguly st T Taibu b DA Marillier 57
On a ball bowled by Marillier, Ganguly stepped into unsafe territory
(the term is that he was "out of his ground") and while he was there,
Taibu, the wicket-keeper, knocked over the wicket with the ball. This
is called being "out stumped." Ganguly scored 57 runs.
VVS Laxman run out 75
Either Laxman or his partner hit the ball, and while they were running
back and forth scoring runs, Laxman had his wicket knocked over by the
ball before he "made his ground" (i.e., re-entered safe territory), and
he was "run out." Laxman scored 75 runs.
The bowler is not indicated because he is not seen as instrumental in
the out, rather it is the wicket-keeper and/or fielding players.
D Dravid lbw b GW Flower 23
On a ball bowled by Flower, Dravid was called "out lbw" ("leg before
wicket"). This means that he intercepted the ball first with a part of
his body and not with either his bat or a hand holding the bat, and (in the judgement of the umpire) the
ball would have hit the wicket had the batsman not done so. (Even though
lbw can be called when the ball is stopped by any part of the body,
typically it is the front leg, hence “leg” before wicket.) This is often
a controversial call because it is based on two judgements by the
umpire: that the ball didn’t first hit either the bat or a hand holding
the bat before it hit the batsman's body, and that the ball, had it not been stopped, would have hit the wicket. Dravid scored 23 runs.
Down on the Zimbabwe scores we see:
CD Wishart b Z Khan 1
Wishart scored 1 run and was put "out bowled" by Khan. This means that
with the ball he bowled, Khan knocked over Wishart’s wicket.
GW Flower c and b H Singh 2
This is unusual: Singh both bowled the ball to Flower and caught him out.
Back up on the India scores we see:
| M Kaif | not out 39 | |
| AB Agarkar | not out 40 |
Kaif scored 39 and Agarkar scored 40 runs and both were not out. There's
always at least one "not out" in every cricket innings. Since there
must be two batsmen up at a time, when one of the last two batsmen gets
out, that side is finished. But the remaining player has not been put
out so he is "not out." In a limited-overs match, like this one, the
innings can end with two (or more) not out when the number of overs
allowed has been played (see above "Total: (6 wickets - 50
overs) 274"). In a full (i.e., non limited-overs) match an innings can
end early and the match end with two not outs when, for example, the
side playing the final innings of the match has scored more runs than
the other side, or the other side declares, etc.
Extras: (0b, 1lb, 6w, 2nb) 9
India scored 9 runs that were classified as "Extras." 0 were byes, 1 was a leg-bye, 6 were wides, and 2 were no-balls.
"Byes" typically occur when the ball is not hit by the batsman (and doesn't touch the batsman's body) and the wicket keeper misses catching the ball. "Leg byes" typically occur when the ball is not batted but deflects off the batsman's body and the wicket keeper misses catching the ball. Any runs scored are counted as extras. A "wide" means the umpire has judged that the ball was bowled too wide of the batsman. A "no-ball" means the umpire has judged that the bowler has made an illegal delivery. Typically this is a "foot-fault" meaning the bowler's lead foot has crossed the popping crease.
For wides and no-balls one run is counted for the batting team rather than credited to the batsman though any runs made by runs or boundaries are credited to the batsman. For wides and no-balls the ball does not count as part of the over.
Total: (6 wickets - 50 overs) 274
India scored 274 runs total. They only had six wickets taken from them
in this time. Since this was a limited-overs game, their innings ended
at fifty overs even though they had four wickets left.
Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-123, 3-171, 4-193, 5-194, 6-211
In India’s innings, their first wicket was taken when they had scored 46
runs; their second wicket was taken when they had 123 runs; etc.
Bowling: HH Streak 10-0-53-2, TJ Friend 10-0-68-0, GB Brent 10-0-68-0, DA Marillier 10-0-53-1, GW Flower 10-0-31-1
These are the Zimbabwe bowlers' stats for the India innings. Each bowler has four tallies: number of overs bowled; number of maidens; number of runs allowed; number of wickets taken. A "maiden" is an over in which the bowler does not allow any runs. So the first entry
HH Streak 10-0-53-2
means Streak bowled 10 overs, none of which were maidens; he allowed fifty-three runs and took two Indian wickets.
(Note that bowlers are not credited with a run-out because they are not seen as instumental in the fall of the wicket.)
| Bowling: | |||
| Streak | 10 - 0 - 53 - 2 | Note: if you add up the first column for each bowler you get 50, the total number of overs bowled. If you add up the last column you get 4, the total number of wickets taken. If you add up the third column, you get 273. But India scored 274! How can that be? | |
| Friend | 10 - 0 - 68 - 0 | ||
| Brent | 10 - 0 - 68 - 0 | ||
| Marillier | 10 - 0 - 53 - 1 | ||
| Flower | 10 - 0 - 31 - 1 | ||
| Totals | 50 - 0 - 273 - 4 | ||
You have to look in the "Extras" category.
Extras: (0b, 1lb, 6w, 2nb)
All the extras count as runs for the batting side, but in looking at bowling statistics wides and no-balls are charged against the bowler and are therefore included in the tally of the runs they allowed. However, byes and leg-byes are not against the bowler so those extras are indicated separately. So, the total number of runs allowed by the bowlers (including wides and no-balls) plus the number of byes and leg-byes (here, 0 and 1 respectively) is equal to the total score of the batting side: 273+0+1=274
See this Wikiwand article for a detailed explanation of extras. Extras are called "extras" because they are runs that are credited to the batting side but not to the individual batsmen.
The rest of the Zimbabwe score is like the Indian one. And the result
Total: (9 wickets - 49.4 overs) 276
Result: Zimbabwe beat India by one wicket
shows that Zimbabwe stopped batting in their 49th over when they surpassed India's 274 runs. They won "by one wicket" because they had one wicket left when the match was over (10 allowed minus the 9 lost).
Of course, in this limited-overs match (50) Zimbabwe had only part of one over left when they won the game, so it was a very close match.
By Jeff Tucker (jeff@ix.netcom.com). Edited and expanded by Rodney Busch
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