If you are new to cricket, the sport might be overwhelming. The terms. The rules. And almost everything related to the sport might leave you confused.
It’s also understandable. No one knows everything when just starting.
But you should know the basics of cricket to get an idea of how the game works. And the most important thing is the scoring system in cricket.
So, how does scoring in cricket work?
If you’ve watched a game of cricket, you must’ve noticed a lot going on the field. Bowlers are bowling. Batters are running after hitting the ball. Fielders are running after the ball. And the umpires are making some signals.
At first glance, nothing will make sense. But once you understand the scoring system in cricket, everything will make sense.
Runs
A game of cricket is decided by the number of runs scored by the teams. The one with the most runs is, obviously, a winner.
But how do teams score runs? By actually running.
You’d notice two batters on the pitch. When one of them hits the ball, both batters run towards their opposite ends of the pitch.
When the batters cross and reach their other side, it counts as a run. And batters can take as many runs as they want until the ball becomes dead.
Boundaries
But running can be exhausting. So batters use a more effective way of scoring runs. And that’s how boundaries come into the picture.
There are two types of boundaries – fours and sixes. When a ball hit by a batter runs along the ground and touches the boundary ropes, it’s a four. But if the ball travels over the ropes and lands outside, then it’s a six.
You’d notice batters hitting a lot of sixes these days, especially in white-ball matches.
Extras
Now the above two ways need batters to put effort into their shots. But sometimes their team will earn runs without them doing much.
It will be either a bowler’s fault or a mishit from the batter, which results in extras. And there are types of extras.
Wide: A quite common way for teams to earn some extra runs. When a bowler’s delivery goes way too outside off or behind the batter, the umpire will call it wide. The umpire will stretch out both his arms and award one run.
No Ball: No balls don’t happen a lot. If a bowler oversteps or bowls a waist-high delivery or an above-head bouncer, then the umpire will call it a no-ball.
The umpire will stretch out one hand to signal the no-ball and award one run. If it’s a limited-overs game, they will rotate the hand in the air to signal for a free hit. (Don’t know what a free hit is? Here’s our guide.)
Bye: A team can get a run without a batter making contact with the ball. And it’s called a bye. The umpire will raise his hand in the air to signal a bye.
Leg Bye: There’s also a leg bye, where the ball makes contact with the batter’s body, and they set off for a run. The umpire will signal a leg bye by tapping on his leg.
Also Read | What are Byes and Leg Byes in Cricket?
Penalty Runs
Apart from these, a team gets five runs for free if the fielding side makes some violations. These runs will fall under the penalty runs. Read our dedicated piece to understand when the umpire awards penalty runs here.
Wickets
Now comes the bowling part. You must’ve wondered how a bowling team can stop the batting team from scoring runs.
And the answer is by taking wickets. When the bowling side dismisses a batter, it’s known as a wicket.
There are many ways a batter can get out. It can be either a bowled out, a caught out, or even a run out. Once a batting side loses its 10 wickets, it will be the end of its innings.
Overs
A single bowler can’t bowl throughout the match. There’s a limit on how many deliveries they can bowl in a stretch.
And the number comes down to six legal balls in a stretch. Once six legal balls are done, it will be an over.
Limited-overs cricket has a fixed number of overs per innings. But Test cricket? A bowling team can bowl and bowl and bowl until the other side is all out or declares their innings, or the match is finished.
And here comes the most important part.
How do you read the scorecards?
You must’ve noticed some numbers constantly displayed on your screen. And most of the numbers are related to what we mentioned above.
In one section, you’ll see runs scored and wickets fallen. It will often be displayed like this: 100/2 (100 for runs scored and 2 for wickets fallen). Adjacent to that, you’ll notice the number of overs bowled.
There will be sections for extras and boundaries scored. And a section to show runs scored by batters and the bowler’s analysis.
Who scores cricket matches?
Scoring a game of cricket is important. A small mistake in keeping the record of the game can cost a team dearly.
So to avoid any miscalculations, every match has an official scorer. The work of the scorer? To record the outcome of every ball, be it runs, boundaries, extras, or penalty runs.
They have their eyes glued onto the field and, most importantly, on the umpire’s signals. They jot down the outcome in a scorebook.
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