Bowling Figures and Maiden Overs Calculator
Bowling Figures and Maiden Overs Calculator
The R in a bowling analysis is the runs DEBITED to the bowler, not the runs scored off their overs. Wides and no-balls are debited; byes and leg byes are not — which is why an over containing two leg byes is still a maiden and an over containing one wide is not.
Runs debited to the bowler, and the maiden-over test
Runs debited38 off the bat, 9 in wides and no balls, 7 in byes and leg byes, 10 overs, 2 maidens, 3 wickets
Formula, and the split it depends on
- debited to the bowler
- runs off the bat, and the wides and no balls. Law 22.7: “Apart from any 5 Penalty runs, all runs from a Wide are debited against the bowler”. Law 21.16 debits the one-run no-ball penalty to the bowler too
- not debited to the bowler
- byes, leg byes and penalty runs. Law 23 does NOT say who they are debited to; the scorers’ manual says “These runs do not count as runs against the bowler”, which is practice rather than a Law
- a maiden over
- a completed over from which no runs are debited to the bowler — so byes and leg byes do not spoil one and a wide does
- O-M-R-W
- overs, maidens, runs debited, wickets — written 10-2-47-3 below. The second number and the third are the two this page exists for
Worked example
38 off the bat, 9 in wides and no balls, 7 in byes and leg byes, 10 overs, 2 maidens, 3 wickets
Runs debited to the bowler = 38 + 9 = 47. The analysis reads 10-2-47-3
Runs that got away off those overs = 38 + 9 + 7 = 54, which is seven more than the bowler's figures and is the number a scoreboard shows against the batting side
Economy rate from the R column = 47 × 6 ÷ 60 = 4.70 runs per over; debit the byes and leg byes too and it becomes 54 × 6 ÷ 60 = 5.40, 0.70 an over worse on a bowler who did nothing wrong
Maidens are 2 of 10 completed overs, which is 20.0%
Double the runs and the balls and the economy rate does not move: 94 from 20 overs is 4.70. Halve the balls and it doubles: 47 from 5 overs is 9.40
Set the maidens to 11 against 10 completed overs and the page returns nothing: that analysis cannot have happened
Which extras are debited to the bowler, and which are not
| The call | Penalty | In the bowler’s R? | One of the six balls? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs off the bat | none | yes | yes | Law 18 by title only; scorers’ manual for the debit |
| No ball | 1 run | yes — penalty and anything run off it | no | Laws 21.15, 21.16, 21.17 |
| Wide | 1 run | yes — all of it apart from 5 Penalty runs | no | Laws 22.6, 22.7, 22.8 |
| Bye | none | no | yes | Law 23.1; scorers’ manual for the debit |
| Leg bye | none | no | yes | Law 23.2; scorers’ manual for the debit |
| Penalty runs (5) | 5 runs | no | no | scorers’ manual |
The same over, five ways: is it a maiden?
| What happened in the over | Runs debited | Maiden? |
|---|---|---|
| Six dot balls | 0 | yes |
| Two leg byes off the pad, nothing else | 0 | yes |
| Four byes through the keeper, nothing else | 0 | yes |
| One wide, five dot balls | 1 | no |
| One no ball, six legal dot balls | 1 | no |
| A single off the bat, five dot balls | 1 | no |
The R column is not the runs that got away
A bowling analysis is four numbers — overs, maidens, runs, wickets — and two of them are read off the scorebook wrongly more often than anything else in cricket. The R is not the runs scored while the bowler was bowling. It is the runs debited to the bowler, and the difference is the extras that are not the bowler’s fault: wides and no balls are debited by Laws 22.7 and 21.16, while byes, leg byes and penalty runs are not. The first table above gives the clause for each.
One of those rows rests on a silence. Law 23 does not say that byes and leg byes are kept off the bowler. It says where the runs are credited — to the batting side — and says nothing about the bowler, so the rule everyone follows is scoring practice rather than a Law, and this page quotes an official scorers’ manual for it.
Now the maiden, where the common belief is wrong. A maiden is not an over in which nothing happened. It is a completed over from which no runs were debited to the bowler, and the manual’s glossary says so in the sentence straight after its definition: “It can have byes and leg byes and still be a maiden as these are not scored against the bowler”. Four byes can run away through the keeper’s legs, the batting side banks four runs, and the over still goes in the M column. One wide does not, even though the delivery was re-bowled (Law 22.8).
That same debit rule governs the economy rate, which is why the two figures above differ so much on the worked example: debit the seven byes and leg byes too and a bowler who conceded 47 goes from 4.70 an over to 5.40, on a spell bowled identically. The three rates an analysis supports are on the bowling economy, average and strike rate calculator, which takes the R column as one number; this page works out what that number is. How many overs a bowler may bowl is on the powerplay and over limits interpreter, the no ball, free hit and wide interpreter takes each call in turn, and the overs to balls converter sets out the notation these two fields exist to avoid.
This page therefore asks for the completed overs and the balls in the unfinished over as two separate fields rather than taking the scorecard figure as one number. That is a deliberate choice and worth stating, because the alternative is tempting: a single field can be decomposed arithmetically with floor(ov) + (ov − floor(ov)) × 10 / 6. It gives the right answer for a legal figure and a silently wrong one for an illegal figure whose ball count reaches 6, which is not a scorebook number at all because an over has only six balls. Two fields, with the balls field limited to 0–5, cannot be entered wrongly.
One thing worth being straight about: the central figure on this page is not defined by anybody with authority over cricket. The ICC publishes how run rate and net run rate are computed because results and qualification turn on them, and the MCC’s Laws govern where each run goes. Neither defines this. The closest thing to an authority is an official scorers’ manual — the New South Wales Cricket Umpires’ and Scorers’ Association’s, September 2022 revision — which is the practice of the people who keep the book rather than a rule of the game. Where it supplies a definition this page quotes it; where it does not, the page says so rather than filling the gap. That is not a reason to distrust the convention; it is the reason no clause number appears beside it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a maiden over?
A completed over from which no runs are debited to the bowler. The New South Wales Cricket Umpires’ and Scorers’ Association’s manual: “when a bowler bowls an over that does not have any runs scored off it”, and “It can have byes and leg byes and still be a maiden as these are not scored against the bowler”. No Law of Cricket defines a maiden at all.
Do byes or leg byes stop an over being a maiden?
No. They are not debited to the bowler, so they do not touch the maiden. Four byes can run through to the boundary and the over still goes in the M column. A wide or a no ball does stop it, because Law 22.7 and Law 21.16 debit both to the bowler.
Are wides and no balls charged to the bowler?
Yes. Law 22.7: “Apart from any 5 Penalty runs, all runs from a Wide are debited against the bowler”, and Law 21.16 does the same for the no-ball penalty. The delivery is still re-bowled (Laws 22.8 and 21.17), so a wide costs the bowler a run without shortening the spell.
Why does a bowling analysis not add up to the team total?
Because byes, leg byes and penalty runs are in the team total and in no bowler’s figures. Add every bowler’s R together and the gap from the team score is exactly those extras.
Which wickets count as the bowler’s?
Bowled, caught, hit wicket, LBW and stumped. A run out, hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, timed out or retired out is nobody’s, so a side can lose ten wickets with fewer than ten in the bowling figures. The scorers’ manual’s Table of Dismissals sets this out.
Related calculators
References
- New South Wales Cricket Umpires’ and Scorers’ Association. Cricket Scoring: The Basics and Beyond, September 2022 revision — “Maiden over – when a bowler bowls an over that does not have any runs scored off it”, and immediately after it “It can have byes and leg byes and still be a maiden as these are not scored against the bowler”. The Byes and Leg byes sections both say “These runs do not count as runs against the bowler”; penalty runs are not debited either. The Table of Dismissals lists ten methods, with the bowler credited for bowled, caught, hit wicket, LBW and stumped and not for hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, run out, timed out or a batter retiring. nswcusa.cricketnsw.com.au (read 12 Oct 2026). Every scoresheet and symbol table in it is an IMAGE and was not read, and its Table of Dismissals numbers Timed Out as Law 31, which is Appeals in the 2017 Code.
- Marylebone Cricket Club. Law 22 – Wide ball, individual Law page — 22.1.1–22.1.2 (judging a Wide), 22.3.1–22.3.2 (revoking), 22.4.1–22.4.2 (not a Wide), 22.6 (one run awarded instantly), 22.7 “Apart from any 5 Penalty runs, all runs from a Wide are debited against the bowler”, 22.8 (“A Wide shall not count as one of the over”), 22.9 (out off a Wide only under Laws 35, 37, 38 and 39). lords.org (read 12 Oct 2026). This page does not mention head height anywhere, which is how the staleness of the individual Law pages was established rather than assumed.
- Marylebone Cricket Club. Law 21 – No ball, individual Law page — headings 21.1 to 21.18, including 21.10 “Ball bouncing over head height of striker” as a No ball; 21.15 (one run awarded instantly), 21.16 (the penalty is a No ball extra debited against the bowler), 21.17 (“A No ball shall not count as one of the over”), 21.18 (out off a No ball only under Laws 34, 37 and 38). The Law does not mention a free hit. lords.org (read 12 Oct 2026). This page prints 3rd-Edition (2022) text: the 4th Edition moves the head-height delivery to Law 22.1.3 as a Wide.
- Marylebone Cricket Club. Law 23 – Bye and Leg bye, individual Law page — 23.1 (a Bye is a delivery, not a Wide, that passes the striker untouched, and the runs are credited as Byes to the batting side), 23.2.1 (leg byes count only if the umpire is satisfied the striker tried to play the ball or to avoid being hit), 23.2.2.1 and 23.2.3 (runs not credited to the striker are scored as Leg byes), 23.3 (Leg byes not to be awarded). lords.org (read 12 Oct 2026). The Law does not say whether byes or leg byes are debited against the bowler.
- Marylebone Cricket Club. The Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code — Law 17.1, “The ball shall be bowled from each end alternately in overs of 6 balls”, and 17.3.3, only valid balls count towards the six. lords.org (read 12 Oct 2026). The MCC’s Laws index lists the current edition as the 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026), while the individual Law pages still carry a 2017 copyright line.