Super Over and Tie Resolution Interpreter

What happens when the scores finish level, and what used to happen. The boundary-count rule decided the 2019 World Cup final and was abolished that October: a tied Super Over in a knockout is now replayed until somebody wins, and a tied group match is simply a tie.

Last updated 12 Oct 2026

How this tie is resolved, and under whose rule

Playing conditions

Which rule?The second option is history, and it is here because the change is the reason anybody looks this up. It is not a rule you can play under: it was abolished in October 2019.

Where are the scores level?ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions clause 16.3.1 defines a tie as equal scores with all innings complete, regardless of how many wickets each side lost.

What kind of match?This is the input most tie calculators leave out, and leaving it out is what makes them wrong: the same level scores produce three different outcomes depending on which of these it is.

A Super Over decides itExample

The current rule, scores level at the end of both innings, a World Cup final

Before and after October 2019

The second row is the one that matters and the one everybody remembers: England were declared champions in 2019 on boundaries struck after a tied match and a tied Super Over, and the rule was gone within three months. Two things are worth separating here. The CURRENT column is quoted from the ICC’s own Men’s One-Day International Playing Conditions, clause 16.3.1.1, effective from July 2025 and read on 12 October 2026. The UNTIL column is from two cricket publications, ESPNcricinfo and The Cricketer, because no ICC release announcing the change was found — and the “not read for this page” cell is left empty rather than filled from memory. The third row records a change in the opposite direction from the one people remember: there are now MORE Super Overs, because they reach group matches too.
The situation	Until October 2019	Since October 2019
Scores level at the end of a knockout match	a Super Over	a Super Over
The Super Over is also level, in a semi-final or final	boundary countback — more boundaries won	the Super Over is repeated until one side scores more
Scores level in a group match of a World Cup	not universally a Super Over	a Super Over, and if that is level too the match is a tie
No Super Over can be completed	not read for this page	the match is tied (clause 16.3.1.1)

What a tie is, and what it is not

A tie and a no-result are different outcomes and the difference shows up in the table rather than on the scoreboard: a tie is a result and feeds the net run rate, while an abandoned match is left out of the calculation altogether. The clause numbers in the last three rows were read by batch S01 from the ICC’s own clause pages for its net run rate record; 16.3.1 and 16.3.1.1 were read for this page from the Men’s ODI Playing Conditions PDF effective from July 2025.
	Rule	Clause
A tie	equal scores with all innings complete, regardless of wickets lost	ICC Men’s ODI 16.3.1
Not a tie	a match with no result — abandoned, or short of the minimum overs for a result	ICC Men’s ODI 13.7.2 for the 20-over minimum
A tie’s effect on net run rate	a tie is a result, so it enters the net run rate calculation; a no-result match does not enter it at all	ICC Men’s ODI 16.10.2
Where a tie leaves a group table	points shared, and sides level on points are separated by wins, then the head-to-head result, then bonus points, then net run rate	ICC Men’s ODI 16.10.1

The rule that decided a World Cup, and the rule that replaced it

A World Cup final was tied, its Super Over was tied, and England were declared champions because they had hit more boundaries than New Zealand. Within three months the rule was gone — The Cricketer dates the ICC’s decision to 14 October 2019. That sequence is why most people looking up tie resolution are looking up something that no longer applies, and it is why this page offers the old rule as an explicit option rather than quietly omitting it.

Start with what a tie is, because it is narrower than people assume. Clause 16.3.1 of the ICC Men’s One-Day International Playing Conditions makes a tie equal scores with all innings complete, regardless of how many wickets each side lost. A side nine down with the scores level has tied with a side that lost two. And a tie is not a no-result: a match abandoned, or one that fell short of the minimum overs for a result, has no result at all, which is a different outcome with different consequences for a group table.

Where the conditions provide for one, a tie goes to a Super Over. Clause 16.3.1.1 of the same conditions, effective from July 2025, provides that where the scores are equal a Super Over shall be played; where that Super Over is also tied, subsequent Super Overs follow, “unless exceptional circumstances arise (see paragraph 25 of Appendix G)”; and where no Super Over can be completed so as to produce a winner, the match is tied. Appendix G was not read for this page. The extracted text of that document stops inside clause 23 of 42, so the exceptional circumstances are named here and not described — reproducing a paragraph nobody has read would be worse than admitting the gap.

The boundary count rule it replaced worked exactly as its name suggests: where a knockout match and its Super Over were both level, the side that had struck more boundaries across its innings won. The ICC dropped it after board meetings in Dubai, and The Cricketer dates the decision to 14 October 2019; a tied Super Over in a semi-final or final is now replayed, in ESPNcricinfo’s account, until one side scores more. Both of those are cricket publications and neither is a governing body. No ICC release announcing the change was found for this page, which is why the abolition is attributed to the press while the current rule is quoted from the regulation. The two agree, and the ICC’s own clause 16.3.1.1 providing for repeated Super Overs corroborates the outcome even though it does not narrate the change.

The same decision moved in a direction nobody remembers: it put Super Overs into group matches of the 20-over and 50-over World Cups, not only the knockouts. A group match does not need a winner, because it has a table behind it, so a tied Super Over there is logged as a tie and the points are shared. That matters for qualification rather than for the match: a tie is a result, so it enters the net run rate calculation under ICC clause 16.10.2, where an abandoned match does not enter it at all. Sides level on points at the end of a group are separated by wins, then the head-to-head result, then bonus points, and only then by net run rate — clause 16.10.1 — and the net run rate calculator does that arithmetic, including the rule that a side bowled out counts as having faced its full quota of overs.

What this page does not do is compute a Super Over. There is nothing to compute: one over each, most runs wins, and the arithmetic of chasing a Super Over target is the ordinary arithmetic the required run rate and target calculator already does from a target and the balls remaining. Nor does it offer any probability of winning a tie, from boundaries or from anything else. And it has nothing at all to say about prices or odds, which are out of scope across this whole section of the site.

The numbers on this page are playing conditions, not laws of the game, and playing conditions belong to a competition rather than to cricket. The ICC revises them between seasons, and national boards and franchise leagues write their own. Every figure here is printed with the body that publishes it, the clause it sits in and the effective date printed on the document it was read from, and all of it was read from that body’s own document on 12 October 2026. A newer edition may already be in force by the time you read this. Check the conditions for the match in front of you before you act on anything here.

Frequently asked questions

Is the boundary count rule still used in cricket?

No. It decided the 2019 Men’s Cricket World Cup final — England over New Zealand on boundaries struck after a tied match and a tied Super Over — and the ICC dropped it in October 2019. A tied Super Over in a semi-final or final is now replayed until one side scores more.

What happens if a Super Over is tied?

In a semi-final or final of an ICC global tournament, another Super Over is played, and another, until one side scores more — clause 16.3.1.1 of the ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions provides for subsequent Super Overs unless exceptional circumstances arise under paragraph 25 of its Appendix G. In a group match it is recorded as a tie and the points are shared.

What counts as a tie in cricket?

Equal scores with all innings complete, regardless of how many wickets each side lost. ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions clause 16.3.1. A side nine wickets down with the scores level has tied with a side that lost two.

Is a tie the same as a no result?

No, and the difference shows up in the table. A tie is a result and feeds the net run rate calculation; a match abandoned, or one that did not reach the minimum overs for a result, has no result and is left out of net run rate altogether under ICC clause 16.10.2.

Do group matches have Super Overs now?

In the 20-over and 50-over World Cups, yes. ESPNcricinfo records that the October 2019 decision applied Super Overs to every match of those tournaments rather than only to the knockouts, with a tied Super Over in a group match logged as a tie. Other competitions set their own conditions, so check yours.

Where does the current rule come from?

Clause 16.3.1.1 of the ICC Men’s One-Day International Playing Conditions, effective from July 2025, read from the ICC’s own document on 12 October 2026. The abolition of boundary countback in October 2019 is sourced here to ESPNcricinfo and The Cricketer, because no ICC release announcing it was found — so the current rule is quoted from the regulation and the change is attributed to the press.

Related calculators

References

International Cricket Council. ICC Men’s One-Day International Playing Conditions, “Effective from July 2025” — 12.8.1 (“The minimum over rate to be achieved in ODI Matches shall be 14.28 overs per hour”), 13.8.2 (the in-match penalty: from the next over after the cessation time, no more than 4 fielders outside the fielding restriction area for the rest of the innings), 13.8.5, 16.3.1 and 16.3.1.1 (equal scores bring a Super Over; a tied Super Over brings further Super Overs unless paragraph 25 of Appendix G applies; where none can produce a winner the match is tied), 21.10 (a cross-reference), 21.15–21.18, 21.19.1–21.19.3 (the free hit), 22.1.1.2 (a Wide where the ball passes above the head height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease), 22.6–22.9. images.icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026). The extracted text stops inside clause 23, so clause 28.7.2.3 and Appendix G were not read.
ESPNcricinfo. No more boundary countback as ICC changes Super Over regulations — boundary countback, which decided the 2019 Men’s Cricket World Cup final in England’s favour on boundaries struck, was dropped after board meetings in Dubai; in semi-finals and finals of global tournaments a tied Super Over is now repeated until one side wins, and Super Overs apply to every match of the 20-over and 50-over World Cups, a tied Super Over in a group match being recorded as a tie. espncricinfo.com (read 12 Oct 2026). Not a governing-body document, and the page carries no publication date.
The Cricketer. Super Over boundary countback rule ditched by ICC after controversial World Cup final, 14 October 2019 — cited for the DATE the ESPNcricinfo item does not carry, and for the same substance: “the Super Over will be repeated until one team has scored more runs than their opponent”, with group-stage ties not subject to a tiebreaker and the points shared. thecricketer.com (read 12 Oct 2026). Not a governing-body document. No ICC release announcing the change was found.
International Cricket Council. Men’s ODI Playing Conditions, clause 16: The Result — 16.3.1 (a tie is equal scores with all innings complete, regardless of wickets lost), 16.10.1 (the tiebreaker order: wins, then head-to-head, then bonus points, then net run rate), 16.10.2 (net run rate, and the full quota of overs for a side all out), 16.10.3 (run rate is runs divided by overs faced). icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026).
International Cricket Council. ICC Men’s Standard ODI Playing Conditions, “Effective December 2023”, hosted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India — read only as independent corroboration of the July 2025 document at the same clause numbers: 12.8.1 (14.28 overs per hour), 13.8.2, 13.8.5 and 21.19.1–21.19.3 (the free hit). documents.bcci.tv (read 12 Oct 2026). Its contents page puts Section 28 at page 40, corroborating that clause 28.7.2.3 exists; the clause itself is not in the extracted text.