Required Run Rate and Target Calculator

Runs still needed, balls remaining and the run rate the chase now has to manage. Overs and balls are entered separately, because a scorecard’s 42.3 is 42 overs and three balls and dividing by 42.3 gets the chase wrong.

Last updated 12 Oct 2026

Required run rate from the match situation

Runs per over needed

Target — the score needed to winThe figure the scoreboard shows as the target, which is one more than the score to tie. Chasing a first-innings 280 the target is 281: reach 280 and the match is a tie (ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions clause 16.3.1, scores level with all innings complete). If overs have been lost this is the REVISED target from the match officials, not the original one.

Runs scored so farThe chasing side’s current total, extras included.

Overs in the inningsThe innings length after any reduction. A full ODI innings is 50 overs (ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions clause 13.6.1) and a full T20I innings is 20 (Men’s T20I clause 13.6.1); where time has been lost, the overs are cut by the match officials and this field takes the reduced number.

Completed overs bowledWhole overs only. From a scorecard reading 42.3, enter 42 here.

Balls in the unfinished overAn over is six legal balls (MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1), so the figure after the point on a scorecard counts balls out of six and never goes above 5. Entering it here as its own number is what stops the scorecard figure being divided as though it were an ordinary decimal, which is the commonest fault in cricket arithmetic.

8.93runs per over requiredExample

Target 281, score 214 after 42 overs and 3 balls of a 50-over innings

Formula

Required run rate = (target − score) × 6 ÷ balls remaining, where balls remaining = overs in the innings × 6 − (completed overs × 6 + balls)

target: the score needed to WIN, one more than the score to tie. ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions clause 16.3.1 makes a match a tie when the scores are equal and all innings are complete, regardless of wickets lost, so the target is the opposition total plus one
× 6: balls are converted to overs at six to the over: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code, Law 17.1, and clause 17.1 of the ICC Men’s ODI and Men’s T20I Playing Conditions
balls remaining: counted in balls rather than overs, which is the only honest way to do it near the end. With 45 balls left it makes no difference whether you call that 7.5 overs or seven overs and three balls, but writing it 7.3 and dividing by 7.3 does
a revised target: where overs are lost, the target is recalculated by the match officials under Duckworth–Lewis–Stern and this page cannot produce it. Enter the revised figure and the reduced innings length and the arithmetic here is correct again
wickets are not in it: a required run rate says nothing about whether a side can manage it. Nine wickets down at eight an over is a different match from one wicket down at eight an over, and the figure is identical

Worked example

Target 281, score 214 after 42 overs and 3 balls of a 50-over innings
Balls bowled = 42 × 6 + 3 = 255
Balls remaining = 50 × 6 − 255 = 45, which is seven overs and three balls
Runs needed = 281 − 214 = 67
Required run rate = 67 × 6 ÷ 45 = 8.93 runs per over, or 1.489 runs a ball
Read the scorecard figure as a decimal and you get 50 − 42.3 = 7.7 overs left and 67 ÷ 7.7 = 8.70, which understates what the chase needs by a quarter of a run an over
Double the runs needed and the balls left and nothing moves: 134 from 90 balls is 8.93 again
Halve the balls left and the requirement doubles: 67 from 22.5 balls is 17.87
Set the score to 281 and the page returns no figure, because the target has been reached and there is no rate left to require

Balls remaining, and why it is counted in balls

Subtracting scorecard figures gives nonsense: 50 − 49.5 is not one ball. Converting both sides to balls first always works, and is what this page does.
Innings	Scorecard reads	Balls bowled	Balls left	Overs left, written honestly
50 overs	42.3	255	45	7 overs 3 balls
50 overs	47.5	287	13	2 overs 1 ball
50 overs	49.5	299	1	1 ball
20 overs	17.2	104	16	2 overs 4 balls
20 overs	19.4	118	2	2 balls

The same 67 runs, against the balls that are left

All this page’s own arithmetic. The requirement is a rate, so halving the balls doubles it exactly: 90 to 45 balls takes 4.47 to 8.93, and 60 to 30 takes 6.70 to 13.40.
Balls left	Overs left	Required run rate	Runs per ball
90	15 overs	4.47	0.744
60	10 overs	6.70	1.117
45	7 overs 3 balls	8.93	1.489
30	5 overs	13.40	2.233
12	2 overs	33.50	5.583
6	1 over	67.00	11.167

What a required run rate does and does not tell you

A run chase has three numbers in it and only three: the runs still needed, the balls still available, and the rate those two imply. Everything else a commentator says about a chase is judgement laid on top of that arithmetic. This page does the arithmetic, in balls rather than overs, and refuses to do anything it cannot.

The target is the score needed to win, which is one more than the score needed to tie. That sounds pedantic until a match ends level: clause 16.3.1 of the ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions makes a match a tie when the scores are equal and all innings are complete, regardless of how many wickets each side lost, so chasing a first-innings 280 the target is 281 and reaching 280 is a tie rather than a win. Enter the figure the scoreboard shows as the target and the page is right.

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. In a chase it bites in the other direction, because the subtraction happens first: 50 − 42.3 looks like 7.7 overs left where the truth is seven overs and three balls, which is 7.5 overs. The chase then looks easier than it is.

Counting in balls removes the problem entirely. Overs bowled becomes 42 × 6 + 3 = 255 balls, the innings is 50 × 6 = 300 balls, and 45 balls are left. Near the end of an innings this is not a refinement but the only workable method: 50 minus 49.5 is not one ball by any arithmetic, and a page that subtracts scorecard figures will say it is.

What the figure does not contain is wickets, and that is worth saying plainly because it is the whole reason a required run rate is a weaker guide than it looks. Nine down needing eight an over and one down needing eight an over produce the same number and are not the same match. Nor does this page revise a target. Where overs have been lost, the target is recalculated by the match officials under Duckworth–Lewis–Stern, which no public page can reproduce — the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern explainer sets out why, and what the method is actually doing. Enter the revised target and the reduced innings length and the arithmetic here is correct again.

For the rate a side has already managed rather than the one it now needs, the cricket run rate calculator is the same division run backwards, and the batting strike rate and average calculator covers the individual figures a chase gets described in.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate the required run rate?

Runs still needed multiplied by six, divided by the balls remaining. With 67 needed from 45 balls that is 67 × 6 ÷ 45 = 8.93 runs per over. Work in balls rather than overs: it is the only method that stays correct in the last few overs.

Is the target the opposition’s score or one more than it?

One more. Clause 16.3.1 of the ICC Men’s ODI Playing Conditions makes equal scores with all innings complete a tie regardless of wickets lost, so chasing 280 the target to win is 281 and 280 ties it.

How many balls are left after 42.3 overs of a 50-over innings?

Forty-five. 42 overs and 3 balls is 255 balls, the innings is 300 balls, so 45 remain — seven overs and three balls. Subtracting 42.3 from 50 gives 7.7, which is 7 overs and 4.2 balls and is not a thing that exists.

Can this page work out a revised target after rain?

No, and no honest page can. A revised target comes from the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method, whose current Professional Edition resource values are not published and whose software the ICC’s own documentation says is not sold to the public. Enter the revised target the match officials give you.

Why does the page go blank when I pass the target?

Because there is no required run rate once the match is won. A rate of zero would be a different claim — that no runs are needed from the balls remaining — and a negative rate would be meaningless, so the figure is withheld rather than invented.

Related calculators

References

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 ODI Playing Conditions, clause 13: Innings — 13.6.1 (50 overs), 13.7.2 (minimum 20 overs for a result), 13.9.1–13.9.3 (10 overs a bowler, one fifth of a reduced total). icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026).
International Cricket Council. Men’s T20I Playing Conditions, clause 13: Innings — 13.6.1 (20 overs), 13.8 (overs reduced at 14.11 an hour), 13.9.1–13.9.2 (4 overs a bowler; one fifth, or 2 overs in a 5–9 over innings). icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026).
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. The D/L methodology: answers to frequently asked questions (updated December 2016) — Q7 (the DLS method requires use of a computer program), Q14 (the choice of edition belongs to the cricket authority running the competition), Q19 (the method is “neither a document … nor a material invention” and the authors take no royalties), Q27 (the Standard Edition tables are on the ICC website and the full tables are available to cricket authorities), Q28 (the software is not available for sale to the general public). images.icc-cricket.com (read 12 Oct 2026). The resource tables themselves are not in this document, which the document says.