Scoring a match
How to score a cricket match.
The notation, what each mark means, and the three rules that catch almost every new scorer out.
The notation
One mark per delivery
A scorebook records every ball bowled, in order. These are the marks almost every book in the world uses.
Dot ball
A legal delivery with no run scored.
Runs off the bat
The figure scored: 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6. Many books ring a boundary.
Wicket
With how the batter was out, and the bowler who gets the credit, recorded separately.
Wide
Illegal delivery. One run to the batting side, charged to the bowler, and the ball is bowled again.
No-ball
Illegal delivery. Charged to the bowler, bowled again, and runs off the bat still count to the batter.
Bye
A legal delivery the batter missed, with runs taken. The ball counts and the bowler is not charged.
Leg bye
As a bye, but off the batter's body rather than past everything.
The traps
Three rules that catch people out
Only legal deliveries retire a ball. A wide or a no-ball has to be bowled again, so the over continues; a bye or leg bye was a legal ball and the over moves on. This is why six boxes an over is not enough room, and why the sheet on our printable score sheet gives eight.
Not every extra is the bowler's fault. Wides and no-balls are charged to the bowler's figures. Byes and leg byes are not: they go to the team total and leave the bowling analysis alone. Four extras, four symbols, two different consequences.
The book has to balance. Runs off the bat plus extras equals the total, and legal deliveries equal the overs bowled. Two sums, done at the innings break rather than at the end, which is when a mistake is still findable.
Next
Put it into practice
Print a score sheet for the next match, or let the free scorebook do the counting: it applies every rule above on its own, including which deliveries retire a ball. Running a whole competition? Live scoring attaches each match to its fixture, and the net run rate calculator settles the table.
Good to know
Scoring questions
Extras
Does a wide count as a ball of the over?
No. A wide and a no-ball are both illegal deliveries, so neither retires a ball from the over and the bowler has to bowl it again. Byes and leg byes are the opposite: the delivery was legal, the batter simply did not hit it, so the ball counts and the over moves on. Getting this backwards is the single most common scorebook error, and it is why an over can run to eight or nine entries.
Who gets charged for a bye or a leg bye?
Nobody, in bowling figures. Byes and leg byes go to the team total as extras but are not charged against the bowler, because they were not scored off the bat or conceded by the delivery. Wides and no-balls are charged to the bowler. That split is exactly why the four extras need four different symbols rather than one catch-all mark.
Wickets
How do you record a wicket off a no-ball?
Carefully, because most dismissals are not possible off one. A batter cannot be bowled, caught, stumped or lbw off a no-ball; they can still be run out. So a wicket mark beside a no-ball should almost always be a run out, and if it is not, the dismissal needs checking before the book is closed.
Balancing
How do I check the scorebook is right?
Two sums at the end of each innings. Runs off the bat plus all extras must equal the team total, and the deliveries recorded must match the overs bowled, counting only the legal ones. If either disagrees, the error is almost always an extra written in the wrong column or an over with the wrong number of legal balls.
Keep exploring
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- IPL Auction SoftwareAuction night, run properly
- Cricket Fixture GeneratorRound robin to knockout
- Player Registration SoftwareForms, fees, approvals
- Tournament Management SoftwareThe whole tournament, one place
- Cricket Scoring AppBall by ball, from any phone
Score the next one without the arithmetic
Ball by ball in a browser, with the totals, extras and run rate kept for you. No account needed.
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