How net run rate is calculated, with worked examples
The net run rate formula, how overs like 17.3 are counted, the all-out rule, why a season's NRR is not an average, and what happens in rain-affected matches.
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In short
- Net run rate is the runs a team scores per over minus the runs it concedes per over, over the whole tournament.
- Overs are counted in balls: 17.3 is 17 overs and 3 balls, which is 17.5 overs, never 17.3.
- A side bowled out is charged with its full quota of overs, 20 in a T20 and 50 in an ODI, not the overs it actually faced.
- A tournament's NRR comes from the season's total runs and overs, so it is not the average of the match NRRs.
- Matches abandoned without a result are left out of NRR altogether.
When two teams finish on the same points, something has to separate them, and in limited-overs cricket that something is usually net run rate. It looks like a mysterious number printed to three decimal places at the end of a table row, but it is one subtraction. This page shows how it is built, where hand calculations go wrong, and how the calculator above applies the same rules.
The formula
Net run rate has two halves, one for batting and one for bowling:
NRR = (runs scored ÷ overs faced) − (runs conceded ÷ overs bowled)
The first half is the team's run rate while batting. The second is the run rate its opponents scored against it. A team that scores faster than it concedes has a positive NRR, and one that concedes faster than it scores has a negative one. At the end of a match the two sides' NRRs are exactly opposite: if one team's is +1.129, the other's is −1.129.
Take a T20 in which one side scores 151 in 17.3 overs and the other is bowled out for 150. The winners' batting run rate is 151 ÷ 17.5 = 8.629 an over. The other side was all out, which means (as the next section explains) it is charged with all 20 overs, so its run rate is 150 ÷ 20 = 7.500. The winners' NRR from the match is 8.629 − 7.500 = +1.129.
Counting overs: why 17.3 is not 17.3
The scorecard writes an incomplete over as a decimal, but the digit after the point counts balls, not tenths. An over has six balls, so 17.3 is 17 overs and 3 balls: 17 + 3/6 = 17.5 overs. Likewise 19.4 is 19⅔ overs, 19.5 is 19⅚ and 19.6 does not exist, because the sixth ball completes the over and the count moves on to 20.0.
The safest way to do the arithmetic is to convert to balls first:
| Overs | Balls | Overs as a decimal |
|---|---|---|
| 17.3 | 105 | 17.5 |
| 18.2 | 110 | 18.333 |
| 19.4 | 118 | 19.667 |
| 30.5 | 185 | 30.833 |
| 138.4 | 832 | 138.667 |
Typing 17.3 into a spreadsheet and dividing by it gives a run rate that is slightly wrong, and over a season the error adds up to a visible difference in the third decimal place, which is exactly where ties are decided. The calculator accepts overs the way they are written on the scorecard and converts them to balls itself. It also refuses a number like 17.7, because no such number of overs exists.
The all-out rule
Here is the rule that most hand calculations miss. When a team is bowled out, the calculation uses the full quota of overs to which it was entitled, not the overs it actually batted. The quota is 20 overs in a T20 and 50 in a one-day international.
The reasoning is that a team that loses all ten wickets in 12 overs has not been rewarded for being fast; it has run out of batters, and it would have used the remaining overs if it could. Without the rule, a team could bat badly but quickly, get bowled out, and finish with a better run rate than a team that batted sensibly for the full 20.
It applies to both sides of the same innings. If a side bowls its opponents out, the opponents' innings is counted as the full quota both in their run rate and in the bowling side's runs-conceded rate, so the two NRRs stay exact opposites.
Wikipedia's worked example for a one-day match shows the effect. A team all out for 127 is treated as having scored 127 in 50 overs, a run rate of 2.54. Its opponents reach 128 for 3 in 30.5 overs, which is 185 balls, a rate of 4.151. The first team's NRR from the match is 2.540 − 4.151 = −1.611, and the other team's is +1.611. Chasing down a small total quickly is rewarded with a big positive number, and that is deliberate.
To use this in the calculator, choose "Yes, all out" for the side concerned. A note under the result tells you which innings was charged with the full quota.
A season is not an average
The second common mistake is to work out each match's NRR and average them. That gives the wrong answer, because a short match and a long one would count equally, and net run rate over a tournament is defined on the totals:
Tournament NRR = (total runs scored ÷ total overs faced) − (total runs conceded ÷ total overs bowled)
A small example shows how far apart the two methods can land. In its first match a team chases 159 and wins by scoring 160 for 4 in 12 overs, having bowled the opponents out for 159 (charged as 20 overs). Its match NRR is 160 ÷ 12 − 159 ÷ 20 = 13.333 − 7.950 = +5.383. In its second match it is bowled out for 100 (20 overs) and the opponent chases it down for 101 in 10 overs: 100 ÷ 20 − 101 ÷ 10 = 5.000 − 10.100 = −5.100.
The average of +5.383 and −5.100 is +0.142. But over the two matches the team scored 260 runs in 32 overs, a run rate of 8.125, and conceded 260 in 30 overs, a rate of 8.667. Its tournament NRR is 8.125 − 8.667 = −0.542. The team is behind, because it conceded its runs faster than it scored them over the whole period, and averaging hid that.
For a full season use the "Tournament totals" option in the calculator: enter the total runs scored, the total overs faced, the total runs conceded and the total overs bowled. Remember to charge the full quota for every innings in which a side was bowled out when you add up the overs. For example, 1,268 runs in 138.4 overs (832 balls) against 1,203 runs in 140 overs gives 9.144 − 8.593 = +0.551.
Rain, DLS and abandoned matches
Not every match is completed. The usual practice is:
- A match abandoned without a result is left out entirely. None of its runs or overs count towards net run rate.
- A match shortened by rain, with a result under the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method, uses the revised target and the revised overs. The side batting first is credited with the revised target figure and the overs allotted, and the side batting second uses its actual runs and the overs it actually faced.
- A match with an abandoned second innings but a result under DLS counts the overs the second side faced for both teams, with the first side credited with the par score the second side was measured against.
Because tournament rules can differ in detail, check your own competition's playing conditions for rain-affected matches, and enter the figures that your table uses. The calculator takes whatever runs and overs you give it; it does not run the DLS method itself.
Using the calculator
- Choose One match or Tournament totals.
- For a match, pick the format (T20, ODI, T10 or your own number of overs), then enter each side's runs and overs, and say whether it was all out.
- For a tournament, enter the totals, with the full quota counted for every all-out innings.
- Read the NRR at the top, the two run rates under it, and the table showing every step.
The opponent's NRR from a single match is the same number with the sign reversed, and the calculator shows it as a note so you can fill in both teams' rows at once.
Where NRR is and isn't the tiebreaker
Net run rate is the most commonly used way of separating teams level on points in limited-overs leagues, but it is not universal. Some competitions look first at wins, or at the result between the two teams concerned, and use NRR only if that does not settle it. Others use NRR in the group stage and a different rule in the knockout rounds. Look up the tiebreak order in your tournament's rules before relying on any table, and use the Cricket Points Table Maker to build the full standings from scores. If you are organising the whole competition, the Fixture Generator draws up who plays whom in each round.
What this tool assumes
- Overs are entered in cricket notation, and the number after the point is 0 to 5.
- The quota for an all-out side is the one you pick: 20 for T20, 50 for ODI, 10 for T10, or your own.
- Runs are whole numbers. Byes, leg byes and penalty runs are part of the team total, as on the scorecard.
- Nothing you type leaves your browser.
For percentages and averages used alongside it, the Percentage Calculator and the Average Calculator cover the usual arithmetic.