Cricket Scoring


What's The Score?

Obvously, the tally of runs scored by a side is an important number to know. Also important for an innings currently in progress is how may wickets have fallen. A side that has scored 100 runs for the loss of no wickets is in a much better position than a side that has scored 120 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. For this reason, the score of an innings in progress indicates both the number of runs and the number of wickets, and is written in one of two ways: This is spoken as: The reason Australians express the score the other way around is not clear, and lost in the mists of history. Cricket fans anywhere will generally understand the score either way around, unless the number of runs is 10 or fewer, in which case it can be ambiguous. When absolute clarity is required, the word "wickets" can be inserted after the number of wickets. If the number of wickets is 0, it is usually spoken as "none" or "no wicket", almost never as "nought" or "zero".

Previous innings by either side, which have been completed, can be expressed either:

The Progress Score

The number of runs a side scores in its first and second innings are never added together when expressing the score. The overall score for the match, depending on the progress of the game, is expressed as: However, if you ask a cricket fan "What's the score?" during a match, the reply will most likely be only the score for the innings in progress. Most fans will assume you know the scores of the previous innings already.

Extra Detail: Who's Winning?

This is a highly non-trivial question for cricket. Simply comparing the total number of runs scored so far can be useless, since one side might not have begun batting yet. The number of runs must be assessed in the context of how many innings have been completed, how many wickets have fallen in the current innings, and how much time has elapsed or how many overs have been bowled. A proper assessment can only be made once you are familiar with typical scoring rates and patterns of wickets in an innings.

Some examples of two-innings matches:

Some examples of one-day matches:
In baseball, if the team batting last scores enough runs to win, it wins by a number of runs. The number of outs left is unimportant. In cricket, if the team batting last scores enough runs to win, it wins by a number of wickets. The margin in runs is unimportant.
In baseball, if a team wins without having to bat its last inning, it wins by a number of runs. The spare inning is unimportant. In cricket, if a side wins without having to bat its last innings, it wins by an innings and a number of runs, which is a much bigger margin than just the number of runs.

The Final Score

As before, the number of runs a side scores in its first and second innings are not added together when expressing the final score.

The Scorecard

In baseball, the important statistics of a game are summarised in a box score. In cricket, the important statistics of a game are summarised in a scorecard.
During or after a match, all of the important statistics of the match can be summarised in a scorecard. This is laid out in a standardised manner, so that cricket fans can instantly find and recognise statistics of interest.

The important statistics are:

A full scorecard looks something like this (an explanation follows):

Test # 1110
The Frank Worrell Trophy, 1988/89, 2nd Test
Australia v West Indies
W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth
2,3,4,5,6 December 1988 (5-day match)

Result: West Indies won by 169 runs
West Indies leads the 5-Test series 2-0

Toss: Australia
Umpires: RC Bailhache and TA Prue
Man of the Match: MG Hughes

Close of Play:
Day 1: West Indies 280/4 (Richards 95*, Logie 30*)
Day 2: West Indies 449, Australia 119/1 (Boon 65*, Veletta 7*)
Day 3: Australia 395/8d, West Indies 2/1 (Haynes 0*, Richardson 2*)
Day 4: West Indies 331/8 (Ambrose 8*, Walsh 12*)

West Indies 1st innings                                         R   M   B  4 6
CG Greenidge                             b Lawson              40 107  81  8 0
DL Haynes             lbw                b Hughes              11  40  24  1 0
RB Richardson         c Boon             b Hughes              66 186 138  9 0
CL Hooper             c Boon             b Lawson              26  60  43  3 0
*IVA Richards         c Dodemaide        b Lawson             146 195 150 21 3
AL Logie              c Waugh            b May                 93 295 188 14 0
+PJL Dujon            c Veletta          b May                 32 116  86  6 0
MD Marshall           c Veletta          b Hughes               4   4   4  1 0
CEL Ambrose           c Healy            b Hughes               8  31  32  0 0
CA Walsh              not out                                   0   6   2  0 0
BP Patterson          c Dodemaide        b Hughes               1   2   2  0 0
Extras                (b 1, lb 12, nb 9)                       22
Total                 (all out, 123.1 overs)                  449

FoW: 1-16 (Haynes), 2-82 (Greenidge), 3-126 (Hooper),
     4-180 (Richardson), 5-343 (Richards), 6-421 (Dujon),
     7-426 (Marshall), 8-440 (Ambrose), 9-448 (Logie),
     10-449 (Patterson).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Lawson                      32      7     97      3
Hughes                      36.1    7    130      5
Dodemaide                   17      1     79      0
Waugh                       28      3     90      0
May                         10      3     40      2

Australia 1st innings                                           R   M   B  4 6
GR Marsh              c Richardson       b Walsh               30 104  87  5 0
DC Boon               c Logie            b Ambrose             80 201 110 10 0
MRJ Veletta           run out                                  11  78  64  1 0
GM Wood               c Richardson       b Ambrose            111 243 176 12 0
*AR Border            c Dujon            b Ambrose              6  13   6  1 0
SR Waugh              c Dujon            b Ambrose             91 202 142 11 1
+IA Healy             lbw                b Marshall             8  42  35  0 0
AIC Dodemaide         not out                                   7  50  22  0 0
TBA May               c Richards         b Ambrose              2   9  10  0 0
GF Lawson             retired hurt                              0   4   2  0 0
Extras                (b 5, lb 9, nb 35)                       49
Total                 (8 wickets declared, 100.3 overs)       395

DNB: MG Hughes.

FoW: 1-83 (Marsh), 2-138 (Veletta), 3-152 (Boon), 4-167 (Border),
     5-367 (Waugh), 6-374 (Wood), 7-388 (Healy), 8-395 (May).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Marshall                    23      3     84      1
Patterson                   16      1     95      0
Walsh                       19      3     58      1
Ambrose                     23.3    3     72      5
Richards                    14      0     43      0
Hooper                       5      0     29      0

West Indies 2nd innings                                         R   M   B  4 6
CG Greenidge          lbw                b Hughes               0   1   1  0 0
DL Haynes             c Healy            b Hughes             100 286 194 12 0
RB Richardson         c Healy            b Hughes              48 150 130  6 0
CL Hooper             c Dodemaide        b Hughes              64 160 120  6 2
*IVA Richards         lbw                b Hughes               5  15  10  1 0
AL Logie                                 b Hughes              30  83  55  4 0
+PJL Dujon            c Dodemaide        b Hughes               9  20  18  2 0
MD Marshall           c Healy            b Dodemaide           23  35  35  2 1
CEL Ambrose           c Wood             b Hughes              15  41  23  1 0
CA Walsh              not out                                  17  35  22  0 0
BP Patterson          not out                                   6   6   6  0 0
Extras                (b 14, lb 9, nb 9)                       32
Total                 (9 wickets declared, 98 overs)          349

FoW: 1-0 (Greenidge), 2-103 (Richardson), 3-216 (Haynes),
     4-236 (Richards), 5-246 (Hooper), 6-259 (Dujon),
     7-300 (Marshall), 8-310 (Logie), 9-341 (Ambrose).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Hughes                      37      9     87      8
Dodemaide                   24      2    101      1
Waugh                       23      1     70      0
May                         14      1     68      0

Australia 2nd innings (target: 404 runs)                        R   M   B  4 6
GR Marsh              c Logie            b Marshall             6  25  17  1 0
DC Boon                                  b Patterson            4  20  12  0 0
MRJ Veletta           c Dujon            b Marshall            13  33  18  2 0
GM Wood               c Greenidge        b Walsh               42 103  66  8 0
*AR Border                               b Hooper              26 131  88  2 0
SR Waugh              c Hooper           b Patterson           26  69  48  4 0
+IA Healy             c Logie            b Ambrose             52 123  83  4 0
AIC Dodemaide         lbw                b Ambrose             11  70  46  0 0
TBA May               not out                                   8  48  33  1 0
MG Hughes             c Logie            b Ambrose              0   4   5  0 0
GF Lawson             absent hurt                               -
Extras                (b 5, lb 4, nb 37)                       46
Total                 (all out, 63 overs)                     234

FoW: 1-14 (Boon), 2-14 (Marsh), 3-46 (Veletta), 4-93 (Wood),
     5-138 (Border), 6-140 (Waugh), 7-190 (Dodemaide),
     8-232 (Healy), 9-234 (Hughes).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Marshall                    12      0     50      2
Patterson                   14      2     58      2
Ambrose                     17      1     66      3
Walsh                       15      1     46      1
Hooper                       5      2      5      1

Notes:
* GF Lawson retired hurt at 395/8 (fractured jaw)

This scorecard tells us, in sequence:

In some scorecards, particularly historical ones before more comprehensive records were kept, the columns indicating the number of balls faced and fours and sixes scored by a batsmen may be missing. The minutes column may also be left off in some presentations.

In some scorecards, particularly for modern one-day matches, the bowling figures include two additional columns, indicating the number of no balls and wides bowled by each bowler.


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