Cricket Run Rate Calculator
Cricket Run Rate Calculator
Runs per over, worked from the overs and balls on the scorecard rather than from the scorecard figure read as a decimal. An over is six balls, so 19.4 means 19 overs and four balls — 19.667 overs, and treating it as 19.4 makes the run rate 1.4% too high.
Run rate from runs, overs and balls
Runs per over149 runs from 19 overs and 4 balls
Formula, and the notation it has to survive
- runs
- the team total including extras. Wides and no-balls add to the total and so raise the run rate, which is why a run rate can climb during an over in which no batter scores
- balls ÷ 6
- an over is six legal balls — MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1, and clause 17.1 of both the ICC Men’s ODI and Men’s T20I Playing Conditions. Wides and no-balls are re-bowled and do not count towards the six (Law 17.3.3)
- 19.4 is not 19.4
- a scorecard’s 19.4 is nineteen overs and four balls, which is 19 + 4/6 = 19.667 overs. Dividing by 19.4 instead inflates the answer by a factor of 19.667 / 19.4 = 1.0137, so the run rate comes out 1.37% high
- the illegal figure
- 19.7 is not a scorebook number. Any single-field calculator that accepts it is either silently wrong or silently refusing, which is why this page takes two fields and caps the second at five
- not a regulation
- this is arithmetic, not a playing condition. Run rate is defined the same way by every body — the ICC states it as runs divided by overs faced in clause 16.10.3 of its Men’s ODI Playing Conditions — so there is nothing here that changes between seasons
Worked example
149 runs from 19 overs and 4 balls
Overs faced = 19 + 4 ÷ 6 = 19.667 overs, which is 118 legal balls
Run rate = 149 ÷ 19.667 = 7.58 runs per over
Read the scorecard figure as a decimal instead and you get 149 ÷ 19.4 = 7.68, which is 1.37% too high — a tenth of a run an over, and over a full innings about two runs
Double both sides and nothing moves: 298 runs from 39 overs and 2 balls is 298 ÷ 39.333 = 7.58 again, because a rate does not care about scale
Halve the overs and the rate doubles: 149 from 9 overs and 5 balls is 149 ÷ 9.833 = 15.15
At 0 overs and 0 balls the page returns no figure at all, because a run rate over no balls does not exist and 0 ÷ 0 is not zero
What the scorecard figure actually means
| Scorecard reads | Overs and balls | True overs | Legal balls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19.0 | 19 overs | 19.000 | 114 |
| 19.1 | 19 overs 1 ball | 19.167 | 115 |
| 19.2 | 19 overs 2 balls | 19.333 | 116 |
| 19.3 | 19 overs 3 balls | 19.500 | 117 |
| 19.4 | 19 overs 4 balls | 19.667 | 118 |
| 19.5 | 19 overs 5 balls | 19.833 | 119 |
| 20.0 | 20 overs | 20.000 | 120 |
The size of the error, by where the over stops
| Scorecard | Correct run rate | Dividing as a decimal | Error |
|---|---|---|---|
| 149 from 19.0 | 7.84 | 7.84 | none — the over is empty |
| 149 from 19.1 | 7.77 | 7.80 | +0.35% |
| 149 from 19.2 | 7.71 | 7.76 | +0.69% |
| 149 from 19.3 | 7.64 | 7.72 | +1.04% |
| 149 from 19.4 | 7.58 | 7.68 | +1.37% |
| 149 from 19.5 | 7.51 | 7.64 | +1.71% |
| 79 from 9.5 | 8.03 | 8.32 | +3.51% |
| 23 from 3.5 | 6.00 | 6.57 | +9.52% |
Why a run rate needs two fields rather than one
A run rate is the simplest number in cricket and the one most often computed wrongly, for a reason that has nothing to do with the arithmetic. Runs divided by overs faced is not in dispute; the ICC states it in that form in clause 16.10.3 of its Men’s ODI Playing Conditions, where run rate is runs divided by overs faced. What goes wrong is the number that gets put in the denominator.
Cricket writes a part-completed over as a figure that looks like a decimal and is not one. An over is six legal balls — MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1, repeated word for word as clause 17.1 of both the ICC Men’s ODI and the ICC Men’s T20I Playing Conditions — so 19.4 on a scorecard means nineteen overs and four balls. The true number of overs is 19 + 4/6 = 19.667. Divide by 19.4 instead and the answer comes out 1.37% too high, because 19.667 / 19.4 = 1.0137. On a score of 149 that is the difference between a run rate of 7.58 and one of 7.68, and it is the single commonest fault in cricket arithmetic on the web.
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 such as 19.7, 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.
The error has a shape worth knowing, and it is not the shape it is natural to guess. It is always an overstatement, because the scorecard figure is smaller than the true number of overs and dividing by a smaller number gives a larger rate. It grows with the number of balls in the unfinished over, from nothing at an empty over to 1.71% at five balls of a nineteen-over innings. And it also grows as the innings gets SHORTER: the absolute error in the denominator is fixed at balls divided by fifteen of an over, so dividing that by a smaller total of overs gives a bigger proportional error. The same five balls that cost 1.71% at 19 overs cost 3.51% at 9 overs and 9.52% on a bowler’s figures of 3.5 overs. Only the empty over is safe, which is why a calculator that gets this wrong still looks right whenever it is tested on a round number of overs.
Everything else on this page follows from the one rule that an over is six legal balls: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1, and clause 17.1 of both the ICC Men’s ODI and the ICC Men’s T20I Playing Conditions, in identical words. Wides and no-balls are re-bowled and do not count towards the six (Law 17.3.3), but the runs they concede do count towards the total, so a run rate can rise through an over in which no batter scores. Six has not always been the number: Australia used eight-ball overs into the 1970s and England four and five balls in the nineteenth century, which the overs to balls converter sets out with the dates and the sources that disagree about them.
From here, the net run rate calculator aggregates run rates across a whole group and adds the rule that decides tournaments, and the required run rate and target calculator runs the same arithmetic forwards from a target and the balls that are left.
Frequently asked questions
What does 19.4 overs mean?
Nineteen overs and four balls, not nineteen point four overs. An over is six legal balls (MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1), so the figure after the point counts balls out of six and only ever runs from 0 to 5. The true number of overs is 19 + 4/6 = 19.667, and 118 legal balls have been bowled.
How do you calculate a run rate in cricket?
Divide the runs by the overs faced, where overs faced is the completed overs plus the balls of the unfinished over divided by six. For 149 runs from 19 overs and 4 balls that is 149 ÷ 19.667 = 7.58 runs per over.
Why is my run rate slightly different from the scoreboard’s?
Almost always because the scorecard figure was divided as an ordinary decimal. 149 ÷ 19.4 gives 7.68 where the correct answer is 7.58. The error is always an overstatement and reaches 1.71% when five balls of the over have been bowled; it disappears on a whole number of overs, which is why a wrong calculator can pass a casual test.
Do wides and no-balls count towards the run rate?
The runs do, the balls do not. Law 17.3.3 of the 2017 Code says only valid balls count towards the six in an over, so a wide is re-bowled; but the run it concedes is added to the team total. The numerator grows and the denominator does not, so the run rate rises.
Is 19.7 overs a valid figure?
No. The sixth legal ball completes the over and the figure becomes 20.0, so nothing between 19.6 and 19.9 can appear on a scorecard. Any calculator that accepts a single decimal field and returns an answer for 19.7 is computing something that cannot have happened.
Related calculators
References
- 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.
- International Cricket Council. Men’s ODI Playing Conditions, clause 17: The Over — 17.1, “overs of 6 balls”. icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026).
- 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. Men’s T20I Playing Conditions, clause 17: The Over — 17.1, “overs of 6 balls”. icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026).